Category: GReader

Today we’re opening the map of Canada in Google Map Maker for users to add their expert local knowledge directly to Google Maps. Users know their neighborhood or hometown best, and with Google Map Maker they can ensure the places they care about are richly represented on the map.

Users can help make the map complete in many ways such as marking hiking paths and trails, fixing the name of a local business, or adding the buildings of a college campus so they appear in Google Maps. We’ve seen incredibly detailed contributions from users worldwide, for example, take a look at the map of a shopping mall in California before and after Map Maker was launched. We’re eager to see the same level of detail for locations throughout Canada.

To confirm Map Maker user contributions are accurate, each edit will be reviewed. After approval, the edits will appear in Google Maps within minutes. To see examples of what people all around the world are adding in Map Maker, you can watch mapping in real-time.

Citizen cartographers using Google Map Makerin more than 180 other regions of the world help keep maps of their areas accurate and up to date. We are delighted to welcome Canada to the Map Maker family. To learn more, visit our handy guide to mapping Map Makerpedia or check out a video tutorial. Get started mapping at www.google.ca/mapmaker.

Note: Translated to French below.

Posted by James Kelly, Product Manager, Google Map Maker

Google wants you to add writers on Google+, so do writers originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 05:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Want to catch every frame of your next extreme sports wipeout in all of its grotesque glory? GoPro knows where you’re coming from, and has updated its line of high definition helmet cams to help you capture every bone-breaking moment. The HD Hero2 competitively boasts that it’s twice as powerful its 2009 predecessor, the original HD Hero. The new helmet cam promises to capture 1080p 16:9 footage from atop your sweaty noggin at both narrow (90-degree), wide (170-degree) and medium (127-degree) angles, and can snap up to ten 11 megapixel photos per second. The camera’s mini-HDMI port, composite out, USB, SD card and HERO ports will help you share the spoils of your spills when your adventure ends — at least until this winter, when GoPro’s WiFi BacPac promises to enable live broadcasting and camera control over WiFi. Best of all? The Hero2 kills the original HD Hero’s confusing 3-digit code interface in favor of a simple language-based menu.

The HD Hero2 comes in three $300 configurations: outdoor, motorsports, and surf editions, all of which are compatible with existing accessories. Too rich for your blood? Then you’ll be happy to know that the previous models are getting price drops — $200 for the original HD Hero and a paltry $150 for its “960” variant. Hit the break for the official PR and a full list of features.

Continue reading GoPro launches HD Hero2 helmet cam, announces video streaming Wi-Fi pack for winter

GoPro launches HD Hero2 helmet cam, announces video streaming Wi-Fi pack for winter originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 03:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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YouTube user Martin Craig shows us an easy way to shuck corn without having do deal with messy corn silk threads—just microwave each ear for four minutes, cut the end off, and slide the corn out as shown in the video above. More »

Many of you have been wondering if Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich will allow users to use USB game controllers with their phones and/or tablets. We have good news as Android engineer Roman Guy tweeted the above. This can’t be a surprise since this feature was added to Android 3.1 Honeycomb, so why would they drop it now with 4.0?

Of course it will be up to the developers to make their games compatible with controllers, but I think by this time next year all the major games will support it. If you are dying to try it out, you can always try Sixaxis Controller which will let you use a PlayStation 3 Sixaxis or dualshock 3 on your phone or tablet that is rooted.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich will support USB game controllers with your phone or tablet

Police formally arrested two drivers suspected of running over a toddler who died a week after she was struck on a busy market street in southern China and was ignored by passers-by, newspapers reported Sunday.

Zounds! So this is what my ex-girlfriend meant when she said sex with me was akin to “carnal relations with an empty husk.” Too much web porn! It’s killing our libidos, lads, one frantically one-handed mouse click at a time. More »

An earthquake of 7.2 magnitude rocked eastern Turkey Sunday, the strongest to hit the country in years.

Albert Pujols joined Babe Ruth and Reggie Jackson as the only players to hit three home runs in a World Series game, tying records with five hits and six RBIs that led the Cardinals to a 16-7 rout of the Texas Rangers on Saturday night that gave St. Louis a 2-1 Series lead.

The apparent indifference shown by passersby to a Chinese toddler hit by a van in a hardware market may be the result of the country’s legal system, observers say.

Styli and Android haven’t exactly been strangers as of late — with devices like the HTC Flyer and Samsung Galaxy Note offering pen-based input — but it looks like that option will soon be even easier to implement with Ice Cream Sandwich. As noted on Reddit, Google’s recent overview of some Android 4.0 platform highlights includes a small tidbit towards the end that details the “full support for stylus input events” in the OS — including features like pressure sensitivity and the ability to distinguish motion events from different sources (i.e. a pen and your finger). Of course, it still requires some hardware-level assistance from tablet and smartphone makers, but native support in the OS could well open up some interesting possibilities, especially when it comes to third-party apps.

Android Ice Cream Sandwich includes native stylus support originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 15:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It has long been rumoured that William Shatner, aka Captain Kirk, attended high school in Regina, but in an interview Thursday with CBC Radio’s The Morning Edition, Shatner settled the matter once and for all.

After getting its first showing at AsiaD, we know ASUS’ Transformer sequel is super thin, powered by NVIDIA’s quad-core Tegra 3 chip and coming soon. And now we really know it, because the Transformer Prime has been gifted an official landing page, along with a requisite shadowy product shot. There’s no trace of the original’s mocha hues, which have been replaced with something brighter, and we think it looks mightily enticing. Those with a similar fetish for modular tablets can ensure they’re up-to-date by bookmarking the source link below.

Transformer Prime gets official landing page, shows mostly bezel originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 13:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Someone has graffitied this Burger King billboard in downtown Seattle to transform it into criticism about how sugary fast food contributes to diabetes and the obesity crisis.

The original billboard does that classic advertising trick of getting away with making a joke while still promoting an idea that’s not so great for you, which is to eat more deserts at Burger King.

The billboard shows an ice cream cone, a parfait, a milkshake and then a Burger King logo. Underneath the items in progression it says “side,” “entree,” and “drink.” To modify it into a commentary, on the logo, the vandalizer drink a bloated person with a frowny face and x-ed out eyes. Below it they scrawled, “diabetes.”

Soda Free Sundays [Facebook]
[via COPCWA]