I’m about to head out the door for 10 days of trekking through Ethiopia, far away from computers, and often out of range of mobile phone networks. I’m parting from my laptop for the first time in living memory and will probably suffer severe withdrawal symptoms, but sometimes drastic measures need to be taken:-)

So if in the next 10 days Google releases Google Earth 5 with 3D bathymetry, an accurate polar projection, live mobile phone location search and global live video satellite imagery, you won’t read about it here:-) But before I go, here is the accumulated catch from the past week’s trawling through feeds and inbox, once again necessarily in telegraphese, as most of the week was spent travelling or being on TV!

• MapChannels: This should get an own post, but Map Channels goes mainstream — think Google Maps API site that stays ahead of Google MyMaps by offering more features. There’s plenty of KML and GeoRSS support. Map Channels is more scalable than My Maps Plus, which is being phased out.
• Scottish highland routes: Paul from walkhighlands.co.uk writes:
  

  Don’t know if you’ve even seen our website about Hiking in the Scottish Highlands – www.walkhighlands.co.uk. It has every route (350 of them) downloadable as a KMZ file, or you can download all the routes into Google Earth from the homepage.

  Very nicely done.

• EarthBrowser: EarthBrowser 3.0 is coming out soon, and Matt Giger is promising that it “will revolutionize virtual globes for reason’s that will be obvious when you first run it.” I’m curious.
• GPS Photo Finder: GPS Photo Finder is a new type of georeferencing tool for photos: Have it with you as you take photos, then stick the camera’s memory card into the device to let it add coordinate data to the EXIF data of the files. Downsides: A limited list of compatible cameras (download the manual) and no support for RAW file formats, apparently.
• Yahoo Pipes + Google Spreadsheets for geocoding: Christian Spanring makes a Yahoo Pipe to geocode locations for use in Google Spreadsheets that create Google Maps. It’s easier just to see it in action.
• EditGrid: Valery Hronusov has been busy. In his own words:
  1. We made a new service. It’s a legend generator. This web service can generate image from text and we can use this service in screenoverlay or other rasters objects. Also see a legend example here.
  2. The Editgrid team has added its application to Facebook – very interesting.
• Multi-touch Earth: Yay. Hope this comes to a screen near me ASAP. James Fee has a demo video.
• 3D Mouse: Another CES, another 3D mouse by Sandio. Compatible with Google Earth or Microsoft’s Virtual Earth.
• Irish town in 3D: On 16 January, the town of Westport in Ireland will get lots of 3D buildings, The Register tells us.
• HoudahGeo: HoudhaGeo for Mac ($25) is up to version 1.4, and now allows you to geocode via Google Earth, much as Geotagger for Mac does.