Expand / The “See more dates” option will appear soon on iOS and Android.
Today is the 15th anniversary of Google Maps Street View, Google’s project to take 360-degree photos around the world. To celebrate, the company is launching some new features.
First, Google is providing historical Street View data to iOS and Android phones. The feature has long existed in desktop browsers, where you can click Street View mode and then travel through time through Google image files. When you tap a place to view Street View images, a “Show more dates” button appears next to the current photo age, allowing you to browse all photos in this area since 2007. Google says the function will be launched. “starting today on Android and iOS worldwide,” but like all Google product launches, it will take some time to fully implement.
If you want to help Google with its plan to photograph the whole world, the company is launching “Street View Studio.” Google calls it “a new platform with all the tools you need to publish 360 ° footage quickly and massively.” The Street View app is still available for people who want to create a 360 photosphere with a normal smartphone camera, but Google sees Street View Studio as a tool for people with consumer 360 cameras. Google has a store-style page that lists supported 360 cameras; options range from under-$ 200 fish-eye cameras to the $ 3,600 ball-shaped Insta360 Pro, which looks like a Star Wars thing. Enlarge / The new Street View camera.
Google is also introducing a new internal camera created specifically for Street View. The company says it is “about the size of a domestic cat” and weighs less than 15 pounds. The goal is to grab “all the power, resolution, and processing capabilities we’ve incorporated into an entire Street View car” and stack it in an ultraportable package that can be shipped to unattended areas “like the Amazon rainforest.”
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Google already has several versions of a Street View “Trekker” camera mounted on the backpack for hiking trailers, so this camera is designed to increase your car fleet. Street View cars are big, rolling computers that are hard to move around the world, while this camera is completely self-contained. It can be easily attached to the roof racks of a car and is controlled by a smartphone app. There is even a modular system for accessories such as lidar.
Like other Street View cameras, this one isn’t for sale, but Google will give you a loan if you can convince the company to send you one.