Martin Luther King’s 1956 tips for riding integrated buses, examining how design has helped an Alabama county, building instant cities in Accra and instant skyscrapers in Mumbai, and how two New York architects are tearing down the work of their former friends. It’s all this week in our favorite Urban Reads.
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Mumbai’s housing market is a series of extremes: There are hundreds of skyscrapers being built, yet more than 60 percent of its citizens live in slums. Single families occupy immense towers, but the average living space is less than 14 square feet per person. Alicja Dobrucka, a Polish artist, set out document the city’s changing landscape last year.
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It’s been almost three decades since Mumbai’s airport saw a renovation—a long time, for a city that’s seen some of the fastest growth in the world. But on Friday, officials unveiled an $890 million terminal, filled with Indian art and high-tech architectural acrobatics. Outside, it’s bordered on all sides by poverty-stricken slums.
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Google is bringing voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation to Android smartphone users in India. While the functionality’s been available since January if you’ve rooted your device, the official version lands today with a localized “Indian English” voice option. At the same time, it’s adding live traffic information for major roads in big cities like Mumbai, New Delhi and Hyderabad — with both arriving today on handsets running Gingerbread and up. At the same time, it’s giving Google Map Maker and Biking Directions to users in New Zealand — and college students at over 150 universities worldwide will now be able to find themselves thanks to Street View maps on campus. Of course, that does mean you can no longer use Google as an excuse as to why you missed Phys. Ed. 202 next semester.
[Thanks, Devanshu]
Filed under: Cellphones, GPS, Mobile
Google Maps unveils new features in India, New Zealand and 150 universities worldwide originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Sep 2012 07:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Oh, bureaucracies, the fun in dealing with them is that you’re told exactly what they want you to know — or at least, believe. That’s the name of the game in India, where — as you’re surely aware — the government has been at odds with RIM for years over its insistence that the Waterloo firm provide the means to monitor encrypted emails and BBM messages. In a revelation that may relate to those BlackBerry servers in Mumbai, R. Chandrasekhar of India’s Department of Information Technology has asserted, “The issue is heading towards a resolution.” While it’s difficult to know whether monitoring is already in place, Chandrasekhar added that, “Law enforcement agencies will get what they need.” Another unknown is whether RIM played a role in these developments. For its part, the company claims, “RIM maintains a consistent global standard for lawful access requirements that does not include special deals for specific countries.” So, if everything is now clear as mud for you, just remember: that’s how those in charge like it.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless
Indian official claims BlackBerry eavesdropping standoff is ‘heading towards a resolution’ originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Aug 2012 21:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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