Google Street View car spotted in Singapore

Take note, you heard it first from CNET Asia--Street View for the Google Maps service is coming to Singapore. An eagle-eyed CNET Asia reader sent us a picture of this silver Opel Astra complete with cameras doubling its height and the Google logo pasted on the side door. This was spotted at the junction between Dorset Road and Kampong Java Road.

We contacted Google and the search giant confirmed that this service will be coming to Google Maps Singapore in the coming months. The island-state will be the first in Southeast Asia to get this service though the company did not say when and which other countries will be indexed by Street View as well.

For those not familiar with Street View, this feature of Google Maps gives the user a photographic view of the location being searched, with the intention of providing a better idea of where he or she wants to be at. It has attracted controversy in many countries with some residents of Street View-enabled cities complaining of loss of privacy. In some cases, men have been caught leaving places like strip joints or picking up prostitutes while others have been captured while inside their own private property. To address these concerns, Google will be blurring out faces and license plate numbers before uploading the images. Tools for users and authorities to report on images they are uncomfortable about will also be put in place, similar to what the company has done in the US, Australia, Japan and France.

In any case, watch what you do or where you go--Google is watching.

Photo credit: Andrew

Media input device makes it polite to point

Tend to gesticulate? The iPoint Presenter might suit your communication style well. It's a completely contact-free input media device that lets you rotate virtual objects, press buttons, and change the size of onscreen images with simple hand gestures alone. No special gloves or sensory equipment needed.

Created by the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications in Berlin, the iPoint Presenter can recognize eight fingers at a time--in real time. It's currently on display at Wired NextFest 2008, a showcase of global innovations that runs through October 12 in Chicago.

Among the other striking exhibits at NextFest: Cell Phone Disco, an interactive LED installation that uses sensors to "visualize" the electromagnetic field of an active mobile phone. Several thousand lights illuminate, dazzling and disco-like, when someone makes or receives a call in the vicinity.

Created by designers Ursula Lavrencic and Auke Touwslager, Cell Phone Disco is aimed at making an invisible property into something perceptible. The digital art installation is currently lighting up NextFest for the second year in a row. The Bee-Gees would be so proud.


Via CNET Crave

What happens when Google's Chrome crashes?

Maybe I give off some unusual electrical impulse, but whatever the reason, I'm the guy who can crash any computer or application in no time flat. Hard drives melt down under my fingers, I get a couple of BSODs a week at least, and naturally, I've even managed to crash Google's new supposedly super-stable browser, Chrome.

That in itself isn't terribly noteworthy, but I did appreciate the humorous message Chrome gave me (while trying to preview an upcoming CNET review), so I screengrabbed it for your viewing pleasure.


Via CNET Crave

Mac Pro engages in chemical attack?

Poor China. After celebrating a historic milestone by hosting the recent Olympics, it was hit by the melamine-tainted milk scandal which killed four babies to date and sickened thousands. Now Guardian is reporting that the Mac Pro manufactured in the Middle Kingdom could be poisoning its users.

Some users have complained of a burning plastic stench emitted from their Apple desktops, which a French newspaper claims contained the chemical compound benzene. Short-term exposure results in respiratory and eye irritation. Continued inhalation could lead to more serious health issues like leukemia.

The same report also suggested that only Mac Pro machines manufactured in Apple's China factories are affected while those made in its Europe branches are safe. The Cupertino company is still investigating this issue at this time and will comment at a later date. Our advice is that if your Mac Pro starts producing smelly fumes that irritates your senses, you should switch off the machine and contact your local Apple distributor for further action.

Via Guardian

AMD rolls out new budget 3D cards

AMD debuted two new budget 3D cards today, bringing the same core design from its flagship ATI Radeon HD 4800 series to budget price points. The US$50 Radeon HD 4550 features 512MB of DDR3 video memory, and the US$40 Radeon HD 4350 comes with 256MB of DDR2 VRAM.

As usual with low-end 3D cards, they won't break benchmark records, but you can still benefit from upgrading to a 3D card from an integrated video chip. Between the two, you'll be happier with the 512MB model, as that extra RAM can really make a difference, even at modest 3D settings. The 256MB version features a half-height card design only (the 4550 comes in both normal and half-height designs) aimed at PCs with restricted expansion room.

Like all of AMD's new chips, each of these supports DirectX 10.1, a relatively meaningless graphics programming update from standard DirectX 10 that came with the introduction of Windows Vista. It's a marketing point for AMD, but DX 10.1 serves little to no practical purpose with current games, and we suspect few game developers will spend the time on advanced features that only a segment of its customers will benefit from. AMD likes to hold it over Nvidia's head that its GeForce cards only support vanilla DirectX 10, but as usual with Nvidia, we suspect it's holding that capability until the software's ready, assuming Windows 7 and DirectX 11 don't come out first.

Both new AMD cards also support on-board audio decoding via an HDMI-to-DVI adapter, which means that you don't need a separate sound card or internal audio connection if you want to output to an HDMI-capable display. The cards also boast particularly low 20 watt power consumption. Neither card appears to be on sale as of this writing, but we expect to see them in retail shops soon.

Via CNET Crave

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