maps

Who needs a ski resort map, when your goggles can tell you right where you are?

Next Monday, Oakley, one of the largest sports optics makers in the world, will unveil its $599 Airwave ski goggles, an all-new product featuring a small built-in heads-up display that mimics what appears to be a 14-inch screen seen at a distance of five feet.

The display, created using what is called "prism" technology, shows a wide range of imagery and information, including where a skier is, where their friends are, and even data about the last jump they took, or the … Read more

Google freshened up the imagery inside Maps today, adding new visual information to convey terrain, vegetation, and natural land formations.

Color shading now shows vegetation more clearly, and text labels highlight land formations. "This enriched visual data allows you to quickly and easily see where the great forests, deserts, and mountain ranges around the world begin and end," the company said in a blog post. "It also conveys how natural land formations can impact where, how and why man-made developments like urban cities, dams and bridges are made."

Here's what maps looked like before:

And … Read more

Soon enough, visitors to the Grand Canyon will be able to get an early look at what awaits them, courtesy of Google Maps.

Google published a blog post today highlighting the maps team's current trip to Arizona, which marks the first time the company is using its "Trekker" camera system. … Read more

The Apple event today went mostly as we expected. We got the iPad Mini we were expecting (though the fourth-generation iPad was a surprise), we got a new MacBook Pro and a new iMac, and we heard a lot about the many millions of iThings that have been sold (if you made a drinking game hinging upon the word "millions" at an Apple event, you'd have passed out in the first 30 minutes). As a software reviewer, however, I have to say there wasn't very much for me to talk about.

We heard a little bit … Read more

Despite a handful of complaints about Apple's new iOS 6, users are upgrading to the new mobile operating system at a fast rate. Just one month after the release of the new system, more than 60 percent of iOS users in the U.S. and Canada have upgraded to the new version.

Advertising and analytics company Chitika said today that 61 percent of iOS devices are now running iOS 6, which was released for download in mid-September. This number comes from what Chitika said is "a sample of hundreds of millions of mobile ad impressions" from its … Read more

Find My iPhone is one of those apps you don't need until you need it. When you need it, it's priceless (even though it is free). Find My iPhone works on iOS devices and requires an iCloud account and a valid Apple ID. When turned on, Find My iPhone sends the geolocation data of your device to the servers at regular intervals, allowing you to find your phone from any other device you can log into (including Web browsers). Find My iPhone is installed by default with iOS 5 and 6, but must be turned on to be … Read more

Do you like my new desktop background?

If you have 2 minutes to spare, you can create such a background, too. From Stamen Design, a San Francisco-based design and technology studio, comes Map-->Image. It's a free Web utility that lets you create an image from an area on a map.

Plug in a city and state or zip code in the Find a Place box, choose a map style, set the image size, and click the Make button. Once you have found a place, you can use the "+" and "-" buttons on the … Read more

Google has added another layer of detail to its maps for desktop and mobile. Now, besides, streets, parks, and bodies of water, users can also see even more building footprints in major cities across the U.S.

The Web giant debuted this new addition today by adding 25 million new building footprints to its map platform. Cities include Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

"As we go about our daily travels, we often rely on buildings to orient ourselves, locate landmarks and navigate from place to place," Google Maps Engineering Manager Bobby Parikh … Read more

When it comes to behind-the-wheel navigation, I still prefer a dedicated GPS to a smartphone app (especially "smart" ones like the new Apple Maps -- just saying).

Of course, I'm a little spoiled now: I want a big screen, real-time traffic data, and all the map updates I can eat.

Ta-daaa: Today only, and while supplies last, Tech Woot has the Magellan 3065T-LM 4.7-inch GPS with lifetime maps and traffic for $84.99, plus $5 for shipping. Elsewhere it sells for $30 to $40 more.

Unlike a lot of the discount navigators I see these days, … Read more