Google has brought its street view technology to one of the world's most iconic archaeological sites, the company announced Wednesday.
"Now the Egypt of your imagination can be brought to life with new Street View imagery in Google Maps, and you can take a virtual walk among the stunning monuments and rich history of this ancient civilization," Google said in a statement.
Users can explore the Pyramids of Giza, the sphinx and many other surviving relics of the ancient world. Sites now visible with the mapping technology also include the Giza Necropolis, one of the world's most famous archaeological sites, as well as the ancient burial ground of Saqqara.
Google Maps Street View program manager Amita Khattritold Timethe project took 10 days to photograph, and the Street View team ran into particular challenges with the Egyptian summer.
“It was a unique experience for us as well, because the equipment really got tested in the heat," she said.
This is the most recent project for Google, which recently launched in Indonesia several weeks ago. Google Street View first began in 2007, and is now available in more than 59 countries worldwide.
Preorders for Apple's new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus open up in the early hours of Friday morning.
Whether you choose to go through Apple, your carrier or another major retailer, here's everything you need to know about how to preorder a new iPhone.
Preorders for both new iPhones open Friday morning at 12 a.m. PT. Online preorders can be placed through Apple, Verizon, Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile.
Keep in mind demand will be high and Apple and other websites could be moving extra slow due to server overload. On that note, Chrome Refresh is a handy Chrome extension to automate the almost-inevitable refresh process.
Another good tip to speed up the process on Apple's website, as Cult of Macnotes, is to set your default shipping and billing information on Apple's website and enable Apple's Express Checkout prior to the start of the preorder period. This reduces the amount of time you'll need to spend on Apple's website (and the likelihood of it timing out and crashing) to place an order.
Carrier pricing
For AT&T, Sprint and Verizon, an iPhone 6 starts at $199 with a two-year contract (tip, check your upgrade eligibility on your carrier's website before the preorder period) for the 16GB version. Each size up adds an additional $100 to the price tag.
The 6 Plus follows the same model on AT&T, Sprint and Verizon with the 16GB model priced at $299, the 64GB at $399 and the 128GB at $499 (also, with an accompanying two-year contract).
T-Mobile customers can also buy an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus directly from Apple without a contract. The 16GB iPhone 6 is $649 with an additional $100 for each size up and the 6 Plus starts at $749 for the 16GB model.
If you aren't eligible for an upgrade, you're not out of luck as AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile give you the ability to finance a new iPhone in monthly installments over a period of one to two years.
Other retailers
Best Buy, Walmart, Sam's Club, Radio Shack and Target will all be accepting iPhone 6 and 6 Plus preorders in their brick-and-mortar stores Friday. While most of these retailers follow carrier pricing, Walmart and Sam's Club are also offering slight discounts on preorders.
At Walmart, the iPhone 6 starts at $179 for a 16GB iPhone 6 (with a two-year contract from Verizon, AT&T or Sprint) and the 6 Plus starts at $279 for the 16GB model. At Sam's Club, a Walmart subsidiary, the iPhone 6 starts at $177 for the 16GB version and the 6 Plus starts at $277 for 16GB.
International
The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus will be available for preorder in the UK, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico and Singapore on Apple's website as of 12 a.m. PT Friday.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company plans to make the handsets available in 115 countries by the end of the year, though the exact timing of subsequent international rollouts is unclear for now.
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While you won't be able to pre-order the new Apple iPhone 6 and 6 Plus until Sept. 12, and they won't be released for sale until Sept. 19, you can still plan how to accessorize when the day arrives.
Companies are already selling and pre-selling battery cases, folio wallet cases, bike mounts and arm bands. Now all you need is to pick the right one for you.
Check out these 11 iPhone 6 and 6 Plus accessories to take your new device to the next level.
Poor battery life is the No.1 complaint among iPhone users. This case features a 2,500mAh battery in a lightweight shell to double your use time before you need to charge.
It also has an LED battery tracker on the back so you can monitor how much juice the external battery has left.
With the introduction of Apple Pay, the iPhone 6 is geared toward making the credit card obsolete. Until that happens, you can keep your cards and cash in this folio case, which features internal slots. Pick it up in faux leather or canvas.
If you want to keep your new iPhone safe and secure while you work out, this arm band will do the trick. You can use it without a case, and the sweat resistant design will protect the phone from griminess.
If you're looking for a little more protection in a wallet case, this sleek design from silk gives you a hard single shell, a screen guard and a slot to store three credit or ID cards.
Adding some personal flair to your iPhone is easy with SkinIt. You can choose from a series of pre-designed cases and skins, or have one custom made for you with a picture.
Seidio is adapting its six case designs for the new iPhone. This DILLEX Pro model uses two interlocking layers to absorb shock, and features a metal kickstand for easy hands-free video viewing.
When the Apple Watch was announced, its creators touted its potential for expanding communication, health tracking, navigation and more. But what wasn't mentioned was its potential impact on gaming.
Gaming may not be an obvious vertical for wearables due to the small screen size, but there are certainly fun ideas that the always-with-you technology presents. And while we know Apple's smartwatch is already entering a crowded field of similar devices, its announcement Tuesday was one many in the tech community had been anticipating for years and will undoubtedly signal an uptick in app development.
So what kinds of games could an Apple Watch, or any smartwatch owner, enjoy? We brainstormed some of the best possible ideas that would work within the hardware's restrictions. Hope you're listening, game creators.
1. NFC-based games that react when another user is nearby
With the Apple Watch's added near-field communication, there are plenty of options for communication between watch owners, or even NFC-enabled spots. This idea is admittedly cribbed from Nintendo, simply because the 3DS handheld has done a dynamite job of giving players multiple positive experiences when they pass near another 3DS user, even if they aren't aware of it.
Nintendo has done this both with 3DS Streetpass games, where encountering other players helps you fill in a puzzle with pieces they provide, or with features in specific titles. Passing by another player who also owned Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds deposited their shadow in your game world, and winning a battle against them gave you loot.
Imagine a game where your carefully leveled warrior battled any other Apple Watch warrior it came into contact with, and you could see how they did at the end of the day. Or a game that gave you new levels based on how many other users you encountered that day. These make up just the tip of the iceberg, but the addition of NFC can add a lot of creative opportunities for gaming.
2. Don't you miss your virtual pets of the 1990s?
Back in the 1990s, Tamagotchis, Neopets and all their ilk ruled our lives, with their need to be fed, inoculated and cleaned up after constantly. Though Tamagotchi has had a resurgence as an app, it's natural home is easily a smartwatch, where it can be attended to more quickly. And though the Apple Watch has a much more advanced screen than the pixelated LCD screen, it certainly couldn't hurt to leave these monsters with the same boxy charm.
The digital crown, visible here, acts as a control for apps so users can scroll and zoom.
3. Simple games that utilize the Digital Crown
As Apple's team demonstrated on stage, having to access the touch screen a lot is difficult on a watch face because your fingers obscure your view. So it added a Digital Crown to allow users to scroll and zoom through information. That means the games can't rely too much on touch controls, and instead need to utilize the crown's rotation for activities. So something simple with one-touch controls would be perfect.
Good examples would be side-scrolling endless runners such as Jetpack Joyride or Canabalt, or even the simple madness of a game such as Flappy Bird. As long as the mechanics are simple, the wearable appeal of a short game that can be picked up and put away during downtime is an obvious one.
4. Gamification of your activity
Gamification is a term that is beyond overused, but with the robust fitness tracking on the Apple Watch, it might experience a new life. For some, exercising toward a goal or purpose tracked in a game is bigger motivation, especially if it's more creative than just adding points to a number. Look at the mobile app Zombies, Run!, which gamifies running by implying you'll have to go just a bit faster to escape the flesh-eating hordes chasing you.
If running while wearing your Apple Watch unlocked new worlds to explore in a game, or new equipment, it could be more motivational. What about a game where climbing more stairs than your friends meant your virtual army was able to overtake theirs? There are a lot of creative potential applications, especially when you tie to the experience to the phone.
5. Managing your mobile games
Anyone who has played a freemium game such as FarmVille or Clash of Clans knows how those games operate. Instead of putting in money, they ask for your time. A lot of time, since you have to constantly check in, or risk missing the benefit of your newly generated energy critical for completing tasks. Freemium games only allow a certain number of actions before you're "tired", and players must wait for their energy to replenish or purchase more.
So for those sucked deep into the free-to-play spiral, a quick way to interface with game via your Apple Watch might save time, especially if they can queue up tasks on their wrist instead of pulling out a phone. And then nobody can judge you for still playing Kim Kardashian: Hollywood.
Got any game ideas we missed? Share them in the comments below.
You open Facebook and you see it again: a request from that one person from that one place that is just dying to be your friend for some reason. If you're unsure, you can friend them, but keep them from getting too personal with this trick.
If you know someone is bad news—or just a spammer—go ahead and just block them. When it's someone you'll see regularly, though, it's sometimes better to try and sidestep that awkward landmine. Amit Agarwal at tech blog Digital Inspiration has a simple solution for that annoying guy that thinks you just haven't seen his repeated friend requests. Go ahead and add them so they can sleep in peace knowing you've acknowledged their existence, and then make your way to their profile page. Click the Friends button at the top, then select Add to another list, then choose Restricted.
Now they're your friend, but they'll only be able to see whatever public followers can see on your profile. If your profile is locked down, they won't see much, but at least they'll stop trying to friend you. Maybe even after some time you'll see that they're okay and you can move them back into the friend zone.
If you are an early stage startup, Google wants to give you $100,000 in Cloud Platform credits for one year so you can host your applications on its servers (and not on AWS or Azure). This offer is part of Google’s Cloud Platform for Startups initiative, a new program the company’s senior vice president for its technical infrastructure Urs Hölzle announced at the Google for Entrepreneurs Global Partner Summit today.
Google Offers Early Stage Startups $100,000 In Cloud Platform Credits For 1 Year
To be eligible for this program, startups must be less than five years old and have less than $500,000 in annual revenue. They must also be part of one of 50 accelerator programs, incubators and VC funds around the world that Google has already partnered with (Google plans to add more partners over time and those organizations that aren’t part of this first batch can contact Google to join this program).
Among these partners are the likes of Y Combinator, 500 Startups, SV Angel, Techstars, Code for America, Chicago’s 1871, and (unsurprisingly) Google’s own Google Ventures. Google is also working with Gaza Sky Geeks, the first accelerator program in Gaza, and many other organizations around the world.
“This offer supports our core Google Cloud Platform philosophy: we want developers to focus on code; not worry about managing infrastructure,” writes Google’s Julie Pearl today. “Starting today, startups can take advantage of this offer and begin using the same infrastructure platform we use at Google.”
In addition to the Cloud Platform credits, startups will also be able to schedule office hours for 1:1 technical architecture reviews and they will get access to 24/7 phone support.
Just like its main competitors, Google has always offered a (limited) free tier for startups that wanted to get started on its platform. Since late 2013, AWS has also been offering its “Portfolio Package” to accelerators, incubators and funds through AWS Activate — a program that is quite similar to Google’s new initiative. Amazon offers startups in this program up to $15,000 in AWS credits. WithBizSpark, Microsoft has also long offered a comparable program for early stage startups, though its benefits also often include. Compared to Google, however, the $150 monthly Azure credits startups get through Google’s program looks a bit small.
In some way, though, Google’s $100,000 credit for one year is a bit of a marketing gimmick. Most startups won’t need anywhere close to this many resources to get going unless they either become extremely popular (Google loves to note that Snapchat uses its services) or plan to use Google’s servers for very heavy computations (I assume Google would ban a startup that would use these credits for Bitcoin mining…).
Google is clearly interested in taking some mind share from the likes of AWS, which for most startups is still the go-to cloud service. Chances are, this program will help it to get more of these companies on board and once they are on Google’s servers, they will likely stay there as they grow (and get to the point where they have to start paying their bills).
No, it's not Ubuntu on a phone, but you'd forgiven for mistaking the similar color scheme. This design, courtesy of My Color Screen user Vivek S brings a splash of color to a functional home screen.
This design is a custom look for the Themer launcher. To get it, download the zip file from the source below and follow these instructions:
Move the .zip to sdcard0 > MyColorScreen > Themer > Exported > zip (Your initial location may vary.)
Open Themer and browse for themes.
Under "My Themes" select "Exported."
Choose "PurpleUI.zip"
Do you have an awesome, tweaked-into-oblivion home or lock screen of your own that you'd like to share? Post it in the comments below, or on your own Kinja blog with the tag "home screen showcase" (no quotes). Be sure to include a description of how you made it so we can feature it as the next featured home screen.
Are you a doctor? A lawyer? An engineer? A teacher, an artist, a sales executive? A banker, an airline pilot, an entrepreneur?
Whatever you do for a living, your work does not define you. Instead, you hold the power to define the way you work.And the way the world works is changing fast, thanks to the magic, convenience, and versatility of mobile technology. Continue...
With an iPad in your hands, connected by WiFi or 3G to the Internet, you can instantly access the emails, files, documents, and data you need to do your job.
You can manage your workday, take notes, record interviews and meetings, and run presentations using the powerful and elegantly designed KeyNote app, part of the Apple Creativity Suite that comes free with every iPad.
You can also choose from thousands of specialist apps, available on the App Store, that can enhance and transform the way you work in your chosen professional field.
More than ever, the iPad is everybody’s business.
And now you can take a close look at how the iPad can work for you, by signing up for a free “iPad in Business” training session at iStore Ikeja Mall this month.
The one-hour session will introduce you to great ways of integrating the iPad into your small to medium-sized business, and will cover activation and setup, configuration, and device management as well.
So pop into iStore Ikeja Mall , or visit http://myistore.com.ng/ to book for the training session or to find out more.
The world of work isn’t what it used to be, and it isn’t what it’s going to be, either.
It’s going to be even smarter, even more switched-on, even more geared to making life easier and more productive for you…whatever you do for a living!
This morning,Dropbox released new information detailing government requests for its user data, and information about certain user accounts. The company also called for the passage of the Senate’s version of the USA FREEDOM Act.
In the first half of 2014, Dropbox received “268 requests for user information from law enforcement agencies and 0-249 national security requests.” In a separate post, the company described that level of request as growing in keeping its user base. The amount of inquiry is expanding geometrically, in other words, and not exponentially.
The data itself, in terms of its gist, is mostly in line with other technology companies that report this sort of thing, with one interesting addition. Dropbox was comfortable calling out the government for being overly demanding in its requests for secrecy:
Government agencies keep asking us not to notify users of requests for their data, even when they are not legally entitled to do so. If we receive a request that comes with a gag order, we’ll inform requesting agency of our policy and let users know about the request unless the agency provides a valid court order (or an equivalent).
That’s worth knowing.
But perhaps most importantly it Dropbox’s notes in both its posts today, asking for support of the USA FREEDOM Act that the Senate is considering. Unlike the bill the House passed — the two share a name — the Senate’s version is noted for not being a gutted, useless pile of bilge.
What the House passed was rammed through to a vote so quickly, after a long period of useless dithering, that about half of its cosponsors didn’t vote for it. That’s just standard operating procedure. Having Dropbox’s support behind what the Senate is considering is a vote in the right direction
Editor’s note:Steven Hillion is co-founder of Alpine Data Labs where he leads development of an enterprise platform for advanced analytics. Before joining Alpine, he has managed teams of data scientists and engineers at companies such as Siebel and Greenplum.
Data is more varied and fast-moving than ever, and analyzing it effectively now requires highly sophisticated software and machinery. But where does big data analytics leave the good-old-fashioned hunch? What if the data tells a business manager to “jump” but her intuition says “stay”?
It might sound surprising coming from me – I’m a math and technology guy after all – but I strongly believe that intuition steeped in both data and business savvy must steer analytics in order to generate real value.
There’s an attitude that says you just have to apply enough math and machine power to a dataset to achieve the best models. But it’s foolish to assume that number-crunching alone can provide answers a business needs to get ahead. In data science, intuition and analytics work together in tandem, each informing the other.
First, intuition guides analytics. Analytics insights rarely appear out of thin air. They’re the result of the application of numerical methods to test hypotheses and ideas that arise from intuition and observation. And intuition also guides the methods that the researcher uses to test these hypotheses. Which data is relevant? Which variables and transformations make sense? What are the likely relationships between cause and effect? Which models are appropriate?
Second, analytics informs intuition. Unsupervised modeling techniques can discern relationships and patterns in the data that wouldn’t be obvious from a superficial view or a human-sized sample of the data. In short, analytics can suggest avenues for exploration that wouldn’t be picked up by observation and might even be counter-intuitive.
Without wise pilots on both the data and business sides directing the data analytics process and balancing gut instinct based on professional experience and knowledge, problems are bound to occur.
Let me give a couple of examples that come to mind.
A consumer banking team wanted us to create a churn model to help the bank predict which customers were likely to cancel their accounts. The data generated a dim picture. It turned out that when it came to savings, loans and credit cards, there were no clear triggers to reveal when a customer was about to jump ship. Spending and paying patterns remained largely the same until after the decision had been made and new accounts created.
However, as the bankers examined the data more closely, reviewing a set of customer segments that the team had created, an analyst used her intuition to suddenly notice a valuable new insight. She realized that a certain customer cohort showing unusually high-value loans, long-term customer value, and several other unusual factors, might predominantly belong to small business owners. A review of the individual accounts confirmed her suspicion.
She guessed that those business owners disguised as regular customers hadn’t realized there might be a better way of funding their business than by using a credit card or regular loan accounts. The project goal shifted to identifying these high-value customers and offering them more appropriate products. The banking team then went a step further and asked the data to identify product recommendations to other customer cohorts based on historical user behavior. The data enabled them to start to offer customers tailored products that would increase lifetime value.
It’s simply very unlikely that the data alone could have provided that key insight. This sort of business insight coupled with analytics is priceless. (Well, actually our analytics did compute the price and profit of the product recommendations, but you get my gist.)
Given the blood-and-bones importance of intuition in data analytics, it’s a wonder why so often the business side is left out of the process until the very end. Instead, business analysts should be invited to the process early on to collaborate. I’ve changed processes to bring the whole team into initial model reviews and, even earlier, into reviews of the raw data.
In another example, a client of ours, a large beverage company, wanted to predict future sales in Japan. We built a model that looked at how sales would react to different market and pricing pressures in the coming year. The client told us they thought sales were impacted directly by the economy. If Japan’s economy was slowly coming back, they thought, spending on soft drinks would increase.
They asked that we use the Nikkei as a kind of trend variable within our model. The index improved the accuracy of the model at first — or so it seemed. But then over the year the model started making wild predictions. The economy had started to bounce back but now the Nikkei was outside the range of the training data, and the original model was probably “overfit.”
A more experienced modeler would probably have resisted introducing the variable at all. There are times when intuition makes sense, but here, data science expertise suggests caution and an awareness of the limitations and pitfalls of the modeling process. In this case, we introduced a transformation to damp the effect of the stock market index, and the models went on to perform very well in guiding the development of a new marketing plan and predicting its effects.
There’s often tension in the air between data scientists and the business – particularly when the data seems to contradict the gut, and the effect of the splashy new campaign seems to be negligible. Often we’re left sitting across the table with the marketer asking ‘Where did that number come from?’ and the data scientist on the defensive.
But I believe this battle of brains is positive. Math and science should be able to stand up to questioning. Sometimes this results in data disproving intuition. Other times, those gut feelings based on deep experience can find flaws in the process. Ideally, everyone benefits.
In addition to the Cloud Platform credits, startups will also be able to schedule office hours for 1:1 technical architecture reviews and they will get access to 24/7 phone support.
