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EU official concerned about Google imagery

Update 10:40 a.m. PDT: I added comment from Google and its confirmation that it has indeed begun photographing European cities.

Google Street View would raise problems if brought to Europe, an official with the European Union's data protection agency said Thursday.

"Making pictures everywhere is certainly going to create some problems," EU Data Protection Supervisor Peter Hustinx said at a news conference to present his annual report, according to a Reuters report.

Hustinx also said he expected Google would be able to comply with laws.

"Apparently there is the capacity to adapt this in … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 724: YOU are!

It's episode 724, wherein we argue, but in a happy way. MySpace wins a $234 million antispam judgment they'll probably never collect, and Google blurs faces in Street view, maybe just to be nice. Also, it turns out seniors are more acutely aware of the passing of time (or they hate commercials more than the youngsters do) and Qtrax makes four improbable deals. Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 724

Note: We are making a change to our podcast feed system on Monday, May 19. However, you do not need to subscribe to a new feed. One … Read more

Google begins blurring faces in Street View

BURLINGAME, Calif.--Google has begun testing face-blurring technology for its Street View service, responding to privacy concerns from the search giant's all-seeing digital camera eye.

The technology uses a computer algorithm to scour Google's image database for faces, then blurs them, said John Hanke, director of Google Earth and Google Maps, in an interview at the Where 2.0 conference here.

Google has begun testing the technology in Manhattan, the company announced on its LatLong blog. Ultimately, though, Hanke expects it to be used more broadly.

Dealing with privacy--both legal requirements and social norms--is hard but necessary, Hanke … Read more

A rear-view mirror that does it all

Enduring certain ridicule, we have suggested on occasion that the rear-view mirror could become one of the main control centers for vehicles of the near future. Already, there have been versions that have technologies ranging from GPS navigation to built-in camcorders and Webcams. And now there's one that appears to cram in more functions than all of the others combined.

As indicated by its name, the "Multifunction GPS Bluetooth Rearview Mirror System" claims a broad array of features, including a 3.5-inch touch screen, satellite navigation, audio and video players, speakers, SD card slot, five games, and … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 720: Lovin' Out Loud

Announcing the launch of our new dating podcast, Lovin' Out Loud! Also, Microsoft may or may not build content filtering into the Zune, by which we mean "probably will." Also, should judges decide the intent of technology in awarding boffo-size judgments against P2P search engines? And on that note, we're off to order some pizza online. Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 720

Revoked NSL aimed at Internet Archive shows need for reform http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/ 20080508-revoked-nsl-aimed-at-internet-archive-shows-need-for-reform.html http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/07/211255

Zune to build copyright … Read more

Plastic bag conquers Google Street View

Privacy advocates should take note of an effective way to avert the prying eyes of Google Street View: the lowly plastic bag.

A block of College Road in Fairbanks, Alaska, along with portions of Minnie St. and Third St. show what a driver would see only if wearing a plastic bag on his or her head. As Google Sightseeing observes, you can tell what it is by the fact that it says "plastic bag" on the inside.

So now perhaps we know which scheming multibillion dollar search engine is behind San Francisco's ban on plastic bags.

Google map directions get Street View

Google has built its Street View into Google Maps' ability to provide driving directions, the company said Tuesday.

With the feature, a small camera icon appears next to the intersections in the turn-by-turn directions. Clicking on the icon brings up a view of the intersection so people can see the area in question.

Google Street View is available in 44 areas of the United States, and there are strong signs Google is bringing Street View to Europe. Street View is available through the Google Maps programming interface so that those using Google Maps can add Street View abilities to their … Read more

Power Downloader, file format master

Power Downloader tries his best to help all, but recently his friend Francois Foto approached him with a tricky problem: is there a way to easily convert photos from one format to another? ''Ze emphasees,'' said Francois, ''eez on easy.'' Power had a simple solution, a freeware program called XnView.

XnView is a robust program, an image browser and viewer as well as a converter. For conversions, though, it can handle more than 400 formats from Camera RAW, JPG, GIF, TIFF, and other still image formats all the way through AVI, MOV, MPEG, and a multitude of movie formats. Metadata … Read more

A post-redesign AOL hits new Web site traffic records

AOL announced on Friday that it posted double-digit growth in March, posting new traffic records for the former high-flying Internet darling.

Page views on AOL's programming sites jumped 35 percent in March, compared to a year ago, while unique visitors rose 11 percent, to 56.5 million users, in the same comparison period, according to ComScore Media Metrix.

"Our strong growth is a direct result of rebuilding each and every one of our vertical Web sites over the past 12 months, with the goal of providing consumers highly relevant and rich experiences that focus on key passion points,&… Read more