Google is constantly pushing to map our big blue marble and some of those locations just aren't accessible via car. What is Google to do? They have resorted to Camel power to records the desert of LIWA in the UAE.
Google Street View
Run iPhone apps on Android
technology
The iPhone 5s is my main primary use cell phone (even though I test dozens of other phones every year). One of the main reasons I have stayed (stuck) to the iPhone is the collection of high quality apps available on IOS and not on Android. Sure I wish my main apps existed on both platforms but there are still some very useful productivity apps that are iPhone only.
Now six Columbia university students have done the unthinkable. they have forsaken everything that is holly and have devised a platform (called CIDER) which "fools" IOS apps into thinking they are running on an iPhone.
I don't have the technical details but this is likely the same model used by Wine to run Windows app on Linux without needing a windows license. They likely emulate the APIs which trick the app. In the video, CIDER clearly suffers the same performance problem running IOS apps that Wine suffers running Windows apps. The other issue CIDER has is the inability to access many of the additional device hardware peripherals such as cell phone data connection and GPS.
I guess we'll have to wait and see how Apple responds to this development.
Think before you force your Google Nexus to update
technology
Creative Commons License - Flickr user DragonLord878
Knowing that there is a brand new shiny update to Android but being damned by the Google gods to wait is frustrating. You bought a Nexus device because it came with the promise of quick and plentiful updates, yet 3 weeks past the release of KitKat, still no sign of the automatic Over the air (OTA) update.
So you search the interwebs and find a trick. A neat trick that many claim has magical powers to quickly deliver the wonders of Kitkat (even if the Check for update button didn't work). But should you be dabbling with the dark arts (clearing the Google Service Framework data)?
A Google engineer has taken to Reddit (Dan Morrill) to inform users of the risks associated with this trick. By wiping your Framework Data, you are invalidating your push notifications (minor issue but could be very annoying). Dan says that the preferred method to accelerate the update to Kitkat for Nexus devices is to use adb sideload but this is for the more experienced users.
Canada's great north get's added to Google Street View
technologyGoogle has taken one more step towards mapping this big blue marble we call Earth. In August, a team of Google Street View mappers flocked to the city of Cambridge Bay, in the northern most territory in Canada called Nunavut.
Google says:
To get a sense of what it’s like to live up in the north, you can walk down Omingmak Street, make your way to the bridge (where locals fish for Arctic Char) and head out to the Old Stone Church. Check out some Arctic souvenirs in the Arctic Closet, or visit the Ice Hockey and Curling Arena—it’s uninsulated and freezes over once they flood it in the winter! You can also learn more about Inuit history and culture at theKitikmeot Heritage Society and the Arctic Coast Visitors Centre.
You can see Cambridge Bay on Google Maps here.
As you "walk" through the streets, remember that it get very cold in Cambridge Bay. On February 1 2012, the temperature reached a balmy -33 degrees Celsius plus wind chill (-27.4 °F ).