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Google's reasonably priced Street View car tours Top Gear's test track
Like swerving bends and screaming "powerrr!" as much as you dislike electric vehicles? Imagine your delight, then, when you learn that Google and the BBC have teamed up to send one of the former's street view cars around Dunsfold Aerodrome -- more famously known as Top Gear's test track. As you zoom around the lap, you'll notice a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG popping up by your side, ably driven by the show's tame racing driver. Some say he's a clone of Justin Bieber gone right, and that he prefers to think of Dunsfold Aerodrome as the place where they shot the Miami Airport sequence of Casino Royale. All we know is that he's called The Stig.
Make your own Google Street View scene, giant camera not required
Google's Street View has let us virtually explore the heights of the Eiffel Tower, the depths of the Large Hadron Collider and the world's train stations, but there are places on the globe that remain hidden from Mountain View's all-seeing camera. That's where you can come in, if you so choose, thanks to a new feature that lets you create your very own Street View experience, no Trekker needed. You'll need to capture several Photo Spheres of your trail using either an Android phone or DSLR and then upload them to Views, a special Google Maps section designed for images of such scale. From there, simply connect them on a map, as seen in the graphic above. Now visitors to Google Maps can select your virtual tour and see the place through your eyes. Aside from just capturing places that Google's Street View camera can't go, this also lets folks document varying weather conditions or cultural events at a specific location, which is something that Google currently can't do. So if you feel like contributing a little piece of your point-of-view to Google Maps, go ahead and click on the source to get started.
Google Street View adds panoramic peeks at airports, train stations and subway stops
Mountain View's panoramic Street View may let you virtually explore Venice, dozens of North American parks and even the inside of an Oberon-class submarine, but until now, you had to figure out the train station on your own. Not anymore; Google's latest Maps update focuses on the journey, adding Street Views of over 50 train and subway stations, 16 international airports and even a cable car station in Hong Kong. Google pitches the new views as an easy way to hammer out the physical logistics of travel, though it seems to cater to international travelers: so far, almost all of the updated panoramics are located outside of US borders. Still, we can't complain -- Street View is now the fastest way to get through airport security.
In 1983 speech, Steve Jobs alluded to the iPad, Siri, the App Store, mainstream Internet connectivity, Google Maps and more
About a year and a half ago, I attended a startup event in Chicago which featured Siri co-founder Dag Kittlaus as the keynote speaker. Kittlaus' speech centered on the future of technology, though he did manage to relay a number of interesting tidbits about the history of Siri (i.e Steve Jobs wasn't a fan of the name). In describing how the acquisition process got started, Kittlaus recalled that Apple first called Siri's office back in 2010, just three weeks after the Siri app launched on the App Store. Apple told Kittlaus to soon expect a call from Scott Forstall. Time passed and the call from Cupertino, as promised, came in. Only it wasn't Forstall on the other end of the line, it was Steve Jobs. As Kittlaus recalls, Jobs invited him over to his house. And he wanted me to come over to his house the next day, and I did, and I spent 3 hours with him in front of his fireplace having this surreal conversation about the future. Talking presciently about the future was seemingly a unique skill of Jobs. Indeed, if you go back and look through the vast number of interviews Jobs gave throughout his career, it's apparent that he possessed a rare ability to look at current technologies from a distance and anticipate how the technological landscape was destined to shift in the years ahead. Incredibly, Jobs' uncanny ability to look into the future goes back all the way to the early 80's. In late 2012, a rare audio tape featuring Steve Jobs speaking at the 1983 International Design Conference in Aspen surfaced. Fittingly, the theme of the conference was, "The Future Isn't What It Used To Be." Just 28 years old at the time, Jobs spoke rapidly and enthusiastically for 54 minutes on a wide range of topics. The talk, I think, is proof positive that Jobs was one of the great visionary minds of our time. Incredibly, many of the predictions Jobs made 30 years ago would ultimately come to pass. Jobs spoke accurately about problems in technology that had yet to manifest while simultaneously predicting with uncanny accuracy when those problems were likely to be solved. Earlier this week I listened to Jobs' entire talk and I think there are a number of excerpts worth highlighting. Apple and the intersection of Technology and Liberal Arts At one point, Jobs began talking about, what else, proportionally spaced fonts. In doing so, Jobs trotted out a line that would one day become a mainstay at Apple media events, if not serving as the underlying philosophy behind Apple's product roadmap. But we're solving a problem of injecting some liberal arts into these computers. That's what we're trying to do right now. Let's get proportionally spaced fonts in there. Let's get multiple fonts in there. Let's get graphics in there so that we can feel in pictures. Jobs talks of the need for an App Store-like storefront When talking about computer software, Jobs explains the inherent futility in purchasing software the old fashioned way (which back then, was the only way). Bear in mind that this is 1983 and the solution envisioned by Jobs eerily resembles what would eventually become iTunes, the App Store and the Mac App Store. And you go to buy [software] and you don't know what to buy so you go ask the computer dealer, "Which one should I buy?" And that person doesn't know. They're out selling computers, they're not looking at software. And so they give you a bullshit answer, and you buy it, and maybe you're happy maybe you're not. Now compare that to records. Most people walk into a record store and know exactly what record they want to buy. They don't go up and say, "What record should I buy?" They know exactly what record they want to buy because there's the phenomenon of the radio station; a free sampling so that we make our decisions before we go into the distribution center for the records. We need the equivalent in the software business. We need a software "radio station." ... Where we'll be going is transmitting this stuff electronically over the phone line... and we'll go directly from computer to computer. And once we do that, maybe its possible to say, "Well we'll give you 30 seconds of this program for free, or we'll give you 5 screenshots, or we'll let you play with it for a day. And if you want to buy it, just type in your VISA number and you got it. I don't know how we're going to do it, but we need a radio station. While the iTunes Store and App Store were respectively 20 and 25 years away, the overarching principles underlying those online stores had already begun to take shape in Jobs' mind. Jobs describes an iPad-like device Now the idea for an iPad-like device was not a Steve Jobs original. To give credit where credit's due, you might want to thank legendary computer scientist Alan Kay who, in a research paper published in 1972, eerily described an iPad-esque device. It's worth noting that Jobs really held Kay and his opinions in high esteem. You know how Jobs often liked saying, "people who are really serious about software should make their own hardware"? That's an original quote from Alan Kay. In any event, here's Jobs talking about Apple's idealistic dream to release a book-sized device that sounds a lot like the iPad. Now Apple's strategy is really simple. What we want to do is we want to put an incredibly great computer in a book that you can carry around with you that you can learn how to use in 20 minutes. That's what we want to do and we want to do it this decade. And we really want to do it with a radio link in it so you don't have to hook up to anything, you're in communication with all these databases and other computers. We don't know how to do that right now. It's impossible, technically. So we have 3 options. One was to do nothing, and as I mentioned, we're all pretty young and patient, so that was not a good option. The second one was to put a piece of garbage computer in a book, and we can do that but our competitors are doing that so we don't need to do that. The third option was to design the computer that we want to put into the book eventually even though we can't put it into the book now. And right now it fits in a bread box and its $10,000 and it's called Lisa. 27 years later it'd be called the iPad. Jobs accurately predicts when the Internet would go mainstream During one portion of the speech, Jobs begins talking about a local area network set up at Xerox Parc and how specialized email distribution lists became commonplace. But then an interesting thing happened. There were 20 people, and they were interested in volleyball, so a volleyball distribution list evolved. And when a volleyball game was changed, you'd write a quick memo and send it to the volleyball distribution list. And then there was a Chinese food cooking list. And before long, there were more lists than people. And it was a very, very interesting phenomenon because i think that's exactly whats going to happen. That as we start to tie these things together they are going to facilitate communication and facilitate bringing people together and the special interests that they have. We're about 5 years away from really solving the problem of hooking these computers together in the office. And we're about 10-15 years away of solving the problem of hooking them together in the home. A lot of people working on it, but its a pretty fierce problem. You can make a really strong case that the Internet only started to become mainstream in or around 1996/1997, clearly falling within the 10-15 year timeframe articulated by Jobs. Jobs alludes to what makes Siri so special During a Q&A portion of the talk, Jobs was asked to talk about voice recognition. Voice recognition is about a better part of a decade away. The problem isn't just recognizing the voice; when you talk to somebody, understanding language is much harder than understanding voice. We can sort of sort out the words, but what do they all mean? And most language is exceptionally contextually driven. And with one word means something in this context, it means something entirely different in another context... And boy, this stuff's hard. So i think you're really looking at the better part of a decade before we become even close to that. Indeed, the whole idea behind Siri is that it contextualizes queries, enabling users to say commands using natural language expressions. Indeed, Apple's Siri page advertises that the software "understands what you say" and "knows what you mean." Jobs describes Google Maps Street View Here, Jobs excitedly talks about technology that essentially foretold what Google Maps would be. A neat experiment happened right here in Aspen. MIT came out to Aspen about 4 years ago and they had this truck with this camera on it and they went down every single street, photographed every single intersection in every single street in Aspen, they photographed all the buildings. And they've got this computer and this video disc hooked up together, and on this screen you see yourself looking down a street. And you touch the screen, and there are some arrows on the screen, and you touch 'walk forward', and all of a sudden, it's just like you're walking forward in the street. And you get to an intersection and you can stop, and you can look right, and you can look straight, and you can look left. And you can decide which way you want to go. You can even go in some of the shops. It's an electronic map. It gives you the feeling you're walking through Aspen. Then there's four little buttons in the corner because they came back and they did exactly the same thing all four seasons. So you can be looking down the street, hit winter, all of a sudden you get the same street with 3 feet of snow on it. It's really amazing. Steve Jobs penchant for hiring A+ players is longstanding Steve Jobs often liked to say that a small team of A+ employees can easily perform larger teams of B and C employees. This notion was evident in Jobs' 1983 speech as well. We believe in the phenomenon of great people, and what I mean by that is we think there are people that are so good that they can run circles around 5 pretty good people. And those are the kind of people we want at Apple.. they're all idiosyncratic, they're the artists of the world. And so what we have is a very small company in terms of people for our revenue. We are going to cross $1 billion in sales very shortly with under 5,000 people worldwide, and that's phenomenal. Apple, during its most recent quarter, posted revenue of $37.5 billion. That comes out to $2.7 billion in sales every week. Employee wise, there are currently 80,300 folks working for Apple worldwide. You can listen to the entirety of Jobs' 1983 speech here at the Center for Design Innovation and also here via YouTube.
Google's Street View tour of Gatwick Airport is its biggest European indoor map yet
If you're one of those people who wants to know exactly what to do and where to go when you get to an airport, Google's latest Street View update might come in handy. As part of its biggest European indoor mapping project so far, the search giant took its trolley units to Gatwick, the UK's second busiest airport. The resulting 2,000 images were stitched together to create a virtual representation of its North and South terminals, allowing you, and an estimated 34 million yearly passengers, to familiarize yourself with its maze of connected corridors and multitude of shops and restaurants. Hit up Google Street View to begin your not-so-personal guided tour, but bear in mind you won't make it onto the tarmac and any duty free deals that you spot in stores may no longer apply, because the footage was collected in June.
Google Maps adds Waze traffic data to the desktop, brings back Pegman
The dramatic overhaul of Google Maps on the desktop saw the world lose a good friend. That friend: Pegman. The tiny yellow avatar that you could drop almost anywhere to get instant access to Street View disappeared. Instead, the ground level perspective was accessed by first clicking on a point on the map, then selecting Street View from the pop over in the upper left-hand corner. Clearly, that's much less convenient. Thankfully, Pegman is making a grand return with the latest update to Google Maps on the desktop. Additionally, that Waze acquisition is continuing to pay dividends. The company's traffic data is finally coming to the desktop site, after being added to the Android and iOS mobile apps back in August. You'll be able to see areas of congestion and even spot incidents like accidents that bring your commute to standstill. Slowly but surely the new Google Maps is reaching feature parity with it's predecessor, thanks to constant updates like these. Maps isn't just about navigation, however. Google also sees it as a tool for exploration and education. That's why it's pushing a new feature called Earth Tours, that brings 3D bird's-eye imagery of particular locals to WebGL-enabled browsers. Now you can fly around Boston or the Alps, just like you would in Google Earth, but without the need to install another piece of software. You can check out a tour of the new Google Maps after the break.
Google Street View can now take you on a tour inside a naval submarine
Ever wonder what it's like to wander the narrow corridors of a 50-year-old Oberon-class British submarine? Well, you can now embark on a digital tour of the HMS Ocelot via Street View, which has become the first submersible to be fully documented by Google. Even without its backpack-worn trekker units, the company has mapped-out the Ocelot's complex control room, restricted sleeping quarters and even its six torpedo tubes, which have thankfully been out of service for more than 20 years. It also lets you take a tour of the dockyard from which the submarine was launched. Hit up Google Street View to begin your personal guided tour, just be sure to mind your head when navigating those hatches. [Image Credit: wimbledonian, Flickr]
Google Street View lets you stroll around CERN, no doctorate required
Previously, free rein to explore the labyrinthine laboratory that is CERN has been granted only to the lucky, or those with four degrees and an aptitude for finding theoretical particles. That changes today, however, as anyone can now explore the home of the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland through Google Street View. All the imagery was captured back in 2011, but it's finally been stitched together, allowing you to wander freely around the site of the famous particle accelerator and learn a little about its experiments. Hit up Google Views to begin your personal guided tour, and let us know if you spot this Higgs fellow everyone's so keen on finding.
Darwin for a Day lets you play scientist, explore the Galapagos in Street View
You can't turn back time and become the father of the theory of evolution, sorry. But, thanks to Google, Galapagos National Park, the Charles Darwin Foundation and iNaturalist you can pretend to be a 19th century British naturalist. Today, the Mountain View crew unveiled their 360-degree Street View imagery of the Galapagos Islands that it captured back in May. While you could certainly just drop the little yellow man down and start virtually strolling the paths of this volcanic archipelago with its countless unique species of flora and fauna, the groups have much more planned. For starters, there's Darwin for a Day, a site created by the Charles Darwin Foundation and iNaturalist that asks for people to play armchair scientist. You explore the islands through Street View and, as you spot plants and animals, you can catalog them and take notes on their appearance. Those observations will then be reviewed by researchers on the island who continue to discover new things about Galapagos' myriad endemic species.
BitGym will let you exercise your way through Street View scenery (video)
Exercise-driven video tours are nothing new, but Active Theory may have a found a way to keep them interesting with its upcoming BitGym app for Android and iOS. The motion-tracking fitness title will now include Street View Hyperlapse videos that take athletes across whole regions, like New York City or a European country, in less than 40 minutes. Only six videos will be available to start, but the company won't have trouble adding more tours when there's plenty of places to go in Street View. Active Theory warns that Hyperlapse might disappear; Google's terms of service for Street View reportedly leave such clips in a gray area, which could lead to a takedown. If you're willing to take a chance on the concept, however, you can fund BitGym's Kickstarter project today.
Google Street View gives you a tour of where Moto X's are born
Ever wonder how Motorola's stateside assembly of the Moto X compares to giants such as Foxconn? Well, now you can go on a digital tour of the facility via Google Street View -- that is if our extensive gallery of up-close-and-personal photos doesn't do it for you. Google and Motorola have introduced the new virtual destination to celebrate the Fort Worth factory's official launch, so anyone with internet connection can check out where the company assembles the 100,000 phones it ships each week. And if you're tired of looking at sterile white factory walls, you can always use Street View to coo at animals, climb lofty buildings and conquer mountains instead.
Google denied dismissal of wiretapping claims in Street View data snooping suit
Google's already vowed to pony up $7 million and destroy passwords, emails and other data collected from unsecured WiFi networks through its Street View cars, but the damage won't stop there. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has denied the company's attempt to dismiss wiretapping claims in a class action suit over the debacle. Page and Co. argued their actions could pass under a wiretap exemption since data transmitted over WiFi is an electronic communication that's easily accessible to the public. However, the panel of judges didn't buy the search giant's argument. "Wi-Fi transmissions are not 'readily accessible' to the 'general public' because most of the general public lacks the expertise to intercept and decode payload data transmitted over a Wi-Fi network," Judge Jay Bybee explained. Secondly, the court ruled that the data transmitted over WiFi can't be classified as mostly audio, so it falls "outside of the definition of a 'radio communication.'" "We are disappointed in the Ninth Circuit's decision and are considering our next steps," a Google spokesperson told Bloomberg. Now that Mountain View isn't getting off this hook, expect it to dish out more compensation soon.
Google adds zoos to Street View, heroically avoids calling it 'Street Zoo'
Granted, the name "Street View" doesn't really apply like it used to, but who's going to argue with a feature like this? Google announced today that it's added imagery from zoos all over the world to the Maps feature, meaning that you can check out lions, tigers and red pandas in their unnatural habits and avoid the long lines at the monkey house. Google's got links to the zoo shots in the source link below, including locations in Singapore, Germany, Spain, the UK and China -- sadly there are no dog lions, however, so far as we can tell.
British canal boaters, welcome to Google Street View
In the same way that you can't really call The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy a trilogy any more, Google's once again stretching the definition of a street. The company has loaned out one of its backpack-worn trekker units to the UK's Canal and River trust, which will document 100 miles of the country's waterways for Street View. Users will be able to tour London's Regent's Canal, the Bingley Five Rise and the Stoke Brueme blacksmiths on the Grand Union Canal. Just remember folks, even if you're touring from the comfort of your laptop, it's not a proper rambling holiday unless you bring a packed lunch and a flask of weak lemon drink.
Google launches Views hub to showcase Photo Spheres and panoramas in Google Maps
As slick as Android's Photo Spheres can be, they're typically hard to find unless someone posts them for you. Google is making that discovery almost trivial by launching Views, its new Google Maps section for Photo Spheres and panoramas. The page both streamlines importing photos from Google+ and simplifies tracking them down by their author, location or popularity. Google also includes its Street View galleries, giving explorers fast access to professional tours alongside the usual amateur photography. Not many of us can contribute to Views when Photo Sphere only works with a few of the latest Android devices, but everyone can at least see what they're missing at the source link.
Google Maps SDK v1.4 for iOS brings Street View, indoor maps to your app
While the Google Maps update for iOS is barely out of the cellophane, Mountain View's keeping up the momentum with a matching SDK revision. Version 1.4 of the developer kit for iOS maps allows app makers to hook into some of the new features, and bring them right into their own creations. Now, you'll be able to add Street View imagery -- with optional markers -- from over 50 countries (including recently added landmarks), introduce floor plans, and benefit from the more neutral maps design. There's a slew of bug fixes too, which can be found at the source. Want the info from developer relations at Google Maps directly? Then, head past the break for the video walkthrough.
Google Street View brings you 1,000 feet up the Eiffel Tower, no tickets required
Once you're done couch-surfing that spectacular Google Street View of the Burj Khalifa, you can now head on over a few thousand miles with a click of the mouse to the Eiffel Tower, where the views are no less impressive. The fine folks over at Mountain View used a special Street View Trolley to capture marvelous 360-degree shots from every floor of the historical monument as part of a collaboration with the Eiffel Tower Operating Company. Google's Cultural Institute then collated all those images and presented them in three online exhibits along with historical documents that tell the story of the landmark's birth and cultural impact. You can head over to the Cultural Institute link below to get a slice of Parisian history, or just take a peek after the break to see a video of how those panoramic shots were taken. Unfortunately, you'll have to supply your own croissants.
Take a virtual tour of Harry Potter's Diagon Alley set on Google Street View
Google has alohomora'd a way for everyone (even muggles) to visit Diagon Alley without the need for magic wands. You can now explore the famous Harry Potter set at Warner Bros. London studio via Street View, and virtually visit its shops like Ollivander's or the garishly colored Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. It's not the first Street View location within a building -- in fact, Thomas Jefferson's Monticello residence is now open for digital visitors -- but movie sets are a rare treat. This is probably the next best thing for those who want to see Diagon Alley in person but can't fly to London, even though the studio lights and the green screen behind Gringotts could ruin childhoods. Unless, of course, Schmidt, Page and Brin are actually wizards who added those final touches to make a real magical marketplace look fake.
Take a tour of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello home with Google Street View
With Independence Day right around the corner, there's no better time to get to know America's Founding Fathers. And now, Google Street View is taking you into the home of one. Thomas Jefferson's Monticello residence -- both the exterior and interior -- is now open to visitors who can't make the trek out there. Considering Jefferson's own fascination with cartography, we like to think he'd get a kick out of it. Ready to start your tour? Hop on over to the source link below.
Dead island that inspired Skyfall comes to Google Street View (video)
It goes by the name of Hashima, or Gunkanjima ("Battleship Island"), or even "The Dead Island", since it inspired the water-locked cyberterrorist HQ in Skyfall. Explore it for yourself, courtesy of the new Google Street View (and official "making of" video) embedded after the break, and you'll see that it's a very real place off the coast of Japan's Nagasaki Peninsula, and it's even lonelier than its fictional counterpart in the Bond film (which wasn't actually filmed there). There are no tourist offices or giant Oedipus Complexes, as far as we can see, just long stretches of overgrown roads and collapsing apartment blocks that once housed 5,000 people, before they abandoned the island in 1974 following the demise of its coal industry. It took a Google employee two hours to map the place and preserve its crumbling visage for posterity using a special backpack, but don't be surprised if you want to leave it after just a few minutes.
