Photos taken for the European version of Google Street Views will soon have people’s faces and license plates pixelated out, like so many innocent non-suspects on your favorite episode of COPS.

The same privacy protection may come to the US version as well, although Google has made no formal announcement yet other than to say that it’s "thinking about it." Might as well just do it, Google. Better safe than pantless, am I right?

Google Streetview Airbrushing Their European Edition [TechCrunch]

Google is usually fairly tight lipped about future product releases. But they were surprisingly revealing about upcoming plans for Google Apps at an event in Ann Arbor earlier this week. Blogger Andrew Miller took some great notes from a presentation by Googler Scott Johnston, the VP of Product Development at wiki startup Jot prior to their acquisition by Google a little over a year ago.

First, Google Sites, an evolution of Google Page Creator, will launch in 2008. Google Sites will be based on JotSpot collaboration tools and will allow businesses to create intranets, project management tracking, extranets and other custom sites.

We should also expect Google Docs, Gmail and Calendar to soon work offline via Google Gears. This has been widely predicted, but it’s good to see it coming more formally from Google (note that Zoho, a Google Docs competitor, already has offline functionality via Google Gears).

Some of the other stuff is more speculative, but worth the read (pivot tables on Google Spreadsheets? I doubt it).

* Google Sites: Scheduled to be launched sometime next year (2008), Google Sites will expand upon the Google Page Creator already offered within Apps. Based on JotSpot collaboration tools, Sites will allow business to set up intranets, project management tracking, customer extranets, and any number of custom sites based on multi-user collaboration.

* Will users be able to edit docs, spreadsheets and presentation offline? Scott’s answer was yes, and that the Google Gears plugin would handle the offline work. In addition, Google Gears support is in the works for Gmail and Google Calendar.

* What happens when somebody edits a document offline at the same time another user is editing the online version? The same algorithm that reconciles simultaneous editing will apply here when the offline version is merged back into the online version. Changes will be versioned the same way, so basically in chronological order.

* Will Google docs have OCR capabilities for importing .pdfs or other graphical files? Not yet, but perhaps someday. Scott couldn’t comment on the “roadmap” for future enhancements. However, the collaborative Google Sites (based on JotSpot) will allow for upload and storage of any file type.

* Will GrandCentral be integrated into Google Apps? If so, when? Again, Scott didn’t comment on the timing but said they are working on it and it is a “huge priority” for them.

* Will Google Spreadsheets ever have advanced features like pivot tables, macros or offline database integrations? (This was actually my question) Scott said they are constantly trying to find the balance between speed and utility. It will never be a heavy duty analytics program because that would be too heavy and bulky for the average user.

* Will Google Apps support video conferencing in addition to Google Talk and Chat? Scott’s answer, “Not yet”. I got the impression from his body language that it’ll come someday, but nothing more was said.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Filed under: Cellphones

Even 6 months ago, it would have been inconceivable to imagine the CEO of the biggest cellphone operator in the US sniping at its primary competitor's hints at becoming more open. The key point being that none of the cellphone operators in the US are actually "open" by any objective definition, so maybe AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson should have bitten his tongue rather than stating that his company is "probably one of the most open networks in the world," in a mild rebuke to Verizon's open network plan for 2008. Also Randall, stating that "all of the handsets we sell are Java-equipped" might be a little unwise considering that AT&T's flagship handset, and probably the most widely publicized handset (ever?) is clearly not. At least the debate is moving forward: hopefully his statement that "[all carriers] are all going to be open over time" will come to fruition with a little more gentle prodding coupled with the occasional kick up the arse.

[Image source]

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Photos taken for the European version of Google Street Views will soon have people’s faces and license plates pixelated out, like so many innocent non-suspects on your favorite episode of COPS.

The same privacy protection may come to the US version as well, although Google has made no formal announcement yet other than to say that it’s "thinking about it." Might as well just do it, Google. Better safe than pantless, am I right?

Google Street Views Hides Your Face. What Took So Long? [Mashable]

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

As if the last two reports about a 32GB Zen from Creative weren't enough for you, here's another for a lazy Saturday. This time, Crave claims to have an unspecified confirmation that a 2GB and 32GB Zen is coming, and it's coming in flash form. Would that make this the highest capacity flash PMP out there? It'd certainly be pipping Sansa to the post.

[Thanks, Cody B.]

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

This afternoon we were alerted to some plagiarism of Mashable content by one of our readers. While seeing Mashable stories re-printed word-for-word on splogs is nothing new, the source here was somewhat surprising: Associated Content. The company has raised $10 million in funding, and counts industry heavyweights like Google VP of Sales Tim Armstrong and investor Ron Conway on its board.

The content in question is under the account of roemverda. As recently as yesterday, there were more than a dozen Mashable stories, copied word for word and posted to Associated Content. Here’s one especially egregious example: Mark’s feature story “12 Things We Want Fixed on the Web,” which he spent the better part of the afternoon writing, copied exactly to an Associated Content page:

What’s surprising here is that content submitted to AC supposedly goes to an editor before being published. I tried it out myself, and indeed submitted content first goes through a review process before being posted. The following line, which is the first sentence in Mark’s feature story, should’ve been an automatic red flag:

“We here at Mashable have been going back and forth on the things we’d like to see for Christmas this year …”

That, and the sheer volume of content a single person was able to produce in one day should’ve raised some eyebrows at Associated Content, but in this case, it did not. Meanwhile, Mashable is far from the only victim. Taking a closer look at roemverda’s account, there is plagiarized content about all sorts of different topics – estate planning, gift baskets, and day trading are just a few of the other topics he dips into. Apparently, his incredibly broad array of knowledge also isn’t a red flag for AC.

While the company publicly states that those that infringe copyrights will be banned for life from the site, the loose editorial policy allows content to be published and the company to make oodles of cash from the ads, while they wait for someone to become alerted to the fact their content was stolen. This policy allows the company to claim “no foul,” and in reality, is probably compliant with DMCA. But it’s ugly, and not something I would expect those involved to want to have their names associated with.

So what’s really going on here?

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Amazon-owned International Movie Database (IMDb) has filed a trademark application for the term “SoundUnwound.” According to the filing, the trademark would cover:

“Providing information regarding, and in the nature of, social networking services; online social networking services designed for people with a common desire to meet other people with similar interests; Social networking services for music enthusiasts.”

Social networking features would make sense for IMDb, which is one of the Web’s most popular sites thanks to coming up near the top of virtually any search you do on movie titles. The site also already has many users who write reviews and leave comments about movies. Thus, one could assume that social networking features have been in the works for a while at IMDb.

What’s interesting here is that this trademark specifically mentions building social networking services for music enthusiasts. Might IMDb be planning to build a huge database for music and couple it with social networking services? That seems like a smart move, and one that would ultimately juice up sales of CDs and MP3s at Amazon.

PS - Thanks to Trademork for the tip.

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The staff of the new Silverlight-powered media site, t5m, is off in Johannesburg, South Africa to cover the World AIDS Day concert. Sadly, they didn’t think to put any effort in to their site before leaving.

While it’s commendable that any site brings attention to the plight of AIDS in South Africa, t5m itself seems to lack focus. Looking over the site one can’t get a sense of the direction or purpose of the project, and it honestly feels like a collection of random thoughts. They do seem exceedingly proud of the fact they are using Microsoft’s new Silverlight system, as a large banner on the front page proudly proclaims.

In a recent press release, t5m stated that “the world suffers from information overload and saturation of celebrity gossip … t5m believes that there is room for something else that caters to people’s fascination with highly accomplished individuals and public desire for greater social responsibility.” That sounds all noble, but why then do you have Kate Bosworth discussing cooking tips, but on another you have video of Nelson Mandela’s 2005 “46664″ speech. You get the general sense that this site launched with no actual connection to their mission statement.

The videos from the concert are being posted today, but beyond that, I’m still not 100% sure what direction this site is taking.

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When Steve Jobs first introduced the iPhone, he made his feelings about stylus use pretty clear by saying something to the effect of "Who wants a stylus? Yuck. We’ll use the best pointing device in the world, our fingers."

I share an equal disdain for the stylus and I find that even my fat fingers work well enough on my iPod touch. Some people don’t, though. If you’ve always wanted a stylus for your iPhone or iPod touch, here’s one for $25.

That might sound like a lot of money for a stick, but it’s a stick made of "a lightweight aluminum alloy, with an anodized finish in your choice of three colors" and includes laser-engraved graphics and "a soft, durable tip designed with the needs of mobile users in mind." Plus, there’s that clip thing that holds it in place.

Shipping starts at $3.50 for USPS or $9.99 for UPS Ground, so try not to misplace it.

Introducing the Pogo Stylus [Ten One Design]

Earlier this month we wrote about the University of Oregon and Oregon Attorney General's resistance to the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) legal demands for the names of students alleged to have illegally downloaded free music.

Now the Oregon AG has taken a step further, taking the offensive and filing legal papers demanding disclosure of the RIAA's investigative methods. The filing alleges that the RIAA may have spied on students and illegally obtained their Social Security numbers and other personal information.

An RIAA spokesperson responded with indignation, accusing the University of protecting a wave of piracy. The Association now says that student pirates need to be stopped for their own good, lest they accidentally put files like their bank records and tax info into the folders they share on P2P services.

It's good to know there's some one, the Oregon Attorney General, taking an aggressive stand against such stupidity. While some record companies are changing their tune about suing customers, it's hard to imagine what else the attack dogs at the RIAA would do if not things like this. I imagine they feel the same way when they show up for work each day. Readers interested in some smart discussion on the legal move should check out posts and their comments by Mike Masnick at TechDirt and New York City lawyers Ty Rogers and Ray Beckerman at their blog Recording Industry vs. The People.