Google maps taking it to the next level with Street View Trekker

Google has been on a quest to give its users the best experience in terms every web based service it provides, specially when it comes to its free web based Google Maps service. Over the past 7 years Google Maps has done it all, from satellite images to now recently the 360 degree street view where Google mobilised its hardware by mounting it on top of specially modified cars, trikes, trolleys and even snowmobiles to give its users a Street View of cities and even jungles of the world, but can anything stop Google in its quest to map the world? Nope.

LG Unveils its New P series Cloud Monitors for Office setup

With cut throat competition and increasing power and software costs, it has become really important for businesses these days to reduce office setup and other operational overheads to get the best out of the business. The IT industries solution to the problem was Cloud Computing, making office computing more reliable, efficient and fast. Now we have a huge software environment for cloud computing but it can be fully effective only when we pair it with the right kind of hardware for office needs.

A week ago LG released its new P series of monitors which have been built for the Cloud office environment, something comparable to a Sunray thin client. The P series of monitors are the predecessors of the already existing D&E series of cloud monitors which LG seems to have discontinued.

LG likes to call these new P series of monitors as 'zero client' monitors. the reason being all you have to do is plug in a Keyboard, Mouse and an Ethernet Cable to the monitor and the system is ready to go. It even features this new technology from Cisco called Universal Power over Ethernet (UPoE) technology, enabling it to draw its power right from the Ethernet cable, no power socket needed.

Doggie Poo = Free WiFi internet for everyone around.

With Pet dogs in public parks, Dog poo is something that always comes in the way. It's always difficult to make pet owner clean up the mess. So the best idea to make people work is a reward strategy. 

A Mexican Internet service provider 'Terra' in partnership with an Ad agency called 'DDB Mexico' has come up with an innovating marketing strategy that's not only unique but also a benefit to everyone around.

The idea is pretty simple, Terra has installed these very interesting looking units called 'Poo WiFi' in 10 different parks around Mexico City. When someone puts a bag of dog poo in the unit, it weighs the poo and activates a free public WiFi Hotspot for some amount of time; its like 70 grams = 20mins. The more the poo the more free minutes of WiFi for everyone in the range.

It's a really great idea to spread  awareness among pet owners. Plus its a great way to promote a service. Obviously the units can't make a difference between dog poo and ordinary garbage so the units are manned with hostesses all day, passing out bags for doggie droppings.

Check out this really creative and funny sounding video 

Source

Next Gen Cargo Ships could use high sails to be fuel efficient

Cargo Ships are like the arteries of human civilization on this planet, they move tons of cargo of all sorts which keeps the international economy running. That being said, there are over 40,000 cargo ships on this planet which burn poor quality Diesel fuel for propulsion. This adds up to a lot of Carbon emissions every year and not much is being done to make these ships more fuel efficient and eco-friendly.

This past week at the 10th International Maritime Exhibition held in Tokyo in Japan a new cargo ship concept was unveiled, named the 'Wind Challenger Project'. The Project is lead by a group which involves members from the University of Tokyo. 

The aim of the Wind Challenger Project is to significantly reduce fuel consumption of large merchant/cargo vessels. The idea is to utilize giant retractable sails, 20m wide and 50m high, to make maximum use of wind energy. The idea is not really new though, sails have been used in the past. The essence of the technology lies in the fact that it will utilized modern day weather forecasting, navigation, networking and communication  technology to automatically control the sails and find the best possible path to safely reach the destination with minimum fuel consumption.

Simulations have already shown an annual average of 30% reduction in fuel consumption on shipping routes such as Yokohama-Seattle.

Google+ gets a makeover

When Google plus first came out everyone thought it would take social networking to a new level and yes Google Plus does have the potential. But unfortunately the novelty died pretty quick and then a lot of people stopped using Google plus. Although Google Plus now has over 170 million users, I really wonder how many are really active though. So now Google is using it's big programming Guns to make Google Plus the best place for Social networking.

I just logged into my Google+ account today to find out Google plus looks all different than ever before. I must say the new interface looks amazing. It's made things a lot simpler to find. Everything looks a lot clearer. I really appreciate the new interface. The free conference video chat feature called 'Hangout' has become much easier to use. Being an avid Facebook user, I must say the new G+ interface has won my heart. If only all my friends on Facebook are willing to be on Google plus. I m ready to stop using my Facebook account.

Micromax fires up the cheap tablet market with ' Funbook'

The cheap tablet market is really getting fired up with companies jumping into this lucrative market with these amazingly cheap portable tablet devices. After the announcement of the Akash 2 tablet a lot of companies have come up with tablet devices like Zync's Z-990, WishTel's Ira, Beetel's Magiq and just announced yesterday, the HCL's ME Tab U1.

To give a brief look in the specifications, The Tablet runs on the latest Android 4.0 Ice cream sandwich OS its powered by an ultra powerful 1.2GHz Cortex A8 Processor,features 512MB of RAM with 4GB of internal memory expandable up-to 32GB via microSD card. 

It has a 7 inch Capacitive touch screen with a native resolution of 800 x 400. 

Most importantly it features a Dual Mali 2D/3D Graphics processor, making it capable of playing 1080 HD playback with Adobe Flash support. It also has mini HDMI out. The form factor of the device is pretty slim too. The tablet supports 3G connectivity via USB dongle and comes bundled with a Tata Photon EVDO datacard with 1GB of data for 2 months.