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Google Maps can predict how crowded your train or bus will be
Public transit is vital for countless people, but no one wants to be stuck on a subway train or bus that's jam-packed. To help you figure out how busy your ride is going to be, you'll soon see predictions to that end in Google Maps. Google is tapping into data from previous rides to predict how packed a bus, train or subway will be.
Tiny sensor tells you when your favorite places are crowded
You probably aren't a fan of showing up at the coffee shop right when there's a large line, or at the gym when there are no free machines. Wouldn't it be nice if you could find out how busy a place is at any given moment, without resorting to estimates? The new Density sensor might help. The tiny infrared detector is effectively a smarter, more connected pedestrian traffic sensor: it tells apps how many people are entering or leaving a building at any moment, giving you a good sense of whether that restaurant is packed or blissfully empty. Shops can use that data to their advantage, too. They can offer discounts whenever it gets quiet, or notify you the moment there's a free seat.
Watch this: Kanye West 'Yeezus' tour film compiled from crowd footage
While we wait for the official Yeezus tour documentary to arrive, one Kanye fan decided he could wait no longer and made his own. Compiling audience footage from a smattering of tour stops over the course of several months, John Colandra chronicles the hip-hop artist's globe trotting spectacle. A mix of crowd-shot and professional video clips make for a nearly two and a half hour film, offering a solid look at the event that, in true Kanye fashion, featured a mixture of sets, costumes, lighting and more. West himself broke the news of a theater-bound tour film back in February, but nothing more than a trailer has been released thus far. To be fair, he has been a bit busy. [Photo credit: Stefan Gosatti/Getty Images]
20 gigapixel, 360-degree panorama of Wembley Stadium is among world's largest, most detailed
Jeffrey Martin is a busy man. Having already shot an 80 gigapixel panorama of London's skyline and a 40 gigapixel peek inside a Czech library, he has now turned his attention to England's hallowed Wembley Stadium. The recently rebuilt home of football served as the stage for a new 360-degree panorama, shot during the FA Cup Final this Saturday, which spans 10 20 gigapixels in total and has been made available online at the source link below. Recording was done using a DSLR mounted to a custom robot rig that would continually pump out imagery to an equally exclusive Fujitsu workstation equipped with 192GB of RAM and 24 processing cores. All that grunt was used to automatically stitch more than 1,000 high-res images together, earning the finished product the honor of being one of the world's largest 360-degree sports panoramic photos. Give the source a bash to tag yourself if you were at the Final or to check who else was there. [Thanks, Adam] Update: We originally had this at 10 gigapixel, going from information on the FA's website, but it turns out to be a 20 gigapixel pic. Its claim for being the largest sports panorama may actually be disputed by Essendon FC in Australia, who managed to pull together a 20 gigapixel image of their own at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in late April. You can see that jumbo pic here, or check out a couple more from Daytona and the NCAA Final Four this year.
Apple compensates customer injured at Beijing store
Apple reportedly compensated a customer injured in a melee outside the Sanlitun Apple Store in Beijing, China. The customer, identified as Ding Wencheng by the Global Times, was reportedly paid a 20,000-yuan ($3,000) settlement by the Apple store for injuries he received in the altercation. According to state reports, a scuffle erupted when a foreign Apple employee allegedly started to beat suspected line jumpers. In the aftermath, several customers were hospitalized, and the front glass door of the Apple store was smashed. Apple spokesperson Carolyn Wu acknowledged the brawl, but did not comment on the rumored settlement. "The Apple Store Sanlitun was closed for several hours on Saturday after a group outside the store became unruly." Wu added, "The store team acted to protect themselves and our customers by closing the doors and preventing the group from entering. The safety of our customers and employees is our top priority." Details on the status of the hospitalized customers are unknown, but presumably, Apple may compensate others injured in this unfortunate incident. [Via The Next Web]
Crowded chaos, injuries at SanLiTun Apple Store in Beijing
It's hard to tell exactly what went down, but it can't have been good: 9to5Mac relays pictures and reporting from Mychinaviews and MacX.cn that some sort of disturbance/riot took place at the SanLiTun Apple Store in Beijing, China -- seemingly as a result of incredible demand during the China iPad 2 launch, although it's not certain. The translated MacX story suggests that the crowd of would-be customers in front of the store got a bit out of hand, and that a 'foreign employee' attacked the crowd with a piece of steel rebar or a similar instrument. Photos purporting to show the aftermath of the incident have a broken glass storefront and several injured people; we're reaching out to Apple for comment, and we'll see if there are any more detailed on-scene reports. If you or someone you know is near the SanLiTun store, head on over and let us know what's going on via our feedback form or Twitter.
The Daily Grind: How much do you care about subscription numbers as a consumer?
We've all heard that infamous World of Warcraft line -- "12 million people can't be wrong." People say it whenever a person doubts that World of Warcraft is the "omgbestestgameevar!11" but how much weight does that line actually hold?Specifically, what we want to know here at Massively is how much do you pay attention to a game's perceived subscription numbers? Do you avoid games that don't seem to be doing so well? Or are you the type of person who just pulls the game off of the shelf due to content and content alone? Does a game have to have some huge number of subscribers to be successful in your eyes?You know the drill. Words go in the comment box below. Typing is super effective!
PETA event: Seals got clubbed, pigs got eaten
On the podcast last Saturday, our friend NinthBatter (maker of the WI Song's machinima) gave us an on-scene report from the PETA event that took place earlier in the day. As you might expect, it was chaos -- while PETA's plan was to roll Alliance and attack a few Horde bad guys, lots of folks rolled Horde instead, and started up a guild called the "Seal Cub Clubbing Club." Many, many seals died, as you can see in the few pictures below.And perhaps most hilariously, people brought plenty of Great Feasts to lay out for the crowd, which means that right in all of the (supposedly) animal-saving action, there was plenty of roast pig to eat. Not exactly the best day for PETA, but what did they expect? They did, however, get quite a few media mentions, so it was probably mission accomplished over there anyway.Did you go to the event? If you've got more pictures of what happened, or even some video of what went down, let us know and we'll add them to the gallery below. %Gallery-49987%
CC: How to run instances without a net
Running 5 man instances is the bread and butter of gearing up any PvE character. There are some short instances, and some longer ones. There are some bosses that are ready for fun, and others that like to die fast. Many people consider it a universal truth that all you need to do these instances is solid crowd control. When you're faced with a pack of six or seven level 70 elite mobs, the last thing you want is one or two of them running loose.But what can you do if you don't have any CC available? Are you just out of luck? Nope! There are a few tricks to running instances without CC, and if you pay close attention, you won't miss the lack of sheeps at all.In fact, you might just start preferring to run without crowd control entirely.
Crowds lining up for Super Mario Galaxy in Japan? Not so much
Siliconera's Spencer Yip took a short tour of electronic shops in Akihabara, Tokyo's famed shopping district, this morning to capture the masses that've skipped work and camped out in anticipation of today's Super Mario Galaxy release. Considering that this is one of Nintendo's biggest titles of the year and a much-hyped new entry to the company's most popular franchise, you would assume that the head count would surpass or at least rival the crowds that often gather for Dragon Quest titles, right?Well, according to what Spencer saw at the there stores he surveyed, while a few people queued up outside of shops to snatch themselves a copy, there weren't any of the huge lines that we've come to associate with major releases in Japan. In fact, a few of the guys in the photo above were actually waiting on Ace Combat 6 for the Xbox 360. Perhaps everyone is waiting to pick up Super Mario Galaxy after work? Or maybe everyone preordered the game in advance to avoid the lines?
Joystiq posters play pre-conference prognosticators
In his book, The Wisdom of Crowds, James Surowiecki argues that large groups of people are better at predicting the future than any single guesser. With that in mind, we here at Joystiq have decided to pool our predictive abilities together to get a jump on tomorrow's likely official announcement of the Wii's U.S. price and street date.Below the jump are our best guesses based on gut feelings, experience covering other console launches, and a careful reading of the endless rumors that have circulated around the launch. The blogger with the closest guesses will live on in eternal glory around the Joystiq "offices" -- the worst guesser will be mocked mercilessly until our fingers can dish out no more IM taunts. We've also thrown in our totally ludicrous predictions for potential MEGATON announcements that could come out of the conference, just for fun.Remember, we're trained, professional bloggers, so don't try this kind of wild guessing at home. Try it in the comment thread instead! We'll compile averages for all the guesses filed before the official announcement (probably sometime between 9 and 10 a.m EST tomorrow) and see how smart our crowd of commenters actually is.
