Google To Get New Satellite Imagery From GeoEye

Un happy with the quality of satellite imagery on Google Maps and Google Earth? You ’re in for a treat: Google has signed a deal with GeoEye Inc and will be receiving imagery from their new high resolution satellite called GeoEye-1. GeoEye spokesman Mark Brender claims that the new satellite will provide the highest resolution commercial imagery available, at .41 meters in black and white and 1.65 meters in color. Yes, that means: stay locked inside your house if you want privacy, cause it’ll all be out there in high-res on Google Maps and Google Earth for everyone to see.

According to Google spokeswoman Kate Hurowitz, Google will start receiving new imagery in 45-60 days. However, this doesn’t mean Google will shun everyone else; they plan to continue using imagery from other providers, including GeoEye’s rival Digital Globe, whose high-res satellite WorldView-1 offers half-meter resolution in black and white only.

Still,it’s good news for GeoEye, whose shares, workforce, revenues and profit are all going up.

Courtesy: Mashable

The Best Six Tools to Track Your Time Spent Online

There are a variety of time tracking tools available today. The first type are the ones targeted at businesses and professionals for tracking amount of time spent on a particular project so they can bill their clients accordingly. The second variety are for net junkies with a need to track time spent on a particular activity online, say emailing, blogging, micro-blogging, reading RSS feeds, browsing, or just plain social networking. We searched the Web for the second variety and present below six very helpful tools to track your time spent online that are free and simple to use.

Whichone is your favorite? Do you use any other time tracking tools? Let us know in the comments.

8aWeek

8aWeek is a neat Firefox toolbar that tracks your online browsing habits. If you feel that your social media participation is becoming excessive and want to restrict yourself, you can get this toolbar, see which sites you spend most of your time on, and set the restriction timings for each. You can also use the toolbar to save sites that you can check out later. This time tracking tool does the work automatically so you don’t need to add tasks manually. That spells a lot of convenience.

Wakoopa

Wakoopa is a desktop application that tracks the time you spend using various applications like your browser, RSS reader, email client, games, and more. It also doubles up as a social networking site. Setting up Wakoopa is hassle free and once installed, it runs quietly on your system tray and collects information automatically.

You have an online profile page where you can view your tracked activitiy records, upload your pictures, add contacts and form teams, and write reviews. There are various widgets you can take advantage of such as ‘My top 10 software’ badge, ‘My recently used software’ badge, a Facebook application, etc. You can also view the most used software by Waakoopa users and check out other users’ stats. Wakoopa also displays interesting items such as ‘Software you might like,’ ‘People like you,’ ‘Reviews of your software,’ and ‘New versions of your software’ on your dashboard that you might find useful. When you go to a particular software’s individual page, you can see the software manufacturer’s details, versions, download url, usage stats by Waakoopa users, popularity chart, and reviews.

RescueTime

Rescue Time is another feature loaded desktop application for Windows, Mac, and Linux that tracks your activities. What differentiate this from Waakoopa is that it helps you track not only applications but websites as well. You can set the number of hours you want to spend in a day on a particular site and Rescue Time will alert you on your email, RSS reader, or by SMS when you run out of time. You can create groups and compare your online stats with other users. There are Rescue Time widgets for blogs, iGoogle, and Netvibes. You can also create a white-list of sites that you want Rescue Time to pay attention to.

TimeTracker

TimeTracker is a simple Firefox addon that tracks the time you spend online browsing by running quietly on your Firefox status bar. You can see the time tracked by the day, since installation, or since your last reset. There are idle timeout, filter, and pause features as well. This addon basically shows your online browser time and doesn’t go beyond that, meaning you cannot track time spent on an individual site. However, for those seeking something simple, it might just be fine.

MeeTimer

MeeTimer is another cool Firefox addon like TimeTracker, but it also shows how much time you have spent on each individual website, in addition to showing your overall time spent online. You can also place site urls into various groups and configure MeeTimer to show you a warning message when you visit a particular group or site.

OnlineStopwatch

Online Stopwatch is basically a neat tool that provides a timer and a stopwatch. The stopwatch creates an alarm bell after the countdown finishes. You can use Online Stopwatch on its site or as a Google gadget, Live.com gadget, or a Vista sidebar gadget. While it is as simple as any online timer can get and comes without any usage trends, the beauty is that you can use it in any manner you want, like setting a timer for your online browsing or monitoring how long it takes to draft a blog post.

Courtesy: Mashable

Google Expands Its Wiki Approach to Map Making (India Edition)

When it comes to the availability of good mapping data, not all parts of the world are created equal. That’s why Google is taking a wiki approach to filling out the white spaces on its maps, particularly in developing nations. Back in June, it launched Map Maker for a small group of island nations where there isn’t great existing cartography data. But now it’s added India to the countries that can be modified on Google Maps. As Google gains more experience with this experiment, more countries may be added in the future. Although it is starting in regions that have poor map data, hopefully it will figure out a way to add this capability for every region of the world. (Even in the U.S., which is not yet editable in this fashion, Google Maps is not perfect).

MapMaker lets anyone add or edit roads, points of interests, and other features on Google Maps. You can mark tourist destinations (like the Taj Mahal), restaurants, factories, helipads, even shrubbery. There is a drop-down list of dozens of feature types to choose from for consistent tagging and easy searchability. Map Maker also lets you define particular regions and neighborhoods by drawing or tracing them using the satellite imagery as your guide. Unlike Google My Maps, any changes to Map Maker are automatically added to Google Maps for everyone to see (although Google reserves the right to moderate contributions).

Here is a video from Google India explaining the service and a list of the 57 countries that can now be edited in Map Maker (image below) .

Courtesy: TechCrunch

How Google Earth Helped Win A Gold Medal

Google Earth is getting a nice plug from Olympic Gold Medal cyclist Kristin Armstrong. When she did her time trials in December, 2007 in China, she took along her husband’s GPS unit to capture the elevation along the route. Then she used that data to find the best training route back home. In a guest post on the Google Lat-Long blog, she writes:

After returning home to Boise, Idaho, I exported the GPS data to several different formats, one of which I was able to launch with Google Earth. I was then able to trace the entire course from the comfort of my home half a world away and find a similar route to train on back in Boise. This capability along with having the elevation profile proved invaluable in my preparation for my Gold Medal race.

Google proves that once again, information is a competitive advantage.

Courtesy: TechCrunch

12 Great Free Games for the iPhone and iPod Touch

Why should you put a dent in your wallet when there are so many great free applications out there for the iPhone and iPod Touch? There are tons of games for the devices, but the vast majority of them cost money, so we’ve sorted through and located 12 totally free ones for you to throw on your gadgets and entertain yourself throughout the day.

Unlike with Firefox or WordPress addons, where we always tell you not to load everything we list, there doesn’t seem to be any problem with loading lots of iPhone or iPod Touch apps. Just make sure you have enough memory for the programs and you can easily load all 12 of these on your device.

Originally this list included Tris, but with yesterday’s news that it would be removed we took it off the list. It’s really too bad as it was a great port of the game.

Blanks - A simple word game that gives you a definition and four choices as to what the word may be. Fun and educational all at once.

Cannon Challenge - Made by the Discovery Channel, Cannon Challenge is based on their show Future Weapons, and firing a Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) cannon at targets of varying distance. Equal parts addicting and challenging. As you can tell from the screenshot, the game is played entirely in the horizontal position.

Crash Landing - This game uses the iPhone and iPod Touch accelerometer to control the descent of a starship, aiming to land on the platform on the moon. If you have as much luck as I did, you’ll see the message in the above screenshot a lot.

Cube Runner - You use the accelerometer to pilot a ship through a landscape littered with mysterious polygonal cubes that have appeared. Though the ship lacks any sort of gun, it feels a bit like the classic Starfox game from the Super Nintendo system. New maps can be designed and shared with friends.

Dactyl - A fast-paced game of bomb diffusing that helps you practice your dexterity and frazzles your nerves as bombs explode.

Fire Drop - A puzzle game that tries to test your speed and your willingness to see how far you can push your luck. The more cauldrons you burn at once, the higher the score, but make sure you don’t fill the entire screen!

Fit2Vote - Politics come to iPhone gaming with Fit2Vote. You will be asked to name who said the quote, Obama or McCain, and tilt your phone to the left for the Democrat and to the right for the Republican. Once you have gotten 50 correct, you are deemed “Fit2Vote.”

Frotz - An interface for playing text-based adventure games that harken back to games like Zork, Bard’s Tale and Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy from the 1980’s.

Othello - Also known by the name “Reversi” on just about every Windows computer sold for years, it is the familiar game played on an 8 X 8 grid with the object of controlling the majority of the board at the end of the game.

SimStapler - Why risk dangerous stapler injuries by using a real stapler? SimStapler provides you with all the fun and excitement of real stapling in a fun, safe, manner. App has an old school Mac look, and with it being a red Swingline stapler, you can feel free to make Office Space jokes.

Tap Tap Revenge - The perfect free game for all of the Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution fans who need a fix whenever they are away from home. A bit difficult to play on the iPod Touch as it lacks an external speaker, but works fine with headphones.

Warcraft Characters - Not so much a game in and of itself, but a way for you to look up World of Warcraft characters on the go and see their stats, skills and equipment no matter where you are.

Courtsey: Mashable

4 Years Later, Google Suggest Finally Goes Primetime

Over the next week, Google will finally be implementing Google Suggest, its auto-complete for searches, on its homepage at Google.com. The service allows users to see the most commonly searched phrases after entering only a few letters, helping users cut back on typing time and check for spelling errors. If you’d like to try the service out now (it isn’t currently activated for everyone) you can find it here.

According to the company’s blog post, the feature has been a long time coming, and has made its way across much of the Google empire already:

“The Google Suggest feature originally started as a 20% project in 2004, and has since expanded to Google Labs, Toolbar, Firefox search box, Maps and Web Search for select countries, the iPhone and BlackBerry, YouTube, and now Google.com.”

Similarsearch autocomplete can be found on a number of major competitors, including Yahoo and recently-launched (and much hyped Cuil).

Courtesy: Techcrunch

Google Tops Website Customer Satisfaction Index

 The University of Michigan’s quarterly customer satisfaction index came out today, and in the Website category Google came out on top with a score of 86 out of 100 (up 10 percent from last year). Yahoo slipped 3 percent to a score of 77. MSN’s score was flat at 75, and tied with NYTimes.com and ABCNews.com. AOL came in at 69, and that is 3 percent better than last year.

Here are some select scores, with the comparable 2007 numbers in parentheses:

American Customer Satisfaction Index Scores (2nd Quarter, 2008)

Google: 86 (78)
Yahoo:77 (79)
MSNBC.com: 76 (74)
ABCNews.com: 75 (74)
MSN: 75 (75)
NYTimes.com: 75 (73)
Ask: 74 (75
CNN.com: 73 (73)
USAToday.com: 73 (72)
AOL:69 (67)

The only surprise here is Google’s massive jump. Is it really doing that much of a better job than last year, or is it just that its halo effect keeps growing?

Courtesy: TechCrunch

First Android Phone Just Approved By FCC

 

Today, the news broke that the HTC Dream, the first handset to run Android (aka "the Google Phone") has been approved by the FCC. In the documents provided, it appears that we have now a release date for this highly anticipated phone: November 10th, 2008. So what will the HTC Dream offer? We take a look at some of the details and unknowns surrounding this device.

This morning Engadget Mobile broke the news of the HTC Dream's FCC approval, and confirms that it is indeed the long-awaited Android phone. T-Mobile, HTC, and Google should be announcing the Dream's launch in either September or October, depending on who you believe. Originally, the launch was thought to be in October, but today, VentureBeat is reporting that, in the FCC document, HTC requests the commission grant it a short-term confidentiality request on "attachments" until Nov. 10th, 2008. That date seems to confirm that the phone will be released on November 10th.

What's Inside

A recent post in the unofficial T-Mobile blog, TmoNews, confirms that the HTC Dream will offer the following features:

• Touch screen
• Full Qwerty keyboard
• 3G/ WiFi
• Full HTML internet capabilities
• Easy access to all Google applications (Gmail, Gtalk, search)
• Maps
• Street view
• YouTube
• Phone
• IM/Text
• Email
• Camera 3.0mp; no flash
• Video (playback only, no recording)
• Music player & 1GB memory card pre-loaded
• Applications, all available in Google marketplace (icon on the homescreen)

Engadget adds that the Dream will also offer Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR compliance and has a "jogball" as seen this video:

Unconfirmed at this time is GPS, but it seems likely that the handset will have this considering that T-Mobile can provide the service and the phone will offer Street View, which would require its use (although it could work through triangulation, we suppose). TmoNews also adds that the phone will offer two data plan options: Unlimited data and 400 messages or Unlimited data and unlimited messages. Prices for these plans will be in the $35 range, they say.

Courtesy of ReadWriteWeb

Facebook Is Not Only The World’s Largest Social Network, It Is Also The Fastest Growing

Call it the Facebook World Tour. Even though Facebook is now the largest social network in the world,—with 132 million unique visitors in June—it is also still the fastest growing.
(Atleast among the major social networks). According to figures compiled by comScore, Facebook’s visitor growth is up 153 percent on an annual basis. This compares to anemic 3 percent growth for MySpace. Other social networks showing strong global growth include Hi5 (100 percent) and Friendster (50 percent), despite each of those being less than half the size of Facebook. Orkut and Bebo fall in at 41 percent and 32 percent growth, respectively.

If you break down Facebook’s growth into regions, its presence in North America is still growing at a healthy 38 percent rate (with 49 million visitors a month). Europe (with 35 million visitors a month) is growing nearly ten times as fast. And growth in rest of the world is on an even faster tear (403 percent growth in the Middle East and Africa, 458 percent growth in Asia Pacific, 10,555 percent growth in Latin America), albeit from a smaller base. (For another cut at the regional popularity of social networks based on Google search activity, see these maps at Pingdom)

Much of these huge growth numbers come from the fact that Facebook had hardly no presence in many of these regions until recently when it started its major push to translate the site to other languages. A year ago, it had only one million uniques a month in all of Latin America, three million in the Middle East and Africa, and four million in all of Asia Pacific. When you look at it that way, 10,555 percent growth isn’t as amazing as the raw numbers would suggest. And within these regions, it still has a lot of work to do. For instance,it is floundering in Japan.

The takeaway here is that Facebook’s growth is now coming from abroad, and it still has a long way to go in other countries. Will it get lost in translation, or are we looking at another global superpower here?

Skyfire Brings Full Browser Experience To Nokia S60 Phones (200 Private Beta Invites)

Throw out that WAP browser on your cell phone. We are quickly approaching a point where a full browser experience is available on our mobile devices. And it is not just the iPhone. A startup called Skyfire is in some respect even further along than Apple in bringing the entire Web to your phone. Its mobile browser lets you slide Web pages around and zoom in like with the mobile version of Safari. But it also supports Flash and Ajax sites. (It does this by offloading most of the heavy lifting to its servers rather than the mobile client). That means you can watch Youtube videos and go to Google Maps right in the mobile browser instead of having to download separate apps. In contrast, the iPhone’s Safari browser still does not support Flash and so to watch a a video you have to launch the separate Youtube app.

As it becomes possible to do more and more inside the mobile browser itself, it raises the question of whether that indeed is the killer app for mobile Web phones. For the most part, you still get a richer experience by downloading a separate single-purpose app to your phone. But efforts like Skyfire’s point to a future where that may no longer be necessary for all but the most sophisticated apps and games.

Skyfire launched on Windows Mobile, but as of today it is also available in a private beta for Nokia phones running Symbian’s S60 operating system. The first 200 TechCrunch readers to sign up for the beta here will get invites (enter invite code: Tcrunch).

You can also download thousands of exciting mobile games and useful apps ranging from entertainment to utility and security apps are available at Softwaremandi.in, for (absolutely) FREE. Visit now to download and make your life easier.

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