For each movie, you’ll see the movie poster, a short summary, ratings and the nearest theaters and showtimes. Designed to help you quickly browse what’s playing in theaters now, this information instantly updates as you slide through the movie posters — no need to wait for a page to load or to use the back button.

To learn more about a movie, tap the movie title to find details like the cast and a full summary. And if you see a play button on the movie poster, you can tap to view the official trailer. You can even buy tickets directly from your smartphone by tapping on underlined showtimes — and skip past those long holiday box office lines!

So the next time you head out to see sagas of vampires, the world’s biggest Muppets fan, dancing penguins or nearly impossible heists, try the new interactive results for movies by visiting Google.com on your iOS or Android phone’s browser and searching for [movies], [theaters] or a movie title. This feature is available in English, in the US.

(Cross-posted on the Inside Search blog)

With this release, the Google Earth Gallery is also now available in the mobile app, enabling you to easily explore some of the best maps from around the web directly within Google Earth. For example, not sure if that was an earthquake? Go to the Earth Gallery and click on the USGS’ real-time earthquake map to see recent earthquakes from around the world.

Maybe you’re interested in finding hiking trails on your next vacation. Check out Everytrail to find a hike wherever you might be.

If you’re a basketball fan, be sure to check out the new College Basketball Tournament map, which takes you on a virtual trip to the school and stadiums of this year’s competing teams.

For Google Earth for Android users, we’ve also added a new “Share” feature, which allows you to share a screenshot of your current view with people in your Google+ circles, via Gmail, or on other applications. Now you can share your favorite places with friends and family from your desktop computer, mobile phone or tablet. And, if you follow the Google Earth +Page, you can see what others are sharing and discover new locations around the world.

The 6.2 release of Google Earth for Android and iOS also includes improvements in navigation, which make it even easier to fly to your favorite spots on the globe.

To check out the latest version of Google Earth for Android phones and tablets, download it now from Google Play.

Pushpin and Popup refresh

The pushpin. It’s the most common element overlaid on a map. And today, it’s getting an update. In making these changes, to both the pushpin and corresponding popup, our goals were simple: enable you to find the information you want, more quickly and efficiently, while at the same time minimizing obstruction of the map. Let’s take a deeper look at some before and after examples.

The updated pushpins are designed to better overlay on top of our base map color scheme and make it easier to find results when you perform a search. Search related content appears in blue, while user-generated and saved content (such as “My places”) use an orange colored pin. The contrast changes are more pronounced on hover (and for business searches, the corresponding item in the left-hand panel is adjusted as well), and we’ve also added a new small popup to tell you the name or location or the pin you’re hovering over. Now it’s much easier to quickly scan a bunch of pins to see what they are.

When you click to select a pin, it actually shrinks so as to expose more of the map underneath, and unveil our streamlined popup. Here, we’ve made a number of changes to more compactly display the relevant business or location information and stand out against the backdrop. The most popular actions available for each item have been simplified and consistently placed at the bottom. For most users (except those in the UK), the interaction has changed from a hover-only model to a click-based model for showing the full popup contents. (For users in the UK, where you already had to click to see the popup, we’ve simply added the new smaller hover popup in addition to the layout and style changes.) Overall, these improvements allow you to keep a popup visible while panning/adjusting the map, and even hover over other pins to see what they correspond to, ultimately making it easier for you to find the place you want more efficiently.

One final change you may have noticed is that the pushpins and popups dynamically adjust based on the current map style in order to ensure the information does not get lost on the map.

Enhanced Transit Experience

Public transit (and UK transport) users will find a handful of subtle improvements to our directions experience that make it easier to get where you’re going, and make sure you’re on the right line to get there. We’ve changed the way we represent each transit line to better reflect the actual colors and signage used by the line, both for our US and UK markets. You’ll see this reflected both in the on-map waypoints as well as our enhanced directions list.

More sharing options

We’ve also extended our ability to send directions to your mobile phone (via SMS) to support transit directions. This functionality is accessible via the “Send: Mobile” link at the bottom of the directions panel. You’ll receive a link on your mobile phone which loads the directions on m.bing.com, and works for all devices which can access m.bing.com (unfortunately, Windows Phone does not currently support transit).

Drag to modify your route

Users can now easily modify their directions routes by clicking and dragging on start, end, or waypoints. You’ll see a helpful tooltip appear when you hover over an element that can be adjusted simply by dragging and dropping—and the route will be recalculated automatically!

Explore venues

Did you know Bing Maps now has over 850 venue maps of airports, malls, shopping districts, and more? Browsing through them is now easier than ever! Just click on the “explore venue maps” link on Bing Maps, or visitwww.bing.com/maps/venues to get there directly, to browse a categorized listing of available venue maps. You can filter them by country, sort them by location (or alphabetically), and browse through them spatially on the map. If you want to have your venue be part of Bing Venue maps, please contact us for details.

We’re excited about this next step in the evolution of our visual design and believe it is a big step forward for simplifying user interaction with the map, and helping users find the information they want quickly and efficiently. We’ll be rolling out these changes to bring consistency across the broader Bing network over the next few weeks.

“He who knows most, knows
how little he knows.”

– Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
3rd president of the United States

You don’t know everything.

You do know that, don’t you?

Continual learning is a basic necessity to professional improvement and in many cases it’s other people who will help you get there.

But only if you’re coachable. Are you?

To be coachable means to be…

• Approachable
• Attentive
• Receptive
• Curious
• Objective
• Trusting
• Shapeable
• Confident

It means you listen with the intent to learn rather than to show what you know – exactly the type of listening required in the sales process.

The new map tiles from Apple. This is the deepest zoom.

Eastern seaboard of the USA in the new Apple map style

I’ve looked around the app and I don’t see any credits page where Apple lets us know where the maps came from. As with everything, I’m sure we’ll learn the details soon.

Looks like Apple has a nice tile API:

@mpanzarino This is where the connections are going to: gsp2.apple.com/tile?api=1&sty…twitpic.com/8tb9cb

— Holger Eilhard (@holgr) March 7, 2012

The Google Maps API Page will be used to give helpful tips about using our APIs, announce our office-hours hangouts, and point you to new cool maps that we find. We’ll also use the page to tell you about upcoming events, highlight announcements, link to helpful articles, and a lot more. It’ll also give us a stronger means to connect with our valued developer community. For instance, today we announced the next Google Maps API Office Hours, in which you can connect to the Maps Developer Relations team through Google Plus Hangouts.

Over the past couple of months, the Maps DevRel team has been connecting with Google Maps API developers through our personal accounts. We’ve now created a new circle that you can follow that has all of us in it.

For years, this blog has been the primary way for developers to keep up to date about the goings-on in the Google Maps API world and that isn’t going to change. We see the new Google+ page as adding a new way for you to connect with the Google Maps API team.

• Google Autocomplete: As you type in your search, our autocomplete feature offers search predictions that often match your intended search term making search entry easier and faster.

 

• Voice Search: With our voice feature, you can avoid typing all together. Simply press the microphone and begin speaking your query.

 

• My Location: With your permission, Google can use your device location to provide nearby results easily and accurately. For instance, a search for “coffee shops” quickly displays the nearest places you can go to for a cup of coffee.

You can download the app from the Windows Marketplace and try it for yourself. It’s available worldwide in English, Spanish, French, Italian, and German.

(Cross posted on the Inside Search Blog)

Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia. Due its location along the Austrian-Hungarian border, the city has been visibly influenced by several cultures. The imagery below features the beautiful Grassalkovich Palace, a Baroque-style summer residence which is now the residence of the Slovakian president.

 
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As the former capital of the Roman Empire, Rome is one of the most famous cities in the world. Historically attracting the best artists, sculptors and architects, Rome was a cradle of western civilisation. Now, its extraordinary monuments and museums make it among the world’s most visited tourist destinations. The map below shows the Colosseum that was erected in about 80 AD as a theatre for public events like gladiator fights.

 
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Innsbruck, located in the Austrian Alps, was a former residence of the Habsburgian emperor, Maximilian I. Several buildings, like the Hofkirche and the Goldenes Dachl, that date back to that era still stand. Today, Innsbruck is a popular winter resort that has hosted the Winter Olympics twice.

 
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Milwaukee, Wisconsin originated as a French trading post in 1785. In the nineteenth century, German immigrants played a key role in defining Milwaukee’s unique character by establishing infrastructures like a freely accessible lakeshore and a system of public transport. These days, Milwaukee has many major attractions including the Milwaukee Riverwalk, Miller Park, and the internationally renowned Milwaukee Art Museum.

 
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Have fun exploring the new sites!

Below is the full list of updated cities:

US:
Athens, AL; Augusta, GA; Belen, NM; Fairfield-Travis Air Force Base, CA; Fort Myers, FL; Graniteville, SC; Jackson, MS; Lakeside FL; Lakewood, WA; Liberty, KS; Lillian, FL; Livermore, CA; Magna, UT; Manteca, CA; Midland, TX; Milwaukee, WI; Moores Mill, AL; Prattville, AL; Shreveport, LA; Summerville, SC; Waco, TX; Yukon, OK; Yuma, AZ

Austria:
Innsbruck; Wiener Neustadt

Czech Republic:
Brno; Frýdek-Místek; Hradec Králové; Jihlava; Karlovy Vary; Liberec; Most; Olomouc; Pardubice; Plzen; Praha; Teplice; Ústí nad Labem; Zlin

Italy:
Napoli; Roma

Slovakia:
Bratislava

Spain:
Alicante; Aranjuez; Cabo Roig; Ciudad Real; Elche; Huesca; Iruña de Oca; Jaen; Las Rozas; Logroño; Salamanca; Segovia; Vitoria

Switzerland:
Genève

Since 1998, the World Resources Institute (WRI) has been using GIS (Geographic Information System) models to develop map-based assessments of threats to the world’s coral reefs. Reefs at Risk Revisited, released in February 2011, is the latest assessment in the series and is based on a nearly three-year study that produced the most highly-detailed global maps of coral reef threats to date. The study analyzed and mapped threats to coral reefs from local human activities such as coastal development, unsustainable fishing, and marine and land-based pollution, as well as climate-related threats caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

While the Reefs at Risk Revisited report, maps and data sets are the core components of our work, we found ourselves still searching for a compelling way to convey our findings on these dynamic yet fragile reef ecosystems. We also wanted to generate greater awareness of the unique characteristics of reef habitats across different geographies and the irreplaceable cultural and life-sustaining services that reefs provide to people all over the world. All of these elements are best communicated when you can see them for yourself, which is why we created a virtual tour of these reefs around the world with our Google Earth Outreach Developer Grant.

In the tour, the Reefs at Risk Revisited maps come alive on Google Earth with photos and underwater video from each of the major coral reef regions of the world: the Caribbean, Middle East, Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia, Australia, and Pacific, as well as a global-level introduction and conclusion. The journey to each region provides a brief overview of the biodiversity of reef ecosystems, their importance to people and local economies, and the types and magnitudes of threats that reefs face, illustrated with footage of both healthy and damaged reefs.

You’ll also experience first hand these fantastically dynamic and productive ecosystems that extend across about 250,000 sq km (96,500 sq miles) of the tropical ocean. Even though this area represents less than 0.1% of the global ocean, reefs are home to as many as 25% of all known marine species. In the tropics, coral reefs are not only a critical habitat for marine species, but they also play an essential role in the lives of millions of people who live near them: they provide food and income from fisheries, revenue from tourism, and protection for coastal communities from storm surges.

Among the other products of the Reefs at Risk Revisited project are global maps of coral reefs rated according to level of threat in the present, 2030, and 2050. These maps are available as downloadable KML files on the WRI website for viewing on Google Earth, and also as part of an online map developed using Google Fusion Tables. With these interactive maps you can zoom in to your favorite reef to explore it more closely in your own self-guided tour.

We hope that you enjoy our tour and maps, and that you are able to visit a coral reef to learn more about these important and unique ecosystems. With improved understanding, we can manage and protect these resources so that we can all enjoy them and benefit from them for generations to come.

Due to the new imagery, it’s more difficult to spot fresh imagery. Also, in the time since we first spotted this new imagery it’s also arrived in Google Maps, which makes it even more difficult to determine what is new and what is old. Despite that, we’ve found quite a few areas that have been updated and here is the list so far:

• Italy: Catania — thanks ‘Munden’
• Malta: Valetta — thanks ‘Munden’
• New Zealand: Otorohanga — thanks ‘Munden’
• Poland: Gdansk, Gdynia, Hel, Poznan, Warsaw — thanks ‘Munden’
• Serbia: Belgrade — thanks ‘Munden’
• Russia: Arkhangelsk, Monino, Murmansk — thanks ‘Munden’
• Slovenia: Ljubljana — thanks ‘Munden’
• Ukraine: Kurpaty — thanks ‘Munden’
• United States: California (Beales AFB, Linda, Palmdale, Rosamond, Yuba City), Florida (Apalachicola, Daytona Beach, Gainesville, Jacksonville, Kissimmee, Panama City, Pensacola), Georgia (Valdosta), Illinois (Findlay, Galesburg, Neoga, Taylorville), Louisiana (New Orleans), Mississippi (Jacksonville), South Carolina (Charleston, Hartsville, Lancaster), Texas (Beaumont, Corpus Christi, Freeport, Galveston, Texas City), Utah (Halchita, Mexican Hat, Zion National Park) — thanks ‘Andreas’ and ‘Munden’

It appears Ovi Share uses Google Maps to display the picture locations. How crazy is that? Nokia doesn’t use Ovi Maps/Nokia Maps on their own products. Of course maybe it is because their users prefer Google.

I’m guessing with the Microsoft Phone integration, Nokia is going to leverage Microsoft’s tools (and probably Bing Maps) to share your “experiences” with others. Can we add Nokia to yet another company leaving Google Maps?

Android applications have historically been limited to a maximum size of 50MB. This works for most apps, and smaller is usually better — every megabyte you add makes it harder for your users to download and get started. However, some types of apps, like high-quality 3D interactive games, require more local resources.

So today, we’re expanding the Android app size limit to 4GB.

The size of your APK file will still be limited to 50MB to ensure secure on-device storage, but you can now attach expansion files to your APK.

• Each app can have two expansion files, each one up to 2GB, in whatever format you choose.
• Android Market will host the files to save you the hassle and cost of file serving.
• Users will see the total size of your app and all of the downloads before they install/purchase.

On most newer devices, when users download your app from Android Market, the expansion files will be downloaded automatically, and the refund period won’t start until the expansion files are downloaded. On older devices, your app will download the expansion files the first time it runs, via a downloader library which we’ve provided below.

While you can use the two expansion files any way you wish, we recommend that one serve as the initial download and be rarely if ever updated; the second can be smaller and serve as a “patch carrier,” getting versioned with each major release.

Helpful Resources

In order to make expansion file downloading as easy as possible for developers, we’re providing sample code and libraries in the Android SDK Manager.

• In the Google Market Licensing package, an updated License Verification Library (LVL). This minor update mostly adds the ability to obtain expansion file details from the licensing server.
• From the Google Market APK Expansion package, the downloader service example. The library makes it relatively simple to implement a downloader service in your application that follows many of our best practices, including resuming downloads and displaying a progress notification.

Because many developers may not be used to working with one or two large files for all of their secondary content, the example code also includes support for using a Zip file as the secondary file. The Zip example implements a reasonable patching strategy that allows for the main expansion file to “patch” the APK and the patch file to “patch” both the APK and the main expansion file by searching for asset files in all three places, in the order patch->main->APK.

Expansion File Basics

Expansion files have a specific naming convention and are located in a specific place for each app. As expansion files are uploaded to the publisher site, they are assigned a version code based upon the version of the APK that they are associated with. The naming convention and location are as follows:

Location: /Android/obb//
Filename: [main|patch]...obb
Example: /sdcard/Android/obb/com.example.myapp/main.5.com.example.myapp.obb

Expansion files are stored in shared storage. Unlike APK files, they can be read by any application.

Downloading and Using the Expansion Files

When the primary activity for the app is created, it should check to make sure the expansion files are available. The downloader library provides helper functions (for example the “Helpers” class in the code below) to make this easy.

boolean expansionFilesDelivered() {
    // get filename where main == true and version == 3
    String fileName = Helpers.getExpansionAPKFileName(this, true, 3);
    // does the file exist with FILE_SIZE?
    if (!Helpers.doesFileExist(this, fileName, FILE_SIZE, false)) {
        return false;
    }
    return true;
}

If the file does not exist, fire up the downloader service with DownloaderClientMarshaller.startDownloadServiceIfRequired(). The downloader will perform an LVL check against the server. This check will deliver the names of the files, file sizes, and the file URLs.

Once that check has been completed, it will begin downloading the files. You don’t have to use our download solution, but you might want to because we:

• Include a notification UI that provides progress and estimated completion time in layouts customized for ICS and pre-ICS devices
• Resume large files safely
• Handle redirection with appropriate limits
• Run in the background as a service
• Pause and resume downloads when WiFi is not available

Enjoy! We can’t wait to see what kinds of things developers do with this! For more information about how to use expansion files with your app, read the APK Expansion Files developer guide.

“Who wants a dream that’s
near-fetched?”

– Howard Schultz (1953 – )
American businessperson
Chairman of Starbucks

Almost 2 months down in 2012 and 25 salesdays remain in the first quarter.

If you’ve not had the opportunity to formally set your goals for the month/ quarter/ or the rest of 2012, now’s the time.

С BGmaps за Android лесно и удобно ползватe карти на България и всички български градове.
С BGmaps можете:
- да търсите адреси в градовете и местоположение на други населени места;
- бързо да въведете адрес с подсказка (autocomplete);
- да видите къде сте върху картата (с включен GPS и/ли безжична мрежа);
- да откриете полезни обекти – заведения, банкомати, спирки, болници, училища, институции,
офиси на компании и др.;
- да добавяте обекти върху картата, които да се показват на всички потребители, както в
BGmaps за Android, така и в www.bgmaps.com.
В раздел «Моите места» може да записвате избрани точки на картата, които да ползвате лично
или да споделите с другите през Facebook, мейл и др.
В раздел «Моят град» може да изпратите до Вашата община съобщения за проблеми и
нередности. Може да видите и всички съобщения от общината и изпратените сигнали до нея.
BGmaps за Android изисква регистрация чрез имейл адрес или Facebook. Регистрацията
позволява да ползвате «Моите места», «Моят град» и да въвеждате нови публични обекти в
BGmaps.
BGmaps за Android изисква връзка с интернет. За да пести трафик запазва видяните карти.
BGmaps за Android изисква налична SD карта.
Ключови думи: България, карта, карти, улица,адрес, квартал, град, село, курорт, bulgaria
The application is in Bulgarian language only.
Key words: Bulgaria, map, maps, street, address
KW: София, Пловдив, Варна, Бургас, Русе, Стара Загора
Айтос, Аксаково, Алфатар, Антоново, Априлци, Ардино, Асеновград, Ахелой, Ахтопол, Балчи,
Банкя, Банско, Баня, Батак, Батановци, Белене, Белица, Белово, Белоградчик, Белослав,
Берковица, Благоевград, Бобов дол, Бобошево, Божурище, Бойчиновци, Болярово, Борово,
Ботевград, Брацигово, Брегово, Брезник, Брезово, Брусарци, Бухово, Българово, Бяла,
Бяла, Бяла Слатина, Бяла черква, Велики Преслав, Велико Търново, Велинград, Ветово,
Ветрен, Видин, Враца, Вълчедръм, Вълчи дол, Върбица, Вършец, Габрово, Генерал Тошево,
Главиница, Глоджево, Годеч, Горна Оряховица, Гоце Делчев, Грамада, Гулянци, Гурково,
Гълъбово, Две могили, Дебелец, Девин, Девня, Джебел, Димитровград, Димово, Добринище,
Добрич, Долна Митрополия, Долна Оряховица, Долна баня, Долни Дъбник, Долни чифлик,
Доспат, Драгоман, Дряново, Дулово, Дунавци, Дупница, Дългопол, Елена, Елин Пелин,
Елхово, Етрополе, Завет, Земен, Златарица, Златица, Златоград, Ивайловград, Игнатиево,
Искър, Исперих, Ихтиман, Каблешково, Каварна, Казанлък, Калофер, Камено, Каолиново,
Карлово, Карнобат, Каспичан, Кермен, Килифарево, Китен, Клисура, Кнежа, Козлодуй, Койнаре,
Копривщица, Костандово, Костенец, Костинброд, Котел, Кочериново, Кресна, Криводол, Кричим,
Крумовград, Крън, Кубрат, Куклен, Кула, Кърджали, Кюстендил, Левски, Летница, Ловеч,
Лозница, Лом, Луковит, Лъки, Любимец, Лясковец, Мадан, Маджарово, Малко Търново, Мартен,
Мездра, Мелник, Меричлери, Мизия, Момин проход, Момчилград, Монтана, Мъглиж, Неделино,
Несебър, Николаево, Никопол, Нова Загора, Нови Искър, Нови пазар, Обзор, Омуртаг, Опака,
Оряхово, Павел баня, Павликени, Пазарджик, Панагюрище, Перник, Перущица, Петрич,
Пещера, Пирдоп, Плачковци, Плевен, Плиска, Полски Тръмбеш, Поморие, Попово, Пордим,
Правец, Приморско, Провадия, Първомай, Раднево, Радомир, Разград, Разлог, Ракитово,
Раковски, Рила, Роман, Рудозем, Садово, Самоков, Сандански, Сапарева баня, Свети Влас,
Свиленград, Свищов, Своге, Севлиево, Сеново, Септември, Силистра, Симеоновград, Симитли,
Славяново, Сливен, Сливница, Сливо поле, Смолян, Смядово, Созопол, Сопот, Средец,
Стамболийски, Стражица, Стралджа, Стрелча, Суворово, Сунгурларе, Сухиндол, Съединение,
Сърница, Твърдица, Тервел, Тетевен, Тополовград, Троян, Трън, Тръстеник, Трявна, Тутракан,
Търговище, Угърчин, Хаджидимово, Харманли, Хасково, Хисаря, Цар Калоян, Царево,
Чепеларе, Червен бряг, Черноморец, Чипровци, Чирпан, Шабла, Шивачево, Шипка, Шумен,
Ябланица, Якоруда, Ямбол.

Линк към Андроид маркет

.

Линк за дирктен даунлоуд

When we initially released Android Design, by far the number one request we received was for us to release stencils as well. The fine folks on the Android User Experience team are pleased today to release some official Android Design stencils for your mockup-creating pleasure.

With these stencils you can now drag and drop your way to beautifully designed Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) applications, with grace and ease. The stencils feature the rich typography, colors, interactive controls, and icons found throughout Ice Cream Sandwich, along with some phone and tablet outlines to frame your meticulously crafted creations.

Currently we have stencils available for those venerable interactive design powerhouses Adobe® Fireworks®, and Omni® OmniGraffle® and we may expand to other applications® in the future. The source files for the various icons and controls are also available, created in Adobe® Photoshop®, and Adobe® Illustrator®. Here are the downloads.

We’ll be updating these stencils over time so, as always, please send in your feedback!

Happy mockup making,
— Your friendly Android Design Droids

I really like the historical imagery feature in Google Earth. It’s a very useful feature that allows you to look at some neat things, and it’s a great way to visit the past in various areas around the world.

As reveled in a thread in the Google Earth Hacks message board by ‘Munden’, there are some signs that perhaps a “historical imagery” view is coming to Google Street View in the future.

He’s found a number of areas that have multiple Street View imagery versions available online, and he cites a handful of examples such as this building that looks like a giant sheep. Here is the old image, here is the new image, and here is what they look like side-by-side:

In his testing, Munden has discovered some interesting things:

In New Zealand, old imagery isn’t the default but isn’t removed anymore. My old links will call up the old low resolution images, even on browsers that have never seen that URL before. I’ve even cleared the caches. Google definitely has the old images in their Street View database. You can switch by dragging the Pegman by a pixel or two and suddenly you’ll be in the new imagery and stay there no matter how much moving around you do.

It’s important to note that once you are viewing an older image if you use the SV in-picture arrows to move through the pictures, you will stay in that older imagery. You have to drag the Pegman to switch to new imagery, as I mentioned previously. This could simply be an artifact of the old URL, and they have no plans to create a history of Street View of course. I find it most interesting that you STAY in the old imagery once you’re viewing it though.

Other examples include a futuro home (old image, new image), or the “Christmas decorations” location that ‘sladys’ found — the new imagery is embedded on the site, but the old imagery can still be found via this URL.

Ultimately, all of this might not mean anything. Google hasn’t made any announcements about anything related to historical Street View imagery and they may have other reasons for keeping the old imagery accessible. In any case, it’s a neat little feature that Munden has uncovered and may be a sign of things to come.

GreenspaceLive is a software and consultancy shop based on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland. The company was founded in 2008 as a spin-out from the Greenspace Research, a low-carbon building and renewable energy research program at Lews Castle College, University of the Highlands and Islands. This case study about gModeller, the company’s SketchUp energy analysis plugin based on gbXML, comes to us from Donald Macaskill, Technical Manager and Energy Engineer at GreenspaceLive.

Making hospitals more energy efficient

Hospitals have unique energy consumption demands. Not only do a hospitals require lighting and heating 24 hours a day, but they also require ventilation, sterilization, laundry, food preparation and important medical equipment to be powered as well. Therefore, any improvements made to the building could drastically reduce the bills, freeing up money to be spent elsewhere.

The NHS Western Isles Trust are very proactive in trying to reduce their energy costs and carbon footprint. To determine their baseline energy consumption and carbon emissions and then to simulate a number of fabric and technology improvements to their largest building, they turned to GreenspaceLive. A hospital model and energy analysis workflow was created in Google SketchUp Pro with GreenspaceLive’s gTools suite.

Completed model for gModeller 

Project Methodology

To start, existing 2D CAD models and scanned paper drawings were shared via gWorkspace. These floor plans were then imported into Google SketchUp Pro. Once the floor plans had been imported, each floor was extruded to the correct height and dimensions. A detailed model is not required for the gModeller plugin, so the model could be simplified to single faces for walls, floors and roofs.

Once completed, attributes were added to the model using the gModeller’s customised materials, located within the Paint Bucket tool in SketchUp. Next, spaces were identified using the manual Space tool, which allowed the model to have zone specific information, such as heating, lighting and ventilation for different areas.

The completed gbXmL model 

The gbXML building information model generated by gModeller was now ready to be exported to an energy analysis engine. In this case, gEnergy was used, however, exported models can also be imported into Green Building Studio, Ecotect, Trace, DesignBuilder and others. gEnergy was initially run using the Hospital’s existing fabric and technologies to establish a baseline Energy Performance rating, subsequent analysis runs were then carried out with simulated improvements to the building, including proposed refurbishment changes, to determine the impact they would have on performance of the building.

Once gEnergy runs were completed, the model was exported to Google Earth and presented to the clients, showing gDashboard energy results on screen while touring their model.

The model in Google Earth with energy data 

Using the gWorkspace cloud platform, the modeling team was able to share and collaborate with the client throughout the process. Team members and client representatives were able to view, download and share files from the project, as well as view all energy runs that were undertaken.

The Results

Armed with the tools and the data, NHS Western Isles Hospital were able to model different scenarios and view the impact these changes would have. The results were dramatic – making a number of changes to the heating system, the team was able to demonstrate that the most effective change would result in over 50% energy savings, while reducing the CO2 emissions by almost 80%.

Dave Tierney, part of the Energy Team at NHS Western Isles Hospital said, “Using gTools, senior executives and staff received an overview of our carbon emissions, energy consumption and the impact changes in technology and fabric will have on our building. We can clearly see the differences in low carbon technology investment options. The results will help shape our plans for tackling carbon emissions and energy consumption in the future.”

Let’s take a closer look at the updates.

Common color palette for road map style
We’ve updated our color palette to create a cleaner and consistent view of roads and landmarks resulting in a map that’s easier to interpret. For instance, the new road color is further clarified from rivers while not competing with traffic colors or overlaid information.

Celebrate Typography

We focused significantly on improving various typography components in order to provide further clarity on maps including font updates, improved readability and contextual labeling. Type size hierarchy further delineates classes of labels. The user watches city names consistently grow and become more transparent through the zoom levels. Small type is demystified from its surroundings with a technique that reduces clutter instead of adding glows or ever-present strokes. The right use of typography helps our customers consume mapping details more quickly.

Using Visual Hierarchy to create Focus and maintain context

At each level, there’s an appropriate amount of information conveyed to the user. Too little or too much information can lead to overload and thereby an unpleasant user experience. We’ve redesigned with this in mind, so a very different level of information is presented to you when you zoom compared to when you pan out. Go in for detail, pull back for context. We strive to keep the orientation and context of a user within the map surface persistent across various levels of zoom.

In addition to our map design updates, we’re also adding a significant amount of mapping coverage and data due to our partnership with Nokia and NavTeq. Each map data refresh from NavTeq brings with it many improvements, and each one also attempts to include as many new roads/subdivisions/ changes/etc. as possible.  This update is no exception and the changes are too vast to list but most notably, there are a few entire countries that really improved including Egypt, Israel, Malta, Philippines, Uruguay and Venezuela to name a few.

All in all, we believe that the new map styles available on Bing Maps (http://www.bing.com/maps) and Nokia Maps (http://maps.nokia.com) and on your mobile device are easy, satisfying, and truly a delight to use.

Interested in finding bright, enthusiastic new contributors to your open source project? Apply to be a mentoring organization in the Google Summer of Code program. We are now accepting applications from open source projects interested in acting as mentoring organizations.

Now in its eighth year, Google Summer of Code is a program designed to pair university students from around the world with mentors at open source projects in such varied fields as academic research, language translations, content management systems, games, and operating systems. Since 2005, over 6,000 students from 90 countries have completed the Google Summer of Code program with the support of over 350 mentoring organizations. Students gain exposure to real-world software development while earning a stipend for their work and an opportunity to explore areas related to their academic pursuits, thus “flipping bits, not burgers” during their school break. In return, mentoring organizations have the opportunity to identify and attract new developers to their projects as these students often continue their work with the organizations after Google Summer of Code concludes.

This year we are again encouraging experienced Google Summer of Code mentoring organizations to refer newer, smaller organizations they think could benefit from the program to apply. Last year we had 49 of these small organizations join the program and we hope the referral program will again bring many more new organizations to the Google Summer of Code program.

The deadline for applying to be a mentoring organization for Google Summer of Code is Friday, March 9th at 23:00 UTC (3pm PST). The list of accepted organizations will be posted on the Google Summer of Code site on Friday, March 16th. Students will then have 10 days to reach out to the accepted organizations to discuss their project ideas before we begin accepting student applications on March 26th.

Please visit our Frequently Asked Questions page for more details. For more information you can check out the Mentor Manual and timeline for and join the discussion group. Good luck to all of our mentoring organization applicants!

“The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious of the rose.”

– Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931)

Lebanese writer and philosopher

A simple challenge where everyone wins (you and those around you). No risk. No additional time required.

Within the next 3 weeks (or maybe the next 3 minutes), set a 2-day period as your days (or your team’s days) to inspire others. Two days where you’ll put on blinders to anything negative and be the one in the office who everyone else can count on for words and actions that inspire and encourage. Two days where you’re the light for other people – your colleagues, your prospects, your customers – no matter what.

Allow nothing negative and focus only on your service to others.

Once you set your 2 days, fully commit to the effort regardless of the inevitable challenges, regardless of the weather (please, never the weather). Fall off the inspirational horse at 2:11 on the first day? Get back on at 2:12 – no excuses.

Remember, you wake with an option for your daily attitude. Challenges will come up regardless.