Thursday, June 13, 2013

Google Street View adds 1,001 new destinations, lets you explore from afar

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/13/google-street-view-new-destinations/

Google wants to take you on a journey with 1,001 new destinations in Street View

The folks from Mountain View are constantly adding more and more features to Street View -- and, well, today's no exception. Via its Maps blog, Google announced that it's giving Street View a hefty boost by adding over 1,000 fresh destinations to the mix, noting that the idea is to make it "more comprehensive and useful for you." There's new imagery from places in Asia, Europe, Latin America, Canada and, of course, the US, allowing users to check out sites like the Seville Cathedral (Spain), Bosque de Chapultepec (Mexico), The Mark Twain House (USA) and many, many others. Google's highlighted some of these new destinations on its website, so pay the source link below a visit if you're interested in a quick, virtual tour around the world.

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Source: Google

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Twitter Now Shows You All Your Tweet and Follower Stats (Updated)

Source: http://gizmodo.com/twitter-now-shows-you-all-your-tweet-and-follower-stats-513105917

Twitter Now Shows You All Your Tweet and Follower Stats (Updated)

Originally limited to advertisers upon launching in 2011, Twitter Analytics has finally opened its stat-tracking doors to all users. Although without a formal announcement, there's always the possibility that it's all a glitch—in which case, get it while it's hot/broken.

Upon signing in with your normal Twitter account and authorizing the app, the Analytics dashboard is supposed to offer all sorts of helpful numbers and graphs that show which of your tweets did best and when. But as of right now, attempts to check our stats haven't give us full results, mostly in falsely claiming zero retweets, replies, or favorites along the top chart.

Twitter Now Shows You All Your Tweet and Follower Stats (Updated)

If this really is open to the public, you should also be able to eventually get full statistics on your followers. Will Oremus of Slate was able to get full location, gender, and overall count data on his, but so far, this screen is the best we've got:

Twitter Now Shows You All Your Tweet and Follower Stats (Updated)

Of course, there's a good chance that this sort of information would take quite a while to roll out and perhaps just got turned on a little too soon. We've reached out to Twitter for comment on the matter, but until we know if this helpful little tool here to stay, might as well suck up whatever data you can.

Update: Twitter gave us the following statement about the newly opened Analytics—looks like it could be here to stay, after all:

We've been experimenting giving the analytics feature to a small groups of users outside our advertising clients. We've been happy with the response thus far, and will determine next steps after the conclusion of these tests.

[Slate]

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Broadcom announces quad-core HSPA+ chipset destined for budget Android phones

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/13/broadcom-quad-core-hspa/

Broadcom announces quadcore HSPA chipset destined for budget Android phones

Broadcom is no stranger to the budget-friendly lineup for carriers and OEMs around the globe -- especially in emerging markets -- but quad-core chipsets are just gaining traction in this arena. Granted, companies like MediaTek have already begun cranking out low-cost four-core Cortex-A7 SoCs for markets like China and India, but a little friendly competition doesn't hurt anyone, right? This is the case with the BCM23550, a 1.2GHz A7 quad-core processor capable of HSPA+ speeds up to 21Mbps down and 5Mbps up and is optimized to run on Android 4.2 devices. The new piece of silicon also supports HD Voice and 12MP cameras with H.264 1080p video capture and playback, and offers the usual litany of connectivity options such as NFC, Bluetooth, 5G WiFi, RFID and GPS. It even features dual HD (720p) display support which is compatible with Miracast. Lastly, it's also pin-to-pin compatible with Broadcom's dual-core BCM21664T, which means manufacturers already using that particular chipset can reduce the amount of time spent on R&D and handset design. If you're curious, expect the chips to begin production in early Q3, right around the corner.

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Twitter launches #FollowMe: highlight reels based on tweets, photos and Vines

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/13/twitter-launches-followme/

Twitter launches #FollowMe to create highlight reels from tweets, photos and Vines

It's common for Twitter regulars to get a stream of new followers, but it's not always clear why they should follow back -- how do you summarize a person's post history in a few seconds? Twitter wants to solve this by launching its #FollowMe tool. The service uses Vizify to build a short, HTML5-based highlight clip from a person's followers, photos, tweets and Vine videos. Most of the legwork is automatic; users only have to edit the clip if they want to fine-tune the results, and any tweet with the relevant link will show the animation in-line. The #FollowMe rollout won't guarantee any additional popularity in the Twittersphere, but it should at least make for a stronger sales pitch.

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Source: Vizify, Twitter

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ASUS' new ViVoPC mini PC can take up to 16GB of RAM, your choice of Intel CPU

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/12/asus-vivopc-specs/

ASUS' new ViVoPC mini PC can take up to 16GB of RAM, your choice of Intel CPU

It's only been a few days since we first laid eyes on that newly introduced ASUS ViVoPC, but the Taiwanese company kept details short back at Computex, leaving us with the desire to learn a little more about the device. The good news is ASUS has just posted a spec sheet on its website, which lets us (and you) know that its mini PC will have a number of customizable options. Aside from being 802.11ac- and Windows 8-ready, the diminutive ViVoPC can be loaded with an Intel processor (presumably a shiny new Haswell), a maximum of 16GB RAM and your preference of either a HDD or SSD. There are also two USB 3.0 and four USB 2.0 ports, HDMI, VGA, Ethernet and integrated speakers, which ASUS is dubbing SonicMaster. Mum's the word on pricing and availability, but we'll let you know as soon as we come across those specifics.

Gallery: ASUS ViVoPC

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Source: ASUS

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