Ovi Maps 3D Beta

Ovi Maps 3D Beta ( Now Photo-realistic)

Cities coverage

Nokia’s photorealistic 3D models of metropolitan areas initially include:

– Barcelona
– Boston
– Chicago
– London
– Copenhagen
– Florence
– Helsinki
– Las Vegas
– Los Angeles
– Madrid
– Miami
– Milan
– New York
– Oslo
– Prague
– San Francisco
– Stockholm
– Toronto
– Venice
– Vienna

http://maps.ovi.com/3d/
(plugin required) – servers are in demand currently and might not get the full picture – wait a few days for the hype to calm down.

http://conversations.nokia.com/2011/04/19/ovi-maps-3d-the-world-is-not-flat/

Google Places

The Google Places  promotion that started in Portland in December, 2010 is now ongoing in four additional cities: Austin, Las Vegas, Madison and Charlotte.

As a part of the promotion, any business in any of those cities that claims their listing is eligible for a business kit that includes Google bling. Apparently several businesses are having difficulties with the ordering process and reported problems in the forums.

I was curious about the process and problems and managed to finagle an order via the online catalog. Here is a slide show of oder process and the (many) items available. Many of the same items available in Portland are also available in the four other cities although it is not clear if Google is using every promotional tactic that they used in there.

Unfortunately Google was out of stock on the neon signs and the fridge magnets but they apparently still have a good stock of the fortune cookies. Not sure exactly what they might be predicting….:

Sohei Nishino’s Diorama Maps

Sohei Nishino: Diorama London

The Guardian on the diorama maps of photographer Sohei Nishino, now on display at the Michael Hoppen Gallery in London (until April 2).

Last year, Nishino spent a month walking the streets of London — which, come to think of it, does not seem that long a time for the task in hand. He took over 10,000 photographs, which, on his return to Tokyo, he edited down to 4,000. Then the real work began. Having hand-printed the photographs in his own darkroom, Nishino then set about cutting them up and piecing them together — slowly and meticulously — into a giant composite photographic map of the city of London. It measures 7.5ft