maps

And another one bites the dust; Google Latitude is being put out of its misery on August 9th, and has already been disappeared from Google Maps for Android. You likely won’t even know that it’s gone, but if its absence leaves a hole in your heart, most of it can be filled by Google+.

New Google Maps for Android: Slick Looks, Better Navigation

A tweaked version of Google Maps for Android is now rolling out, which includes a bunch of new features first mentioned by the search giant back in May. The new app appeared in the Play store last night, and brings the app originally previewed at I/O in May to the masses. Echoing the aesthetic of…

What are the best geeky hangouts in your hometown?

Every town has one. It’s the place where the nerds and outcasts are welcome. You feel safe there discussing the molecular composition of a pop tart before eating it. It’s a spot visited by people want to build worlds, and play in them. Or who want to swap books. Tell us about the best geeky…

The deadliest ailments on Earth, mapped by their affected tissues

Artist and physician Odra Noel has created an arresting map of global health, plotting microscopic views of the diseased tissues that correspond to each region’s deadliest illnesses. Click here to see in hi-res. The result is a weirdly beautiful combination of epidemiology and microscopy, simply titled “The Map of Health.” North America, plagued by its…

Explore The Digital Life of Real Cities in Chilling, Creepy Detail

There’s a video game called Watch_Dogs which views Chicago as a city where everyone and everything is linked through a central network—like something out of a sci-fi film. But to tie in with the games, the developers have made real versions that pull together mountains of data about Paris, Berlin, and London—and the effect is…

Where Exactly Is the Middle of Nowhere?

We’ve all said it or thought it or joked about it or believed it at one point in our lives. That damn, we were in the middle of nowhere. But that corn field or dark stretch of the highway hardly qualifies as nowhere. True nowhere is actually in Idaho. Visual Statistix created this wonderful map…

The Most Popular Dog Breeds and Names in NYC, Mapped

Earlier this year, radio station WNYC mined the the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s dog license registration database to produce this map of dog breed popularity. Unsurprisingly, small breeds are popular in the city. Well, except Labs. Nothing stops the American obsession with Labs. You can see WNYC’s data here, but the important…

What Tech Do You Use to Navigate a New City?

We’ve all been there: finding yourself in a new place—or even one you’ve visited but never lived in—there’s always bound to be the occasional wrong turn. So what tech do you use to make sure you find your way? Google Maps, natch. But are there any other apps or pieces of kit that have helped…

What The Most Popular Web Browser Is in Each Country in the World

The green is Chrome. The blue is Internet Explorer. The orange-ish color is Firefox. If you can see any red or grey that would be Opera and Safari, respectively. And though I personally believe all browsers have become horrible in their own ways, having Chrome at the top of most country’s usage list according to…

You Can Apply to Use Google’s Street View Backpack Now

If you’ve always fancied mapping out an obscure part of the globe, it could be your lucky day: you can now apply to use Google’s Street View backpack. Called Trekker, the backpack is used to image the more obscure locations around the planet that cars, trikes and snowmobiles can’t access. And now If you’re a…

Japan’s abandoned Battleship Island is now on Google Street View

Located off the coast of Nagasaki, the long-abandoned Hashima Island (also known as “Gunkanjima” or “Battleship Island”) was the inspiration for Raoul Silva’s lair in Skyfall. Now, thanks to Google Maps, you can visit the island on Street View. Mitsubishi used Hashima Island as a coal mining facility; the inhabitants of the large concrete apartment…

Explore Twitter’s Hidden Landscape In These Gorgeous Interactive Maps

Twitter never tires of finding clever new ways to show off its mountains of tweets, it’s going literal with actual mountains of tweets. Twitter’s in-house data visualization scientist Nicolas Belmonte put together these new, interactive, topographical maps of tweet history, and the result is a digital mountain range like you’ve never seen. Drawing from the…

You Can Explore the Ghost Island That Inspired Skyfall on Street View

If this view looks familiar, it’s because it was the inspiration for the Javier Bardem’s cyberterrorist HQ in Skyfall. Now, you can explore the real-life island on Street View. While none of the Bond movie was actually filmed on the island, found just off Japan’s Nagasaki Peninsula, it’s certainly clear that the researchers spent some…

This Beautiful Map Is Made Up of Microscopic Cells

This map may look like a fairly reasonable representation of the world—but that’s all the more impressive when you realise it’s actually made up of microscopic cells from parts of the body that cause problems for people who live in each country. Accordingly, North America is built from fat cells because of obesity, while Europe…

A Map of the World As Plotted By Airports

Instead of using your typical cartography methods of mapping the world, James Davenport created a world map using just airports, runways and helicopter pads. That way you can see which countries are dotted and outlined with airports (hint: it’s the rich ones) and which countries just disappear into the vapor (hint: it’s the poor ones).…

These Screwed-Up iOS 3D Map Images Are Eerily Beautiful

When Apple replaced built-in Google Maps on iPhones and iPads, people were justifiably livid. What had worked so well was suddenly a useless mess. Millions of people who depended on Google Maps for subway and bus schedules were abandoned. At least the incorrectly rendered 3D imagery is kind of pretty! A Stockholm-based project called MapGlitch…

The Omnipotent Engineers at Google Have Banished Clouds From Earth

Google Earth may give us a real, live view of what our blue marble actually looks like, but even reality could stand to be improved a bit now and then. So to make sure you get the beautiful summer you deserve—while you’re sitting inside a dark room hunched over your computer screen—Google has taken steps…

What the Most Famous Brands Are from Each State

When you close your eyes and think of California, what famous brand comes to mind? Is it Apple? Facebook? Google? Or some movie studio? What about Texas? New York? Florida? These are the most famous brands of each state. The Corporate States of America, if you will. It’s very embarrassing to admit that I have…

This awesome interactive New Yorker map details the proliferation of craft beer across most of the country. And it explains why you’ve seen a growing number of labels like Lagunitas on the shelf next to your familiar old Budweiser.

Scientists Just Built the Most Detailed 3D Brain Map in History

The human brain is an insanely complex organic computer, and though it still has plenty of secrets, we’re now a little bit closer to figuring it all out. Building on a decade of research, an international team of neuroscientists have just put the final touches on the most sophisticated 3D map of the human brain…