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The AP reports that “analysis of radar data and satellite images from Sept. 3, the day Fossett disappeared in a small plane, led Air Force technicians to believe they had spotted clues to his route.” That’s prompted two planes and teams on foot to explore a section of the desert in Nevada where Fossett disappeared on Labor Day.
InfoWorld covers upcoming Microsoft efforts to draw users to its Live Search. In the local arena:
In local search, Microsoft is using its Virtual Earth tool for richer results. It can project aerial photographs of places on Virtual Earth’s navigable three-dimensional maps of major cities, said General Manager Erik Jorgensen.
A tool for users to show highlights of a trip, called Collections, will be enhanced so viewers can just click through the trips or passively watch them in a virtual video rather than looking around a map. The maker of a Collection will also be able to upload the virtual video to sites such as YouTube, he said.
Local directions will also be enhanced. Rather than make users enter a starting point, Live Search will offer directions from all the major highways, from which users can choose. As an option, the local search engine will also be able to modify those directions in light of current traffic conditions. Local and mapping features will be rolled out by mid-October, according to the company.
It’s not clear what the future of the handheld is, but it takes advantage of HP’s Mscape. Apparently the best way to think of the device as a “window through which” you look at the gaming world; it’s shown held in front of you like some of those video cameras. The devices uses sensors including GPS to determine what to show.
The New York Times is reporting that Disney will pull out of the cellular phone service business by December 31. Just over a year ago, we reported on Disney’s LBS services such as Family Monitor and Family Alert that allowed parents to determine the location of their children. Disney, a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) leasing spectrum from Sprint, cited "a difficult proposition in the hypercompetitive U.S. mobile phone market."
The company has secured a policy for $270 million of launch and first-year in-orbit insurance for the upcoming GeoEye-1 imaging satellite. It’s expected to launch Q2 next year. The company received a $40 million insurance payment for the loss of its OrbView-3 satellite, which the company reportd in March.
