Google Maps for Android Debuts New Design, Better Navigation

Google has updated Maps for Android, adding several new features, including a new design for the app.

The new version — for both smartphones and tablets — got a cleaner interface that's similar to that of the app's iPhone version, which launched last December.

Other features include enhanced navigation with live traffic updates, incident reports and traffic rerouting. Finally, Explore offers a new way to browse and discover popular local points of interests.

The app is expected to roll out to Android 4.0.3+ devices over the next few weeks.

Image courtesy of Google

French Spy Agency's Headquarters Erased From Google Maps

FERNANDO ALFONSO III for The Daily Dot 1 day ago

After centuries of excess and exposure, France is finally exercising some modesty — at least when it comes to the location of its intelligence agencies.

The headquarters for France's Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE) has been added to the list of censored Google Maps locations after the agency came under scrutiny formonitoring the Internet and phone activity of French citizens.

The clandestine operation has been compared to the National Security Agency's PRISMprogram.

PRISM has worked with tech companies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft to collect Internet data (such as email exchanges, instant messages and file uploads) on Americans for the past six years. Former NSA employee Edward Snowden leaked the details of the program to The Guardian and The Washington Post. Since these news organizations broke the news on PRISM in mid-June, Snowden has been charged with espionage and theft of government property by the U.S. His current whereabouts are unknown.

The details surrounding France's version of PRISM — commonly called “Big Brother” — are sparse. According to France's Le Monde, the government has sunk €600 million ($774.5 million US) into the program, which employs about 5,000 people.

"[T]he Directorate General for External Security (DGSE) systematically collect electromagnetic signals from computers or phones in France, as well as flows between French and abroad," Le Monde reported, according to a Google translation. "All emails, text messages, telephone records, access to Facebook, Twitter, are then stored for years."

The headquarters for the DGSE is located on the outskirts of Paris, about 10 miles from the Eiffel Tower.

Since Google launched its powerful Maps application in 2005, satellite and Street View images of dozens of military outposts, airports, political landmarks and entire countries have been censored. While many, including the White House, have since been revealed to the world, others — like Buffalo's Niagara International Airport — remain obscured.

"[Google] does this using a handful of handy visual tricks — like pixelating, overexposing and cloning the imagery," Motherboard reported. "Other times, governments will opt to show out-of-date or really low-res images, so as to not draw attention to the location, but also hide the details from would-be terrorists."

While the DGSE may be a bit shy to show off its headquarters, the NSA has no problem allowing people to zoom in on its Fort Meade compound.

[via Motherboard]

Image courtesy of Flickr, ostromentsky

This article originally published at The Daily Dot here

Harry Potter's Diagon Alley Is Now on Google Street View

The shops of Diagon Alley from Harry Potter are now on Google Maps' Street View.

It's no Marauder's Map, but Google now lets you explore the set of Diagon Alley from the Warner Bros. Studio Tour in London. In Street View mode, you can see 360-degree images of Ollivanders Wand Shop, Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes joke shop and Mr. Mulpepper’s Apothecary.

The Diagon Alley set brings to life the shop setting from J.K. Rowling's legendary Harry Potterseries of seven best-selling books, which grew into a successful eight-movie franchise. Warner Bros. Studio Tour says the Diagon Alley set took more than three months to build, and it took six months to create over 20,000 products to put on the shops' shelves.

Explore Diagon Alley for yourself on Google Maps. It's a fun experience for Harry Potter fans, but it makes me wonder what adventures Harry, Ron and Hermione would have missed out on if they had Google Maps and never got lost.

Images courtesy of Warner Bros. Studio Tour London