Google Street View adds 250,000 miles of roadways

(CNN) -- With fallout still swirling from Apple's decision to replace Google Maps with its own mobile mapping, Google on Thursday announced the biggest upgrade ever to its Street View tool.

The update adds more than 250,000 miles of roadways in 17 countries, said Ulf Spitzer, Google's Street View program manager, in a blog post Thursday.

The Street View feature on Google Maps lets users see a real-world, 360-degree view of locations. Showcasing Google's global reach, the new coverage areas include parts of Macau, Singapore, Sweden, Thailand, Taiwan, Italy, Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Canada and the United States.

Since launching in 2007, Google Street View had captured 20 petabytes of data in 48 countries. The company uses cars, trikes, snowmobiles and people outfitted with custom cameras to capture 360-degree images around the world.

In the new update, Google also added a spate of "special collections" to the feature, providing virtual tours of attractions around the globe.

"Street View, as you know, is a useful resource when you're planning a route or looking for a destination, but it can also magically transport you to some of the world's picturesque and culturally significant landmarks," Spitzer said.

The new spots include Catherine Palace and Ferapontov Monastery in Russia, Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taiwan and Stanley Park in Vancouver.

Google Maps has been on the minds of many since Apple decided to replace it as the default mapping system on iOS 6, the latest version of its mobile operating system. The update coincided roughly with the release of the iPhone 5, meaning millions saw the new product for the first time after getting their new phones.

Early reviews have not been kind. Apple's mapping software has been a spotty mess, missing huge chunks of the globe and, at times, placing notable landmarks in the wrong place, sometimes humorously so.

The release was bad enough that Apple CEO Tim Cook issued a rare apology, saying in an open letter that Apple is "extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused" and promising to improve the feature.

Google has been officially silent on whether it plans to release a new Google Maps app for iOS 6, which runs on iPhones, iPads and iPods. Reports suggest that it's doing so, but there's no guarantee Apple would approve it. In the past, the company has turned down apps that it deemed compete with its own features.

That's a fact Google CEO Eric Schmidt acknowledged Wednesday, speaking at an All Things Digital conference, where he declined to confirm that a new version of maps is in the works for Apple mobile devices.

"Apple should have kept our maps," Schmidt said, according to GigaOM.

General Motors plans to hire 10,000 software developers, programmers

DETROIT: Now hiring in Detroit: Software developers and programmers. General Motors is moving past layoffs and the Motor City's rusty, low-tech image. It's setting out on its own to develop software and invent the most advanced gizmos for your car.

America's biggest automaker plans to hire up to 10,000 computer professionals in the next three-to-five years as it tries to lead the auto industry with cutting-edge technology.

It's a bold and expensive move, counter to the industry's history of buying software and other electronic applications from outside companies. Experts say it's also the start of a trend as manufacturers realize that software is among the few things that will set them apart from competitors.

"The companies that build the software themselves in general are going to have an advantage," says David Kirkpatrick, author of a book about Facebook and CEO of Techonomy Media, a New York firm that specializes in setting up technology conferences. "If you outsource the development of software in particular to others, you can risk ... your own ability to compete in the future.''

General Motors isn't alone in trying to move more technology development under its roof. But the plans of its biggest competitor, Ford Motor, aren't nearly as ambitious.

GM's aims to bring 90 per cent of its computer technology work into the company by recruiting workers to four new information technology centers around the nation. Ford recently joined GM, BMW AG and Renault-Nissan in opening a technology office in California's Silicon Valley, although it's staffed by only about 15 people.

GM's first "Information Technology Innovation Center" was announced last month in Austin, Texas, with plans to hire 500 programmers and software experts. And Monday the carmaker unveiled plans to hire 1,500 more at a second computer center in Warren, Michigan, on the campus of its big tech center. GM already has product designers, engineers and other technical experts at the site, including the team that created the Chevrolet Volt electric car.

The other two sites haven't been revealed.

Staff at the centers will try to stay on top of software trends. They'll develop the latest ways to link smartphones with cars or control a vehicle's heating and air conditioning with voice commands. They'll also be counted on to invent technology that no one's thought of yet. And GM also sees long-term cost savings when the centers are fully in operation.
"We're currently seeking the next generation of game-changers to help us usher in a new age of automotive innovation,'' says GM Chief Information Officer Randy Mott, who was Hewlett-Packard's CIO until he joined GM in February.

Although there are shortages of programmers and software engineers in some parts of the country, GM should be able to recruit enough talent by setting up shop in four different regions, experts say. With the tech-hub of Austin and GM's home base in Detroit already covered, the most likely locations for the next two centers are on the West Coast, experts say.

GM says it will offer competitive wages and benefits to pull in recent college graduates and experienced information technology professionals. The company's iconic brand status will help attract people, experts say.

But offering competitive pay will cost GM. Software engineers make $60,000 to $70,000 a year right out of college, and experienced workers can make more, says James Stoeckmann, senior compensation specialist for World at Work, an organization of human resources executives who deal with pay issues.

Expensive or not, the strategy is correct for GM as it tries to differentiate its products from other automakers, says Michael Robinet, managing director of IHS Automotive, an industry consulting firm. With the gap in quality between brands shrinking, the way a car drives and its electronics soon will be the only things that set a company apart, he says.

Currently, GM and most automakers rely on outside companies for touch screen and other technology. But often those companies sell the technology to multiple carmakers, or new software is sold in an expensive bidding war, Robinet says. "If they have their own skunk works and they find a new technology, they are guaranteed to bring it to market first," he says.

Ford, for instance, worked with Microsoft Inc. on its pioneering Sync system, which brought voice activation technology into cars ahead of most competitors. But Ford only had exclusive use of the system for a year before Microsoft was able to license it to other companies, namely Hyundai and Kia.

Outside companies have so much expertise that it will take years for GM to catch up, making it unlikely that the company will completely walk away from outside firms, Robinet says.

Yet with software gaining so much importance in the way all companies operate, it's even possible that GM will find its next generation of leaders somewhere in the computer centers, says Kirkpatrick. "CEOs of every company in the future are going to have to be software thinkers," he says.

Credit: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Oracle announces hybrid cloud

-- By Alex Handy: Oracle OpenWorld is a large conference. Add JavaOne and you have a recipe for San Francisco's downtown area to be packed with developers. To this amassed crowd, Oracle announced its new hybrid cloud platform, which will be offered as a service to customers looking to build on-site clouds, but still want the option to go public.

Oracle's Cloud Services, as it is called, is an amalgam of Oracle's existing network, development and infrastructure systems. Enterprises engaging with Oracle's Cloud Services can contract to have cloud hardware and software installed on-premise by Oracle. That cloud can include Oracle's databases, its Fusion Middleware, and its storage services. Virtualization, build, deploy and development systems are included.

Specifically, the development and life-cycle management aspects of Oracle's Cloud Services are built on top of the Code2Cloud.org project, an open-source effort led by TaskTop. Code2Cloud.org’s software in Oracle's Cloud Services handles build, deploy, application monitoring and version management for developers working within the Oracle cloud.

While Oracle is offering this as an on-site solution, the company is also offering enterprises use of its own public cloud. Combining the on-site solution and the Oracle-hosted public cloud, developers will have the ability to keep sensitive data behind the firewall, while still having the option of increasing scalability through the use of public compute.

Oracle president Mark Hurd said, “You can now get the Oracle cloud behind your firewall. This is a big deal because many people talk about cloud, and they say, 'Put everything in a cloud.' One of the biggest issues when you get to CEOs are concerns about data privacy and regulatory issues; you can't move data out beyond the firewall. The fact is now we give you the benefits of cloud and cloud architecture, but we do it by taking away that concern about the privacy of your data, behind your firewall.”

Credit: http://www.sdtimes.com

Enable Run Command on Windows 7 or Vista Start Menu

A number of people have asked me how to enable the old Run dialog that existed on every other version of Windows until Vista, and is still gone in Windows 7. One of the nice features of the old Run dialog was that it saved the history of what you had typed in.

We should note first that you can always get to the run dialog by just hitting Win + R on the keyboard, which is the simplest way to do so, and would probably be worth getting used to.

Otherwise, you can re-enable the run dialog by right-clicking on the Start Button, selecting Properties, and then clicking Customize on the ensuing dialog window.

You’ll be taken to the Customize Start Menu screen.

Check the “Run command” checkbox in the list, and you should now be in business:.

Note the addition of the Run… button.

Credit: howtogeek.com

20 Best Android apps this week

Source:http://www.guardian.co.uk

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