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New natural history content in Google Arts & Culture brings dinosaurs to Google Cardboard
The Google Arts & Culture app was introduced last year as little more than a web wrapper, but it got beefed up with some more features — like Google Cardboard support — earlier this summer. But what good is such an app without dinosaurs? Today, Google has introduced a plethora of new natural history content — which, basically, means dinosaurs — in partnership with the Natural History Museum and 62 other museums and foundations. And it’s awesome…
Google Arts & Culture app adds Cardboard features and Art Recognizer on Android, iOS
Last year, Google introduced an Arts & Culture app to showcase its collection of digitized art and other projects. The Google Cultural Institute is releasing an updated version of the app that is more feature-rich with a Google Cardboard VR component and a new Art Recognizer tool in select museums.
PSA: Google has made international phone calls to France free on Hangouts
In the wake of some absolutely tragic and terrifying events tonight in Paris, Google has made international phone calls to France free on Google Hangouts. In other tragic past events, many companies that offer calling services have offered similar opportunities.
In a related initiative, Facebook has tonight launched a feature called Safety Check, which allows you to “quickly find and connect with friends in the area” and mark them safe if you know they’re safe. You can also let your friends know if you’re in the affected area.
We’ve made international calls to France free via Hangouts. #ParisAttacks
Android→ https://t.co/RLNSn2HPHd
iOS→ https://t.co/UKRrBZgBGT— Google (@Google) November 14, 2015
You can head over to the Play Store or the App Store to grab the app for free, or head to hangouts.google.com to make free international calls to France straight from your browser.
My thoughts are with all the victims and their families on this sad night #Paris Great to see everyone come together to support France
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) November 14, 2015
OnePlus let more than 200 people line up to buy 20 OnePlus 2 units in Paris
OnePlus is just having too much fun marketing the OnePlus 2. In their latest stunt, the company invited the public to a special launch of the device at colette Paris. “We’ll be there from 11:00 am until the OnePlus 2 is sold out. It’s a very limited stock sale, so be sure to come early,” the company said. More than 200 people came out, according to a post on the company’s forum. It seems OnePlus really meant it when they said “very limited stock sale,” though…
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Google donating $300k to help French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo hit a 1m print-run
A minute’s silence in the newsroom of French news agency Agence France Presse (Photo: Bertrand Guay)
In response to the terrorist attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, Google is one of a number of companies contributing to a campaign fund to ensure the survival of the publication and to help it reach a print-run of one million copies for its next edition, reports the Guardian. The normal print-run of the publication is around 60,000 copies.
Within 24 hours of the massacre of 12 people – including eight journalists – some €250,000 (£195,000) had been earmarked to support Charlie Hebdo by the Digital Press Fund, paid for by Google, to support the French press.
Le Monde, France Télévisions and Radio France are all working to match Google’s donation of €250k (around $300k), while the Guardian is itself contributing $150k …
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Google’s Cultural Institute teams up with Europeana to bring more than 2000 museums & archives online
Google’s Cultural Institute – which puts online materials previously only available to visitors to particular museums, archives and institutes – has taken on its biggest challenge yet. Google is working with Europeana to bring online the collections of more than 2000 museums, archives and institutes.
It’s a tremendous undertaking to bring Europe’s rich cultural heritage online, one that can only be achieved by both private and public effort. As this collaboration shows, both Europeana and Google share similar visions – allowing people around the world to explore Europe’s cultural and scientific heritage from prehistory to the modern day …
Google marks the 70th anniversary of D-Day with massive collection of photos, letters & more
Google has created a new Cultural Institute collection to mark the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings that were instrumental in the allies winning World War 2.
The massive collection of hundreds of photos, letters and documents helps bring to life the largest seaborne invasion in history, with 130,000 British, American and Canadian troops landing on the beaches of Normandy, France. Almost one in ten of them were killed.
The collection includes Franklin D. Roosevelt’s prayer, complete with handwritten amendments, and top-secret progress reports from Eisenhower to Marshall …
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Google Street View car versus The Stig on British Top Gear test track
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vi-ljpuEGnA]
The latest area to be added to Google Street View is the test track from the original British version of Top Gear, with the imagery featuring The Stig challenging the Google car to a race in a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG …
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Create your own Street View style tours with new Google service
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Google Street View has taken us to some pretty funky places, including the world’s tallest skyscraper, the Eiffel Tower, a Bond villain’s lair, a trek up to the top of Mount Fuji , animal park tours, a Venice Gondola ride and visits inside Dr Who’s TARDIS, CERN’s Large Hadron Collider and a submarine.
But there are still some places Street View doesn’t yet reach, so if you have a favourite hike, cycle ride or rock climb you want to share with others, you can now create your own Street View style tours through Google’s Views community.
Have you ever tried to convey the feeling of walking through your favorite park? Or have you wanted to create a virtual tour of your business to attract customers? Well, starting today, it’s now possible for you to build your own Street View experiences to do just that. Using a new feature in our Views community, you can easily connect your photo spheres to create 360º virtual tours of the places you love, then share them with the world on Google Maps …
See Abraham Lincoln’s handwritten Gettysburg Address in hi-res at Google Cultural Institute
There’s nothing that makes history real quite like seeing original, handwritten documents. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address was just 272 words long and reportedly took just two minutes to deliver, yet has been widely recognised as one of the most important speeches ever given, playing a key role in re-uniting the USA after the civil war and reminding the nation of its founding principles.
You can now view all five handwritten copies in high resolution at Google’s Cultural Institute website on the 150th anniversary of the famous speech. The online exhibit is supported by contemporary drawings, plans and reports and is well worth a visit.
Enjoy a virtual gondola ride as Google Street View adds Venice to its tours
I sometimes wonder whether future generations will do most of their travel sat at their PCs, as Google’s Trekker backpack takes us to more and more interesting places. Latest on the list is the romantic Italian city Venice, built on a set of more than 100 small islands, connected by a network of canals and bridges …
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Google’s biggest European indoor Street View tour takes you inside one of London’s airports
Not sure I’ve ever seen it quite this empty …
Finding your way around large airport terminals can be one of life’s more frustrating experiences, especially when you’re in a hurry and for no reason any human being can understand, gates 22-24 are not between gates 21 and 25.
Google is helping lost travellers find their way around London’s second-largest airport, with full Street View imagery of both North and South terminals.
Take your virtual visit here.
Other Street View tours created with Google’s Trekker backpack includes the River Thames, the world’s tallest skyscraper, the Eiffel Tower, a Bond villain’s lair, a trek up to the top of Mount Fuji , animal park tours, a look around the inside of Dr Who’s TARDIS, CERN’s Large Hadron Collider and a submarine.
The terrorism memorial made for Google Maps
What you’re looking at is not a graphic, but a memorial built by relatives and friends of a DC-10 airliner brought down by a bomb in 1989, killing all 155 passengers and 15 crew on board. The memorial was constructed some eighteen years after the tragedy.
Flight UTA 722 was flying from the People’s Republic of Congo to Paris, France, when an explosion caused it to break up over the Sahara Desert. An investigation found that the cause of the explosion was a bomb in the forward cargo hold …
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Google captures 360-degree Street View imagery from atop the Eiffel Tower
http://youtu.be/IbLA6uweCJA
Google has teamed up with the Eiffel Tower Operating Company in Paris to capture Street View imagery from on top of the Eiffel Tower for the first time ever. Not only is it making the Street View panoramas captured with its Street View Trolley available to all, it’s also making “50 archival images, plans, engravings and photos telling the story of the Eiffel Tower’s development and social impact in the 19th century” available through its Google Cultural Institute project:
The first exhibition presents the birth of the Eiffel Tower from the initial idea until its realization. You can then followthe construction of the monument step-by-step through photos and sketches. Details on the inauguration and the first visitors lie in the third exhibition, with photos of people admiring the Paris vista on the opening day leading into today’s Street View imagery from the top floor. Did you know that during the Tower’s inauguration for the Universal Exhibition of 1889, the elevators were not yet in service but 12,000 people per day rushed to climb the 1710 steps leading to the top?
Google allowing more users in field trial for Gmail results in Google Search
Google has opened its Google search+ Gmail result beta further this afternoon so more users can get Gmail results in their main Google Search. The feature was first introduced in a limited beta in August. For those who do not know about the feature, relevant Gmail conversations will appear in Google Search (as you can see in the image above). Just search “Paris” and emails that you have sent talking about “Paris” will then appear. If you think about it, expanded search makes a lot of sense.
Furthermore, the folks at Google announced this afternoon that Google Drive, Google Calendar and more will now appear when searching in Gmail:
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt’s full video plus Q&A at LeWeb
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=t02iJn5Ypio]
Among the important things he talked about was Android and iOS at 41 minutes in.
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Marisa Mayer talks about SoLoMo at LeWeb
Silicon Filter grabbed some pertinent quotes from Marissa Mayer’s interview today at LeWeb on Mobile, Local, Social (SoLoMo). We’ll have the video up when it becomes available. Notables:
- Google+ was a pleasant surprise. Comparing to the low bar set by past efforts, we’ll give this one a “#obvious tag.
- “We save two years, every day, of idle time using Google Maps and Navigation.”
- Google+ Check-In Deals Coming Next Week (goodnight FourSquare?)
- On the location space in general, there is still a lot of competition
- Android is a vehicle for delivering Google services