December 12
New Virtual Earth release launches
Although its a minor point release, this build of Virtual Earth packs a few great new features. I mentioned a couple days ago that the Birds Eye navigation control was being replaced soon, and today marks the day. Makes me want to sing the witch is dead song from Wizard of Oz. No more thumbnail grid - You can now navigate in Birds Eye using the new inset map similar to Streets and Trips. You can also drag to the end of a birds eye scene and VE will try to bring in the next scene based on where you are dragging. Go ahead and try it out by clicking the image below.
My favorite set of features in this release is around drawing and measuring stuff. Ever wonder exactly how far it was from Point A to Point B? or how far the route you jog each morning is? VE's drawing tools now report distance as you draw in a convenient tooltip. When you are done drawing, the distance appears on the scratchpad with the corresponding entry. Its a great way to catalog runs or bike rides and a simple way to just measure an ad hoc route or distance. And when you share those collections of trails with others, the distance is displayed in the Collection viewer. Here is a Collection I just started of bike rides in my neighborhood. To compliment this, we've added a bunch of new drawing features and drawing enhancements. for instance, you can now right click on an end node of a path to continue drawing where you left off in a previous visit. Much more on the drawing features later, I'm heading out to diner at what I hope is a great new restaurant in my hood.
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