Beautiful Google Earth Layers: The Castles of Italy

Edujoser a website dedicated to European castles, and created a collection of labelsshowing the location of 100s of castles in Italy. By Edujoser, the collection includes all medieval military buildings (castles, towers, ruins …), built to the XVI century(included) or later with defensive functions (forts, castles …). New castles palacesbuilt on the site of the previous medieval castle, are also included. Collection does not include a castle, palace or castle, built after the XVII century (inclusive) without thedefensive functions that do not meet the above criteria. The palaces of the XIX century and the revival of neo-Gothic castles are not included.

More information can be found on the Google Earth BBS and website Edujoser

Download .KML file

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The Voice Actions for Android in the UK, France, Italy and Germany

The Voice Actions, a series of spoken commands that let you control your Android phone or tablet with your voice. You can call businesses and contacts, send texts, browse the web and complete other common tasks, all just by speaking into your phone.

Today, we’re pleased to announce that users in the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain can now use Voice Actions in British English, French, Italian, German and Spanish.

To use Voice Actions, tap the microphone button on the Google search box on your home screen, open the Voice Search app, or press down for a few seconds on the physical search button on your phone to activate the “Speak Now” screen. You can see how it works in this video.

Speak any of these commands to perform a Voice Action on your phone:

  • send text to [contact] [message]
  • call [business]
  • call [contact]
  • go to [website]
  • navigate to [location/business name]
  • directions to [location/business name]
  • map of [location]

And of course, you can still conduct a Google search using your voice.

Use Voice Actions to get directions, or send a text using just your voice

Voice Actions is available on phones and tablets running Android 2.2 and higher. If you don’t have Voice Search on your phone yet, you can download it from Android Market – if you do have Voice Search, you can just start using Voice Actions.

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Google Earth: The ancient and modern Rome

Rome really is an eternal city. With a history spanning over 2500 years and regimes from the early kingdom, through the republic, the empire, and later as the heart of the Catholic faith in the Vatican city, each has made their mark on the current urban architectural landscape of Rome. Now, with the release of thousands of new 3D buildings for the city, you can explore the blending of the ages in layered construction of Rome from within Google Earth. Let’s start our exploration in the ruins of the ancient Roman forum, home of the original Roman republic. From here we can easily travel to some of the subsequent Imperial buildings such as the Colosseum (AKA the Flavian Amphitheater) and Trajan’s Market and Column.

Looking towards the Colosseum through the Roman Forum

Next, we’ll head Northwest, towards the Pantheon and Piazza Navona. The Pantheon is a great example of the layered reuse of buildings in Rome; originally built in the Republican period, the Pantheon was retrofitted with the front portico in the Imperial period, and then later converted into a church. The shape of Piazza Navona also displays its historic foundation as the site was originally the Stadium of Domitian in the Imperial era.

Central Rome showing the Pantheon and Piazza Navona

Lastly, let’s head over to the Vatican City, where we can see great examples of the Renaissance and Baroque architecture of the city in Saint Peter’s Basilica and the colonnade by Bernini around St. Peter’s square.

St. Peter’s Basilica and Piazza in Vatican City

There is much more to explore in Italy’s modern capital, so have a look around this beautiful city!

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Google Earth: Rome looks amazing

 

Google has just pushed out more 3D buildings for Rome, Italy, and the result is a stunningly realistic 3D city. For a great example, here is St. Peter’s Basilica and Piazza in Vatican City:

 

st-peter.jpg 

You can also view historical landmarks such as the Colosseum, which is another amazingly detailed 3D model:

 

colosseum.jpg 

To see the buildings for yourself, simply search for “Rome, Italy” in Google Earth and make sure that you have the 3D Buildings layer turned on. You can also use this KML tour that Google has created to show off some of the best landmarks.

 

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Schultz on Impact

 

“If you want to achieve widespread impact and lasting value, be bold.”

–Howard Schultz (1953 – )

American entrepreneur, chairman of Starbucks

Starbucks opened its first store in Seattle, WA in 1971. Schultz joined the company 11 years later as its director of retail operations and marketing.

It was a trip to Italy in 1983 that inspired the coffeehouse culture that Starbucks now has. Schultz convinced the founders to try the concept in 1984 and it did well.

In 1985, he founded his own company, Il Giornale, and used Starbucks coffee beans for his espresso beverages. Two years later he purchased the assets of Starbucks and changed the name of Il Giornale to Starbucks Corporation.

Today the company does more than $10 billion dollars in sales and has more than 15,000 stores around the world.

“Look around, leaves are brown

And the sky is a hazy shade of winter.”

– Paul Simon

____________________

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