I'll admit it: I'm a bit of a weather nut. Besides Apple's included Weather widget, I also run one that displays an animated version of the current radar image. But it's not nearly as cool as the Weather Channel's new Interactive Map, built on top of Microsoft's Virtual Earth technology.
Like you might expect from Google Maps or MapQuest, the Interactive Map lets you drag, or zoom in and out to an impressive degree, all the while superimposing either cloud cover or radar maps. You can choose between road maps or satellite maps, and even adjust the level of transparency for the radars and clouds. Like the existing maps, it also has controls for the animation, letting you step back and forth to see how the weather's moving.
So if you're not satisfied by your current map technology because it doesn't let you see what the weather's doing, say, down the street, this could just the thing sooth that annoyance. The Interactive Map's in beta right now, so if you see something that irks you, don't hesitate to give the Weather.com folks a buzz. Tell 'em Gadgetbox sent you.
Where does our love of all things clock stem from? Perhaps it's because, not unlike a casino or house of ill repute, Gadgetbox HQ is completely devoid of clocks. Right now, it could be four o'clock in the morning tomorrow, and I just wouldn't know.
While we've covered any number of physical clock devices, the Ambient Clock is something a little different. At the moment, it's merely a widget for your personalized Google Homepage that tells you what kind of events you have scheduled for the day. A series of dark bars indicates that you have an event scheduled during that period, while a series of dots tells you how much time you need to get to that event (via some clever use of Google Maps to calculate driving time). Likewise, the "backlight" of the clock tells you whether you have no events, imminent events, or are in the middle of an event right now.
It's a nifty little widget, and if it garners enough popularity, Ambient is considering making a physical standalone clock that can download your schedule from the Net. Very slick.
[via Lifehacker]
Oh, Google, how I do love thee! Let me count the ways: you've finally, at long last, added traffic overlays to Google Maps. Just hit the "Traffic" button up next to "Map" to get the 411 (people still say that, right?).
The information has been available from Google via your cellphone in the past, but now they've added it via the web interface as well. The legend is typical Google complexity: red means slow traffic, yellow means so-so, and green means clear. Gray means that the road has been filled with concrete. Or no information. One of those.
As we speak, traffic on the expressway in Boston is pretty much stop-and-go; while I90 looks pretty clear. I'll be sure to avoid the expressway on my commute up the stairs.
[via Lifehacker]
A few years back, I was living the life of an itinerant writer; traveling from city to city, sleeping on couches, air mattresses, even floors. During the day I traveled to cafes and libraries, to write and poach free wireless Internet. The trouble though, was finding a good free wireless hotspot. In a pinch, you could spring for access at Starbucks, but I prefer to frequent the local businesses whenever possible.
Hotspotr is a Google Maps-based interface to finding wireless hotspots; just pop in a ZIP code and it'll display your options, including whether they're free or pay-per-use. Click on a particular location and you'll find details about it, including what type of location it is, whether they have food, and reviews about the environment. You can also add locations that you know of, allowing Hotspotr to expand its database. My local listings were okay, but I added in one notable omission.
But the real reason you know you can trust Hotspotr is its Web 2.0 hallmarks: the lack, for example, of an 'e' in the name points to the heritage of sites like Flickr and Tumblr, while the site's masthead proudly proclaims that it is "Beta-ish." Honestly, how can you go wrong?
[via Lifehacker]
The IEEE, official winner of the "acronym most fun to pretend its a word" contest, may not have yet approved the next generation of local wireless networking, but that doesn't mean they're not hard at work on other sorts of wireless technologies. Wi-Fi's big brother, WiMax, has just received a bump to the ol' standard in the form of increased throughput.
And they're not dumb: they're raising the speeds to 1 Gbps and mandating backwards compatibility with existing WiMax radios. In the time-honored tradition of the alphanumeric jumble, this flavor is being called 802.16m. That's right: it's delicious 'M' WiMax.
As if that wasn't enough, IEEE says that 'M' will meet the International Telecommunication Union's standards for the 4G wireless standards (that's what we get once we pass 3G, natch). The date for 'M' is hovering in 2009, but with that whole 802.11n thing still on the plate, that could probably change. And given that the deployment of even non-M WiMax gear is still pretty sparse, I wouldn't delay any purchases.
[via Engadget]
We mentioned the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet way back when; I got a chance to see one up close not long ago, as a friend of mine owns one. It's a pretty slick little machine, though it did have its fair share of shortcomings.
Nokia hopes to fix that with the next iteration in the line, the N800. Ars Technica's Eric Bangeman took an in-depth look at the N800 to see not only how it stacked up to its predecessor, but also to see how it lived up to its name. How did it fare?
That gets to the heart of what the N800 is: an Internet Tablet designed to keep you connected to your online world wherever there is a WiFi connection available. And it does remarkably well at that. I've used it on several evenings to surf the web while watching TV in the living room and it's perfect for that. I think the best way to describe the feel of using the N800 is that it's like using a very small computer rather than a PDA or smartphone. I attribute that experience to the high-resolution display and applications included with the tablet, especially Opera and Flash.A version of Skype is supposedly on its way for mid-year; if anything, that very well might be the killer app for the N800. The Internet Tablet certainly isn't for everyone—its lack of cell phone capability will relegate it to second best for many people—but it's a niche device with a promising future.If you don't have an 802.11b/g connection nearby, you can still watch videos, listen to music, play games, read PDFs, and more, but the N800 really shines when you're kicking back and surfing the web.
Are you of the security-conscious ilk? What I guess I mean is, when it comes to security: are you conscious? No, that's not quite right either. Let's start over again.
We all know that it's important to take precautions when giving away our financial or personal information online. PayPal's cranking their own security up a notch by making available this nifty security key. Here's how it works: every 30 seconds, the key displays a different six number code on its LCD display. Enter that code when you login, along with your name and password, and afterwards that key expires—nobody else can use it. It's pretty much as good as security gets.
The key itself will cost you $5, but there's no additional charges after that. Let's just hope that the keys are a little less predictable than "123456" because that's totally the combination on my luggage.
[via Gizmodo]
When Google purchased mega video site YouTube for $1.65 billion last year, many figured either Google Video would be dropped like a hot potato, or YouTube would assume the Google Video moniker. Neither eventuality has happened though, and today Google shared some thoughts on both of its video services.
Seems Google Video will be transformed from being a YouTube-clone to more of a Google for video; that is, an index for all video content online—think Google Images, but with video instead. As of now, you will be able to find YouTube videos via Google Video. Click on one and you'll be taken straight to the Tube. But to those who enjoyed Google Video as a YouTube competitor, well, it seems those days are gone.
So what of the de facto king? Google explains that it seems YouTube as evolving to be not just the great melting pot of online video, but a future where "most user-generated and premium video content being hosted on YouTube." Yes, the war for control of online video continues. Of course, it remains to be seen what the content providers think of this, given that they're not thrilled about their copyrighted material showing up on the site in the first place.
[via Ars Technica]
