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Take a virtual reality world tour with Google Maps for Android and Google Cardboard

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The world’s cheapest virtual reality headset may be just a bit of fun by Google, but the company hasn’t just put it out there and forgotten about it. An easter egg in Google Maps for Android lets you use Google Cardboard to take a virtual reality tour of places like the world’s tallest building – Dubai’s Burj Khalifa.

Double-tap the navigation icon bottom-right to activate VR mode, then view through Google Cardboard.

Google recently announced that half a million people are using Cardboard as it offered new SDKs to software developers and opened a dedicated section of the Google play store for cardboard apps.

Latest Google Glass update allows automatic display of phone notifications

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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq1wl5jQO8s]

Google has announced that Glass owners will soon be able to immediately view any notification from their Android phone using a new feature, Notification Sync.

Max sent you a WhatsApp message, marycam81 tagged you in a photo, your Lyft has arrived… these are just some of the reasons for pulling out your phone. You want to know about the things that matter to you, but you don’t want to be distracted by your phone when you could be enjoying the moment.

Today we’re launching Notification Sync on Glass, which means you can see your Android phone app notifications at a glance … 


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Dubai detectives to get Google Glass as standard issued gear

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Dubai-Cop

After a proper pilot program, Dubai police detectives will soon receive Google Glass as standard issued gear. The idea is to pair Mountain View’s wearable computer with facial recognition software developed by the wealthy Arab emirate’s law enforcement to help cops spot bad guys when out in the field. In addition to equipping its gumshoes with high-tech eyewear, Dubai traffic officers will use Glass to track vehicles involved in moving violations.


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Dubai police force using Google Glass to fight crime

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Dubai-Cop

Glass may now be available to all US adult residents willing to pay the price, but that doesn’t mean that people in other regions aren’t sampling Google’s famous wearable computer. The Dubai police force is currently performing real world testing of the high-tech eyewear, hoping that it will help its officers when dealing with unruly motorists or wanted vehicles.


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Google’s expanded transit Street Views include airports, train stations and planes

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transit

Shortly after a Street View tour of London’s Gatwick Airport, Google has expanded its transit program to encompass 15 other airports, more than 50 train & metro stations – and even allows your virtual trips to take you right onto an airliner at Dubhai.

Google’s blog shows off a small selection of the new locations, including check-in at Madrid airport, arrivals at Tokyo airport, a walk though London’s Waterloo train station and locating your seat on board an Emirates A380 airliner.

The split view, showing both terminal map and Street View walk-thru, is particularly helpful for familiarising yourself with a transit airport in advance of a tight connection … 
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Google illustrates geographical changes over time with animated GIFs

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Columbia Glacier Retreat Lake Urmia Drying Up

Google has provided these incredible animated GIFs illustrating the Earth’s landscape changes over the decades for Time‘s Timelapse project.

The images show deforestation in the Amazon of Brazil, glaciers retreating in Alaska, and lakes drying up in Las Vegas sprawls as well as other landscapes.

Check out more illustrations below…


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Vint Cerf calls for free and open Internet as ITU meet in Dubai

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FreeandOpenWeb

Father of the Internet and Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf took to the company’s Public Policy Blog today to urge people to join the freeandopenweb.com petition hours before a closed-door meeting with governments and the International Telecommunication Union in Dubai. Google launched the Free and Open Web campaign in response to what it called the ITU and governments attempts to “further regulate the internet.” As noted by Cerf in the post, the ITU is holding a conference in Dubai from Dec. 3 to Dec. 14 that would “revise a decades-old treaty, in which only governments have a vote.” Late last week, Cerf outlined some of the topics rumored to be discussed at the meetings:

Some of these governments are trying to use a closed-door meeting of The International Telecommunication Union that opens on December 3 in Dubai to further their repressive agendas. Accustomed to media control, these governments fear losing it to the open internet. They worry about the spread of unwanted ideas. They are angry that people might use the internet to criticize their governments.
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