PhotoSphere

Two 'PhotoSphere' stories August 2013 - November 2014

Google introduces ability to embed Street View images and Photospheres

[googlemaps https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m0!4v1416448266011!6m8!1m7!1s9WgYUb5quXDjqqFd3DWI6A!2m2!1d46.41438376976309!2d10.01394735785013!3f210!4f10!5f0.7820865974627469&w=704&h=400]

Google, in a post on the Geo Developers Blog, today announced the ability for website owners to embed Street View panoramas and Photospheres within their site using an HTML snippet. Google launched this feature for Maps last year, but only today did it add support for Street View and public Photospheres.

Today, we added the ability to easily embed the Street View and Photo Sphere images you find in Google Maps and we’re also enabling the same capabilities programmatically in the Google Maps Embed API. These embeds use the new imagery viewer technology that powers Street View in the new Google Maps.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Google Play Services 3.2 now rolling out to all devices

Google today announced its finishing its roll out of Google Play Services 3.2, the latest version of its platform for delivering updates to its own apps and third-party apps using Google APIs. Version 3.2 includes a number of notable new features that end-users will benefit from, including a new compass mode for PhotoSphere that lets users navigate through PhotoSpheres by moving their device, and an improved InstantBuy UI that supports offers and loyalty data.

A few of the new features available for developers include improvements to location based services and hardware-based GPS geofencing:

The Fused Location Provider now supports the selection of a low-power mode option when requesting location updates, and the ability to inject mock locations — allowing you to more efficiently test your apps in a variety of simulated conditions.

The geofencing APIs have been updated to support hardware-based GPS geofencing on devices that have supporting hardware, such as the Nexus 4. Hardware geofences consume significantly less battery, and best of all your app will automatically take advantage of this feature on supported hardware without you having to make any changes.

Google also noted that a new Snapshot feature for the maps API will let devs “capture a bitmap image of the current map in order to improve performance when an interactive map isn’t necessary.” A simplified sharing control feature in the latest release will let developers using Google+ sign in (which also receives a shiny new animation) to simplify sharing to the social network.

The Google Play Services 3.2 release is now available for developers to test through an updated Google APIs emulator image in the Android SDK Manager. More info is available on the Android developers blog here.