July 30 th
Three-year old Irish company iTraffic has introduced a revolutionary new smart phone app — Twaffic Navigator — that delivers real-time traffic data with turn-by-turn navigation.
Brendan Conway started iTraffic in 2007 after 30 years in the motor trade and having set up another business, RM Distribution, which imported and installed in-car entertainment and security devices.
“In selling sat navs and other devices I realised there was no dynamic traffic information in Ireland, so I put the partnerships in place to allow iTraffic to collect, detect and publish real-time traffic information,” he said.
“A lot of new technologies were needed and I have made an overall investment of €1 million myself to get the company going.”
Compatible with 1 million smartphones
Twaffic Navigator can be used on 99pc of smartphones (1 million) in Ireland. It receives traffic flow updates every five minutes and provides advanced warnings of potential bottlenecks such as accidents, road-works or even road closures throughout the journey.
It is Ireland’s first smart-phone enabled navigation device to include real-time traffic information that allows users to check journey times before setting off – the ‘know before you go’ feature – and provides the fastest route to destination every time, re-routing around traffic incidents.
Pedestrians as well as vehicle drivers can use the new app, which also has a ‘Near Me’ facility to allow you to find the nearest restaurant, golf course, public park etc.
The ‘share your location’ feature, for those who use Facebook and Twitter, provides location-based tweets and alerts with a precision map to display to your friends and colleagues.
By
July 29 th
With the iPad, as with the iPhone, it’s all about the wealth of useful apps.
The main difference between iPad apps and iPhone apps is in the screen real estate. The iPad screen – at 9.7-inches – is much bigger than the smartphone display, about the same size as a netbook. However, netbooks do not provide the same intimacy.
This is where Apple technology really excels. You pass right through the technology and feel as though you are in the web, in the game or whatever particular application you’re using.
These apps range from free to quite pricey and you’ll find yourself changing your behaviour, reading more than you used to and learning more than you used to also.
National Geographic World Atlas HD – €1.59
As a child, one of the first books I remember poring over was the world atlas. As I traced country boundaries with my fingers I could sense the enormity of Russia’s vast open spaces and the imagine Ferdinand Magellan and his crew approaching Tierra del Fuego for the first time.
Glossy magazines, websites or computer programmes have not brought me back to this place, but the National Geographic World
Atlas app has. Navigating the globe by finger and zooming in on areas that take your fancy, discovering facts about the world’s nations
and checking out the satellite view is fun and informative. The rich colours and detail echo the traditional atlas.
This is one of the apps that renders the iPad a real, albeit expensive, educational tool.
AccuWeather – Free
One of the clever things about the iPad is that by its very nature it frames everything it does. As long as you have a stand you can enjoy it as a digital photo frame, a movie/music player or, in this case, a weather channel. If you’re so inclined you can see weather maps, video reports, and even migraine risks or grass-growing conditions.
iDisk – Free
One of the chief complaints about the iPad is that it cannot be used as an external hard drive like a laptop or netbook. There are, however, ways around this with many apps, including Apple’s iDisk. If you are an Apple MobileMe member you will be aware of the
20GB of online or cloud storage for an annual fee. iDisk manages access to this and solves the iPad storage dilemma for the most part, holding music, movies, documents, pictures and email.
Financial Times iPad Edition – Free
As with many other global publications, the Financial Times has gone the route of creating its own iPad app. The light salmon colour and column layout of the paper version is reproduced well but the addition of FT video and the ability to access your FT portfolio rounds this app out.
Highlights include links from companies mentioned in articles to a financial profile and interactive stocks chart.
There is free access until 31 August, after which you will have to register online.
Pages – €7.99
Apple’s own Pages – adapted from the Mac version – is a powerful word processing application. Create documents and export in Word, Pages or PDF format and email to your colleagues. Pictures and video can be added and charts can be created.
Marie Boran
July 29 th
Personal details of 100m Facebook users have been collected and published on the net by a security consultant.
Ron Bowles used a piece of code to scan Facebook profiles, collecting data not hidden by the user’s privacy settings.
The list, which has been shared as a downloadable file, contains the URL of every searchable Facebook user’s profile, their name and unique ID.
Mr Bowles said he published the data to highlight privacy issues, but Facebook said it was already public information.
The file has spread rapidly across the net.
On the Pirate Bay, the world’s biggest file-sharing website, the list was being distributed and downloaded by more than 1,000 users.
One user, going by the name of lusifer69, described the list as “awesome and a little terrifying”.
In a statement to BBC News, Facebook said that the information in the list was already freely available online.
“People who use Facebook own their information and have the right to share only what they want, with whom they want, and when they want,” the statement read.
“In this case, information that people have agreed to make public was collected by a single researcher and already exists in Google, Bing, other search engines, as well as on Facebook.
“No private data is available or has been compromised,” the statement added.
‘Privacy confusion’
But Simon Davies from the watchdog Privacy International told BBC News that Facebook had been given ample warning that something like this would happen.
“Facebook should have anticipated this attack and put measures in place to prevent it,” he said
“It is inconceivable that a firm with hundreds of engineers couldn’t have imagined a trawl of this magnitude and there’s an argument to be heard that Facebook have acted with negligence, he added.
Mr Davies said that the trawl of data fed into “the confusion of the privacy settings”.
“People did not understand the privacy settings and this is the result,” he said.
Facebook hit its 500m user in mid June 2010 Earlier this year there was a storm of protest from users of the site over the complexity of Facebook’s privacy settings. As a result, the site rolled out simplified privacy controls.
Facebook has a default setting for privacy that makes some user information publicly available. People have to make a conscious choice to opt-out of the defaults.
“It is similar to the white pages of the phone book, this is the information available to enable people to find each other, which is the reason people join Facebook,” said a spokesman for the firm.
“If someone does not want to be found, we also offer a number of controls to enable people not to appear in search on Facebook, in search engines, or share any information with applications.”
But Mr Davies disagreed, saying the default settings should be changed.
“This highlights the argument for a higher level of privacy and proves the case for default nondisclosure,” he said.
“There are going to be a lot of angry and concerned people right now who will be wondering who has their data and what they should do.”
However, Mr Davies pointed out that this was something of an “ethical attack” and that more personal information, such as email addresses, phone numbers and postal addresses had not been included in the trawl.
BBC Online readers have been sending us their thoughts on this story. Here is a selection of their comments.
I’ve reconnected with dozens of old friends, some of whom I hadn’t seen in years, because it is possible to search for them on Facebook. There’s not much point in signing up for it if you’re just going to hide behind a wall of anonymity.
Cliff Smith, Exeter, UK
I don’t see that Facebook has done anything wrong. They make it abundantly clear that you, the subscriber, are responsible for managing your privacy settings. If you don’t know how to cook, you stay out of the kitchen. In other words, if you don’t understand how to manage your privacy settings, don’t sign up to Facebook.
Steve, Riverside, California, USA
I made a deliberate decision not to use Facebook because I don’t trust it. It is obviously a frequently-attacked site, and I don’t trust the company to resist the temptation to harvest the data they host.
Jane C, UK
What happened is that someone wasted hours compiling already available material and then posted it on the ‘scary’ Pirate Bay website, as if they were disclosing secrets of national security. It’s no more alarming than finding the yellow pages in a brothel. If you want to meet friends and share information with the world then stop whining when the person looking over your shoulder can see it all too.
Mark Ford, East Grinstead, UK
I use Facebook to connect with family friends and co-workers. But I am not searchable, I do not share with ‘friends of friends’ and have not installed any of those silly side apps that share your info. Facebook is still too complicated for the average user.
Shannon, Winchester, California, USA
Large scale data mining exercises like this one are actually pretty common and easy to do. If you don’t want people looking at your information, either don’t make it publicly available or don’t post it in the first place.
Ben, Manchester, UK
By Daniel Emery,Technology reporter, BBC News
July 23 rd
From today the iPad goes on sale in nine more countries, including Ireland, writes CIARA O’BRIEN
IN THE six months since it was first announced, the Apple iPad has certainly made an impact. Described as a “magical and revolutionary device” by chief executive Steve Jobs, the iPad has sold more than three million units since its April 3rd launch in the US, and its May 28th debut in Britain, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and Switzerland.
Irish Apple fans have had to wait a bit longer but from today the device goes on sale in nine more countries, including Ireland.
Essentially a large iPhone, the iPad runs on the same operating system as its phone counterpart. The device is aimed at people who want to watch media clips, view photographs, send some email and maybe browse the web without having to peer at a small phone screen or be saddled with a laptop.
Like most Apple products, a lot of thought has gone into the design. The iPad is slim at only 13.4mm thick, and looks remarkably similar to Apple’s much-praised phone.
The 9.7 inch high resolution screen is incredibly detailed and has been designed with movies and other media content in mind. It’s bright, and is supposed to be fingerprint resistant, although anyone who has used an iPad for any length of time will probably question its ability to resist smudges.
The screen, combined with the iBooks application, also makes it a pretty impressive e-reader. Text is crisp and clear, and the iBooks application makes it easy to read, giving the option of customising typefaces and font size.
However, it’s a little on the heavy side to hold one-handed, as many people do with regular books or e-readers, for any length of time without your wrist taking the brunt of it. While 0.68kg may not seem very heavy when you’re reading the specs, it will when you’re making your way through the latest best-seller.
On the inside, the iPad has a 1GHz chip to move things along. It’s speedy enough at loading applications and switching between media files. The amount of files you can squeeze in will depend on the capacity you opt for: 16GB, 32GB or 64GB, according to your budget. On the face of it, the price difference for such products seems a little steep – €100 for an additional 16GB and 32GB of memory respectively when you upgrade to the 32GB and 64GB versions. The extra cost of getting 3G is also steep – an extra €100 to have the connectivity built in, and that’s before you start paying for your data plan.
Weighing it up against the cost of a wireless mobile modem, and the price for convenience is clear.
The cost of such products is always an issue, particularly when comparing them to overseas costs. The 16GB Wifi only version of the iPad costs €499 here, compared with $499 (€390) in the US and £429 (€509) in the UK. The top of the range 64GB version with Wifi and 3G connectivity will set you back €799 in Irish stores and £699 in the UK (€829). The same device costs $829 in the US, the equivalent of €647 at today’s exchange rates.
The range of functions on the iPad is what has grabbed people’s attention. Aside from movies, web browsing and e-mail, it will also function as an iPod, albeit a large one. It comes with built-in speakers and a headphone socket, and though it will never replace your iPod or iPhone when it comes to portable music, it’s handy for listening to podcasts while browsing the web or watching films in public places – on a long plane journey, for example.
This is where the iPad’s far superior battery really shines. You would be hard pressed to get 10 hours out of a laptop, but the iPad’s claimed battery life appears to be living up to its promises.
However, there are some other things to note about the iPad. It does not have a USB port or the ability to connect external storage cards, such as the one inside a digital camera, without the purchase of additional kit. Most of the time you won’t transfer files without your Mac or PC, unless you’re downloading them from an online source. The lack of such functions has been criticised, but it doesn’t seem to phase Apple’s loyal following, who have already crumbled and bought the device despite its perceived shortcomings.
All the software for the iPad comes from Apple’s App Store. Because it uses the same operating system as the iPhone, it will run applications designed for the phone too. However, to take full advantage of the screen, users will have to shell out for apps designed with the iPad in mind.
The new device has created a new market for app developers, who suddenly have a lot more screen space to fill. This is a great opportunity for most, with everything from reader applications and games to productivity software benefitting from the larger screen real estate.
The apps can be, in some instances, more expensive to buy than their iPhone counterparts. However, there are still some that remain free or close enough in price to their iPhone counterparts. And if you’ve already bought the iPhone version and are quite happy with it, you could always just redownload it to the iPad through the App Store for free.
July 20 th
Now that we know the iPad is coming to Ireland this Friday, 23 July, we’ll need to start thinking about how we’re going to accessorise it and you can’t get more quirky than the Cradle lap desk.
Made from plyboo (that’s bamboo-effect plywood), the Cradle lap desk has a circular centre made of matte soft-touch where you dock your iPad for swivelling and turning about while placing the desk in a comfy manner on your lap or in front of you.
If you’ve already played with an iPad you’ll know that it won’t just rest on your lap – it requires holding and re-positioning and can be a slippery gadget.
This funky design from www.quirky.com will look good in the modern home or office and importantly has a foam cushion on the underside so it’s comfortable, too.
Quirky.com is a design collective where ideas can be submitted by the general public for US$99. If the idea is useful/unique enough, it is passed through resident designers and the Quirky community gets a say on the look, logo, etc.
Depending on the unit price, Quirky needs pre-sale commitment from a certain number of people and when this number is reached it goes on sale.
By Marie Boran, Silicon Republic, Tuesday July 20 2010
July 20 th
Computer giant HP which has just acquired smartphone maker Palm has completed a trademark application for ‘PalmPad’ signalling its intention to go head to head with Apple’s iPad.
HP, which earlier this month confirmed it completed the US$1.2bn acquisition of Palm, has made no secret of thefact that it plans to feature Palm’s webOS in a new line of tablet PCs, netbooks and smartphones.
The filing with the USPTO was made by Hewlett-Packard Development Company based out of Houston, Texas.
Prior to buying Palm, HP has been mysteriously quiet about plans to make a Windows 7 based tablet computer – dubbed the Slate – and has jettisoned plans to make Android-based tablet devices.
Upon completion of the Palm purchase, Todd Bradley, executive vice-president of HP’s Personal Systems Group, explained the that acquisition will give HP access to Palm’s webOS platform and, in particular, a “rich portfolio of intellectual property” from the smartphone maker.
Former Palm CEO Jon Rubenstein made it clear the webOS platform will feature in future slate PCs and netbooks.
“With webOS, HP will deliver its customers a unique and compelling experience across smartphones and other mobility products.
“This allows us the opportunity to fully engage in growing our smartphone family offering and the footprint of webOS.”
Rubenstein will lead the Palm global business unit within HP and will report to Bradley.
By John Kennedy, Silicon Republic, Tuesday July 20 2010
July 16 th
MICROSOFT IS staking its future on cloud computing and gambling that businesses all over the world will make the switch from inhouse computing to cyberspace.
At a five-day Washington summit for 14,000 partners this week, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said the industry was “at an inflection point in technology history” and predicted spending on cloud applications will grow five times faster than all other software spending.
Cloud computing enables companies to dispense with costly inhouse servers and run everything from e-mail to accounting and other complex computer services on the web with huge savings.
“There’s a great buzz here. It’s all about the cloud. Every second word is the cloud. Microsoft are 100 per cent with the cloud and they want all their partners to lead the way and help companies make this change,” said Hugh MacHale, of Dublin-based Itomic.
Mr McHale represented one of 74 Irish firms that flew into Washington for Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference to get the inside track on how they can work with Microsoft to develop professional applications.
Spanish Point Technologies, also based in Dublin, showcased applications it has already developed for Windows Azure – the MS cloud platform.
The Irish Music Rights Organisation (Imro) which collects royalties for musicians is one company using the technology. It created a system which allowed artists to log in and track payments at the end of a month, cutting computer costs dramatically for Imro.
“If they don’t use the system 20 days of the month, they’re not charged because the payments are made according to usage,” said Donal Cullen, founder of Spanish Point. In Washington, he launched another product, after Microsoft asked him to demonstrate at the summit. He hopes to leave with outline agreements to sell the product in France, Spain and Sweden, creating 10 jobs in Ireland.
Trade Facilitate, another Irish firm, got a boost after getting a name check in Ballmer’s keynote speech. “I was blown away. And sitting in the same theatre with 14,000 others and the MS CEO pointing to us alongside Accenture and Siemens was a good feeling,” said Conor O’Riordain whose background is imports and exports
He is already capitalising on new EU laws on paper-free customs which require all goods to carry a “passport” from January. Trade Facilitate has an EU- and US-approved application that allows import and export companies do all their paperwork on the cloud and pass customs quickly.
Mr O’Riordain launched the product in March after a two-year development and validation process, and already has 800 customers, including coffee suppliers in Ethiopia and wine producers all over the world. “This conference will have enormous impact on our business,” he said.
For Itomic, the conference was a vindication of its business strategy. Up until last year, it was a traditional hardware firm selling servers and maintaining them. “We thought if we started to migrate people to the cloud we could cannabilise our business, but . . . we have to do it because it is the right thing for business.
“The cloud is the single biggest thing to happen since the growth of the internet,” said Mr McHale.
By Lisa O’Carroll, The Irish Times, Friday July 16 2010
July 16 th
The latest battle between Google and Apple for supremacy in the mobile market pits revamped Android against new iOS4.
THE COMPETITION between Google and Apple has become increasingly fierce in recent months, with both firms striving for the top spot in the mobile market.
Striving to close the gap with Apple, Google has pushed out an update to its popular Android platform. Announced by the search giant in May, Android 2.2, or Froyo, may not have drastically changed the operating system, but it does contain some important upgrades.
However, Android is not the only one to get an update. The much-publicised iOS4 for iPhone was made available to users last month, bringing with it more than 100 new features or tweaks for 3GS users.
The iPhone operating system has one benefit. Unlike Android, which is available across a range of handsets, all with hardware capabilities, iOS4 only works with the iPhone – and the iPad of course. That limits it to the iPhone 3G, 3GS and 4, and Apple knows what hardware is in these handsets. Owners of the original iPhone are stuck with the previous operating system. Android, in contrast, is found in everything from entry-level handsets to high-end smartphones. While it means there are more handsets using Android, it also means the hardware profile is more diverse.
Like iOS4, however, Froyo is not compatible with all Android-powered handsets. It is not yet clear which handsets will be left on 2.1.
Apple has had tight control on how the operating system update was pushed out. You must connect to iTunes to get the update, and it was made available from June 21st. Android allows updates to be downloaded over the mobile data network, or through Wi-Fi, and you don’t need to connect to a PC to install it.
One of the key changes in the Froyo update – and the most useful – is the boost in speed, both for applications and the native browser. The system is more slick, and works better than its predecessors.
While many users may have downloaded alternative browsers such as Opera Mini, the native browser is still an important part of the system. It’s faster than its predecessor, and in some basic tests showed up as speedier than Apple’s Safari on the iPhone. JavaScript-heavy pages load quicker, thanks to the V8 tweaks.
A key advantage of the Google system is that it supports Flash. Although it can slow things down considerably, it offers consumers the option of accessing the content, rather than dealing with Apple’s decree that the standard will not appear at all on the system.
Multitasking is something that has been available on Android handsets for some time now. In fact, the Motorola Droid made it a key component in its advertising campaign, pointing out exactly what the iPhone couldn’t do. Apple’s latest operating system brought in multitasking for its 3GS and iPhone 4 users – the 3G is not compatible with that particular feature and, as previously mentioned, the original handset will not work with iOS4 at all.
While multitasking was one of the most eagerly awaited features of iOS4, it got a somewhat muted reception. This was due mainly to the way multitasking operated – ie, in a limited fashion. In a lot of cases, it’s not “true” multitasking. You can’t start an application and leave it working in the background. Most of the time, it merely suspends the application and remembers its state.
There are some exceptions, for example with GPS or music applications, which can now run in the background while you browse the web or check e-mail. Android, however, allows you to start browsing a web page and go check your e-mail before returning to the browser, which has been working in the background. The new feature also depended on iPhone developers updating the applications to take advantage of the multitasking option, however limited. This is somewhat of a slow process, with updates rolling out all the time.
However, the iPhone does have one advantage: while there’s an easy way to shut down the applications running in the background on iOS4, the same option is not afforded to Android users. The upshot is a slowly draining battery and, eventually, a dead phone.
Yet another update for the iPhone, the ability to create folders, is nothing new to Android; it’s been available since the Cupcake version – Android 1.5 – was rolled out. The iPhone version was a latecomer to the party. Up until now, your apps were spread over numerous pages. It was an unwieldy system rectified with iOS4. The iPhone version of folders, typically, looks better than the Android version.
Both operating systems offer Microsoft Exchange accounts, but iOS4 brings multiple accounts to the iPhone. Android has also beefed up its Exchange support. It offers account auto-discovery and calendar sync. Security has also been improved, and a remote wipe for lost or stolen devices can be performed. It also supports the Global Address List function.
Google’s developers have also brought the ability to install applications to an external storage medium, such as an SD card, to handsets. This opens up the capacity, quite restricted before. Apple does not offer external storage, but the memory users could install applications in was much greater.
Certain Android phones can now be used as a Wi-Fi hotspot, and the 2.2 update introduced USB tethering. Tethering has been enabled in the iPhone for some time, although carriers were slower to embrace it.
Overall, Apple has a slicker, more neatly packaged system. While it remains a more popular system than Android, this could change. Research firm IDC has predicted Android will overtake Apple in the mobile market by 2013 and, with some developers viewing the open platform as an increasingly attractive prospect, Apple may soon have a fight on its hands.
By Ciara O’Brien, The Irish Times, Friday July 16 2010
July 15 th
Apple has called a surprise news conference for Friday to talk about the iPhone 4 as the clamour for the company to resolve antenna problems with the new device intensified.
The company has refused to give details about whether the event will address reception problems that some users have reported with the phone, launched just last month.
Apple has faced mounting criticism from analysts and consumers over its handling of the issue.
Industry watchers said the firm was in danger of damaging its “rock star” reputation how poorly it has dealt with what would normally be a minor problem.
“It seems there has been a real crisis of leadership here,” said Patrick Kereley, senior digital strategist for Levick Strategic Communications which deals in crisis managment and reputation protection.
“There are so many conflicting reports about this issue and a lot of confusion in the marketplace. They need a plan of attack. Today’s companies have to react quickly before chatter on Facebook or Twitter turns into news headlines as is the case here,” Mr Kereley told BBC News.
That was a view echoed by a number of other brand managers and industry analysts.
“They have not handled this well at all and they have turned this into a bigger problem than it needed to be,” said Van Baker, senior vice president of research at Gartner.
Escalating issue
Reports of problems with the iPhone 4′s antennae started surfacing shortly after the phone went on sale on June 24. At that time some users claimed the signal strength fell away and calls were dropped when they gripped the phone on the lower left side.
A number of videos were posted on the video sharing site YouTube complaining about the reception issue.
The iPhone 4 integrates the antenna into the case Days later an email that puported to have been sent by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs did the rounds after one user contacted him to find out if there was a fix for the problem.
BoyGeniusReport.com, an Apple blog, printed the transcript in which Mr Jobs emailed back “you are getting all worked up over a few days of rumours. Calm down”.
The authenticity of the exchange was never confirmed or denied by Apple but it lit a spark among critics and fans alike who marvelled at the tone.
“The arrogance of this email, true or not, escalated the problem for Apple when what they should have done was get out in front of the problem and said here is the deal,” said technology analyst Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group.
On July 2, Apple issued a statement explaining that it was “surprised” by reports of reception problems and that an investigation found there was an error in the how the signals bars are displayed, rather than the signal itself.
The casing of Apple’s latest phone is made of stainless steel and also serves as its antenna.
Tests carried out this week by Consumer Reports confirmed a problem with the iPhone 4′s reception. In what was seen as a body blow to Apple, Consumer Reports said it could not recommend the phone to users.
Recall
In the last 48 hours the furore around the iPhone 4 antenna problem has snowballed.
There have been requests to have the phone recalled but that is seen as an very unlikely scenario given the damage that would cause to Apple’s bottom line and its reputation.
“Apple is probably one of the most important brands of the last 50 years,” said Olivier Blanchard, president of Brand Builder Marketing.
“They are rock stars in that sense and I believe that this fiasco with the iPhone 4 is an excuse to attack a company that is becoming such a giant. Five years ago when they were the underdog this would have been a non issue,” Mr Blanchard told BBC News.
Analysts have estimated a recall could cost as much as $1.5bn (£1bn) whereas the cost of issuing free rubber bumpers to aleviate the problem would be far cheaper at nearly $180m (£118m).
Despite the negative headlines, a number of analysts have reported that consumers are not turned off.
“So far, in our supply chain and industry checks, we have not seen any change in build plans or demand patterns and thus we are not changing our estimates looking for 7.5m iPhones in the June quarter and 40m in C2010,” said Shaw Wu of Kaufman Bros.
“In fact, our sources indicate that Apple is still having difficulty keeping up with strong demand due to screen supply constraints. Should this antenna issue become a bigger deal, there could be a risk to iPhone estimates.”
By Maggie Shiels, Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley, Thrusday July 15 2010
July 12 th
The Google car has returned! Following last year’s arrival of Google’s fleet of cars to Irish streets, particularly with a focus on mapping the five major cities of Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford, they’re back to “fill a few gaps”.
Last March, Google cars arrived in Dublin with the aim of mapping out city centres plus suburban and outlying areas with an aim of launching its online panoramic mapping service Street View that gives users a car’s-eye view of streets while allowing them to virtually explore.
Originally, Google said that Street View for Ireland would be launched anywhere from three months to a year later and while this has not happened yet the return of the Google car aims to add some more street-level imagery before launch.
“We started driving in Ireland last summer to collect imagery to launch Street View in Ireland but want to fill a few gaps, and add a few more special sites,” said Google, adding that Ireland’s top tourist attractions and natural scenery will be part of this.
Privacy concerns
However, the Google cars coming to Irish shores this time around will be different following the recent revelation that Google had “mistakenly included code in our software that collected samples of payload data from Wi-Fi networks”.
In other words, the Google car did not just collect GPS information and imagery, it also collected information on private unencrypted Wi-Fi internet connections that would have included browsing history, saved passwords and so on. (Password-protected networks were not affected).
This Wi-Fi payload data was destroyed in May following a request by the Irish Data Protection Authority in the presence of an independent third party.
Google said of this second visit by the Google car: “We’d also like to take this opportunity to update everyone on some changes we’ve made to our cars. You may remember that in May we announced that we had mistakenly included code in our software in Street View cars that collected Wi-Fi payload data. As soon as we discovered our error, we not only announced that we would stop collecting all Wi-Fi data via our StreetView cars, we also grounded our entire fleet of vehicles so we could remove the equipment and discuss what had happened with local regulators.”
By Marie Boran, Silicon Republic, Friday July 9 2010
