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Google Maps 'Cube' game rolls out, back, up, back again
Cast your mind back to January if you will. Head full of steamy CES action? Of course, but you may also remember Google teased us about a new tilt-and-roll Maps game. Well, it looks like the creators may have missed the original February deadline, having finally snuck it out this week. The browser-based game is a series of maze challenges, that'll take you through the streets of San Francisco, downtown Tokyo and beyond. All atop Google's iconic 3D textured maps, naturally. Eight levels in total are on offer, making it an ideal lunchtime -- or if the boss is away -- afternoon time kill. Roll down to the source link below to give it a spin, nudge and roll.
Google outs new tilt and roll Maps game, promotes Google+
If you weren't in the know on Google Earth's flight simulator easter egg, rest assured that Google's next map-centric game will be entirely public. A new promotional video pimping Google+ Games invites you to "play your world" by cubing a mapped area of the Earth, and dropping a ball into it. Tilt and roll -- not the most complex game ever, but novel to say the least. The game is based off another recent video showing Google Maps as an actual, physical cube. Zany enough for you? Hit the break, and let your tactile cube map dreams come true.
Skype 5.5 uses VP8 for video chats, keeps the WebM love aflame
Despite forming a coalition with a bevy of companies, Google's radical WebM video libertarianism has yet to take the world by storm -- unless you're talking El Goog's browser or YouTube. Well, Mountain View can breathe a sigh of relief, as Skype -- even after being bought by Microsoft -- has carried through with its earlier support of the open-source standard, bundling it within last week's Windows-only update. One-to-one and group video calls between version 5.5 clients now use WebM's VP8 codec, succeeding its ancestor, On2's VP7. Hey Redmond, who's speaking Esperanto now?
Google's Chrome 13 brings 'Instant Pages' to the masses, saves precious seconds of your life
Google just wouldn't be Google if it wasn't wringing out every last iota of performance from its products. The latest Chrome release is no different, ushering Instant Pages out of the dev channel and into the hands of the proletariat. The headline feature uses an algorithm to "guess" where you'll click next, pre-fetching and pre-rendering the result if it's confident enough. Mountain View says it's the only "high-profile" site to support the tech, but interested web masters can can partake of the instantaneous Google goodies by peeping the more coverage link below. Tweaks to the Omnibox -- which now returns URL and title history results based on partial queries -- and the addition of print previews for Windows and Linux round out the 13th version of the popular browser. Video of the über-swift search in action's below.
