So hot, it’s cool!

Google Maps for mobile is moving to the next level with Android 2.0.  The first phone to have the new app is Verizon’s Droid, due out Nov. 6.

Called Google Maps Navigation (Beta), the app is a likely threat to stand-alone GPS navigation systems since it has “3D views, turn-by-turn voice guidance and automatic rerouting.  But unlike most navigation systems, Google Maps Navigation was built from the ground up to take advantage of your phone’s Internet connection,” notes the Official Google Blog.

Since I just bought an Android-based phone in July (T-Mobile MyTouch), I’m both peeved that I won’t have this system right away, and hopeful that it will be available before too long on phones other than the Droid.  I do love Google Maps for Mobile; it has helped me find my way around several new places, but is kind of hard to manage without voice features (reading your mobile phone while driving is a no-no).

Seven features coming to “Navigation” that I wish I had now:

• The most recent map and business data
• Search in plain English
• Search by voice
• Traffic view
• Search along route
• Satellite view
• Street View

I also want the dashboard phone holder, please.

See how this all works for yourself in the video.

A story in the New York Times (via Seattle Times) tells of the surveillance powers the British Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, or RIPA, gives to the government and to 474 local governments and 318 agencies — including the Ambulance Service and the Charity Commission — powers once held by only a handful of law-enforcement and security-service organizations.

“Under the law, the localities and agencies can film people with hidden cameras, trawl through communication traffic data, such as telephone calls and Web site visits, and enlist undercover “agents” to pose, for example, as teenagers who want to buy alcohol.”

In a report this summer, Christopher Rose, the chief British surveillance commissioner, said local governments conducted nearly 5,000 “directed surveillance missions” in the year that ended in March and that other public authorities carried out roughly the same amount.

Examples given in the article are chilling.  The law is being used by localities to determine such things as whether a family really lives in the school district they are sending their child to, using such means as covertly following the mother and children around for three weeks.  Local governments regularly use these surveillance powers — which they “self-authorize,” without oversight from judges or law-enforcement officers.

It turned out that the Paton family had done nothing wrong.  Mrs. Paton said she would have been perfectly willing to answer any questions if they had just asked.  Instead a “surveillance log” was created and now no one has answered her questions, such as ” ‘How many people were in the car? Were they men or women? Did they take any photos? Does this mean I have a criminal record?’”  “They said my privacy wasn’t intruded on because the surveillance was covert,” she said.

Could it happen here?  We’ve been living uncomfortably with the PATRIOT Act since shortly after 9/11/2001.  Image by takomabibelot.  Creative Commons license.

A Washington Post article notes that the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee has been working on possible revisions.   Julian Sanchez of the Cato Institute says that it has “omitted the most elementary civil liberties safeguards from legislation.”

Michael MacLeod-Ball, acting director of the Washington office of the ACLU says,

“Stating that the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Patriot Act reauthorization bill strikes a fine balance between civil liberties and law was misguided [editorial, Oct. 13].  Americans have a constitutional right not to be spied upon by the government unless there is some reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing, and this bill forgoes that suspicion in far too many provisions.

Though the Obama administration has claimed that it needs every inch of power that the Patriot Act affords, not everyone is convinced. Even after receiving a classified briefing from the administration last week, Sens. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) and Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) still felt that further privacy protections should be written into the bill. The administration has yet to make a public argument for why modest reforms to these provisions would harm investigations and, it seems, those arguments made behind closed doors are not wholly convincing, either.

By extending these Patriot Act surveillance provisions virtually untouched for another four years, Congress will be once again endorsing the overreaching policies of the Bush administration. Only now these policies come with the Obama administration’s stamp of approval.”

Report from Wired: “In-Q-Tel, the investment arm of the CIA and the wider intelligence community, is putting cash into Visible Technologies, a software firm that specializes in monitoring social media. It’s part of a larger movement within the spy services to get better at using ”open source intelligence” — information that’s publicly available, but often hidden in the flood of TV shows, newspaper articles, blog posts, online videos and radio reports generated every day.”

The idea for use of Visible Technologies is to keep track of foreign social media, and “give spooks early-warning detection on how issues are playing internationally”, but of course the tool can and is being used internally by companies tracking the “buzz” (e.g., bloggers, tweeters) about their products or companies.

“Anything that is out in the open is fair game for collection,” says Steven Aftergood, who tracks intelligence issues at the Federation of American Scientists.  But “even if information is openly gathered by intelligence agencies it would still be problematic if it were used for unauthorized domestic investigations or operations.  Intelligence agencies or employees might be tempted to use the tools at their disposal to compile information on political figures, critics, journalists or others, and to exploit such information for political advantage.  That is not permissible even if all of the information in question is technically ‘open source.’”

Read more at Wired.  Adapted image by Crys.  Creative Commons license.

A new Pew Internet And American Life Project study being released today shows that internet users on the whole are becoming more likely to update their statuses online on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook.  19% of internet users say they use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves, or to see updates about others, an increase from 11% last December.

The Pew report, Twitter and Status Updating, Fall 2009, says that three groups of internet users are mainly responsible for driving the growth of this activity: social network website users, those who connect to the internet via mobile devices, and younger internet users – those under age 44.

In addition, the more devices someone owns, the more likely they are to use Twitter or another service to update their status.  For instance, 39% of internet users with four or more internet-connected devices (such as a laptop, cell phone, game console, or Kindle) use Twitter, compared to 28% of internet users with three devices, 19% of internet users with two devices, and 10% of internet users with one device.

The report is based on the findings of a daily tracking survey on Americans’ use of the internet.

A number of ebook readers are being introduced this year in an apparent bid to compete with Amazon’s Kindle, thought to be very successful although the company has not revealed sales information.

One of the “cool” features of the Kindle, as yet unmatched by any other reader (stay tuned for developments later this fall), is the free wireless access to the Kindle Store anywhere the cell network is available.  Barnes & Noble’s new ereader that they have named Nook provides users wireless access only when they are in a physical B&N store.

B&N is doing it right, however, in several other ways.  Notably, the ebook reader supports a number of different formats, including the open ePub standard.  Amazon’s decision to use a proprietary format for its ebooks is looking less and less competitive today as open standards allow for more flexibility in reading choices.

I took a careful look at Nook’s information about supported formats, but it left me wondering if the support for PDF and ePub included “protected” files in these formats that you check out of a library.  The ability to check out and read library books on an ereader (like my Sony Reader Touch Edition) is one of the most important features for me.

The Nook also allows owners to “lend” a book for a maximum of two weeks to a friend who has downloaded B&N’s eReader software.  The friend doesn’t need to also own a Nook, the book can be read on a PC, Mac, BlackBerry or iPhone.  Since the Nook is running Android, I wonder if Android phones will be next.

CrunchGear states that the Nook “has upped the ante with a small, 3.5-inch LCD screen in the lower quadrant adding touch capabilities that the Kindle definitely does not have.”  B&N says, “Control your nook with an easy-to-use full-color touchscreen, created to work seamlessly with the crisp, clean E Ink ® display.  Just use your finger to swipe through titles and tap open your next read.”

The Nook has 2 GB of storage (about 1,500 eBooks) and an SD slot for expanded storage.  Battery life beats the Kindle with wireless turned off.  Like other recently introduced ereaders, Nook uses the easy-to-read E Ink® display and “retains important reading rituals like bookmarking, making notes, and highlighting passages,”

The Internet Archive (IA) is in the early stages of development of BookServer, with the “lofty goal to essentially create an open web of books where anyone can publish their books and make their content available via search,” says ReadWriteWeb.

According to IA, BookServer is “a growing open architecture for vending and lending digital books over the Internet.  Built on open catalog and open book formats, the BookServer model allows a wide network of publishers, booksellers, libraries, and even authors to make their catalogs of books available directly to readers through their laptops, phones, netbooks, or dedicated reading devices.  BookServer facilitates pay transactions, borrowing books from libraries, and downloading free, publicly accessible books.”

BookServer will provide book publishers and online libraries with the means to more effectively compete with online bookstores like Amazon and Google.  It will allow publishers to set their own pricing and manage the distribution of their books.  A secondary goal of BookServer’s open system is to fight back against the proprietary marketplaces, such as Amazon’s Kindle Store and other booksellers using proprietary formats.  It’s confusing for consumers who face a multitude of choices with limited information about which formats will work on which devices.

RWW notes that “while Google promises its Google Editions store will allow anyone to access digital books as long as they have a web browser and internet access, it’s still unknown at this time how the company plans to make the digital content available offline.  Will it require the use of special web browser plugins to do so? Until Google reveals more about the technical details, it is not possible to know how truly open their online store will be.  And even if their store is 100% open, they are still a company whose ultimate goal is to profit from their work of digitizing books.  BookServer’s goal, on the other hand, is to provide universal access to book data made available in open formats.”

IA says that many will benefit from BookServer:

• Authors find wider distribution for their work.
• Publishers both big and small can distribute books directly to readers.
• Book sellers find new and larger audiences for their products.
• Device makers can offer access to millions of books instantly.
• Libraries can continue to loan books in the way that patrons expect.
• Readers get universal access to all knowledge.

They have provided a slide show called Web of Books on Slideshare to explain how BookServer will work.

24 CEOs and founders representing the world’s leading Internet and technology companies — including Facebook, Sony, Amazon, eBay, Twitter, and Google — threw their support behind the effort to protect an open Internet in a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski today.

Google Public Policy blog notes that “an open Internet fuels a competitive and efficient marketplace, where consumers make the ultimate choices about which products succeed and which fail. This allows businesses of all sizes, from the smallest startup to larger corporations, to compete, yielding maximum economic growth and opportunity.”

The open Internet has been a platform for innovation, economic growth and free expression — “an environment where consumers, not broadband providers, choose winners and losers.”

Support for “net neutrality” by tech companies was expressed at an appropriate time since this is the beginning of Open Access Week, “a growing international movement that uses the Internet to throw open the locked doors that once hid knowledge.  It encourages the unrestricted sharing of research results with everyone, everywhere, for the advancement and enjoyment of science and society.”

Brier Dudley, Seattle Times tech columnist, gives Microsoft’s Windows 7 a favorable review.  The new operating system goes on sale Thursday.  You can buy copies to upgrade your existing PCs running Vista or XP (the latter is tougher and may not be worth your time), or you can buy new preloaded PCs.

Dudley says that Windows 7 “is polished and a pleasure to use, with new features that make it easier to find, use and share files on PCs and networks.”  It reflects the focus on sharing that dominates users’ interests today, rather than the ultra security consciousness that prevailed during Vista’s development.

Connecting to different networks has been simplifed — good news for home netowrk users.  Microsoft  has also worked to improve the audio and video capabilities of the PC.  Dudley says that Windows 7 has built-in features for streaming media around the home, and its media player handles DVD movies better.

There are also some much improved accessories in Windows 7, including Paint, WordPad and the Calculator, which has templates for calculating mileage, mortgage payments, lease payments and conversions.  I have long thought that every calculator furnished with an PC was practically worthless.

Although lighter, faster, and more network friendly, Dudley says that moving from an older OS to Windows 7 is not critical.  Waiting until you need a new PC, preloaded with the OS, may be the way to go.

At the same time, Jeff Bertolucci at PC World, wonders if the cost of upgrading to Windows 7 (Home Premium: $120) is too high for consumers accustomed to free or very low cost software.  He points out that the $30 student price seems much more acceptable.

Considering the upgrade took him 4 hours (but was mostly trouble free), and the cost of new computers is fairly low now, it might be worthwhile buying new if your PC is a few years old.

Take a look at Microsoft’s video introduction to Windows 7.

This screencast by Tom Kulmann explains nicely how to manage multiple email accounts through Gmail.

I had been thinking about setting up another gmail account and was wondering just how to handle more than one.  I knew it could be done, but Tom’s Screenr video arrived in my Twitter account (retweeted by @elearning) at just the right time.  Thanks, Tom!

Google Inc. will launch a new online service for ebooks next year that will be accessible on any device with a Web broswer, ranging from computers to mobile phones.  Google will actually host the ebooks and make them searchable, although consumers can buy directly from any number of online booksellers and other retail partners as well as Google, using the Google Editions platform.

Google expects the program to start with 400,000 to 600,000 books in the first half of 2010.  They will try to keep purchase transactions simple, maybe by using the existing Google Checkout platform.  You can find details of how they intend to split revenue in the article from the Seattle Times.

Books bought through Google Editions will be stored on the device and readable without a live Internet connection.

Google Editions will cover only books submitted and approved by the copyright holders when it launches next year in an effort to avoid further criticism (and law suits) from authors, publishers, and librarians over copyright issues.

I’m hoping that Google will also see its way clear to making the ebooks transferable to ebook reader devices.   They have indicated that they might, but have not been specific.  I recently purchased the Sony Reader Touch Edition because I was tired of trying to read on my laptop, and I certainly have no wish to read anything lengthy on my mobile phone.

Resource Shelf has a round-up of news about the launch.  Image by Carla216.  Creative Commons license.