Archive for: October 7, 2009
October 7, 2009
Google made several updates to its mapping program on Wednesday, including the ability for users to report problems, a pledge to permanently blur peoples' faces in its database after a year, and an expansion of Street View.
Google has added a "Report a Problem" link on its maps and directions so that users can report inaccuracies: if, for example, the name of a park has changed, a road has been closed, or a particular building has been knocked down.
"Once we've received your edit or suggestion we'll confirm it with other users, data sources, or imagery," Andrew Lookingbill, a software engineer at Google, wrote in a blog post. "We hope to resolve each edit within a month."
Submit your e-mail address, and Google will alert you when the change has been made.
Meanwhile, the company is looking to add new datasets to Maps and is currently working on adding biking directions, Lookingbill wrote.
But what if Google's Street View cameras capture your image on the street?
The company has already pledged to blur out faces on the public version of Street View, but Google kept the un-blurred photos in its servers.
"We keep these un-blurred images in our databases so we can build better products, for example by constantly improving our blurring technology so that it obscures more of the things it should and less of the things it shouldn't," Peter Fleischer, Google's global privacy counsel, wrote in a blog post. "For example, we might need to read a street sign in a Street View image to make sure that the street is properly named on Google Maps."
In June, however, the Article 29 Working Party, a group of 27 European data protection authorities, asked Google to set a time limit ...
 Have you ever come across the occasional image on the Web that has you totally mystified? Alternatively, you may pass by an interesting-looking plant growing outside your house and wondered what it was. In either case, grab a photo and upload it to IDthis, a Web service where users submit photographs of objects, plants, tools, buildings, or anything else they want to identify. The rest of the user community then descends on the photo to try and make heads or tails of what it might be. The fact that IDthis is completely human-powered is both a blessing and
a curse. You get the benefit of experience and insight from thousands
of users, but you also run the risk that even popular opinion can be
wildly inaccurate. This is the down-side of crowd-sourcing decisions
like this: If you manage to stumble on someone who has real knowledge
in whatever item or photo you're trying to identify, IDthis can be a
huge help towards solving your mystery, but if you post something
everyone is stumped on, you're more likely to get sarcastic and useless
responses than actual help.
Even so, IDthis can be helpful if you have a photo of something and don't know where to go to find out what it is. Just take a picture and sign up for a free IDthis account to post it. The sign-up process only takes a few moments, and once you're finished you can post your photo.  To help get an accurate identification, IDthis has over 20 categories you can choose ...
The European Commission has agreed to test a proposal from Microsoft that would allow European Windows users to select which browser they want to use.
Microsoft has also committed to providing the open-source community with technical documentation on Microsoft products to improve third-party interoperability.
In January, the European Commission announced that Microsoft violated European competition law by bundling its Internet Explorer browser with Windows. As a result, Microsoft announced on June 11 that it would ship a version of Windows 7 in Europe without a browser, dubbed Windows 7 E.
The EU was not pleased with that plan and computer manufacturers worried that it would cause confusion, so Microsoft ditched plans for Windows 7 E, and instead presented the idea of a "browser ballot" that would let users choose which browser they wanted during the Windows 7 installation process.
The EU said Tuesday that it would open up the browser proposal for public comment starting Friday, October. 9. Consumers, software companies, computer manufacturers and other interested parties will have one month to file comments.
Get the rest of this story on pcmag.com.
    
 Bitstream has unveiled Bolt 1.5, the latest version of the company's robust mobile browser. The company claims the latest version is the fastest yet, with a 15 percent increase in speed. Bolt 1.5 also now streams videos of any length. It includes a new search bar, a download manager, and improved navigation and text rendering--important since Bolt tends to replace page fonts with its own single-size scheme. The new version also caches data, which should help with rendering speeds when viewing previously-visited pages. As before, Bolt streams video from sites like YouTube, which still eludes the otherwise excellent Opera Mini 5 (Beta). Get the new Bolt 1.5 browser by heading to www.boltbrowser.com.
 
AT&T on Tuesday announced that VoIP apps can now run on the iPhone using the carrier's 3G network.
Previously, VoIP apps on the iPhone were only enabled for Wi-Fi connectivity, not 3G. But AT&T said it has taken steps so that Apple can enable VoIP apps on the iPhone.
"[The] iPhone is an innovative device that dramatically changed the game in wireless when it was introduced just two years ago," Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO of AT&T Mobility & Consumer Markets, said in a statement. "Today's decision was made after evaluating our customers' expectations and use of the device compared to dozens of others we offer."
AT&T said it notified Apple and the Federal Communications Commission of the move.
In an August filing with the FCC, AT&T said it would "take a fresh look at possibly authorizing VoIP capabilities on the iPhone for use on AT&T's 3G network."
The filing was in response to an FCC inquiry over Google Voice apps that were being blocked on the iPhone. The commission asked Apple, AT&T, and Google to provide details about their relationship, correspondence, and how they run their app businesses.
AT&T told the FCC that its exclusivity deal with Apple regarding the iPhone includes an agreement about VoIP services.
"AT&T and Apple agreed that Apple would not take affirmative steps to enable an iPhone to use AT&T's wireless service ... to make VoIP calls without first obtaining AT&T's consent," AT&T wrote. "AT&T and Apple also agreed, however, that if a third party enables an iPhone to make VoIP calls using AT&T's wireless service, Apple would have no obligation to take action against that third party."
Basically, ...
Personally, I joined Twitter to be able to keep up with my co-workers and the goings on in the office, but some people are not so lucky. A Tuesday study reveals that most U.S. companies are blocking employee access to social networking sites.
California-based staffing company Robert Half Technology hired an independent research firm to conduct phone interviews with more than 1,400 company chief information officers at companies with more than 100 employees.
Of those polled, 54 percent said that social networking of any kind, be it Twitter, Facebook, or MySpace, was completely banned. About 19 percent allowed social networking for business purposes only, 16 percent allowed it for limited personal use, and 10 percent permitted it for any kind of personal use.
"Using social networking sites may divert employees' attention away from more pressing priorities, so it's understandable that some companies limit access," Dave Willmer, executive director of Robert Half Technology, said in a statement. "For some professions, however, these sites can be leveraged as effective business tools, which may be why about one in five companies allows their use for work-related purposes."
 
Kohjinsha's transforming dual-display notebook. (Credit: Scott Ard/CNET CHIBA, Japan–This otherwise run-of-the-mill laptop from local PC purveyor Kohjinsha has not one, but two widescreen displays. One of the 10.1-inch screens actually slides behind the other, so it’s able to be closed like a normal laptop. When they slideout they form an admittedly odd-looking, but useful dual display setup. Also inside the laptop: a 1.6 Ghz AMD Athlon Neo-MV40, 4GB of memory, Bluetooth, a TV tuner, and a biometric fingerprint reader. The OS will be Windows 7 Home Premium, graphics are DirectX 10 compatible, and the whole thing weighs about 4 pounds. More photos of the sliding screens in action after the jump…. Originally posted at Circuit Breaker
Read more from the original source:
Kohjinsha’s doublewide laptop display
The XM Skydock allows users to choose and listen to satellite radio with an iPhone and a car stereo. (Credit: Sirius XM Radio Taking advantage of the iPhone OS 3.0’s ability to make use of accessory-specific apps, Sirius XM Radio has introduced its XM SkyDock iPhone dock, which … Originally posted at The Car Tech blog
See more here:
XM SkyDock commandeers iPhone’s display, car’s speakers
IBM Research may help bring DNA sequencing to the masses. The company has discovered a way to read information within the genetic code of DNA strands. Big Blue scientists are building a nanoscale DNA sequencer by drilling nano-sized holes in computer-like chips and passing DNA strands through them. The company said its effort to demonstrate a silicon-based “DNA transistor” could help pave the way to read human DNA easily and quickly, generating advancements in health diagnosis and treatment. Of course, there are challenges. In the case of DNA transistors, scientists are charged with slowing and controlling the motion of the DNA through the hole so the reader can accurately decode what is in the DNA. The $1,000 Genome If successful, IBM expects the project could improve throughput and reduce the cost to achieve personalized genome analysis to $100 to $1,000. By comparison, the first sequencing ever done by the Human Genome Project cost nearly $3 billion. A human genome sequencing affordable for individuals is the ultimate goal and is commonly referred to as the “$1,000 genome.” Having access to an individual’s personal genetic code could advance personalized medicine by using genomic and molecular data to facilitate the discovery and clinical testing of new products, and help determine a person’s predisposition to a particular disease or condition. “The technologies that make reading DNA fast, cheap and widely available have the potential to revolutionize biomedical research and herald an era of personalized medicine,” said IBM research scientist Gustavo Stolovitzky. “Ultimately, it could improve the quality of medical care by identifying patients who will gain the greatest benefit from a particular medicine and those who are most at risk of adverse reaction.” Gene Sequencing on a Chip This targeted-solutions approach is nothing new for IBM. The company has been creating optimized server solutions ...
In a situation that may still be developing, phishing exploits have hit Webmail services, including Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL Mail, and others. As usual with mass phishing attacks — which aim to trick people into surrendering personal details about their online identities — it’s unclear what group or groups are behind the initiatives. The one thing that is certain is the attacks are big. “This is on a scale that is incredibly rare,” said Mike Halsey, who runs The Long Climb, a PC support site in the U.K. “I don’t think it’s ever happened to this extent before, at least that I’m aware of.” A Fluid Situation The situation is unfolding rapidly. Halsey said a couple of days ago the site www.neowin.net reported that another site, www.pastebin.com, had posted personal details of about 20,000 users of Microsoft’s Hotmail, MSN and Windows Live services. Then on Tuesday, details about an additional 20,000 subscribers to Gmail, Yahoo, AOL Mail, Verizon and others were posted at the same site. The posts are now off-line. It’s possible the criminals have details on many more users that they haven’t disclosed. Details are sketchy, and there is no certainty that the problems are over. Sean-Paul Correll, a threat researcher with Panda Security, said he didn’t see any of the data from the attacks. But he noted that phishing attacks are often precursors to other initiatives. “It is fairly common that this would be the first stage of a larger attack. They use these e-mail addresses for something else,” he said. Correll added that identifying what group or groups are responsible depends upon seeing more of the infrastructure — such as the scripts they are using — than just e-mail addresses. He wasn’t sure what information might be available to researchers. A Focus on Browser Security The ...
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