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Google Pays Tribute To Luciano Pavarotti

October 12th, 2007 by iDunzo

Google pays tribute to Luciano Pavarotti (October 12, 1935 – September 6, 2007), Cavaliere di Gran Croce was a celebrated Italian tenor in operatic music, who successfully crossed into popular music becoming one of the most beloved vocal performers.

Google Luciano Pavarotti

While undertaking an international “farewell tour,” Pavarotti was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in July 2006.

The tenor fought back against the implications of this diagnosis, undergoing major abdominal surgery and making plans for the resumption and conclusion of his singing commitments.

On September 6 2007, however, in an e-mail statement, his manager, Terri Robson, wrote: “The Maestro fought a long, tough battle against the pancreatic cancer which eventually took his life. In fitting with the approach that characterized his life and work, he remained positive until finally succumbing to the last stages of his illness.”

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YouTube Videos To Populate Google Earth

October 11th, 2007 by iDunzo

Google announced today that locations on Google Earth will now link to YouTube videos about those locations.

The videos can be viewed in Flash without leaving Google Earth or by opening an external link to the YouTube site.

A quick scan of randomly-chosen Bangkok showed a healthy number of videos already locationally linked, including a videos from tourists on a boat cruising down the Chao Phraya river and cruising the city by Tuk-tuk.

This joins other Google Earth’s other location-specific features such as locationally-linked photos, 3D buildings, and content from Discovery Networks, National Geographic, and the UN, among others.

On Tuesday, Google Earth announced that Street View maps of Chicago, Portland, Pittsburgh, Phoenix, Tucson and Philadelphia are now available.

Go forth and procrastinate.

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Mozilla Is Promising To ‘Rock’ The Mobile Web

October 10th, 2007 by iDunzo

Firefox Mobile Giving the mobile Web browser competition a shot in the arm, Mozilla’s Mike Schroepfer said in a blog post that Mozilla has big plans for the mobile Web.

Yes, a mobile version of Firefox is in the works, and should be ready next year.

The post showed up in Schroepfer’s blog yesterday and outlined all of Mozilla’s mobile plans, including updates on its technology, hiring, products, and partners.

According to Schroepfer, there’s a lot in store.

From his blog post:

Up until very recently device limitations required writing new mobile browsers from the ground up. Being able to leverage all the investments in the Mozilla platform across both desktops and devices is the right approach. There is far from a dominant player in this marketplace and even the best mobile browsers today have compromises in user experience, performance, and compatibility. There is still *plenty* of room for innovation.

I agree, there is still lots of room for improvement.

Just yesterday Opera, Freescale and NEC announced their own plans to improve the mobile browsing and mobile video experience.

Mozilla is promising a better experience, too. It has hired two new developers to head its mobile services operations and plans to offer a mobile version of Firefox that is as close to the desktop version as possible.

Schroepfer said mobile Firefox will be able to run Firefox extensions on mobile devices and allow others to build rich applications via XUL.

Part of the reason Mozilla held off on entering the market was that mobile devices didn’t have the right memory or CPU specs to make Mozilla happy.

Now that many phones — and smartphones in particular — are shipping with more memory and faster processors, Mozilla thinks now is the time.

The iPhone’s Safari browser really raised the bar when it comes to the mobile browsing experience.

The Nokia browser, which is based on Safari also performs well. Google is working on a mobile browser. Microsoft already has a mobile version of Internet Explorer. Opera is stepping up the competition.

Mozilla will be a little late to the game, but late is better than never.

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Google Maps Takes To The Subways

October 4th, 2007 by iDunzo

Google Maps has rolled some of the Google Labs public transit features into the main Google Maps page.

The new feature, previously available only through the Labs page, adds a new link to your Google Maps search results and shows you how to reach you destination via public transport.

Obviously the feature only works if your city happens to have decent public transportation and the routes have been added to Google’s index.

Driving directions are still the default view for search results in Google Maps.

To see what transit systems are included in Google Maps, take a look at the Google Labs page.

If you city isn’t currently part of Google’s listing, keep in mind that the company is always adding more transit systems.

In the past few weeks it has added San Francisco’s BART system, Santa Clara’s Valley Transportation Authority, and more. The public transport feature includes numerous listings in Japan.

The new public transport options on Google Maps include some nice features like adding time of day to see when trains are scheduled, and a price comparison between the cost of transit fares and the cost of driving.

You’ll also find links to the relevant public transit website (when available).

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