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The next-generation iPhone will feature a thinner display that incorporates in-cell technology, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

In-cell technology would mean the iPhone's touch sensors and LCD are combined into a single layer, doing away with the need to have a separate touch-screen layer.

As well as enabling thinner screens, in-cell panels are also thought to be cheaper to produce than the current two-layer set-up.

LCD screen makers Sharp, LG Display, and Japan Display are mass-producing the in-cell panels for the screen, according to the Journal. Apple's use of in-cell technology is seen as … Read more

Before giant Lego trees and flowers popped up in the Australian Outback, a honking huge Lego bridge made an appearance in Germany.

Late last year, street artist Megx pulled out the primary colors to transform the underside of a bridge into an optical illusion. Clever use of color and shading makes the bridge in Wuppertal look like it's built from an interlocking set of massive Lego bricks.… Read more

As far as mobile mapping goes, Google Maps for Android offers one of the best experiences you can get. More than a simple piece of mapping software, this feature-fest offers turn-by-turn navigation, voice search, indoor mapping (select locations), public transportation information, Street View, and so much more.

When viewing a location, Google Maps lets you activate a variety of add-on layers offering information like traffic, terrain, transit lines, and more. There's even a Wikipedia layer that plots out entries related to your location. And if that's not enough, you can zoom all the way into Street View for … Read more

Google denied that Street View data presented to a British regulator was "pre-prepared" and said it was "surprised" that the agency had reopened its investigation into the Web giant's data collection practices.

The denial was in response to an Information Commissioner's Office letter sent last week that included additional questions to its 2010 investigation, saying it was motivated to reopen its probe after information provided in an earlier U.K. investigation appeared to have been contradicted by the Federal Communications Commission.

Google's Street View cars, which were supposed to collect the locations of … Read more

Google is facing renewed privacy scrutiny in Britain, as a U.K. regulator reopens its investigation into how the Web giant's Street View program gathered personal data.

The U.K. Information Commissioner's Office announced today that it was motivated to reopen its probe, after information provided in an earlier U.K. investigation appears to have been contradicted by the Federal Communications Commission, which found in April that Google's data collection had not broken the law.

"During the course of our investigation, we were specifically told by Google that it was a simple mistake, and if the … Read more

Much ado has been made of Apple's decision to ditch Google's mapping technology in favor of an in-house solution for the Maps app in iOS 6. Yesterday's WWDC keynote failed to shed light on how Apple plans to accomplish that task, but an anonymous tipster leaked iOS 6 beta screenshots showing TomTom attribution information, later confirmed by CNET.

Also included in Apple's mapping initiative is OpenStreetMap and at least 15 other mapping data providers (AND, DigitalGlobe, Intermap, LeadDog, others).

While the attribution lists a number of map data providers, Microsoft is conspicuously missing. So how is … Read more

Google has struck back against The Wall Street Journal after the newspaper published a rather scathing guest opinion piece lambasting the Internet giant.

Nextag CEO Jeffrey Katz wrote on Thursday evening that Google has ballooned into a monopoly, pegging its closest competition -- at least in the search space -- as one that has no hope of competing. (Interestingly enough, that's Bing, the search entry for Microsoft, which has had its own well-known monopoly-related issues in the past.)

Katz does have some solid evidence here, which is mainly statistics proving Google's dominance in the search field as well … Read more

As Google takes Street View off-road with its new Trekker backpacks, German company Streetview Technology is taking the mapping technology in yet another new direction -- DIY terrain.

That's right, with "DIY streetview," people can create their own versions of Google's popular, unpopular, and sometimes artsy high-tech atlas.… Read more

"Help! I'm being attacked by an escaped mutant brain on the streets of Sao Paulo! Call the..." <sluuuuuuuuurp>

Wait, gentle reader, wait. Before you go all Orson Welles "War of the Worlds" on us and start tweeting a bunch of panic-stricken warnings, allow us to inform you that this is not, in fact, an escaped mutant brain. It's actually part of "Call Parade," a promo event being put on in Brazil's largest city by telephone company Vivo and street-events company toptrends.… Read more