Smile, you’re now on Google Street View camera

MANILA, Philippines — The online search giant Google will now deploy its vehicles to the country to capture street-level imagery as well as panoramic views of different streets and destinations in the Philippines.

The initiative, which is being undertaken with support from the Department of Tourism (DO)T, will kickoff in Manila where the colorful Street View cars, which has a crystal ball-like special camera perched on top, will roam to collect panoramic imagery. The collected images may then be viewed at Google’s Street View, which allows users to explore cities through 360-degree images at street level.

As a start, Google has published Street View panoramas of four key sites in Intramuros, namely San Agustin Church, Baluarte de San Diego, Plaza San Luis Complex, and Fort Santiago. The initial panoramas were collected using Google’s Street View Trekker, which is a wearable backpack with a camera mounted atop the gear. Google said that they are planning to use the Street View Trekker in conjunction with the Street View Trolley, a pushcart camera system, to capture more of the country’s off-road locations.

DOT is hoping that the technology will help showcase the country’s beauty to the world.

“Our partnership with Google to bring Street View to the Philippines will allow us to create a digital experience of our landscapes, which we hope will entice more people around the world to learn about our diverse offerings,” DOT Secretary Ramon Jimenez said in a press release.

“For us here at home, Street View can also help make the maps of our country even ‘more fun’ and interesting, as well as enable Filipinos to explore their country more, which in turn can help boost domestic travel and tourism,” Jimenez added.

Ryan Morales, Google Philippines marketing manager, said that they are “delighted to work with the DOT.”

“The Philippines is a diverse archipelago with heritage and beauty to be found within and in between every island. By providing people and businesses alike with more useful map information, Street View can also help celebrate Filipino culture and even create lasting economic impact,” Morales said.

Addressing concerns that the Street View invades privacy, Google said that they use technology to blur human faces and license plates of vehicles. The company said that they are also open to requests from users to further blur any image that features them.

source: interaksyon.com

Google shares top $800 despite Microsoft challenge

NEW YORK — Internet search king Google’s shares pushed past $800 for the first time Tuesday despite a tough new challenge from Microsoft and looming European Union action over alleged privacy violations.

Google’s closed at $806.85 on the Nasdaq exchange, up 1.8 percent from Friday’s close, after having hit $807 during the day.

That pushed the company’s market valuation to $266 billion. The shares were up 14 percent from the beginning of 2013 and 33 percent over the past 52 weeks.

On January 22, Google reported firm 2012 fourth-quarter gains, with profit up 6.7 percent from a year earlier at $2.89 billion. For the full year, Google’s earnings grew 10 percent to $10.74 billion, on revenues topping $50 billion.

Several analysts strengthened their recommendations for the shares with price targets ranging from $800 to $900, the latter from Cantor Fitzgerald.

But the company faces fresh challenges.

In a new push for its Outlook email service, Microsoft has launched a negative ad campaign against Google, asking readers if they have been “Scroogled” by Google’s use of personal data from users of its Gmail service.

“Think Google respects your privacy? Think again,” the Microsoft ads say.

“Google goes through every Gmail that’s sent or received, looking for keywords so they can target Gmail users with paid ads.”

Microsoft says its Outlook service will not scan emails to target online ads.

On Monday France’s CNIL data protection agency said that European data privacy regulators intend to take action against Google after it failed to follow their orders to comply with EU privacy laws.

“At the end of a four-month delay accorded to Google to comply with the European data protection directive and to implement effectively (our) recommendations, no answer has been given,” said CNIL.

National authorities responsible for enforcing data protection laws in the EU said they plan to set up a working group to “coordinate their coercive actions which should be implemented before the summer.”

source: interaksyon.com

Happy 14th Birthday, Google, And Thanks For All the Doodles

Google, the world’s biggest Internet company, celebrated its 14th birthday Thursday.

Google’s birth date is the subject of some controversy. According to some accounts, the company was created on Sept. 4; but in the last couple of years, Google itself has been celebrating its birthday on Sept. 27, which lands on a Thursday this year.

Since 2002, Google has been celebrating with special birthday doodles. Today’s doodle is an obvious one: an animated cake with 14 candles for you to “blow” out.

source: mashable.com

Digg founder to join Google

Digg.com founder Kevin Rose is joining search giant Google and may provide its social network Google+ a needed boost, a tech site reported.

All Things Digital cited sources close to the situation who said staffers of Milk Inc., an app incubator Rose founded, are also joining Google and may earn $1 to 2 million each.

It added that while Google declined to comment and Rose did not reply to multiple requests, its sources said Rose’s first day at Google is to be this Monday.

On the other hand, it noted Rose’s Milk Inc. is shutting down its only product “Oink,” a local recommendations app. It was not clear what Milk Inc.’s fate would be.

AllThingsD said its sources also noted Milk investors are getting their initial investment money back plus a little extra.

It added Rose has an avid online following, stemming from his stint as a host on TechTV and the podcast “Diggnation.”

“That kind of ongoing fan engagement could be a boon to Google+, which has been criticized for low engagement and tricky user accounting,” AllThingsD said.

On the other hand, AllThingsD noted Google had been very close to buying Digg in 2008, but the deal fell apart at the last minute.

Rose has also had an impressive run as an angel investor, putting money into companies like Fab, Zynga, Ngmoco, Foursquare and Twitter. — TJD, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com

Google downs fake Rovio games from Android Market

Search giant Google has removed a number of fake games claiming to be from the company behind the immensely successful game "Angry Birds."

The scammers impersonated Rovio Mobile, the company behind the "Angry Birds" franchise, news site TheGadgets.net reported.

"Several new apps, including 'Angry Birds 3D' have gone up for sale today, but don’t be fooled! These scammers are impersonating Rovio Mobile, the creators of the Angry Birds franchise, with a host of apps that are designed to steal your dollars. Customers who have been taken in by these apps have reported that the apps do not work, and the developers have refused to give refunds," it said.

It said it alerted Google to the problem.

TheGadgets.com reported Google has moved quickly, and the offending apps have been removed from the market.

A list of the fake games drawn up by the site included:


Alive 4 Ever
Call of Duty Zombies
Angry Birds 3D
Zombieville
Zombie Highway
Tiny Wings
Catch the Candy
Cut the Rope: Holiday Gift
Rat on a Skateboard
Zombie Gunship
Resident Evil 4
Siege Hero


"The developers of these apps have stolen the app descriptions of legitimate apps, pasted them into the fakes, and hoped that you won’t know the difference. Visiting the developer’s website links also takes you to a number of different sites, all of them dead links and variations on Rovio.com, the official site of Rovio Mobile," it said.

On the other hand, the site suggested that app permissions should also be considered carefully.

It also suggested that users see how many times an app has been downloaded.

"If the app has been around a while, but no one is downloading it, there’s probably a reason," it said.

"If the developer’s description is terribly written with a lot of mistakes, and words don’t make sense, it’s a good clue that the developer is probably a scammer. If the app description is copied from another popular app, this should also clue you in that something has been altered or stolen," it added. — TJD, GMA News

source: http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/239996/scitech/gaming/google-downs-fake-rovio-games-from-android-market