Google Streetview images retention period reduced from 12 months to 6 months in the UK and more

Google Streetview images retention period reduced from 12 months to 6 months in the UK and more


Google Streetview images retention period reduced from 12 months to 6 months in the UK

Section: Web, Web 2.0 / Social Networking, Web Apps, Websites, Google

Google Streetview In a bid to streamline EU data protection law compliance, the European Union ordered Google to delete images captured for Streetview after 6 months. For the uninitiated, Streetview is a feature on Google Maps and Google Earth where you can view images of places on street-level. These images are captured by a vehicle equipped with Google’s proprietary camera systems. Google usually stores these images for up to 12 months after first capturing the images, however, according to the EU this is not in compliance with the data protection law which allows only up to 6 months of data retention. Google typically stores Streetview images of other countries for 12 months. Google’s top lawyer, Peter Fleischer, defended their standpoint by arguing that the storage of Streetview images merely serve the purpose of improving their maps-based products.

Read [Computerworld]

Full Story » | Written by Cheng Hung for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »



U.S. military opens up the web and changes social media policy

Section: Web, Web 2.0 / Social Networking

military

U.S. servicemen and women will now have more access to popular social networking and media sharing websites that were previously banned from military servers. A review of a policy that has blocked sites like Facebook and YouTube since 2007 has been changed to permit use of social media among military personnel.

The new policy requires all military units to provide access to social networking sites. Commanders will be able to restrict access in some cases, but only on a temporary basis. The military permits discretion to “continue to defend against malicious activity,” meaning there’s still room for individual commanders to rationalize banning certain activities that are prohibited or a threat to security (geolocation being the most obvious example). However, the default policy will open up new opportunities for military personnel to use the net for more communication services. The Army had previously banned YouTube and the Marines had restricted other social networking websites.

On a personal note, I’m very glad to see this policy change. My brother served in Iraq and it was very difficult to rely on phone calls to communicate with him. I often fielded calls from my worried mother asking if I’d heard from him, so it was reassuring to be able to drop a line to him via Facebook or see photos that he uploaded to MySpace while on leave. His time for these types of activities was severely limited, so I hope the new policy will make it easier for those in service to communicate with their family and friends.

Read [NYTimes.com]

Full Story » | Written by Andrew Kameka for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »



Apple's ban on in-app purchases will continue with the iPad

Section: Computers, Mobile Computers, Gadgets / Other, ebooks

Apple’s iTunes music store is not the only way for iPod owners to purchase music, but iTunes remains the most popular outlet because of its built-in integration with the iPod. Apple will maintain a similar advantage when the iPad goes on sale this year. Though the iBook store will have a competitor in the Amazon Kindle App, Apple “stacks the deck against Amazon” according to the Business Insider.

Apple forbids companies from including in-app purchases unless they are willing to share 30% of the revenue with Apple. When Amazon attempted to include a direct method to order eBooks within its Kindle app, Apple told them to pay up or remove it. As a result, Amazon and other eBook retailers who target the iPad will have to make customers go to the web, log-in to Amazon, search to place an order, and then return to the Kindle app to sync the new content. It’s a minor inconvenience, but it's one that the iBook store will not present.

Amazon’s recent tussle with publishers over pricing removed what would have been an advantage over Apple’s bookstore. Customers will naturally question why they should deal with the extra steps of Amazon purchases if they can pay the same price in the integrated experience built-in by Apple. The iTunes store accounts for much of the world’s digital media purchases, and the iPad will likely make Apple a major factor in the digital books market as well.

Read [Business Insiders]

Full Story » | Written by Andrew Kameka for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »



Verizon Google super phone gets date: March 23

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Email / IM, Smartphones, Mobile

Nexus One on Verizon

Recently approved by the FCC, rumor has it Google Nexus One will launch day one of CTIA on the Verizon network. The CTIA show opens March 23rd in Vegas and its where the big US wireless players show off their latest and greatest. Word is Verizon will refresh their top Android devices with the addition of the Nexus One.

Built by HTC, the Nexus One made headlines as it runs the latest Android version 2.1 (eclair). The hardware is top notch: a 5 megapixel camera, video shooting at 720 x 480 px at 20 fps or higher, WiFi, Bluetooth, 480 x 800 px, 3.7 in (94 mm), 252.15 ppi, 3:5 aspect ratio, WVGA, AMOLED with 100,000:1 contrast ratio and 1 ms response rate, and a 4GB microSD card (included) expandable to 32GB and it runs on a 1GHz Snapdragon processor. Like I said, top notch.

Launched in January, the Nexus One was offered for $529 "unlocked" with no contract or $179 with a T-Mobile contract. We expect a similar price with a Verizon contract.

The release date rumor comes from an anonymous contact inside Google. If Verizon is to announce this device, CTIA is the perfect place and opening day is the perfect time. A big phone for the nations biggest network.

Read: [Neowin]
>

Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »



JooJoo tablet gets delayed, now coming March 25

Section: Computers, Mobile Computers

The last we heard in terms of the JooJoo was that it will “reach consumers at the end of February.” Well, that may have been said with good intentions but at the same time is was not entirely accurate because the latest in terms of the JooJoo is that it has been delayed. Yup, shocking, however those who were brave enough to place a pre-order will now be waiting until almost the end of March. Or more specifically, March 25.

Via [Gizmodo]

Keep reading to check out the full press release…

FUSION GARAGE TO SHIP JOOJOO INTERNET TABLET ON MARCH 25

SINGAPORE—February 26, 2010—Earlier this month, Fusion Garage’s JooJoo Internet tablet went into full production with an anticipated on-time delivery to consumers at the end of February. Last week, the company became aware of a manufacturing issue involving JooJoo’s industry-first 12.1 inch capacitive touch screen which Fusion Garage was quickly able to diagnose and rectify. The company now forecasts the JooJoo will be sent to consumers on March 25.

The manufacturing issue centers on fine tuning the touch sensitivity of the capacitive screen. Fusion Garage will be providing all pre-order customers with a free JooJoo accessory to compensate for the delay in the delivery of their JooJoo.

Fusion Garage’s recent agreement with CSL, its manufacturing partner, has eliminated nearly all of the manufacturing costs associated with JooJoo. The company has no other barriers in the way of product delivery in the new timeframe.

The company apologizes for any inconvenience caused by the delay.

Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »



CDMA Nexus One passes through the FCC, next stop Verizon Wireless

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile

CDMA Nexus One passes through the FCC, next stop Verizon Wireless

It is no secret that the Nexus One is heading to Verizon Wireless. In fact the Nexus One has been listed on the Google.com/phone website with a notation that it will be available in the Spring of 2010. But before that can happen it needs to make its way through the FCC, and thanks to this recent listing we can now say that has happened. Of course that does not give us a release date, but it does me we are that much closer to an actual availability.

Read [FCC] Via [unwired view]

Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »



Hot gaming news for the week of 2-21-2010

webOS 1.4 now available for Sprint, O2 and Movistar

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile

As we expected, webOS 1.4 is now available. And as you can see from the title, the update is not yet available for those sporting a Pre Plus or a Pixi Plus. In other words Verizon Wireless customers are left waiting. Also left waiting are those on Bell and Telcel. But more importantly, if you are using a Palm Pre or a Palm Pixi and with Sprint, O2 or Movistar here is what you can expect to see.

First and foremost, the update comes in at about 39MB. Feature wise you can expect to see things like Flash support, video capture, video editing and sharing, enhanced notifications and better performance.

Those sporting a Pre or Pixi can either sit back and wait for the update or go out and look for it using the update app on your webOS device.

Keep reading to read the full webOS 1.4 changelog…

Read [Palm Blog] Via [Engadget]

Feature changes to existing applications
Amazon MP3

* When you download a song, the application shows the estimated download time.
* If you purchase an album containing two or more identically named songs, Amazon MP3 now downloads all of the songs correctly.

App Catalog

* An application developer can feature a video in App Catalog by providing a YouTube URL for the developer’s application. The URL appears as a link on the app details screen. Tapping the link opens the video in the phone’s YouTube application.

Bluetooth

* If you create a conference call from two outgoing calls, you can now end the conference call from a headset, if the headset model supports this feature.

Calendar

* You can customize calendar notification sounds in Preferences & Accounts. The options include Mute, System Sound, Ringtone, and Vibrate. The Ringtone option includes new notification sounds to give you more customization choices.
* With this release, future occurrences of repeating Calendar events consistently appear correctly.
* If you create an event and enters a phone number as the event name, location, or description, you can tap the phone number on the event details screen to dial it.
* A new Select All application menu item is available when the cursor is in an editable text field.
* A new Sync Now application menu item gives you a second way to manually synchronize your calendar accounts (in addition to the Sync Now button in Preferences & Accounts).
* This release improves Calendar synchronization performance in poor network coverage areas to optimize battery life. It also increases the default interval for synchronizing with online calendar accounts other than Exchange accounts.
* Editing a Google calendar event on the phone no longer sets an email reminder in Google on the web.
* This release contains improvements to the visual calendar display, including a clearer indicator of AM and PM and improved current time display.

Camera

* You can record video whenever and wherever inspiration strikes with the new camcorder feature in Camera. After recording a video, you can edit the clip in Videos, upload the video directly to YouTube or Facebook, or send the video by email or multimedia message.

Contacts

* Global Address Lookup now appears as a contacts search option when you perform a universal search.
* If you import a Mac Address Book contact, all contact fields display correctly in the Contacts application.
* If you select the Select All application menu item, text in all contact entry fields is selected.
* This release improves Contacts synchronization performance in poor network coverage areas to optimize battery life. It also increases the default interval for synchronizing with online contacts accounts other than Exchange accounts.
* Email addresses for Yahoo! contacts now have descriptive labels such as Home and Work.
* Phone numbers labeled Other for Yahoo! contacts now appear with the Other label in the Contacts application.

Device Info

* You now have two partial erase options: Erase Apps & Data, which erases all installed applications and associated data, and Erase USB Drive, which erases files stored on the USB drive.
* This release includes a new Secure Full Erase option. A secure full erase takes considerably longer than a regular full erase.

Email

* You can customize calendar notification sounds in Preferences & Accounts. The options include Mute, System Sound, Ringtone, and Vibrate. The Ringtone option includes new notification sounds to give you more customization choices.
* A new Sort application menu item allows you to sort the message list in any email folder. The sort options are By Date, By Sender, and By Subject. Tapping the currently selected sort option changes the sort from ascending to descending or descending to ascending. Tapping another sort option sorts by that option in ascending order.
* When you receive a message with one or more attached files, the first file to be fully downloaded opens automatically.
* You can tap a phone number in the subject line of an email message to dial it, or tap a URL in the subject line to open the web browser to that page.
* If the message body contains a phone number and you tap and hold the number, a menu appears displaying options to Call, Text, or Add To Contacts (if the number is not already saved in a contact).
* If the message body contains an email address and you tap and hold the address, a menu appears displaying options to Email or Add To Contacts (if the email address is not already saved in a contact).
* You can sign in to an email account with a domain of up to six letters (such as .museum or .travel).
* For POP email accounts, a new preference lets you choose to delete a message on the phone when it is deleted on the server. The default is that messages deleted on the server are not deleted on the phone.
* If you forward a message that contains attachments, and the attachments are not downloaded, the Email app first downloads the attachments and then forwards the message with the files attached.
* In an Exchange account, if you delete one or more attachments to a received message and then forward the message, the Email app no longer includes the deleted attachments with the forwarded message.
* You can successfully move a message from the Trash folder to the Inbox in a Yahoo! account.
* If you send a message with an attachment from a Hotmail account to another Hotmail account, the message is sent correctly with the attachment.
* If you send an email that contains periods from an SMTP account, the periods display correctly in the recipient’s email application.
* If you reply to an email message with a large number of recipients, the reply screen opens scrolled to the message body so you can begin typing the reply text right away.
* If you search a Global Address List for a contact in the Email app, the app returns the same set of search results as if you were searching in Contacts.
* Special characters display correctly in the subject line of a received message.
* If you are working in one application and perform an action that opens the Email application-for example, by tapping an email address in Contacts to compose an email message-when you complete the action, the Email application displays full-screen (not as a card).
* This release offers improved account setup for Yahoo and Gmail hosted domains.
* You can select and edit text from a message that you are forwarding.
* This release includes multiple performance improvements in Email, including improved handling of message replies and forwarded messages and quicker response times to gestures.

Location Services

* If you turn off the Use GPS and Use Google Services options under the Locate Me Using application menu item, the Locate Me Using menu item remains available.

Memos

* If a memo contains a phone number and you tap and hold the number, a menu appears displaying options to Call, Text, or Add To Contacts (if the number is not already saved in a contact).
* If a memo contains an email address and you tap and hold the address, a menu appears displaying options to Email or Add To Contacts (if the email address is not already saved in a contact).

Messaging

* You can dial a phone number directly from a conversation by tapping Text or the IM account name displayed in the upper-right corner and tapping the phone icon next to the number you want to dial. Phone numbers include the type of number: home, mobile, and so on.
* You can attach a video to an outgoing multimedia message.
* You can forward a text or multimedia message via email by tapping and holding the message and tapping Forward Via Email in the menu that appears. The Email application opens in compose view with the message text as the body of the new email message. If the message was a multimedia message, the multimedia message appears in the Subject field of the email, and any attachments from the multimedia message appear as attachments in the email.
* If a message contains a phone number and you tap and hold the number, a menu appears displaying options to Call, Text, or Add To Contacts (if the number is not already saved in a contact).
* If a message contains an email address and you tap and hold the address, a menu appears displaying options to Email or Add To Contacts (if the email address is not already saved in a contact).
* In a conversation, incoming and outgoing messages are labeled with the phone number or IM account used.

Phone

* Multiple sequential calls to and from the same person are now grouped as a single entry in your call history.
* You can tap the contact photo or icon in a call history entry to display options for that entry, including dialing an alternate number, sending a text message, opening a contact, or adding the number as a contact. The expanded display also includes call details such as call length and phone number type.
* If you create a conference call from two outgoing calls, you can now end the conference call from a Bluetooth headset, if the headset model supports this feature.
* If you access the list of countries from the International Dialing preference, you can search the list by entering the first few letters of a country name.
* If you are on a call with a contact, tapping the contact photo on the active call screen no longer opens the contact entry.

Photos

* Photos you copy onto the phone now appear correctly rotated in Photos, regardless of their initial rotation.

Screen & Lock

* New blink notifications (a blinking light in the gesture area) alert you when email, text message, or other notifications arrive. You clear the blink notification by turning the screen on and off or unlocking the screen. The blink notification preference is on by default; you can turn it off in Screen & Lock > Blink Notifications.
* Screen lock now supports any timeout interval assigned by a corporate Exchange system administrator.

Sounds & Ringtones

* This release adds new user-selectable notification sounds under Ringtone.

Sprint TV

* If you are watching Sprint TV through a wired headset and unplug the headset, audio playback continues through the phone’s speaker and video playback continues without pausing.

System

* This release offers better overall performance, including faster loading time for apps and increased battery life across a wider range of user scenarios.
* A startup card appears when you tap an icon to open an application.
* Global Address Lookup now appears as a contacts search option when you perform a universal search.
* If you tap an open contact record in universal search results, the record closes and does not scroll off the screen.
* If you are playing a game and a phone or calendar notification arrives, the game pauses while the notification is coming up.
* You can quickly unlock the screen by dragging up from the gesture area across the onscreen lock icon.
* This release improves the speed of downloading applications and files.

Updates

* If an update becomes available when you are on a call, the update notification displays only after you end the call.

Videos

* You can upload a recorded video to YouTube or Facebook on the web.
* Videos you record appear in the Video roll folder.
* You can edit recorded video. You can also delete recorded video, video copied from a computer, or video received as an attachment to an email message.
* You can attach a video to an outgoing multimedia message.
* If you tap the option to share an uploaded video, you have the option to send the link via email, text message, or Facebook.

Web

* If a web page contains a phone number and you tap and hold the number, a menu appears displaying options to Call, Text, or Add To Contacts (if the number is not already saved in a contact).
* If a web page contains an email address and you tap and hold the address, a menu appears displaying options to Email or Add To Contacts (if the email address is not already saved in a contact).
* This release includes support for the Adobe Flash 10.1 Beta plugin. Note that the plugin is a standalone app that will be available in App Catalog.

Wi-Fi

* A new Sleep Settings application menu item allows you to change a setting so that if Wi-Fi is on and the phone screen turns off, the Wi-Fi feature turns off. By default, if Wi-Fi is on and the screen turns off, the Wi-Fi feature stays on.

 

Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »



BOOM! Top Apple news for the week of 2-21-2010

Dell Mini 5 is first in a series of Dell tablets to come in the future

Section: Computers, Mobile Computers, Gadgets / Other, Household, Miscellaneous

Dell Streak Back

To be a successful company, you need to be able to reach to a variety of customers. Computer companies do this by making different models based on the needs of its customers. Dell is the first major company that is taking this concept and applying it to their tablets. The idea was hinted at during the announcement of the Mini 5 concept at CES; but now it has been confirmed in a direct statement from the company’s tablet division head, Neeraj Choubey, that the Dell Mini 5 is only the first tablet in a series of them to come in different sizes in the near future.

The Dell Mini 5 is a 5-inch tablet that will be released sometime this spring. Though no price has been announced, Choubey stated that the price will be competitive. But there will be other tablets after in an assortment of sizes and functions. The Mini 5 is more like a mobile internet device (MID) while a bigger, 8-9 inch size tablet could be used for completely different functions such as an e-reader. Expect Dell to release one in direct competition with the iPad so they won’t get left in the dust like they did with the iPod. (Does anyone remember the Dell DJ?)

Dell has a great opportunity here and I hope they take it. As of now, the iPad is lacking a lot of things consumers desire; and if Dell can take advantage of that, they have a chance to take control of the tablet market-share right off the bat.

Read [Electronista] Image via [Engadget]

Full Story » | Written by Greg Billetdeaux for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »



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