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Construct Your Own 3D Buildings for Google Earth Using Google Building Maker

Pulkit Chandna — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 07:34:06 -0500

Google’s rendition of our planet is ready for a massive 2D to 3D transition with the launch of its browser-based Google Building Maker

tool for Google Earth. It is a new tool that lets almost anyone create 3D buildings for Google Earth. All you need is a Google account, the latest version of Google Earth and some rudimentary imaginative faculty to hit the ground running.

The internet giant defines the new tool as the progeny of “Google Maps and a gigantic bin of building blocks.” At the moment, it is possible to create 3D building in around 50 cities across the globe, though the 3D buildings can be viewed from anywhere in the world. The user is free to choose any building in the cities currently covered by the tool.

The model has to be created using the existing aerial shots of the selected location and 3D shapes. The finished product can then be submitted for review to the Google 3D Warehouse (an online repository of 3D models). If chosen, it is added to Google Earth’s 3D building layer.

“One of the best ways to get a big project done — and done well — is to open it up to the world. As such, today we're announcing the launch of Google Building Maker, a fun and simple (and crazy addictive, it turns out) tool for creating buildings for Google Earth,” Google’s Mark Limber (Product Manager) and Matt Simpson (User Experience Designer) wrote in a blog post announcing the launch of Building maker.

Image Credit: Google

The Business Card is Personal Again with Augmented Reality (à la Star Wars)

Pulkit Chandna — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 20:13:34 -0500

Business cards have largely been untouched by all the technological advancements around them. But all that is about to change as efforts to bring business cards up to speed are underway on a war footing. James Alliban's, a London-based Flash developer, lit up the internet after he unveiled his augmented reality business card last month.

Just as he was preparing to launch a company to tap the commercial potential of his project, another similar project surfaced. Jonas Jäger, a German design student, has trotted out his own AR business card solution, which is avowedly inspired by Star Wars.

He is currently developing a frontend tool that will let users “create a presentation file for your portfolio.” The user will have to print the unique QR-code – containing the URL of their presentation – and the AR-marker on the back of their business card to breathe life into to it. He has promised to release the source code under the Creative Commons License.

Image Credit: Toxin

New Gmail Labs Feature Lets You Translate Your Mail

Andy Salisbury — Wed, 20 May 2009 16:55:57 -0500

Google’s translation tool, which makes translating entire web sites extremely easy, is making its way to Gmail labs this month. Finally, you can find out exactly what those Japanese “happy pill” emails in your junk folder say!

The translation tool reportedly works in just a few seconds, and will translate both the subject and the body of the email while keeping the original intact. You can swap between both versions of your message by clicking a link.

Translated items won’t stay translated though; you’ll have to re-translate a message every time you wish to read it. And, the translated words don’t get cycled into Gmail’s search engine, so if you’re trying to track down a foreign email, make sure you remember how to type the characters type a required key word.

Image Credit: CNET

HP Offers Free Flash Development Tool to Detect Code Vulnerabilities

Pulkit Chandna — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 08:15:03 -0500

HP has begun offering a free Flash security tool called HP SWFScan, which helps developers identify vulnerabilities in their Flash apps. Though the ubiquity of Flash-based content should be enough motivation for developers to tighten the screws, a research conducted by HP revealed otherwise.

Thirty-five percent of the 4,000 Flash apps sampled by HP were found to be against Adobe’s security best practices. SWFScan decompiles Flash apps and checks the underlying ActionScript code for flaws. HP claims developers can even “audit third party applications without requiring access to the source code.”

Google's PowerMeter Will Help You Conserve Power

Pulkit Chandna — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:28:45 -0600

Google’s prolific online search business not only allows it to invade other business niches, but also gives it the freedom to take up numerous social causes. Now the online search juggernaut has launched an online platform that will help ordinary people conserve energy.

The free tool, called PowerMeter, will allow users to view and thoroughly analyze their household energy consumption data. The platform, currently in closed beta, requires that the user possess a smart meter. It will let users compare the energy-appetite of different devices within their house, besides making it possible for users to compare each other’s energy consumption trends.

Google hopes that access to household energy data will help users conserve energy – something many studies and Lord Kelvin have previously suggested.

Image Credit: Google

Twitter Gets Its First Commercial Auto-Spammer

Pulkit Chandna — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 18:09:15 -0600

The men behind Twitter might be busy finding a revenue model, but they can briefly halt their quest to beef up Twitter’s anti-spam mechanism to at least barely acceptable levels; its registration process doesn’t mandate a valid email. A commercial Twitter spamming tool, TweetTornado, hit the internet last week.

The authors of the automated Twitter advertising software claim that its users can create unlimited Twitter accounts and add unlimited followers. Its worth to spammers is obvious. Anyways, the effectiveness of TweetTornado is still unknown.

Twitter has to beef up security to repulse such threats to its credibility. It can begin by adding a simple email validation mechanism to the user-registration process.

Image Credit: Cnet