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Bangalore Suspends Google’s Street View Service Posted: 23 Jun 2011 05:36 AM PDT In a setback to its global mapping project, Google has stopped collecting images for its Street View service in the southern Indian city of Bangalore after objections from police. “We can confirm that we received a letter from the Commissioner of Police regarding Street View. We are currently reviewing it and have stopped our cars until we have a chance to answer any questions or concerns the police have,” Google spokesperson said. Earlier in 2007, the search engine giant Google launched its Street View Service as an experimental project (like Google Earth), which enables a panoramic view from various positions in Google maps and can explore places through 360-degree street-level imagery. A particular spot can be zoomed in locations facilitated with the Street View Service further, view can be customized with options like rotate, walk, jump or exit. It was launched across five US cities and then the company attempted to cover all the seven continents. Google launched its project to collect high definition images to give Google users 360 degree views of streets only last month in Bangalore. Google data collection has caused concern in numerous countries. Street View was launched in Bangalore last month with the plan to eventually cover the entire country. But according to Google, it received a letter from the Commissioner of Police of Bangalore asking it to stop the cars. The cars were taking pictures and mapping streets of Bangalore. The data was supposed to be used for Google’s Street View service. Bangalore is the IT hub of India, where Google employs thousands of people. The city has various organizations such as DRDO, HAL and ISRO and the fear could be that overall view of the roads leading to them could be used by a various anti-social elements in the future. Google, however, had earlier said that in order to protect privacy, the vehicles will capture images of public places alone and blur out faces of people and number plates of vehicles to make them unidentifiable. "We are committed to balancing our user's needs with concerns about security. We recognize the sensitivity associated with certain locations and are committed to working with relevant stake holders to ensure that their concerns are addressed," Google's Head of Products in India, Vinay Goel had said, assuring that the pictures carry only public information. Considering the questionable track record of the mapping service, India won’t be the first one to put the spokes in the wheels of the Street View car. Singapore, Canada, and several European nations have adopted the same approach in the past. Data protection authorities in a number of other countries are investigating Street View service, after the company said last year that its camera cars mistakenly collected data from unencrypted Wi-Fi networks while compiling images of city streets for its Google Maps site. Only time will tell if Google can convince the Indian Government to let it resume the service.

Top 5 Best Laptops That Money Can Buy In 2011 Posted: 22 Jun 2011 10:33 PM PDT The most common question we get around here is simple — ‘What laptop (netbook computer) should I buy?‘ Choosing a laptop should never been a rushed decision. Laptops are often expensive, and simply choosing one because it is lightweight or have the look that you desire could have profound consequences later on. To make sure that you purchase the laptop that will have the look you desire and be able to operate under the conditions you need it to, always thoroughly review your laptops of interest. A few of our top favorite five laptops for 2011 include: Apple MacBook Pro As much as we would all love to see a laptop that out performs Apple’s MacBook Pro, it doesn’t look like we will see it anywhere in the near future. No matter which of the numerous laptop reviews you are scouring through, nearly all of them will say that the MacBook is the best laptop on the market. The only laptop that has been able to outdo the MacBook Pro has been the most recent version of this laptop. It literally has it all – great memory, an excellent processor, good graphics, and even a long battery life. HP Envy When it comes to PC laptops, the HP Envy is one of the most efficient on the market. Not only does it have an i7 processor, but it also comes standard with 6GB DDR3 RAM. This laptop also has a sleek design to suite its powerful and modern interior design. Alienware M11X If you are big in to gaming, then the Alienware M11X is for you. This laptop offers great graphics and a long battery life so you can game where ever you like without having to worry about plugging in. ASUS UL30A Lightweight, compact, and 12.5 hours of battery life make this laptop a crowd favorite. It’s a great laptop for grabbing on the go, and because of its long-lasting battery life, you are able to work anywhere for an extended period of time without even having to consider looking for an outlet. The ASUS UL30A also has an abundance of memory and 4GB RAM which is great for a laptop of its size. And to top everything up, this laptop’s battery life is top-notch and better than industry average. Dell Inspiron i14R Dell laptops have been a long-standing favorite of professionals and students alike because of their efficiency and relatively low costs. The Dell Inspiron i14R is our favorite in particular because it is incredibly fast and has an abundance of memory, and is easily affordable. Are you still unsure about the difference between a laptop, notebook and netbook? Then check this article to clear your confusion for once and for ever -  Laptops, Notebooks and Netbooks; Here is the Difference!

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