Sunday, March 18, 2012

More on Garmin BirdsEye aerial imagery

BirdsEye stadium The BirdsEye aerial / satellite imagery subscription program for the Garmin Colorado, Dakota and Oregon series is now official. EDIT: I’ve learned that Garmin decided not to support BirdsEye imagery on the Dakota 10, due to its lack of an expansion card slot. I have a few tidbits to add to my post from last week:

  • The $29.99 subscriptions will be available starting this March
  • Imagery will include “0.5 meter per pixel resolution in many areas of the United States”
  • There is no mention of world-wide imagery in today’s news release, though it was mentioned on the Garmin BirdsEye imagery product page last week, which is unavailable right now
  • Another BirdsEye web page has been announced, though it too is currently unavailable
  • Image packets will be delivered in multiple resolution levels to avoid pixilation when zooming
  • In response to a question, a Garmin PR contact told me “we have nothing to announce re: USGS maps at this time”; my take on that – it’s coming!

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Garmin BirdsEye Satellite Imagery coming

Garmin-BirdsEyeEDIT: I’ve learned that Garmin decided not to support BirdsEye imagery on the Dakota 10, due to its lack of an expansion card slot.

It looks like Garmin is getting ready to announce a BirdsEye satellite imagery subscription program for owners of the Colorado, Dakota and Oregon handheld series. Similar to DeLorme’s Map Library, the BirdsEye program will let you transfer an unlimited amount of satellite imagery and aerial photos to a compatible Garmin handheld for $29.99 per year. Imagery will be locked to one device per subscription; you’ll need Garmin’s free BaseCamp software (version 3.0.0+, yet to be released) and a myGarmin account. I hope to update this post soon with details on when the program will be up and running.