With both Google and Uber investigating self-driving cars, it's no surprise that people's imaginations would leap on the news that Apple's been driving minivans bearing complicated equipment rigs around Northern California. But if you're holding out hope for an autonomous iCar, keep waiting.
To stand underneath the glowing, otherworldly dance of the aurora is an experience on our bucket list. But if you (like us) haven't had the chance to travel to the far reaches of the Earth to see the northern lights, Google Maps is here to help.
Santa Claus may be coming to town, but how are you going to know when? Turns out there's not one, but two prominent trackers for jolly old St. Nick's progress on this upcoming Christmas Eve: one from Google, and a second from the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). But with two competing Santa trackers, how do you know where to go to get the most up-to-date information about Father Christmas?
India's Central Bureau of Investigation is questioning an open-source map project sponsored by Google. Google's possible crime: Revealing information about sensitive military installations. Relying on locals to document the area around them, Google's contest may have documented what was known to locals but unavailable on previous maps of India.
Even as Google continues expanding its Maps—going as far as documenting polar bear migrations—the company has to regularly dispatch their Street View cars to places they've already been: cities change, and it takes another lap to keep Maps up to date. That means major metropolises—Singapore, New York—have been updated as much as eight or nine times since Google's tool first launched. Now, you can finally take a look at all those past snapshots.
