In der aktuellen CONNECT 4/2010 testet die Redaktion Apps und Plattformen zur Fußgängernavigation.

Walk & Ride schneidet bestens ab:

"Bei Walk & Ride (...) kommt noch dazu, dass die optische Aufbereitung der Karte wirklich exzellent ist und die App absolut flüssig auf dem iPhone läuft. (...) die einzige Software im Test, die fehlerfreie Fußgängerrouten errechnet hat - ohne U-Turn, ohne Tunnel und grafisch ansprechend präsentiert."

Danke für die Blumen! Die Verbesserungsvorschläge nehmen wir uns ebenso vor wie die Kritiken im Appstore - versprochen.

Slashgeo points to an article at Off The Map on the worldwide comparison of OpenStreetMap vs TeleAtlas street coverage­.

"(...) OSM is slightly ahead of Google/TeleAtlas worldwide and in in Africa and Asia. In Europe, OSM is well ahead. Google is slightly ahead in Oceania, and well ahead in North and especially South America." 

It is explained as:

The size of the circles are proportional to the values for both, so small circles equal poor coverage and large circles equal good coverage. The overlap of the circles shows who appears to be doing better (orangey/brown showing means that osm is doing better, blue google). OSM is the top layer so a tie will have OSM looking better, but you can click the layers on and off to see both views of the coverage.

After playing around with this a while, a funny artefact comes up:

Monaco isn't Munich, folks.

Italians sometimes take "Monaco di Baviera" for Munich. "Monaco" officially is the "Principality of Monaco", a small sovereign city-state located at the mediterrean between Italy and France - best known for their wealthy inhabitants and tax refugees.

This is an intriguing question, David Janes asks in an insightful article (title of this post taken from there).

He then shows a smartly stitched graphic:

(small pic here - see the impressive original)

Showing a "translation table" between Google Maps, Yahoo! and Virtual Earth, David develops sort of a generic, 'universal' zoom notation. Level 19 is put equal to 'ground' (Y counting reversely). The smart endnote reads:

A truly universal zoom level would just use altitude; dealing with a simple integer is easier and less complication prone though.

Link and quote via Theron Hatch who also points to special sights:

Las Vegas has to be the coolest before and after imagery, albeit mostly black and white. You can also check out Manhattan and see before and after imagery of the World Trade Center buildings.