Google Earth Pro is now free • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Earth Pro is now free

#71

Post by maxerickson » Sat, Jan 31, 2015, 7:16 PM UTC

chrissnell wrote: post #70

maxerickson wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a whole ecosystem of software for building tile databases and viewing them on phones/tablets: http://mobac.sourceforge.net/ There's also a bunch of "WMS Viewers" that you can point at National Map endpoints (which shouldn't have any licensing issues): http://raster.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/rest/services I've never had a use for them so I don't know if one works well and has nice caching features.

Interesting but it looks like the one iOS client for Mobac is geared towards vector maps, not the satellite imagery.

As far as I know, mobac is only for raster. The app mentioned in a sibling comment supports the tile maps:

https://galileo-app.com/manual.html#offline_maps

I guess it would at least be fine for visualization.

Re: Google Earth Pro is now free

#72

Post by cbd1984 » Sat, Jan 31, 2015, 7:53 PM UTC

matt4077 wrote: post #54

isaacdl wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly the same thing happens to me here in the midwest United States. If I search, for example, for "fast food", especially on my phone, it tends to shift the entire map to some random city, state, or town (and sometimes country). It seems to have a particular affinity for the state of Alabama and also the western coast of Nigeria.

The western coast of Nigeria is where the equator and the prime meridian meet.

> The western coast of Nigeria is where the equator and the prime meridian meet.

In case some of those terms are undefined: A spot just off the coast of Nigeria is where the 0 degree longitude (Prime Meridian) and the 0 degree latitude (Equator) lines meet. If Google Maps goes there, something zeroed out its latitude and longitude variables, something you'd think they'd test for every so often.

Re: Google Earth Pro is now free

#73

Post by chippy » Sat, Jan 31, 2015, 8:21 PM UTC

RobSis wrote: post #42

zx2c4 wrote: post #35

Can we get proper Linux support, please? The current Linux situation with Google Earth is a joke -- 3 years old, crashes, based on wine, no pro features.

Fortunately, the Windows version of Pro works perfectly in wine.

I wasn't able to get the movie export working though

Re: Google Earth Pro is now free

#74

Post by stevesearer » Sat, Jan 31, 2015, 8:29 PM UTC

chrissnell wrote: post #70

maxerickson wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a whole ecosystem of software for building tile databases and viewing them on phones/tablets: http://mobac.sourceforge.net/ There's also a bunch of "WMS Viewers" that you can point at National Map endpoints (which shouldn't have any licensing issues): http://raster.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/rest/services I've never had a use for them so I don't know if one works well and has nice caching features.

Interesting but it looks like the one iOS client for Mobac is geared towards vector maps, not the satellite imagery.

I use Gaia GPS for my backcountry hikes which is available for iOS/Android. You can download a variety of topo maps and aerial photos ahead of time in a particular area and load them when out of cell service.

http://blog.gaiagps.com/

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gaia-gps-topo-maps-trails/id...

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.trailbehin...

The only issue I'm still trying to figure out when using my phone is how to disable the cell antenna with the GPS antenna still activated to conserve battery.

There is also Backcountry Navigator which has similar features but is only available for Android devices: http://backcountrynavigator.com/

Re: Google Earth Pro is now free

#75

Post by gcb0 » Sat, Jan 31, 2015, 9:39 PM UTC

DeanCollinsNY wrote: post #53

gcb0 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

nope. it is mostly because microsoft been offering those high quality aerial images for a long time on bing maps for free, but since nobody even know there is a bing map, it wasn't a threat. now somehow google feel they are gaining market and decided to counter attack.

Uhm google images allow you to see way closer.....

you mean image search?

Re: Google Earth Pro is now free

#76

Post by ghshephard » Wed, Feb 04, 2015, 6:36 AM UTC

7952 wrote: post #36

ghshephard wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Earth cost on the order of 10s of millions of dollars to write, with a couple of the key companies, keyhole and Where2, being acquired for approx. $40mm. [1] . Google Earth Pro is a small, but very useful addition to the base Google Earth - I know a lot of network designers who get by just fine with Google Earth, and have never availed themselves of Google Earth Pro. The real cost, of course, is maintaining an…

Google Earth has never been a serious competitor for GIS. If they had added more features 5 years ago it may have gained traction. It is great for viewing and creating small datasets. Viewing larger datasets required a surprising amount of effort in terms of tiling and converting. The tools built into Google Earth were never very good and people were pointed at server products. This was completely at odds with the si…

I am aware of at least approx $500mm company that extensively uses Google Earth/Google Earth Pro for its modeling, analysis, and data presentation needs. In terms of data set sizes, typical sizes range up to approx 3mm-5mm data points per project. The engineers that use GoogleEarthPro also have experience with MapInfo, but frequently chose to use Google Earth, simply because it's easier.

I'm not suggesting that Google Earth will ever replace MapInfo/ArcGIS - but don't underestimate how much of the "lower end" GIS market that GoogleEarth took away from them.