Google made a new beta version of its Mobile Maps application available to certain smartphones today.
The biggest improvement of the application comes with its My Location feature, which uses cell tower information and not on-board GPS to determine user location.
The new software will work with BlackBerrys, Nokia S60 Third Edition, and Windows Mobile smartphones and will help users find their location even if their devices don’t have GPS on board. (It will work with GPS-enabled devices, too.)
Notably, it won’t work on the Apple iPhone. HAHA!!
Basically, Google takes GPS information transmitted from other phones that do have GPS and corresponds that with nearby cell towers.
When your phone connects to a specific cell tower, Google uses this GPS info and relates it to your device. This means it won’t be nearly as accurate as GPS.
Google is touting accuracy in the 500 to 5,000 meter range (that’s up to 3 miles).
The denser the concentration of cell towers, the more accurate user results will be. This means it should work fairly well in cities, but not so well out in more rural areas.
This Apple iPod has been split and separated like an exploded diagram, and encased in resin. The amazing thing is that it still works.
Poured in layers, just like jelly, the iPod sits in a bubbly cube, with control via the included dock internals and the project, by Billy Chasen, is made geek-perfect by the inclusion of Lego feet.
Hopefully Billy will go to work on a more recursive meta-project next: An Apple G4 Cube, encased in a cube.
Named The World’s Smallest Percision Electric Guitar, the thing is 1/6 the size of a standard example and is just over two feet long. It has a full complement of 20 frets.
For a laugh, read the marketing blatherskite:
Its injection-molded high-impact polymer composite body is filled with billions of tiny air bubbles that reproduce the cellular structure of wood, giving the guitar the same resonant properties of hardwoods used in standard-sized guitars without the expansion and contraction associated with wood.
The Apple iPod Nano is so tiny and light that a chunky hard case would at least triple or quadruple it’s weight, defeating the whole point of the little player, right? Wrong.
The Metal Jacket weighs in at around 35 grams, versus the 3G Nano’s already featherweight 49 grams. The case is internally cushioned, and is hand made.
You can even dock the iPod with its jacket on. Geektastic!
It was used in a famous television commercial and several print advertisements. The slogan was used at the end of several product commercials, until the advent of Apple’s Switch ad campaign.
Apple currently does not use the slogan, and their commercials usually end with a silhouetted Apple logo and sometimes a pertinent website address.
GPS units are selling for two-thirds off, digital SLR cameras are near the $500 mark and plasma TV competition is hotter than ever.
So what do people get excited about this Black Friday? A dung-colored MP3 player whose initial user experience was likened to non-elective surgery.
CNN reports that hordes in Times Square were punching each other this morning to grab the original 30 GB Zune, now at the clearout price of $80.00 USD
Umm, people? You can get ’em online for around the same price. With free shipping. And it’s still a brown Zune that will likely require some registry hacking.
Reports from elsewhere were modestly encouraging for retailers, with customer lining up in the cold for sweet deals on TVs, laptops and DVD of TV shows you probably shouldn’t have wasted hours watching the first time.
I’d like to hear from y’all. Did anyone sleeping bag it outside a big box store? Was it worth it? Why and how are you awake and reading this now?
Posted in Google + Technology + Wireless | 
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