With a radical redesign, the new Google Earth takes you on a brand-new voyage

Why it matters to you

Google Earth was a revolutionary app when it first came out, and with the latest relaunch, it might be once again.

When Google Earth first launched, it put global imaging in the hands of everyday users, letting all of us take a look at our homes, our neighborhoods, and our cities via satellite imagery. Back in 2005, it was a remarkable experience, but over the years it’s been sidelined by Google Maps and the ubiquity of map applications with satellite imagery.

Now, Google aims to change all that, unveiling a radically revamped version of Earth. Since it was never really intended to be a navigational aid, and other tools have filled that role, the new Google Earth is all about exploration — about taking you on a voyage.

“Nearly everyone who’s opened Google Earth in the last decade does the same thing first: They search for their home,” said Gopal Shah, product manager for Google Earth. “Home is how we orient ourselves — it’s where we start from.”

That’s how the new version of Google Earth came to be. By looking at the first experiences people had with it, Google tailored the new version to be something more than just a showcase for high-res satellite imagery. The new version of Google Earth introduces “Voyager” — a framework for delivering in-depth stories from all over the world.

Think of it like your own personal version of Planet Earth. Voyager is a compilation of interactive guided tours put together by “the world’s leading storytellers, scientists, and nonprofits.”

Through Voyager, you can visit the Gombe Stream National Park, and listen to Jane Goodall talk about her team’s chimpanzee research while guiding you through the thick Tanzanian jungle. Or, you can visit Mexico with a furry pink monster named Lola, as part of Sesame Street’s “Girl Muppets Around the World” tour.

The new Google Earth doesn’t just take you to exotic locales — it can also take you home.

“Home is not just how we understand our place in the world — it’s a means to connect to something bigger than ourselves,” Shah said.

That’s an important theme for the new Google Earth — finding ways to connect people to different locales, different ways of life, and different homes. Through a special Voyager story titled “This is Home,” users can take a guided tour through a variety of traditional homes from different cultures and nations.

The new Google Earth is available now on the web, Android, and Chrome, and will hit iOS in the near future.

With a radical redesign, the new Google Earth takes you on a brand-new voyage

Why it matters to you

Google Earth was a revolutionary app when it first came out, and with the latest relaunch, it might be once again.

When Google Earth first launched, it put global imaging in the hands of everyday users, letting all of us take a look at our homes, our neighborhoods, and our cities via satellite imagery. Back in 2005, it was a remarkable experience, but over the years it’s been sidelined by Google Maps and the ubiquity of map applications with satellite imagery.

Now, Google aims to change all that, unveiling a radically revamped version of Earth. Since it was never really intended to be a navigational aid, and other tools have filled that role, the new Google Earth is all about exploration — about taking you on a voyage.

“Nearly everyone who’s opened Google Earth in the last decade does the same thing first: They search for their home,” said Gopal Shah, product manager for Google Earth. “Home is how we orient ourselves — it’s where we start from.”

That’s how the new version of Google Earth came to be. By looking at the first experiences people had with it, Google tailored the new version to be something more than just a showcase for high-res satellite imagery. The new version of Google Earth introduces “Voyager” — a framework for delivering in-depth stories from all over the world.

Think of it like your own personal version of Planet Earth. Voyager is a compilation of interactive guided tours put together by “the world’s leading storytellers, scientists, and nonprofits.”

Through Voyager, you can visit the Gombe Stream National Park, and listen to Jane Goodall talk about her team’s chimpanzee research while guiding you through the thick Tanzanian jungle. Or, you can visit Mexico with a furry pink monster named Lola, as part of Sesame Street’s “Girl Muppets Around the World” tour.

The new Google Earth doesn’t just take you to exotic locales — it can also take you home.

“Home is not just how we understand our place in the world — it’s a means to connect to something bigger than ourselves,” Shah said.

That’s an important theme for the new Google Earth — finding ways to connect people to different locales, different ways of life, and different homes. Through a special Voyager story titled “This is Home,” users can take a guided tour through a variety of traditional homes from different cultures and nations.

The new Google Earth is available now on the web, Android, and Chrome, and will hit iOS in the near future.

Automated agriculture: Can robots, drones, and AI save us from starvation?

Agriculture has come a long way in the past century. We produce more food than ever before — but our current model is unsustainable, and as the world’s population rapidly approaches the 8 billion mark, modern food production methods will need a radical transformation if they’re going to keep up. But luckily, there’s a range of new technologies that might make it possible. In this series, we’ll explore some of the innovative new solutions that farmers, scientists, and entrepreneurs are working on to make sure that nobody goes hungry in our increasingly crowded world.

In Thomas Malthus’ seminal — though oft criticized — 1798 work, An Essay on the Principle of Population, the economist took a long view of human history, observing that human populations, when they have an abundance of food, grow until they strain their resources, at which point scarcity sets in. “Famine seems to be the last, the most dreadful resource of nature,” he said. “The power of population is so superior to the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man, that premature death must in some shape or other visit the human race.”

Poetic as Malthus’ prediction was, it did not come to pass. Instead, revolutions in industry and agriculture came, and with them, a substantial increase in the production and trade of food. The optimists won, while Malthus became the patron saint of crackpot economists, a ragged preacher on the streets of history.

Although modern economists and tech utopians view Malthus with scorn, his arguments were reasonable given the evidence at the time. Perhaps the new technologies that enabled the tremendous population growth of the last few centuries did not end the possibility of a Malthusian catastrophe, but merely delayed it? Humanity has been able to grow far, far beyond what Malthus could have imagined — rough estimates put the world population in 1800 at 890-980 million people, while today the world population exceeds 7.4 billion — but how long can this trend continue?

The world may need another agricultural revolution to sustain itself.

The UN expects the world population to reach 8.5 billion by the year 2030, and 9.7 billion by 2050. Much of the world’s population is concentrated in China and India; each of these countries currently have more than one billion people, with the population of India projected to surpass that of China by 2022.

New agricultural technologies and techniques have staved off the sharp famines that Malthus predicted. Though once humans had to plant seeds haphazardly by hand, seed drills enabled farmers to sow them in long, uniform lines. With steam-powered tractors, farmers could plow wide swaths of land, without the need for sluggish oxen. Threshing machines cut down the many hours devoted to threshing by hand.

With the world population climbing to ever more staggering heights, and with economic growth allowing for greater consumption, the world may need another agricultural revolution to sustain itself.

One answer to the problem may lie in automation. While agriculture has become increasingly automated over the last 200 years, the process is only accelerating. New technologies, and droves in particular, are allowing farmers to improve the efficiency of their crops and livestock production, as well as quickly neutralize threats such as disease or drought.

Drones may be the farm workers of the future

“There is some stigma to that word,” Dr. Lav Khot, a professor at Washington State University and specialist in site-specific crop management, says of the term “drone.” Many proponents of the commercial uses of drones prefer terms like “unmanned aerial systems,” a longer phrase that lacks the verbal punch. It’s not hard to see why: For many, the word “drone” evokes military hardware, flying machines that drop bombs or spy on targets from above.

Researchers like Dr. Lav Khot use drones for a variety of projects.

Washington State University

Researchers like Khot are experimenting with different ways that drones can be used in agriculture, beating these swords into plowshares. For growers, one of the most exciting uses for drones is crop imaging. Using drones equipped with multispectral sensors, farmers survey their land, taking images that reveal things like the fertility of specific patches of soil, how much water the crops need, and more.

In the past, farmers had to rely on satellite imaging to get such detailed maps of their land, which was a rather time consuming process. Satellite imaging often involves 14 day intervals, Khot told Digital Trends, and problems can arise due to cloud cover or other factors. With drones “you can get it when you want, hypothetically.”

That quick turnaround isn’t just convenient; in cases where plants are affected by disease or pests, it can be the difference between saving a harvest or watching it die. Speaking to The Guardian, Salman Siddiqui, a researcher from the International Water Management Institute, explains how drone imagery can be used to detect diseases and other stressors in plants. “Photosynthetic activity decreases, and that affects the chlorophyll,” he said — and multispectral imaging can detect these changes early, before the problems become so drastic as to produce signs that humans can see.

This is because chlorophyll, the molecule that gives leaves their green hue, draws in visible light, while reflecting a large amount of infrared light. When a plant is unhealthy, it will reflect more of the visible light hitting it, and reflect fewer infrared waves. Infrared imaging can show farmers if their plants are reflecting abnormal amounts of light, tipping them off to problems.

Agriculture, meet automation

One of Khot’s main projects at the moment focuses on irrigation, experimenting with different irrigation techniques and amounts of water, and using drone imagery to track the subsequent health of plants. Take subsurface irrigation, for example. This is a process where tubes that drip water are placed under the surface of the soil, delivering water directly to the roots of crops. Khot and his team adjust the location of the tubes, testing them at 15 or 30 centimeters below the surface of grapevines.

False-color images of a bean-breeding trial captured by a camera mounted on a drone. (Photo: Lav R. Khot/Washington State University & Phillip N Miklas/USDA-ARS)

They adjust the amount of water used as part of their research, and use drone imaging to map the crops, testing “to see if we can go to 60 percent or 30 percent, and still the plant can grow and produce as good a yield.”

Khot also works with irrigation above the surface, testing sprinklers based at low-elevation (no more than a foot above the surface) and moving the sprinklers closer to the canopy, which should reduce the evaporation that occurs as water moves through the air.

Robotic tendrils are spreading into every aspect of farming.

Khot’s research could take on new importance as climate change develops. “In Washington in 2015, we recorded the highest temperature for several years,” Khot said, a development that may be the result of climate change. To prepare for hotter years, Khot and his fellow researchers are testing different varieties of pinto beans to see how they react to differing amounts of water. This should help them discover which beans will be a better investment for farmers if temperatures rise in the future.

Not all uses for drones involve imaging. One project Khot describes is delightfully simple. Wanting to experiment with a larger model of UAS, a Yamaha RMAX — an unmanned helicopter that has been popular in Japan for spraying — Khot and his team came up with a clever solution to a problem that has plagued Washington farmers.

Cherries are one of Washington’s premier crops, and they face a disturbingly common pest: rain. “When the cherry fruit is ripe, it has high sugar content, and the skin becomes very thin,” Khot explains. When rainwater falls on the cherry orchards, it can sit on the canopy, and the thin-skinned cherries will absorb it. As the cherries drink up moisture, they begin to swell and split.

In Japan, the RMAX has been popular as an efficient, unobtrusive crop-duster. (Credit: Yamaha)

Cherry growers can try to minimize the damage from rainfalls by harvesting cherries quickly, or shaking the branches to cast off some of the water. Khot flew an RMAX at low altitudes — 35 to 50 feet — over orchards to disperse water from the canopies. It’s a more efficient method than manually shaking cherry trees by hand or by fan — and much cheaper than hiring a helicopter pilot to come and do it — but not a foolproof one. “The orchards here in Washington State, not all are flat; we’ve got sloping, and so every year there are some accidents with that,” Khot said.

More than just flying robots

Drones look to be a promising tool for farmers going forward, but they are not the only examples of automation sweeping the agrarian world. Robotic tendrils are spreading into every aspect of farming, bringing a cold touch even to that most intimate part of a farmer’s day: the milking of cows.

Machines handling the milking process seems like a win for farmers. Hand milking is rare today — after all, who wants to spend hours a day squeezing cow teats and suffering the jealous glares of calves? — as farmers have been using machines to pump milk for years now. These machines required human input, however; farmers still had to fasten cups to the cow’s teats, and stand by as the machines pumps out milk.

These vehicles could remove the limitations of the human body from a traditionally grueling industry.

With more modern technology, the milking process can be done without even that slight amount of human input. Advanced milking systems allow the cows to approach a milking robot when they feel like it. The cow, as trained by its owner, steps onto a plate, which initiates the milking process. The machine can recognize the cows by their tags, and if a specific cow has not been milked within a certain period of time, the machine will get to work, disinfecting the udder and attaching suction cups to the teats.

The whole process is convenient for farmers, and allegedly comfortable for the cows. Speaking to the BBC, farmer Robert Veich claims the process makes for happier, more productive animals, saying “Cows respond to comfort. It has gone from 28 litres to 36 litres average a day, without a significant increase in feed cost.”

Dairy farms aren’t the only place that automation has taken hold, either. Lately, it’s even begun to hit fruit orchards – which have been remarkably resistant to mechanization over the years. Until recently, fruit picking has managed to withstand the march of automation, largely because fruits are delicate, and machinery could damage the crops or the trees that produce them. A 2011 issue of Migration News claims that most apple picking is still done by hand, and that the majority of laborer’s time is spent not picking the apples, but rather moving the ladders used to reach them and hauling bags of produce back and forth. As Abundant Robotics CEO Dan Steere explained to Digital Trends, “the main problems are that fruit is hard for computers to see, and it’s delicate. Until now it has not been possible to either reliably identify produce or automate harvesting without damaging the produce.”

Automated tractors can cover wide swaths of land without human input, freeing up labor. (Photo: Case IH)

Despite the difficulties, engineers are looking for ways to make picking more efficient through automation. Steere’s company is working on a machine to pick apples; another company, Energid, has built a machine to pick oranges. Abundant Robotics’ apple picker uses a vacuum tube to suck apples off trees, while Energid’s orange harvesting robot shakes fruit from trees and catches them.

Prehaps the most iconic farming vehicle, the tractor, is undergoing a transformation of its own. Autonomous tractors, such as Case IH’s Autonomous Concept Vehicle, could replace human-operated tractors on many farms. The sleek machine does not even have a seat for a driver. It can travel along predetermined routes programmed by its operator, who can track the tractor’s movements and reroute it, if need be, with a tablet app. The tractor can even sense obstacles in its path, stopping to avoid collisions. Autonomous tractor manufacturers such as New Holland even claim that the vehicles will eventually be able to react to changes in the weather.

Running day or night, automation can make farming a 24/7 process. (Credit: Case IH)

Autonomous farm equipment isn’t simply a convenience, allowing farmers to kick back and sip coffee as robots do their work. Nor is it merely a tool to cut down on the costs of labor. These vehicles could remove the limitations of the human body from a traditionally grueling industry. Machines stand no risk of injury or maiming, only damage that can be repaired. Even more intriguing is that farming could become a 24-hour process, uninterrupted by darkness or the need for sleep.

The traditional image of a farmer as grizzled man in a Carhartt jacket, gripping the wheel of his John Deere with calloused hands, may soon fade into history. In his place, a buttoned-up man managing a fleet of machines with his iPad from the comfort of an office.

Will it be enough?

All these new technologies are dazzling, but the question remains: Will they be enough to sustain the growing maw of consumption? The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN estimates that, in order to feed a growing and increasingly urban world population, annual grain production will need to increase to 3 billion metric tons; meat production will need to increase to 470 million metric tons. That’s a lot of food.

It would be naïve to conclude that agricultural automation alone will be enough to save us.

Complicating matters is the fact that technology alone does not decide how much food the world eats. In the wake of globalization, trade carries food across borders and oceans. Wheat from Oregon ends up at mills in Asia, beef from Japan may end up on a plate in New York. Even if individual countries can increase food production through the use of automation, the state of international trade deals will determine where it goes. In a world in which nationalist competition seems ascendant, and trade deals stand on shakier ground, the global food trade network may change dramatically.

For these reasons, it would be naïve to conclude that agricultural automation alone will be enough to save us. The problem we face is complex and multifaceted, and no individual technological innovation is likely to change our fate by itself. But despite the fact that there will be no silver bullets in this struggle, we should take solace in the fact that automation is just one arrow in our technological quiver. One breakthrough idea or creative solution won’t be enough, but a hundred of them might do the trick — and if there’s one thing we have in abundance as a species, it’s creative ideas.

Ultimately, the past may be the greatest source of relief. History shows that technology can help feed the world, so we have every reason to believe it can continue to do so in the future.

You’ll be able to pre-order the Galaxy S8 and S8+ on Flipkart from Apr. 19

If you want to buy the Galaxy S8 or S8+ online in India, you’ll have to head to Flipkart.

Samsung is all set to launch the Galaxy S8 and S8+ in India tomorrow, and the phones will be sold online exclusively on Flipkart. Pre-orders will kick off at 12 p.m. on April 19, just as the launch event kicks off in New Delhi. We don’t know the pricing, but it will likely be under ₹60,000. As is always the case for a marquee phone, there will be a bevy of launch-day offers, which we’ll detail tomorrow.

As a refresher, the Galaxy S8 and S8+ offer 5.8-inch and 6.2-inch QHD displays, and will be powered by Samsung’s latest 10nm Exynos 8895 SoC. There’s also 4GB of RAM, 64GB storage, microSD slot, Dual Pixel 12MP camera, 8MP front shooter, NFC, LTE, hybrid dual-SIM slot, 3000mAh battery (3500mAh on the GS8+), and the all-new Bixby assistant.

Exclusivity agreements aren’t new in this segment, but Flipkart has secured a major win with the S8 and S8+ deal. Although the Galaxy S series doesn’t account for a majority of Samsung’s sales in India (that honor goes to the budget Galaxy J series), it certainly accounts for a significant portion of the mindshare.

See at Flipkart

Samsung Galaxy S8 owners, you can’t customise the Bixby button anymore

Samsung has released an over-the-air update for the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus that will prevent anyone from using a third-party app to override the Bixby button to launch a rival voice-assistant instead.

• What is Bixby? Samsung’s smart AI explained

The Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus both come with a dedicated, side-mounted button to launch Samsung’s very own voice-assistant, Bixby. Bixby is able to control almost all functions on the Galaxy S8, such as launching the photo album, creating new albums, casting content to a nearby TV and adjusting various settings.

To use it, you need to hold down the dedicated button, speak your command, and let go. The button was never intended to be customised, but earlier in April, Reddit user Homeguy123 found a third-party app called All In One Gestures, that made it possible to remap the button to launch something like Google Assitant instead, meaning you weren’t forced to use Samsung’s own version.

While only a select few have their hands on the Galaxy S8 handsets for now, it was generally considered a good thing that the button could be configured, as it opened up possibilities for customisation that makes Android so popular.

• Samsung Galaxy S8: Release date, specs and everything you need to know
• Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus: Release date, specs and everything you need to know
• What is Google Assistant, how does it work and which devices offer it?

With the arrival of the update however, that’s now all set to change. Samsung has previously said that Bixby will be integrated into more of its devices in the coming years, and will be used to control everything from the TV to air conditioning.

Great iPhone 8 schematic shows Apple’s next phone with an edge-to-edge display

Chinese site iFanr has obtained a schematic drawing purporting to be that of the iPhone 8, or iPhone X as it has also been referred to. While it’s not entirely clear exactly where the schematic drawing has come from – we haven’t been able to find an accurate translation of the Chinese text – the drawing, along with renders to back it up, show what is without doubt a gorgeous iPhone.

• Apple iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus: What’s the story so far?

If true, the iPhone will feature a full-frontal display, similar to that of the Samsung Galaxy S8 and LG G6. Apple’s screen won’t curve off at the edges however, instead remaining flat. Nevertheless, the bezel around the edges of the screen will be a minute 2.57mm, which in the grand scheme of things is barely anything.

The leak also alludes to the Touch ID fingerprint sensor being embedded in the display, a feature we’ve heard rumoured before. It’s thought the technology required to develop this feature is the reason for the possible delay of the iPhone. Samsung wasn’t able to embed a fingerprint sensor into the display of the Galaxy S8, instead deciding to mount it on the rear of the phone.

The schematic drawing of the iPhone 8 also shows four small holes near the top speaker, the two on the left are thought to be a dual-camera system, while the two on the right are expected to be an ambient light sensor and 3D laser sensor.

Slashgear points out that these two sensors are similar to the ones found in the Microsoft Kinect camera for the Xbox, which was developed by PrimeSense, a company that Apple acquired in 2013. The front-facing camera could therefore take more than just pictures, it could provide more accurate facial recognition and better depth to photos. This is a feature that KGI Securities analyst Ming-chi Kuo has already predicted.

It’s thought that if Apple does implement this camera system, there will be no space at the top of the iPhone for the rear-facing dual-camera setup, so that will be need to be placed vertically on the back of the phone instead.

• Apple iPhone 8 in pictures: Renders and leaked photos
• Apple iPhone 8 to come with “revolutionary” facial recognition front-camera system 

As ever with leaks and rumours though, until anything official is announced, we have to take them with a pinch of salt. However we’re really hoping this one does turn out to be true, as we’ve never seen such a good-looking iPhone, and the added camera capabilities will be very welcomed indeed.

Bose SoundLink Color II returns with new colour options and water-resistance

Bose has announced some updates to its SoundLink Color wireless Bluetooth speaker. The new Color II model arrives with a more rugged and water-resistant body as well as a fresh selection of colour choices.

• Bose Revolve speakers pump sound out in 360 degrees

Inside, Bose has kept its very own dual-opposing passive radiator technology – which also features on the new Revolve and Revolve+ wireless speakers – which promise to use “every inch of their small enclosure” to deliver deep, powerful bass from a speaker that “defies its size”.

The addition of an IPX4-rating means the SoundLink Color II can now defend itself against the occasional splash by the pool, drinks spillage or rain shower, while the new soft touch silicone body makes it more durable against knocks, bumps and drops. Bose has made the SoundLink Color II available in new colour finishes of Aquatic Blue, Coral Red, Soft Black and Polar White.

Bose

An integrated microphone makes it possible to make and receive phone calls through the SoundLink Color II, and it can even access voice-assistants such as Siri and Google Now. Bose says the built-in battery is good for up to eight hours of playback time and the companion Bose Connect app makes it possible to join the company’s wireless speakers together to create a larger sound.

The Bose SoundLink Color II wireless speaker will be available from May for £129.95.

Google Earth feeds your wanderlust with ‘Voyager’ stories

There are two things you should never do if you want to maintain productivity: start clicking on links in Wikipedia, or open Google Earth. There are many, many other ways to waste time on the internet but the amount of work hours lost between those two is probably enough to make most managers weep. Your boss won’t be too pleased, then, to learn that Google Earth’s latest update, revealed today, ratchets up its time-killing potential several notches.

We’ve come a long way since the earliest versions of Google Earth that basically placed a virtual globe in your desktop with some basic mapping and 3D tools. Today’s revision sees a slew of new features that feel both exciting, and long overdue at the same time. The headline news, in my opinion, isn’t technically a feature at all, but the fact that Google Earth is no longer a standalone app for desktop and mobile users, and can be accessed right from a browser (perfect for Chromebooks and education).

There are, of course, a lot of new things you can do with Google Earth that will give even the most experienced virtual tourist something fresh to explore. The first change you’ll notice is the home page. No matter what machine you choose to open Google Earth on, you’ll be presented a menu offering a series of icons: A ship’s wheel, a die, a familiar highlight tag and a share symbol. The last two are somewhat self explanatory, but it’s the first two where most of the fun stuff is.

The ship’s wheel leads you to a section called “Voyager.” As that name suggests, this is all about discovery. Google Earth has kinda always been about finding and investigating, but Voyager is about enabling that encouraging that with curated content. Yes, even Google Earth isn’t immune to the current trend for “stories,” or in this case, curated tales from around the world (literally). These stories are essentially themed journeys around the planet peppered with rich media such as 360 videos, and Street View (including inside buildings and underwater).

Google partnered with the likes of DigitalGlobe and the BBC at launch to provide some of the more detailed stories, but we’re told these will be regularly updated with new and increasingly more curious adventures. For now, though, the selection of around 40 available looks pretty good, with everything from touring Hemmingway’s favorite haunts to a chance to meet girl muppets around the world (yep, check it out, much fun). Each “voyage” is usually about ten “locations” long, complete with swooping transition around the planet as you progress to the next spot.

Two other features that come along with Voyager, depending how you view it, are “Itineraries” (basically city guides with points of interest), and the option to send a virtual postcard from one of these locations. The postcard feature is unique to mobile (on desktop you’ll just get a share link). A postcard is basically sending an image of a landmark from anywhere on the itinerary. Handy for showing people where to meet perhaps, or sharing a memory with family from a long-forgotten vacation.

Once you’re done diving with sharks or exploring Charles Dickens’ favorite pub, what happens if you run out of things to look at? Well, if you do, first, shame on you. Second the “I’m feeling lucky” feature (represented by the die icon) is for you. Google’s been serving up random webpages with a button of the same name since as long as most of us can remember; Earth’s version is much the same. Click the die, and you’ll be digitally transported to a far-flung corner of the globe where Google will also serve up (the now ubiquitous) “cards” with local trivia.

Google says it has identified about 20,000 locations so far, using its Knowledge Graph to serve up the info on “Knowledge Cards.” Much like stories, these locations will also be continually refreshed, so expect the number of random places (deliberately chosen off the beaten track) to grow with time. It’s also possibly the best generator for spontaneous vacations we can think of. Especially if the location it takes you to doesn’t initially convince you, simply click the paper plane icon on the Knowledge Card, and you’ll be whisked off somewhere nearby with more info on that location as well.

Google Earth has always been a great place to quench your wanderlust. As one company representative said “You use Maps to find your way, Earth to get lost.” This has never been more true than with the current iteration. In many ways it feels like the beginning of a constantly evolving, flexible version of Encarta. Right now you can’t add your own stories, but you can be sure those types of features will be coming soon enough. When I asked about the potential for a “Google Mars” or a “Google Solar System,” one representative gave me the tortured look of someone that’s excited about something, but cannot say (both of these somewhat exist already though don’t forget).

There are, of course, a few things that the new Google Earth is not. And one of those is VR-friendly. It is still available on Steam, but given Google’s investment in this area (DayDream, YouTube 360 etcetera), many hoped that today’s announcement might have had even more of a virtual reality flavor. Alas, not this time, but again, you can be fairly sure this is somewhere on the roadmap.

For now though, Google Earth is growing beyond its position as a desktop curiosity, research tool and data hive, and into the world of original content, discovery and education. The fact that it now lives within your browser is no small thing. It’s Chrome only for now, but Google did say that the base technology (Web Assembly) will soon be fully supported across all four main browsers, at which point you can use Google Earth for web on whatever tickles your fancy.

On mobile you’ll still need to use a dedicated app, but you probably would prefer that anyway. And if you’re worried that the move to a browser tab might mean compromises, don’t be. Google claims about 90-percent of the codebase is the same, no matter how you choose to access it.

The Morning After: Tuesday, April 18th 2017

Hey, good morning!

We’re warming up for F8. Yep, Facebook’s big annual event kicks off today and it looks like the company has an awful lot planned to show us. Meanwhile, Netflix has explained why it continues to pay for Adam Sandler’s creative output and Verizon made its own smartwatch for some reason. Oh, and here’s a DIY distillery.

It’s going to be a busy week.
What to expect from Facebook’s annual developer conference

2017 marks the 10th anniversary of F8, and you know that CEO Mark Zuckerberg will want to show off just how far Facebook has come in the past ten years. Covering more Messenger, those Live woes and maybe even a bunch of hardware, here’s a look at what we’ll hopefully see in the days ahead.

Origin’s first budget gaming laptop costs less than a grandThere’s such a thing as a budget gaming laptop?

Origin’s EON15-S laptop has always straddled the line between gaming performance and portability, and this year’s model does that again, but for a bit less cash. For 2017, the PC maker has added NVIDIA’s newish 4GB 1050 Ti graphics card, a model that gives it a (very) mild speed bump over last year’s 980M-based EON15-S. That’s squeezed into a 1-inch, 5-pound case, and costs $999 for the cheapest configuration. However, there’s no high-res screen option this time around — you’re stuck with a 15.6-inch 1,920 x 1,080 IPS panel.

That’s a big number.Netflix explains why it keeps paying Adam Sandler for movies

Yesterday Netflix revealed its quarterly earnings, and said it is close to having 100 million streaming customers. But the most surprising statistic had to be news that subscribers have streamed half a billion hours of Adam Sandler movies since the debut of The Original 6.

It’s only twice the price of a Model 3
Tesla cuts the price on its entry-level Model S by $5,000

Recently, Tesla dropped the cheapest version of its Model S and now it’s followed up by lowering the price of the current entry-level edition. The 75 and 75D are still $1,500 more than the 60/60D was, even after a $5k price cut, but they offer more range and now come standard with features like a glass roof and automatic rear power liftgate.

It’s time to get dirty
Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt take the fight to Airbnb via lobbyists

Inevitably, hotels were going to fight back against “home sharing” apps, and a New York Times report says that time is now. Via lobbyist organizations, the hotel industry is apparently fighting on the “local, state and federal level” to rein in Airbnb and the rest with additional regulation and scrutiny (Of course, some would argue that scrutiny might be necessary).

Distill water, hop oil, or whiskey… if your local laws allow it.
Picobrew’s next goal: A safe and affordable DIY distillery

Picobrew has a new, cheaper countertop beer brewing system. That you already knew. But the company is now dipping its toes into distilling. The Picostill is an add on for the Pico Model C that turns that weird custom designed keg into a countertop distillery. Specifically it’s a reflux still that uses vacuum distillation, which doesn’t look as cool as a pot or column still, but makes far more efficient use of the space.

Finally, a way to revisit Microsoft BASIC 2.0.
Go back to 1984 with Internet Archive’s Macintosh collection

Not content to sit on the sidelines, the Internet Archive recently resurrected something, too. This time, it’s a swath of apps, games and software from the original Macintosh circa 1984. That means stuff like Lode Runner, MacOS System 7.0.1, Microsoft BASIC 2.0 and Space Invaders are on offer in their pixelated, black-and-white glory. Just like the old days.

The Wear24 will set you back $300 with a 2-year activation.
Verizon’s Android Wear 2.0 watch goes on sale May 11th

Verizon’s Android Wear 2.0 smartwatch broke from cover back in February with an scheduled launch for March. Well, that didn’t happen. Today, the wireless carrier announced that its Wear24 device would go on sale both in stores and online May 11th. If you’ll recall, the wearable is priced at $300 with a 2-year activation plus $5 month to tack one on to your data plan.

But wait, there’s more…

• Google is fixing a Chrome flaw that makes phishing easy
• HTC already cut the disappointing U Ultra’s price
• What’s on TV: ‘Silicon Valley,’ ‘Fargo,’ ‘Bill Nye’ and ‘Full Throttle: Remastered’
• LG’s ultralight Gram laptop has too many compromises

MIT’s app only needs a second to teach you a new language

You know the seconds and minutes you waste waiting for the elevator to arrive, for a friend to reply to an IM or for a website to load? A team of MIT CSAIL researchers believe you can put them to good use, so they created a series of apps called the WaitSuite that makes the most of those idle moments by helping you learn a new language. The tools can test your vocabulary without whisking you away to another app. For instance, if you’re chatting with a friend, a flash card asking you about a word in the language you’re learning will pop up within the IM itself. If you’re waiting for a website to load, the card will appear within the browser.

MIT PhD student and project lead Carrie Cai explained:

“With stand-alone apps, it can be inconvenient to have to separately open them up to do a learning task. WaitSuite is embedded directly into your existing tasks, so that you can easily learn without leaving what you were already doing.”

Those are but two of the five tasks WaitSuite covers, though. One tool from the suite can look for Bluetooth iBeacons and will send you a flash card if it determines that you’re in front of an elevator. Another will ask you to translate words while waiting for WiFi to connect, while the last one sends you words to translate while you’re waiting for an email to send.

Based on the team’s preliminary tests, some of the tools could prove more useful than others, depending on your situation. If your computer takes a while before it connects to WiFi, you can learn a word or two. Otherwise, that particular tool won’t be that useful. Their testers seemed to love the elevator app, though, since it typically takes a minute to call an elevator and only 10 seconds to answer a flash card question.

Cai also noted that their testers were able to focus on their main tasks a lot better with the addition of the WaitSuite tools, since they were less likely to check Facebook and other social networks. In the future, Cai and her team want to create similar “wait-learning” tools in an audio format for times when you can’t look at your screen. For now, you can test one of WaitSuite’s apps available for download from the CSAIL website. The team made WaitChatter available as a Chrome extension for Google Chat, so you can learn words while waiting for a friend to finish typing.

Source: MIT