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Bing Maps Wows 'Em At TED2010
theodp writes "In an eye-candy filled presentation that earned him a standing-O at TED2010, Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos augmented-reality mapping technology from Microsoft. In his eight minute spiel, an extension of a shorter tech preview video, the Bing Maps architect shows how geo-tagged Flickr images can be precisely incorporated into streetside views, demonstrates indoor panoramas at Pike Place Market complete with live video overlays, and even takes the audience into space with Microsoft's Worldwide Telescope. " This is a really exciting video and worth your 8 minutes.
So Taco is a MS tool nowadays? This shit doesn't run on Linux.
The original article was posted yesterday afternoon. He/she could have watched it a couple hundred times since it was posted.
Or are you one of those people who reads no tech news unless it's splattered across the front page of Slashdot? In that case it's no wonder you posted as an AC and you probably have a pretty warped vision on what is happening in the world of technology.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
They give credit where credit is due. So no, its not the same thing.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
So it's... Google Earth? With some extra bits bolted on?
I dunno. It's cool and all, but it was cooler when I first saw it years ago. This is neat as an evolutionary upgrade, but it's by no means anything new or revolutionary.
First, my firefox 3.5.7 isn't supported for their web client 3d option. Why, is it because I am running linux? Second, the "updated" maps or that worldwide telescope both need some ms proprietary crap called firelight. Sorry, but I won't install mono or moonlight or whatever is called the Icaza clone of ms tech just to find if it does fail to support some non-documented or too recent api needed for this ms site. Third, I set the language to English in the preferences. But since the idiotic bing maps site sees I am connecting from Italy, I get everything in Italian.Thanks, but no thanks. If I wanted to get the site in Italian, I'd have selected it. Ok, after some time I noticed there is a link at the bottom right that lets me see the maps in English, but that is it. Any language choice I make in the options is ignored. So, triple fail - most of the content is tied to windows, and what I get is not what I asked for, but what some programmer decided is best for me. In what is this exciting, or even new for microsoft?
Well, the XBox is still basically a money pit for Microsoft, and the PS3 is extremely profitable for Sony, so I'd say that the sales of PS3 are, in general, better than those the XBox, if not numerically larger.
Additionally, this is hardly relevant to anything I was actually talking about.
When you're afraid to download music illegally in your own home, then the terrorists have won!
TED's subtitle is 'Ideas Worth Spreading'. Al Gore's ideas, Jane Goodall's ideas, yes. But Microsoft's ideas?
I'm sure Microsoft get 'worth' by spreading them at a prestigious conference like TED. Masses and masses of 'worth'.
Is TED just a big marketing opportunity now?
So I follow the link to Bing world-wide telescope.
This page requires Silverlight 3.
No thanks.
1. I have enough trouble with two CPU-intensive web plugin environments.
2. If I wanted to take on the risk of Microsoft's security models, I'd be running Windows.
If by kicking Google's ass you mean ripping off Google maps and then ripping off Streetview then adding Flickr images and only having a tech preview of 3 cities then yes, Microsoft is really blowing Google out of the water these days.