An article crossed my inbox about the latest Virtual Earth application so I went to the site to try it out. Upon installation, it also prompted me to download the Outlook add-in which adds the following features:

• Send your Microsoft® Office Outlook® meeting requests with maps you can see in road, aerial, bird’s-eye, and amazing 3D views!*
• Use real-time traffic updates to help avoid accident or rush-hour delays and find the best routes.*
• Print driving directions "to go", then save the details for viewing when you’re offline.
• Receive meeting reminders based on the estimated travel times

The new interface it pretty impressive:

Then I started playing with the map. If you have not tried it, you have to. Moving around the world, zipping in to see an island up close then zipping out and flying across the world to see the north pole. Not as a map point, but as an image. Amazing. I know this has been around a while, but the new interface makes it much more fun.

Then I started to play with to the full 3D view, Toronto is below. Makes the globes and maps that I used to use as a kid completely useless and the future options very interesting (think of ad sales). You can zoom right down to street level.

Then I tried out context. I typed in ‘Apple Fanatic Headquarters’ and it took me to the below, even circling a building. Odd, but intriguing?

Interested, I carried on. Next, I added some infrared imaging and what do you know? Interesting stuff …..  (wink)