The photo you see above, is the first shot taken by the new GeoEye-1 satellite. The image is of the university campus in Kutztown, PA. The reason this is so interesting? GeoEye has sold all the rights of their commercial images taken on this new satellite, to Google.

Google laid down some serious cash to get sole access to these images, and I'm sure we'll be seeing the results of this contract pretty soon in Google Maps and Earth.

The satellite can photograph objects in a resolution higher than anything available to civilian users, and the photographs will be so clear that you'll be able to identify objects as small as 41 centimeters across.

I've always found satellite image sites to be a fantastic way of seeing the world from above, but as these things get closer and closer, I'm sure we'll think twice before stepping out on the balcony for some naked sunbathing.

Google Maps Mobile has always been a pretty nifty way to get maps and local information on your mobile device. Since its first release, Google has slowly been adding new features, and the newest addition is mobile access to public transit directions.

Public transit networks in 50 cities around the world have provided Google with their route information, which has been incorporated in the search results you see when you ask for directions. These networks cover bus, train, tram, ferry and subway networks. In the US, most major cities are included, like Chicago, New York and San Francisco.

The new version of Google Maps Mobile with transit directions is currently only available for Blackberry and Windows Mobile users. You can get Google Maps Mobile by pointing your mobile browser to mobile.google.com/maps. The application is free, but you will need a data plan on your phone to access the information. The newest version of Google Maps Mobile even supports the Google Street View feature on Blackberry smartphones, as well as on the upcoming T-mobile G1 phone.

Google Maps Mobile has come in quite handy many times, when I need a quick and easy way to find a local business, or if I'm hopelessly lost in a new city, the price is certainly right, so I highly recommend taking it for a spin.

It's raining outside, so this morning was the perfect opportunity to sit down, browse through all my boarding pass stubs and enter them in a new application I'm testing.

Flightmap is a flight logging program that keeps track of every flight you have taken. You can log the flight number, aircraft type, airline and geeky things like the aircraft registration number and your seat number. Frequent fliers can even keep track of their award and status miles.

The application has an internal database that calculates the distance between all airports in the world, and naturally, it can also convert airport names into airport codes.

Once you have entered all your flights, you can view a summary that displays your most frequently flown routes, the longest and shortest flights you've ever taken as well as your most popular airline.

The best part of Flightmap is the ability to generate high resolution maps of your flights. In fact, Flightmap can generate stunning maps up to 32 megapixels large, which is great if you want to print them as a poster. If the built in map colors don't interest you, then you can even export your flight history as a Google "KML" file, which can be imported into Google Earth (which is totally useless, but oh so cool looking).

Once you have created a map, it is fairly easy to save the image file and set it as your new desktop background so you can show all your colleagues what a well traveled individual you are.

Flightmap is a very slick, easy to use application and the interface is nice and clean. You can view a guided tour of Flightmap here. The application costs 19.90 EUR ($30) but a try before you buy version is available on their site, albeit with several limitations; maps are "defaced" and you can only export your first 10 flights.

All in all, it's been great to finally have a nice place to save my flights. There are some other services with similar features, but this is the first one I've come across that is not web-based (which means it's easy to take along with you). Now if you don't mind, I've got some more flights to enter!

Have you ever, upon arriving in a new city, wandered aimlessly in search of a popular place to eat or drink? Of course you have.

A new mobile company, Sense Networks, promises to make this much easier in the future with a new, somewhat creepy/bizarre cell phone application called Citysense that supernaturally senses the information emitted by cell phones and displays the results as a heat map on your own miniature screen (right).

The blotches of red represent large groups of people in a particular location, assuming most of them have cell phones. That data is then cross referenced with Yelp and Google Maps to provide information on what is actually at that location. So popular events, restaurants, or nightclubs are easily spotted and displayed along with their pertinent information.

Currently the service is being publicly tested with BlackBerry users in San Francisco only, with plans to support the iPhone and extend to other major U.S. metro areas in the near future.

For more information, visit Tech Crunch's article on the service, or head directly to Sense Network's website.

I don't live anywhere near Switzerland, but this Google Maps mashup from SwissTrains.ch makes me wish I did.

The map is a real-time visualization of public transportation in Zurich, showing exactly where all trains in the city are at any given time. Oddly enough, the system isn't GPS-driven. Instead, it's based on the timetables, "as Swiss trains are almost always on time." Makes sense. Hovering over the icons as they zip around town shows the train's name, next stop, and current speed. Eventually the system will factor in delays based on data parsed from the official website of the national railway company in Switzerland.

This home-brewed, unofficial tool should definitely be the model for other city's public transportation websites. It's fun to watch, and I can only imagine how useful it is for someone who relies on public transportation in Zurich on a daily basis.

[Via Grow-a-Brain]

Google quietly replaced the hybrid, satellite-and-road layer on their Maps application in favor of a terrain-only view of the world. At first glance, I was confused because the ability to look at the satellite view while still being able to see road names was handy, but then I noticed that Hybrid wasn't REALLY gone, it was just renamed to Satellite. And satellite now has a checkbox that allows you to turn labels on and off. So just to clear things up, here's what's going on:

• Hybrid layer has been renamed Satellite.
• Satellite now has a check box that allows you to toggle between Satellite-only and Hybrid.
  
• Terrain is in.

But Terrain isn't just just mountains and valleys. If you zoom in on a major city (take NYC for instance), buildings will be displayed in 3D. Nifty!

[Via DownloadSquad]

For those of us who are prone to getting lost (come on, admit it...) and do not have a handy GPS unit stuck to our windshield, Google has announced a partnership with gas stations across the United States to offer the ability to search Google Maps from the gas pump.

"The pumps, made by Gilbarco Veeder-Root, include an Internet connection and will display Google's mapping service in color on a small screen. Motorists will be able to scroll through several categories to find local landmarks, hotels, restaurants and hospitals selected by the gas station's owner."

The pumps will also have the ability to print out directions, all for free. The only downside, it seems, is that the pump lacks a way of typing in a specific destination, which makes it tough to find where you're going unless it happens to be a destination preselected by the gas station. Even so, cool.
Via Engadget

Whenever the three words, Google, maps, and mashup grace my screen, I get excited. What's cooler than real-time flight tracking on everyone's favorite mapping software? Not much. Well actually, there is -- I'm still waiting for a usable Google Maps weather mashup (with radar)...but I digress.

From our sister-site Download Squad: "This Google Maps mashup tracks the status of inbound flights scheduled to land in Atlanta, Boston, New York's JFK, LA, Miami and San Francisco. Pick your city, and a list of the arriving flights are displayed. Click or mouse over the airline flight number of plane icon and the altitude, speed and heading coordinates are displayed as well as flight trail waypoints so you can check out the travel path."

The mashup even gives you the option of downloading the data as a KML file, that way you can import it into Google Earth and track the flights in 3D. Wicked cool.

• GMapsFlightTracker.com

It's about time!

Google Maps Street View has finally made it to my home town of Los Angeles. This means that people around the world can now zoom in on Los Angelenos going about their day and doing the thing that Los Angelenos do, whatever that might be.

Naturally, a number of enthusiasts have already been scouring the Los Angeles footage for the bizarre and wacky, as well as quintessential slices of LA captured by the roving Google van.

So far the diligent mapophiles have discovered storm troopers on Hollywood Boulevard and a knife sharpening van parked in front of O.J. Simpson's old house on Rockingham.

Naturally I checked out the place I lived and was relieved to discover there are no incriminating photographs of me doing something stupid. Yet.

Related: Los Angeles destination guide