Last week, Google released a beta application that provides walking directions in major cities such as New York, San Francisco, and Minneapolis. It's another sign that the search giant is getting even more specific about "organizing the world's information," right down to the sidewalk in front of your house. If you want to walk from your apartment in the suburbs to a restaurant downtown, Google will show you the best route with turn-by-turn directions you can print out or follow on your smartphone.

Here's my dream road-trip ritual: Pull up an address in Google Maps, beam it to the car by some wireless technology and load it to the nav system as a destination. If there's a relevant phone number, sync it with my Bluetooth phone. Then locate all the In-N-Out Burger locations in the area and cross-reference them with local gastroenterologists, just to be safe.

The world hasn't quite turned my way just yet, but BMW just introduced a fairly close approximation for US customers on its new 2008 X6 Sports Activity Coupe

Google is slowly turning its Maps application into a wiki and that looks to be a very good thing. Sidewalk—and later Citysearch—only ever had enough staffing resources to scrape the surface of any particular city. Google Maps, on the other hand, has the entire online populace at the ready. While Citysearch in recent years has opened its site to community reviews, it has not given users control over all the data. That's where Google Maps is headed.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has teamed up with Google to give anyone with Web access a chance to see what life and conditions are like in a refugee camp. The initial iteration centers on Chad, Iraq, Colombia and Darfur.

Web surfers can explore camps through the visual, textual, audio and video information that's layered on top of the bigger picture. Pop-up windows throughout the images of the camps tell you what's going on, and what's needed. You can also move in close enough to examine the infrastructure, including schools and other facilities.

Wired recently reported on a newcomer to the street-level imagery map game. Theyre called MapJack, and if they can expand quickly enough to cover the ground Google has already claimed, theyll give them a good run for their money. The concept is the sameyou click around on a map and see photos of the streetbut beyond that, the two diverge. MapJacks imagery is many times sharper, larger, and more dynamic than Googles. The site offers a sophisticated array of controls, both in navigating the street and the view and in controlling the image display. I found it much more responsive and vibrant than Google Maps. Lining up a particular address or orientation is a snap, like it should be.

Automatic Backups Made Easier

Just what every Kindle owner needs, a fistful of Easter Eggs for activating Google Maps GPS CDMA, a screenshot grabber, clock, fonts list, picture viewer, Minesweeper game, and diagnostic commands. All of these wonderful gifts thanks to the exacting reverse engineering efforts of Igor Skochinsky. The basic process for enabling one of these Easter eggs follows this type of scenario:

Inside the browser

Press Alt + 1 (one)

Google Maps will now display your current location

Press Alt + 2 for a display of the nearest gas stations

Press Alt + 3 for a display of the nearest restaurants

Skochinsky has thoroughly documented his efforts at unearthing all of the Kindles secrets in his Reversing Everything Blog. Watch our site in the future as we explore more Kindle hacks.—Dave Prochnow

(Image: Interface.Puhala.com)

It's every stubborn man's dream. You don't have the dashboard navigator. You don't want to go in and ask for directions because, well, that's beneath you. Men don't ask for directions. But there on the screen right before you, as you're re-filling the tank, a touch-activated Google map offers to show you the way to your destination. And you don't even have to admit you're lost. You could just say you're double-checking.

The gas pump maker Gilbarco Veeder-Root unveiled plans to roll out a Google maps-enabled service at 3,500 pumps across the U.S. The bad news? In the short term, you'll only be able to search for spots chosen by the retailer: hotels, restaurants, landmarks, etc. But the company expects to allow drivers to search for whatever address they want in the future.—Gregory Mone

(Image credit: Gilbarco Veeder-Root)

Google lit up the blogs today with what it's best at: another brilliant and cool product release. Actually, it's just a feature addition to Google Maps called My Maps, proving that even the slightest of tweaks from the mother ship is enough to get Web users salivating en masse.

My Maps is worth the hype, though. It allows you to take any Google Map and draw on it, effectively adding "cartographer"—an occupation and, for that matter, word I've always admired—to your curriculum vitae. You can add placemarks (like little push-pins), lines and shaded polygons to your heart's content, and each piece can be fully annotated via HTML with text, pictures and links, which lends itself to all kinds of incredibly useful tasks.

I dove right in and made my first map this afternoon, which is an annotated guide to my lunch hour, complete with all my favorite midday dining spots (check it out here, and if you work in Midtown Manhattan, you'll benefit nicely from my little airing of secrets). As far as I can tell you can't collaborate on maps yet, but when that feature hits everyone in the office could add their favorite spots as well. Other uses are myriad and insanely practical—customized driving directions, neighborhood guides, anything—and each map can be saved and linked to from anywhere on the Web.

It's really amazing that it took this long for a service as practical and useful as My Maps to surface to the mainstream. Or maybe there were others? If you've been making custom maps since Google was in diapers, let us know below. And we want to see how you're using your maps—make 'em public and post the links below in the comments.—John Mahoney

My Map - PopSci Goes to Lunch
My Maps Guide

In true Apple fashion, Steve Jobs and co. annually ditch the biggest electronics trade show in the world in favor of their own party, Macworld.  The strategy seems to be working out just fine, because today most everyone here in Vegas is talking about the much-ballyhooed and now bona fide iPhone, and with good reason: This phone is hot.

As expected, it's a phone. It's a video iPod. It's an Internet device. It's a mobile OS X computer. And it's beautiful. The sleek phone is all screen, featuring an adaptable touch-based interface that, if anything like the iPod's ingenious scroll-wheel, promises to change the way people control their mobile devices. And beyond the interface, the iPhone packs in practically every high-end mobile phone feature and more: Wi-Fi, EDGE data capabilities (via Cingular, Apple's exclusive partner through 2009), full iTunes integration including CoverFlow, free push email from Yahoo, a Google Maps application, and, well, the list keeps going.

Playing second fiddle is Apple TV, the living room media box announced last September which also debuted today. But it's clearly the iPhone's day in San Francisco. And judging by the amount of people here in the press room watching Steve Jobs's keynote on their laptops, it's the iPhone's day in Las Vegas, too. —John Mahoney

The yearly calendar of Bill Gates is undoubtedly chock full of special days, but last night in Las Vegas he once again relished what has to be the only date marked "get the party started" as he delivered the 2007 CES opening keynote address. The Venetian's faux-Renaissance main ballroom was packed to the gills with adoring tech fans ready to get crazy, but to everyone's chagrin, most only managed levels of mild to moderate excitement.

With Gates being such a singular figure in the world, it's somewhat shocking that he's capable of delivering such a yawner of a keynote. The theme was the "connected experience" that will soon allow us to consume our "content" and communicate freely in every conceivable location (living room, kitchen, car, etc) at every conceivable moment—all with Windows Vista at the core. Vista does look great, and eye-candy like a full-screen video desktop background and a 3-D Google-Maps-style application garnered murmurs of delight from the crowd, but in the end, Gates delivered nothing more than a standard trade-show preview of an upcoming product.

The address was not entirely without interestingness, with the official announcement of Windows Home Server edition—a version of Windows designed to run on a specialized server box (HP announced the first) and capable of linking your home's computers (and Xbox consoles) to perform automatic backups, store files and allow remote access to your stuff from anywhere via the Internet. Also notable was the announcement of IPTV's debut on the Xbox later this year, positioning the Xbox as the be-all end-all living room device.

By the time Gates demoed a fantastical future home (sorry Mr. Gates, but ours is better) with "these digital screens" making up the walls and countertops, a good portion of the massive crowd was already heading to the exits to beat the rush, possibly knocking over some Venetian stilt-walking jugglers or lute bands in period dress. Now that's excitement! —John Mahoney

If you ask me, any data placed into the context of a map instantly becomes more useful and interesting. That's why Google Maps mashups are the best, and why I went bonkers over Flickr's geotagging a few weeks back.

Well, now I've found a new love. Last night, while enjoying a frothy stout at my most beloved local beerhouse, a visiting Chicagoan told me about  beermapping.com—a site that has taken up the noble task of cataloging the finest breweries, brewpubs, beer stores and beer bars in US cities (23 and counting), and plotting them all on a Google Map for easy browsin'. And we're not talking any old bar with Tuesday night Bud Light specials—these are the places for serious devotees of the hops, places whose list of  Dutch Weissebiers is longer than your arm (and most bars' full rosters). Not only is it an excellent source for travelers, it can help you rediscover your own neighborhood through the eyes of an enlightened beer drinker. And seriously, what's better than a little enlightened drinking? Cheers to you, beermapping.com—this next one's on me. —John Mahoney

An Inconvenient Truth, the documentary on global warming starring Al Gore, opened this week in New York and California. I saw it last night and, though Ive attended several academic conferences related to global warming and its effects this year, this film presents the scientific consensus on the real and significant effects of climate change in the most straightforward and compelling way Ive seen yet.

Of course, there are still some people who dont think theres a problem—for instance, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a think tank funded in part by the oil industry. Its commissioned a couple 60-second advertising spots that are now airing in 14 U.S. cities and on its Web site. The tagline of the ads: Carbon dioxide: They call it a pollutant. We call it Life. Huh?

Anyway, if youre the type who values science over spin, you might want to calculate your own contribution to the problem at climatecrisis.org (click on Take Action, then Your Impact). There are quite a few of these carbon calculators available on the Web, although this one ups accuracy by adding in your airline miles—which may make some of us holier-than-thou, public-transportation-loving urbanites feel a little less smug.

The hope is that we start thinking about our own CO2 emissions the way we think about our calorie intake (not that we Americans have such a great track record in that area either). You know, like realizing that huge hunk of chocolate cake is a full 600 calories and deciding to split it with your date. Its the same thing for your drive from Boston to Burlington. Ride with someone else, and your impact is half as much.

OK, OK, so carpooling alone wont solve global warming. But getting people to consider their own emissions on a daily basis would be a decent start to building up the political will to take on the problem for real. Need more motivation? Check out these simulated Google maps of the warmer, flooded future.—Kalee Thompson

I'm addicted to Web 2.0 apps—those interactive Ajax-scripted Web sites such as Backpack and Remember the Milk. The release of a new one reminds me of the pre-Web days when a new version of Mac OS or Quark would suddenly appear and you got to waste your whole day fiddling with new features. 30 Boxes is my latest obsession—a supersmart online calendar that could finally be the free solution to shared scheduling we've been waiting for. The beta just went public Sunday and so far I'm very impressed.

Besides its slick, easy-to-use interface, 30 Boxes' schtick is that it integrates into the social Web scene, importing photos from your Flickr account, sites from your del.icio.us feed and content from several other sites. But it also lets you share your calendar with others in a very customizable way. Invite a "buddy" to join 30 Boxes, and decide what you want them to see—all or some of your appointments (you can set up individual filters), your bookmarks or Flickr photos, etc—and see theirs on your calendar. So you could share all your appointments with your spouse, only the weekly poker game with one set of buddies, and birthdays with all the relatives. Whenever you add something it shows up automatically on their calendars and vice versa. You can even drop Google maps into an appointment just by entering its address in brackets. Like any shared app, it requires everyone to participate to take full advantage of its potential, but even if none of your family and friends are on the Web 2.0 train yet, it's worth using just for your own schedule. —Mike Haney

Imagine having a 10-gigabyte hard drive in your cellphone or a terabyte of space on your laptop. Perpendicular recording, a new way of writing data to
a hard disk, creates the possibility for these kinds of capacities, just as we're approaching the physical limits of traditional recording methods.
Hard drives store information by changing the polarization of microscopic magnetic bits aligned end-to-end on a surface called a platter. But you can pack in only so many bits before they interfere with one another, randomly switching orientation and turning your data into noise.