From the author:

Here is compiled a full list of software which must be downloaded. Yep, every one of them. All of these are brilliant in every way, shape and form and are just plain brilliance. OK you don’t have to download them, but all of these are free except where stated, and are just great. Download ahoy!

Some I already had, but I downloaded another bunch here!

Thanks for the list Zack!

Here is some new content you should see in the latest version of Virtual Earth. It takes time to build the earth...

Oblique "Bird's Eye" imagery (without the dreaded "Brady Bunch" navigation window!)

· Pima, AZ (Tucson)

· Alameda, CA (Oakland)

· Contra Costa, CA (Walnut Creek)

· Sacramento, CA (Sacramento)

· San Mateo, CA (South San Francisco)

· Santa Barbara, CA (Santa Barbara)

· Sonoma, CA (Santa Rosa)

· Santa Clara, CA (San Jose)

· Adams, CO (Denver)

· Arapahoe, CO (Denver)

· Hillsborough, FL (Tampa)

· St. Louis, MO (St. Louis)

· Essex, NJ ( Newark)

· Jersey Shore, NJ (Jersey Shore)

· Washoe, NV (Reno)

· Monroe, NY (Rochester)

· Nassau, NY  (Long beach)

· Onondaga, NY (Syracuse)

· Suffolk, NY (Smithtown)

· Suffolk, NY (Smithtown)

· Hamilton, OH (Cincinnati)

• New Hi-Res city orthos for Virtual Earth 3D
  • Orange, Torrance, IrvingTX, Minneapolis, Sacramento, Cincinatti, additional Boston, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Irvine CA (includes Santa Ana), and Tacoma, additional LA (3&4), StPaulMN, Anaheim.
• New 3D cities (buildings/textures/dems)
• Minneapolis, MN
• 
• St. Paul, MN
•  
• Sacramento, CA
•  

Italy orthos (1m TerraItaly) of the entire country

• Including Bird's Eye...

Also, don't forget the drawing tools in the scratchpad (by opening Collections above the map). Selecting the line tool at the bottom and then clicking successive points on the map will also measure the total distance from beginning to end. Make sure you right click on the last point and select "Finish Drawing".

Of course this is a silly use of the measure functionality, but you get the point. In my previous post, I had mapped the entire Marine Corps marathon before this measurement capability was available. The day this feature came out, I went back to that collection and suprise - it came out to 26.87 miles. I'm sure the error is all mine with approximate turns and some fuzzy areas that I wasn't sure exactly where the course went. But overall - pretty darned good.

There is also a new collection "properties" box that allows you to make your collection public and allow it to be discovered by internet search engines, but I haven't tested this functionality yet.

Overall, lots of new imagery, enhancements and general usability features.

This is so cool...

VE released a new version on Wednesday that allows you to measure things...a while back I created a path for the DC Marine Corps Marathon even before VE 3D was released on November 6th. Since that time, and without any changes to my original path, I have been able to "fly" the route in VE 3D, and now the route is automatically measured for me as follows http://maps.live.com/?v=2&cid=94A64037B5C0FB5C!242

Pretty cool stuff VE team! Keep it coming!