Earlier this year, Microsoft’s Xbox corporate VP Marc Whitten stated that that all Xbox One consoles will eventually be able to work for development, something promised to come along but not be available when the console first launched. Despite still not being available, some industrious Redditor has discovered how to access the functionality in the […]
This week the folks at HTC continue their rather rapid deployment of the Android 4.4 KitKat software update across the globe with their Unlocked and Developer Editions. These are two of the last editions to get the software, while some carrier editions and the HTC One Google Play edition have already seen the update in […]
This article was written on October 02, 2009 by CyberNet.
I’m not sure how many of you have decided to take part in the Monopoly City Streets game, but one of my friends pointed out something interesting. The game was promoted as being powered by Google Maps, but looking into the FAQ’s reveals that the data is not solely coming from Google. Instead the maps that you see are coming from Google, but the data that is actually being used in the backend is from a site called OpenStreetMap. Google Maps is pretty much used just for the “eye candy” and nothing else. This makes things a bit interesting:
Monopoly City Streets launched in September 2009 using map images from Google Maps and map data from OpenStreetMap for the streets that you can buy. You may have noticed that the streets on the map do not exactly fit the (blue/purple/red) street overlays, or that the spelling of the name of a street is different, or that you cannot buy a street at all. All that is because the street data comes from OpenStreetMap, but the map images do not.
I hadn’t heard of OpenStreetMap before, but after looking into it I have to say that it’s a rather cool idea. It’s basically a Wikipedia for maps. Anyone is free to update the content, which means if your street isn’t on the map you are free to add it. It does require that you collect and upload some data though.
What’s the purpose of OpenStreetMap with services like Google Maps? This isn’t designed to be a site that you can get directions from. Instead it’s geared towards developers. It’s a free source for developers to get map data from without having to worry about any kind of licensing:
The goal of the project is to have free-as-in-free-speech geographical data for everyone to use, for any purpose. Anybody can download a copy of all of OpenStreetMap’s database and do anything they like with it.
Kinda neat. There’s a good chance that from a user’s perspective you’ll never hear of this service again, but don’t be surprised to find out that some of the apps you use are getting their data from this site. One good example that I found is CloudMade, who lets you apply or create your own visual styles and color schemes for the maps. There’s other OpenStreetMap-powered solutions as well, such as MapMe or the iPhone app called OffMaps that is designed to take your maps offline. Developers are definitely using it, and it will be interesting to see if the “open” nature of the site will contribute or hinder its success. After all, one day you might wake up and your street will cease to exist (on the map that is). 🙂
OpenStreetMap Homepage
Thanks Pete!
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Google has once again expanded the gates for its Explorer Program, sending out invitations to developers in an opportunity to nab a pair of Google Glass. This follows a few times the program has been expanded in various ways, and makes good on a recent promise the company made to provide additional chances to get […]
Developer Winocm has been busy on a special project of his, and today announced on his website that he recently achieved “one of the core milestones” of the mission: successfully porting the iOS core to a Nokia N900 smartphone, among other devices. He has a couple images to prove it, and goes on to detail […]
This afternoon it was announced that the co-creator of the classic video game DOOM has left the proverbial gaming building. John Carmack let it be known that he’s leaving (resigning, as it were) from id Software and Bethesda Softworks in favor of working with Oculus VR full-time on the device known as Oculus Rift. A […]
There’s a type of event that’s been happening in recent months and years that hardware manufacturers call “hackathons”, events where developers are encouraged to bring their biggest and best to the table. For the most part, these hackathon events are pushed to bring apps to platforms that have a distinct lack of software partners. In […]
Google has slowly trickled out more authorized commercial apps that can stream to its Chromecast dongle since launch (Hulu, Pandora, and most recently HBO Go) but what about homebrew? So far developers have been able to work with a preview Cast SDK (creating a few impressive demonstrations) but restrictions have prevented these apps from being released for widespread use. That will probably change next month, as Google has invited several developers including CyanogenMod / AirCast dev Koushik Dutta and Thomas Kjeldsen to a hackathon on December 7th and 8th in Mountain View. An opportunity to test drive the “upcoming release” of the Cast SDK is promised, plus an opportunity to talk with Google engineers about what it can do.
While we wait to find out what devs will be officially allowed to create for the $35 dongle, the official Android Chromecast control app got an update tonight. The new version brings a lightly refreshed design with the side-tray style seen in many Google apps lately, and adjusted the display of time zone settings and the Chromecast MAC address to ease troubleshooting.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, Google
Source: Koushik Dutta (G+), Thomas Kjuldsen (G+), Android Central Forums
It’s time to get a handle on the Google Glass development kit – the SDK that is – readied for developers to start making their own GlassWare apps. This week at a Glass Hackathon event, Glass Developer Advocate Timothy Jordan shared about 30 minutes worth of new information on the Glass SDK. What you’ll see […]
This article was written on November 23, 2011 by CyberNet.
There are some great tools out there for testing a website’s performance including Web Page Test, Stella, and WatchMouse. Those are the three that I regularly find myself using, but the website monitoring service Pingdom recently updated their Full Page Test tool blowing many others out of the water.
The new interface they have is beautifully designed, which helps in understanding the data they are presenting to you. When you begin navigating through the various sections you’ll find a full waterfall view that lets you know how long each individual request on the site took, and you can even see a page analysis to help serve as an overview of all those requests.
Then you can flip over to the performance grade to get an idea of which areas on your site could use the most improvement. Expanding any of the sections will list out the requests that go against that particular rule, and towards the bottom they provide a link referencing what you can do to resolve the issues.
There are also some settings you can choose from before you initiate a test. One setting lets you decide whether the results of the test should be saved and made public, and the other is the location of the server running the test (Netherlands, New York, or Texas).
Pingdom Full Page Test Homepage
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