Next question: What happens to TomTom and Navigon and AT&T and Networks and Motion and even MotionX if Google brings its free version of Google Maps with turn-by-turn directions from Android to the iPhone?

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Google says it’s working on bringing the new version of Maps to other devices. If it does, for-pay navigation applications will have to be radically better to compete, which is bad news indeed for all the companies charging for smartphone navigation apps–and probably even worse news for those who sell stand-alone handheld navigation devices. People are already spreading doom and gloom about the future of navigation stalwarts such as TomTom and Garmin.

There’s at least one form of dedicated navigation hardware that I hope doesn’t vanish: built-in car systems, which have nice big screens and, in some cases, user interfaces better designed for on-the-go use. And pilots, sailors, and other specialists will still want their customized GPS devices. But if we all get navigation that’s 90 percent as good as the best stuff out there for 0 percent of the price, it’s hard to see how many folks will justify paying for another gadget–especially one that may carry a monthly service charge.

Your take on the fate of GPS hardware, please:

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Chicken, meet egg: Today, Google updated Google Maps to take advantage of Geolocation.  Click on a circle on a map, and Maps will do its best to determine where you are, saving you the time of typing in an address. (I almost never use hotel-room phones anymore, but still find them invaluable because they’re usually labeled with the hotel’s street address.)

The Geolocation API isn’t perfect–if it can’t use Wi-Fi to track you down, it’ll try using your IP address, which is always imprecise and sometimes just plain wrong. And it will sometimes just give up altogether. But I just tried it, and it figured out exactly where I am right now (at a conference center in the Marin Headlands attending a Symantec workshop, in case you care):

Privacy purists take note: You need to explicitly enable geolocation before it works and can undo it, and Google says it’ll never track you down without your permission.

The new feature works natively in Firefox 3.5 and Chrome 2.0, and can be added via Google Gears to other browsers–which means that you should be able to use it in just about any browser you’re likely to use.

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Here’s a fuzzy photo of HP printing honcho Vyemesh Joshi using the printer to browse coupons from Coupon.com and print one out–the UI looks fairly slick, like an iPhone embedded in the printer’s control panel:

So far, HP hasn’t talked too much about the technical details, but Web sites will apparently have to prepare content specifically for access via the printer–that’s not a full-blown browser that you get access to via the screen. The company has lined up a pretty impressive group of sites to endorse the printer and presumably support it: Google (with Google Maps), Coupons.com, Fandango, and Nickelodeon.

My impulse is always to be a tad skeptical of new technology products based on the assumption that there are large numbers of people out there who are itching not to use PCs. The demo is over and we’re watching a panel discussion; everybody on stage is explaining why printing is great, but they’re not saying just what’s so difficult about printing from a PC.) And $399 is potentially pricey these days for a home printer, although HP hasn’t mentioned what other features the printer has. (Joshi says the company thinks that $99 printers will have these Web features eventually.)

Actually, listening to the discussion, I think the pitch here isn’t so much that the printer eliminates the need to print from a PC–it’s that a Web-connected printer can start to reduce the need for stuff like millions of coupons being wastefully distributed via newspapers. (Sorry, newspaper publishers!) They’re talking about a day when most of the printed items in our lives might be printed on demand. That sort of makes sense, although it’s going to be a while before we get there and one printer is a very small step in that direction.

It’s an intriguing idea, anyhow, and potentially a useful one if the interface works well and lots of major companies support it. (The API is HP-only, not open; wouldn’t a standard usable by all printer makers be cooler and stand a great chance of success?)

During the on-stage demo, I wondered why HP only showed the Coupons.com app, and that one only briefly. I think I got my answer when the presentation ended and we were able to get hands-on experience with the printer. The Google Maps application was quite slow, and didn’t seem to be fully implemented; an HP representative told me that they’re still optimizing everything, so I wouldn’t judge the printer that will ship by its current state. (The Web features, incidentally, run on Linux and use a Webkit-based browser.)

The printer will ship in the Fall. Here it is:

And here’s a close-up of the screen–yes, it does look rather like a skinny iPhone attached to the front of a printer:

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My favorite, put together by Pittsburgh biomedical researcher Henry Niman, pinpoints the location of every case around the world, with colored markers denoting whether swine flu was suspected, confirmed or tested negative. Clicking on a marker brings up a short description of the case and the date of infection. When the marker has no dot in the center, it means the victim has died.

It’s a pretty easy way to get frightened.

Other maps are out there as well. The 2009 Swine Flu Outbreak Map offers a similar level of information but as a collaborative document, lending itself to more frequent updates. Meanwhile, the Guardian has posted a database of cases, encouraging readers to create their own mash-ups and visualizations.

When the world was dealing with H5N1 avian flu a few years back, Google Earth was the tool of choice, with Nature reporter Declan Butler putting together one notable example. In 2007, Google introduced My Maps, allowing for easier map creation through simple pointing and clicking. This has no doubt caused the migration of flu tracking from Google Earth to Google Maps. And it’s happening quickly, just days after swine flu hit the public spotlight.

Of course, if you’d prefer not to worry, the Internet is also full of perspective.

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According to press reports from both the BBC and Sky News among other outlets, Broughton has been troubled by a spat of burglaries in recent months, so residents have banded together to watch for suspicious vehicles.

The argument is the images taken by Google Street View cameras are an invasion of privacy, and could be used by potential burglars to scope out homes without actually having to enter the neighborhood.

Police were called to the scene, however during that time the Google employee apparently backed off and did not photograph the community. There has been no word whether Google will attempt to photograph the area again in the future.

However, the company mantains it was not breaking the law, and said it does provide a method in which concerned citizens can have themselves or their property removed and/or blurred out in Street View searches.

Click here for a BBC interview with Paul Jacobs, the resident who apparently was the first to take on the Street View car driver. What do you think?

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He’s also exuberantly obnoxious in Google’s explanatory video on the new Street View features, which he narrates:

The good news? In Google Maps itself, Pegman is your friend. He really does help make using Street View easier. And Street View is better than ever in this new version.

When you’re not using him, Pegman (who looks sort of like Pac-Man, except with a body and without a mouth)  stands in waiting in Google Maps’ navigational controls on the left-hand side of the map:

When you drag him out of his nook onto the map, he provides a thumbnail Street View preview of wherever he’s hovering (assuming that the area is covered by Street View). He’s even smart enough to show the left or right side of the street depending on where you plunk him:

Release him onto the map, and you go into Street View mode, with a larger window than before and a nifty little overview map that lets you nudge Pegman around to travel to other areas:

And you can flip into a view that’s 50% Street View and 50% map:

Lastly–and this has nothing to do with Pegman, but it’s new and smart–you can also get to Street View by simply zooming in on the map. When Street View exists for a region, Google Maps shows it as the most-zoomed-in view.

Oh, and I forgot: You can also use a new control to whip around the Street View scene in 360-degree splendor. It’s hard to show with a still image, but trust me, it’s neat:

Google Maps was already among Google’s most inspired creations, and Street View was its showstopper feature. The new user interface is innovative, intuitive, fast, and fun–one of the very best interfaces I’ve ever seen on software of any sort, ever.

Which is not to say that I might not love it as much or more if Pegman was a nameless, non-anthropomorphic pushpin or something…

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