How Google Maps got its groove back for April 1

Google Maps becomes Groovy Maps and Pegman transforms into your own personal tiny dancer. Welcome to April Fools' Day.

It's April 1 and, as usual, Google has arranged something a little special.

If you jump on to Google Maps you'll see that Pegman, the normally featureless figure you drag and drop around Maps, has been "discofied" with a natty beard, low-fro and purple '70s suit.

In fact, the Google Maps Twitter account has changed its name to Groovy Maps, complete with a lot of Funky Town references. But at the moment that seems to be it... and we normally expect a little more from Google for its April Fools' games.


Two years ago Google went above and beyond, turning Google Maps into a Pokemon game, letting you find and, yes, catch them all. Those people who persevered and located all 151 original Pokemon were rewarded with Pokemon Master business cards, which definitely made up for the waste of an entire working day.


collected by;http://www.cnet.com/au/news/google-maps-groovy-maps-funky-pegman-april-fools/

Google Car CEO Predicts Increased Need for Dealerships in All-Autonomous Future

     Image: TomoNews US via Youtube


Surprisingly, in a world filled with autonomous cars, the CEO of Google’s Self-Driving Car Project has suggested that dealerships could become way more important than they are right now. At the J.D. Power and NADA Automotive Forum ahead of the New York Auto Show, CEO John Krafcik discussed the implications of a fully-autonomous future, and the one that would lead to increased dealership importance is that, with everyone in autonomous cars, car usage could skyrocket.

Getting More: Mazda is packing the features into the 2016 CX-5

Normal cars spend the majority of their time parked and off, but according to Krafcik, “Self-driving cars are going to be more expensive physical assets, so we’re going to find a way to use them more.” Krafcik meant that we may start using our cars more due to the amount of money we spent, and also that we may place our cars in ride-sharing services, possibly without us even being in the car.

As a result, Krafcik could see annual car usage rising to anywhere between 100,000 to 150,000 miles each year. “I think there are going to be positive implications for a lot of dealers, and for the OEMs, thinking about that duty cycle is going to be very different,” said Krafcik.

No kidding—think of how often you need to go have your car serviced now, when the average miles driven each year is somewhere around 15,000 miles.

Or Maybe More? At  least, with one of these Consumer Reports Best Buys

However, I have to wonder if that estimate will be the least bit accurate. To break 100,000 miles per year, your autonomous car would need to drive a minimum of 274 miles each day, and to reach 150,000 miles the car would need to drive 411 miles every day. At highway speeds, that means the car would be moving between almost 4.5 hours and almost 7 hours each day. Honestly, I would imagine that most people would use an autonomous car the same way they use their manually-driven car today—as a way for you to get from place to place—and not in the quasi-robotic-employee manner that Krafcik described (even if the government agrees the car is technically the driver).

Still, that brings up a point that I think dealers are unnecessarily wringing their hands over—even safely-driven cars need to be repaired from time to time, and so long as parts wear out, service departments will not lack for business


Sources By;http://thenewswheel.com/google-car-ceo-predicts-increased-need-for-dealerships-in-all-autonomous-future/;

HTC 10 Flagship Smartphone Tipped to Launch in 3 Variants

Although HTC is yet to launch the flagship HTC 10 handset on April 12, rumours for the device's variants have already started brewing on the Web. It is now being said that the HTC 10 will arrive in three variants, all of which will be launched at the same event.

The 'One' variant of the HTC 10 is supposed to be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 processor, clubbed with 3GB RAM, reports My Drivers. It will house 16GB inbuilt storage and will be priced around $584 (roughly Rs. 38,800). Another model is said to feature the Snapdragon 820 processor, along with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of inbuilt storage. It is expected to come with a price tag equivalent to $768 (roughly Rs. 51,100). The third version of the HTC 10 will be powered by the same flagship mobile processor but will house 4GB of RAM, along with 128GB of inbuilt storage. This model is said to be the flagship HTC 10 itself and will come with a hefty price tag of $905 (roughly Rs. 60,200).

All three HTC 10 variants will reportedly sport a 5.15-inch QHD (1440x2560 pixels) resolution Super LCD 5 display, 12-megapixel rear camera with dual-tone LED flash, OIS and a laser autofocus mechanism, and a 3000mAh battery. All will run Android 6.0 Marshmallow out-of-the-box with the Sense 8.0 skin on top.

Although the information has not been confirmed by the Taiwanese tech giant, it should be taken with a grain of salt. In addition, the different variants if at all true, might be limited to different regions.

HTC will be launching the device on April 12 and is expected to bring the device to markets by April 15. The rumoured release date however, is only for Taiwan.

Download the Gadgets 360 app for Android and iOS to stay up to date with the latest tech news, product reviews, and exclusive deals on the popular mobiles.



Sources By:http://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/news/htc-10-flagship-smartphone-tipped-to-launch-in-3-variants-818859:

Cloud wars: Google, Amazon and Microsoft battle to own the future of computing

Google is known in almost every country as the world’s dominant search engine, Amazon as the world’s biggest online retailer, and Microsoft as the computer software powerhouse behind Windows.

But the three companies are also locked in a battle to define the next revolution in computing, a gold rush that could become even more lucrative than the hundred-billion dollar operations they run today: the cloud.

Cloud computing lets companies or people essentially rent on-demand processing power, storage and software over the internet. Instead of buying expensive computer servers, memory and programs, companies can now hire them, tapping into the vast enormous data centres run by the likes of Google, Amazon and Microsoft. The cloud is the difference between being able to listen only to the music you have stored on your computer and finding any song on an on-demand internet service like Spotify, and the difference between losing a crucial document and having it accessible from any computer with an online file locker.

    Huge data centres host data and software in the cloud CREDIT: REX FEATURES

However, for many companies, it is more than that. While businesses would traditionally store their data and run complex processes such as programs that analyse customer shopping habits on an expensive computer server in the office that required hiring dedicated engineers, cloud computing means they can use somebody else’s hardware thousands of miles away, doing away with upfront costs and letting them add capacity whenever they need it.

The internet video service Netflix, for example, runs almost entirely on Amazon’s cloud platform. During peak hours, Netflix can take up more than a third of all the internet traffic in America, a level of demand it wouldn’t be able to keep up with by building its own servers. The messaging app Snapchat, launched just five years ago, now shows its users 7bn videos a day, a strain on computing resources that would have meant constant service outages before cloud computing; the company runs on Google’s cloud.

A decade ago, Amazon kickstarted the cloud revolution by launching Amazon Web Services (AWS). Originally designed as a way of meeting the company’s own huge demand for resources as its retail empire grew, it began making its online infrastructure available to outside developers. The move blindsided many of the IT world’s establishes players, and Amazon’s first-mover advantage has now made it the world’s dominant cloud provider: it commands almost a third of the market, against single-digit shares for both Microsoft and Google.

AWS made $7.9bn (£5.6bn) in revenue last year and is expected to grow by as much as 50pc this year, making it the fastest-growing enterprise software company of all time. When Amazon first revealed the division’s financials last year, they were well beyond what any investors had expected and the company’s share price soared. It could well become more profitable than Amazon’s colossal retail operation this year. “Everyone else is playing catch up against Amazon,” says David Richards, the chief executive of WANDisco, a British company that helps businesses move complicated data to the cloud. “They have a seven to 10 year lead on some of their rivals.”

But if Amazon has built up a sizeable headstart, Microsoft and Google are both fighting back hard. Two years ago, Microsoft appointed Satya Nadella, the head of its cloud business, as chief executive (the company’s cloud competitors were apparently praying that rumours ex-Ford boss Alan Mulally, who might have taken Microsoft in a very different direction, would get the job were true). Microsoft has a long history of selling software to corporate IT departments, giving it a springboard to offer its Azure cloud service, and the division grew by 140pc last year.

Google, meanwhile, is seen as a distant third. In its earlier days, the company essentially invented cloud computing by building the huge data centres required to run its search engine and letting its developers build programs on top of it, resulting in programs including Gmail and Google Maps. It has tremendous expertise in both computing infrastructure and security – the top priority for most companies using the cloud. But Google arrived late to offering other companies cloud services, and it doesn’t have the same history of selling products to enterprises, having focused on consumer technology. Google does not reveal its cloud revenues, but they were estimated to be around $500m last year, less than 10pc of Amazon’s.

     Alphabet chairman Eric Schmidt at this week's Google Next conference CREDIT: GOOGLE

But that is beginning to change and Google is going on the offensive, betting heavily on its ability to catch up to Microsoft and Amazon. In November, it hired Diane Greene, a legend in Silicon Valley who founded the software company VMware, to run its enterprise operation, in what was seen as a major statement of intent. In recent weeks, Google has signed up Spotify and Apple as customers, despite being rivals to both, as well as corporations such as Disney.

The company has been on a publicity offensive. Even in the tech-centric San Francisco, where the billboards flog apps and website design software, rather than Coca-Cola or the latest blockbuster, the adverts for Google Cloud Platform are unmissable. And this week it held a summit on the edge of the San Francisco bay, bringing out Google’s biggest guns including its chief executive Sundar Pichai and Eric Schmidt, the chairman of parent company Alphabet, as a statement of intent. Google unveiled a series of new features for its cloud service, including the ability for cloud users to access its expert artificial intelligence technology, letting companies use the same “machine learning” tools that Google uses to understand images and translate text.

“We believe that in the future, almost everything will be done in the cloud, because it’s a better way of doing business,” Pichai said. “We are at the beginning of what’s possible; businesses are just starting to adopt the concept and we are set up with the right people at the right time. We’re seeing a real acceleration in customers choosing us.”

     Diane Greene has been hired to run Google's enterprise business CREDIT: GOOGLE

Analysts were largely impressed, if cautious about the company’s ability to claw back the lead its rivals have. We still view Google as a very distant third place player behind AWS and [Microsoft] Azure, but we see Google drawing on its scale and automation advantages,” said RBC’s Mark Mahaney.

Google itself is yet more ambitious: its cloud division is the fastest-growing part of the company, and some executives believe it could one day be bigger than the huge internet advertising operation that currently pays the bills.

“IT is a trillion-dollar industry and everybody is going to run in the cloud, but it’s [currently] well under 10pc” says Greene. She adds that many companies have got over fears about putting confidential data on somebody else’s servers, claiming that the cloud is in fact more secure: “Google's been in the crosshairs of every major hacker from the beginning we really hardened our systems more than anyone else.”

The cloud has begun a revolution in computing, and heightened the rivalries between the already ultra-competitive technology giants on America’s west coast. But, says Greene, “this is really early”.

Sources By"http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/03/25/cloud-wars-google-amazon-and-microsoft-battle-to-own-the-future/;

Ferrari-Like Flavor For Mazda MX-5 Retractable Hardtop

Photo courtesy of Mazda

Taking a leaf out of Ferrari and Porsche’s book, Mazda’s MX-5 Miata RF takes the targa route to open top fun.

With a complex and sophisticated folding hardtop, the Miata RF is due to go on sale in late summer. “It’s the same car now dressed in a more comfortable suit,” says Masa Moro, Mazda’s new North American CEO. “Mazda continues to punch well above its weight in the US and globally.”

Photo courtesy of Mazda

Though the extra weight of the hardtop may blunt performance slightly, it will likely be a quieter ride with the top up than in the convertible version. Sound insulation has been added to the roof panels and the rear wheel housings.

The RF model has the same powertrain as the convertible, the 2.0-liter four-cylinder with 155-hp.

Photo courtesy of Mazda






Credit By"http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnmccormick/2016/03/23/ferrari-like-flavor-for-mazda-mx-5-retractable-hardtop/#3d49ee16462f

More Leaked Photos Of Nintendo NX's Alleged Controllers Raise More Concerns

We’ve yet to hear any official word on the Nintendo NX, but the leaks and rumors are starting to come in. There must be devkits out in the wild, after all, and you can only keep so tight a seal on that sort of thing. A few more photos of what people are claiming to be the controller just showed up on reddit, echoing some of

image credit: perkele37, reddit

The big caveat: we have no way of knowing if these are real or not. They look very similar to ones we’ve seen recently, which in turn lined up pretty well with some patent filings, but there are a lot of moving parts here. Even if it is a devkit, it might be far from the final design, or it might be the portable version of the NX. There are a whole lot of question marks and unconfirmed, but the multiple photos, as well as the patent filings, would seem to ring true to me. Multiple photos are a slight — if not complete — indication against photoshop, as well.

If these are legit, however, they raise some concerns. On a basic level, a controller like this is doubling down on the promise of the Wii U: a touch enabled second screen controller, this time with far fewer buttons. And we all know what happened with the Wii U. It’s possible, even likely, that Nintendo would also release a traditional handset like the Wii U’s “pro” controller, but then we’d be in the same situation we’re in now — a console with a range of control options that can’t seem to commit to any and confuses the hell out of consumers in the process. Nintendo likes to push the envelope and play around, and sometimes those gambles don’t pay off. Sometimes, as we all know, they do.

What I want, mostly, is to be able to play Nintendo exclusives on a functional console without too many frills. I want to play the next Zelda game with a controller, and I’m willing to pay a fair chunk of change to do so. I don’t think I’m alone in this. At this point, the most unexpected thing Nintendo could do would be to just release a straightforward, effective console at a competitive price point.


Cradit By"http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2016/03/23/more-leaked-photos-of-nintendo-nxs-strange-controllers-raise-more-concerns/#21b097ade8cf

How Apple Could Deliver a Chinese New Year's Surprise

by  Philip Elmer-DeWitt  @philiped  MARCH 21, 2016, 7:41 AM EDT

Apple CEO Tim Cook celebrates the launch of Apple's iPhone on China Mobile's network in January 2014.
Photograph by Kim Kyung Hoon — Reuters

China Mobile had a huge February.

China Mobile reported last week that it added a whopping 24.8 million new 4G subscriptions in February, a Chinese New Year bump whose biggest beneficiary is likely to be Apple.

China Mobile is China’s—and the world’s—largest mobile phone operator, with 830 million subscribers. For the past year, it has been rapidly converting its 3G customer base to the 4G speeds needed to take full advantage of modern smartphones. At the end of February, it had 360 million 4G subs, up from 123 million a year earlier. (See chart below.)

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Apple is China’s most popular smartphone brand, with a 25% market share at the end of January, according to Kantar. If it maintains that share, and if China Mobile’s 4G growth continues unabated, Apple  AAPL -0.30%  could finish the March quarter, by one estimate, with iPhone sales up 38% year over year.

That would be considerably better than expected. Wall Street is looking for worldwide iPhone sales this quarter to decline 10% to 20% year over year, no matter what happens in China.


Collected By"http://fortune.com/2016/03/21/how-apple-could-deliver-a-chinese-new-years-surprise/

You Can Now Get Comcast TV and Internet Service Through Amazon

by  Robert Hackett  @rhhackett  MARCH 22, 2016, 8:59 AM EDT

A view of the Comcast offices on August 18, 2015 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Cindy Ord—Getty Images

With the promise of better customer service.

Comcast has struck a big online retail partnership.

The media conglomerate has begun selling its Xfinity TV, phone, and Internet services through Amazon  AMZN 0.34% . Comcast’s  CMCSA 0.12%  service bundles are available through Amazon.com’s recently debuted Amazon Cable Store, a web page whose existence was first reported on Sunday by the television news outlets TV Predictions.

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Comcast customers have long complained about the company’s shoddy customer service. “We’re improving dramatically, but we can always do better,” said Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast, at Fortune’s Global Forum conference this year. Now the company is tapping Amazon’s expertise to make its online sales and support interactions smoother.

Collected By'http://fortune.com/2016/03/22/amazon-sells-comcast-tv-internet/

How to Watch Today's Apple Event

It’s that time again. Apple wants to sell you about something. It’s probably a new, smaller phone and another, smaller iPad Pro. Also something about the Apple Watch maybe? Here’s how to watch it all unfold, starting at 1pm ET/10am PT.

Since this is an Apple event, your best bet to watch live will be to click on this link right here while in a fully updated Safari browser. It’s also going to be helpful (and necessary) if you’re at least on iOS 7 or Mac OS X 10.8.5, and if you’re a real Apple fan, the new fourth generation Apple TV just got its own “Apple Events” app for this very occasion.

If you’re on a Windows PC, you’ve got one option: run Windows 10 with the Edge browser. You can probably find a strange song and dance with VLC on Android, but in my experience, that can be unreliable. If also else fails, we’ll be liveblogging the event and covering all the news as it happens.

Cradite By "http://www.gizmodo.com"

Apple bucks big phone trend with smaller iPhone

Since Apple introduced the first iPhone model back in 2007, mobile handsets have only gotten bigger.

Chief executive officer Tim Cook will buck that trend today when he presents a smaller iPhone, seeking to entice holdouts to upgrade to a new smartphone even if they don't want a larger device.

Unlike previous new iterations of the device, the 4-inch iPhone won't be packed full of technological innovations intended to send hordes of Apple fans queuing around the block ahead of today's launch.

Instead, it's meant to woo those still clinging to the more than two-year-old 5S or 5C, the last models with the more compact screen. The company is introducing the new, smaller iPhone at a time when customers are holding onto their handsets longer.

Apple sold more than 231 million iPhones in 2015, with sales dipping between April and September, as has been the case in previous years.

Mr Cook will wield a new iPad at today's event as well, details about which are scant. The tablet has endured its own revenue drop - unit sales fell by a quarter in the three months through December - as users have been happy to retain older models as their phones perform more of the same functions.

Releasing the new 4-inch iPhone - which will be manufactured in smaller volumes - now also provides an opportunity for Apple to try out new component suppliers ahead of the next generation of the larger, flagship phone that will be revealed later this year.

Although the event is focused on the new products, Apple followers may pay more attention to anything Cook says about the company's legal fight with the US government over an order that it help the FBI unlock a terrorist's iPhone.

After more than a month of sparring, in court filings, Congressional hearings and on national television, the two sides will present their cases tomorrow, before a magistrate judge in Riverside, California.

Cook may use the stage today at the company's headquarters in Cupertino, California, to reiterate Apple's argument that creating software to degrade the phone's security features would inevitably endanger the privacy of hundreds of millions of users.

Elsewhere this week, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble will speak tomorrow on the future of Europe's financial architecture at the Centre for Financial Studies in Frankfurt.

He will also address a panel discussion following a book presentation.

(Bloomberg)

Irish Independend

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