Technology News

Google Maps Finally Adds Bike Routes

Source: All About Jazz
March 10, 2010

At long last, Google Maps has routes specifically for bikes.

With the click of a mouse, the new feature allows you to plot the best (and flattest!) ride from Point A to Point B. Several cities, including New York, Minneapolis, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, have bike-specific mapping sites. But Google is rolling it out in 150 cities nationwide and announcing it Wednesday at the 10th Annual Bike Summit in Washington, D.C. This has been a top-requested feature from Google ...

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Mobile Apps That Outperform Web Sites

Source: Michael Ricci
March 10, 2010

Since the great app rush began, Web companies have scurried to build mobile apps. In some cases, they have realized that their services are better suited to cellphone screens than computers.

Zillows iPhone app has been downloaded by more than one million people.Take Zillow.com, the real estate Web site where people can hunt for prices and other details about houses. Zillow's iPhone app adds GPS. People walking their dog through the neighborhood can snoop on the prices of their neighbors ...

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Rovi's AMG + Muze = Music Mega Meta Data

Source: HypeBot
March 10, 2010

Rovi Corporation (the corporation formerly know as Macrovision) has added a new music data offering that combines music metadata from its AMG and Muze services, creating a superset of data from both acquisitions.The combined database includes more than 1.8 million pop and classical music albums and 16 million tracks,

The new database, Rovi Music, provides a single data source that provides multiple forms of data to support variety of devices and services across a broad array of platforms ...

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40% Can't Name a Single Online Music Service

Source: HypeBot
March 10, 2010

From 7 Digital to Spotify, there are 20 major music servicesin the UK. But a new survey says that 40% of consumers have never heard of any of them. Of the 60% who are familiar with digital music, 85% have only heard of two - iTunes and Amazon.

“The music industry is shooting itself in the foot by not promoting legal online music services," says Jill Johnstone, ofConsumer Focus. “If file sharing is causing the damage the music ...

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Notes from the Net: More Miles Davis Biopic News; Jamie Cullum's Pursuit; Plus News, Reviews, Interviews, and More

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
March 10, 2010

Here's the latest compilation of assorted news briefs and links related to jazz, improvisation, and creative music in St. Louis, including news of musicians originally from the Gateway City, recent visitors, and coming attractions, plus assorted other items of interest:* Via Miles Davis Online, there's a bit more news this week about actor Don Cheadle and his interest in starring in the proposed film biography of the trumpeter.* Saxophonist and former St. Louisan David Sanborn and ...

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Your Computer Really is a Part of You

Source: All About Jazz
March 10, 2010

An empirical test of ideas proposed by Martin Heidegger shows the great German philosopher to be correct: Everyday tools really do become part of ourselves.

The findings come from a deceptively simple study of people using a computer mouse rigged to malfunction. The resulting disruption in attention wasn't superficial. It seemingly extended to the very roots of cognition. The person and the various parts of their brain and the mouse and the monitor are so tightly intertwined that they're just ...

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Apple's Secret Plan to Control the Universe

Source: All About Jazz
March 10, 2010

The recently unveiled secret agreement that Apple makes iPhone developers sign supports what many have suspected all along: Apple is trying to control the universe.

Much has been written anecdotally about the Apple app-approval process, with the words “arcane" and “Kafkaesque" coming up a lot. But the letter (and crimping spirit) of the agreement was a matter of pure speculation until the Electronic Frontier Foundation had the clever idea of making one developer an offer he couldn't refuse. That developer ...

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Supreme Court Takes 'Informational Privacy' Case

Source: All About Jazz
March 10, 2010

The U.S. Supreme Court is agreeing to decide how much personal information the federal bureaucracy may acquire on its workers.

The justices, without comment, decided Monday to review a lower-court decision surrounding the concept of so-called “informational privacy." The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco struck down intrusive background checks last year on nearly three dozen National Aeronautics and Space Administration contractors as being too invasive -- calling them an unconstitutional, “broad inquisition." The checks sought information ...

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