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Google captures Hokkaido, Japan in the depth of winter with 360-degree Street View photos

Mar18
by on March 18, 2014 at 1:23 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Google, Product Updates

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Google took a three-day trip to Hokkaido last month to capture Japan’s snow-capped and northernmost island with some beautiful, panoramic 360-degree Street View photographs. The expedition was broken down into a few different legs, which included carving a path through the icy Sea of Okhotsk, dog sledding through the tranquil snow fields and investigating Lake Shikaribetsu, which had frozen over and created a foundation for a small, man-made ice chapel. All of the photos are available right now on Google Maps Views, and have been split into collections based on the area of Hokkaido being depicted. The company has also…

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Microsoft announces Xbox One coming to 26 new markets in September, bringing total to 39

Mar18
by on March 18, 2014 at 1:12 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Gadgets, Insider

Microsoft today announced plans to bring its Xbox One console to 26 additional markets in September. The company says it will share more details at the local level “towards the end of April,” but wouldn’t offer more details aside from that. The full list is as follows: Argentina, Belgium, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, India, Israel, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and UAE. Microsoft launched the console on November 22 in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Spain, the UK, the US, and…

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Sonos announces a revamped app, with the Android public beta available now

Mar18
by on March 18, 2014 at 1:00 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Product Updates

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Sonos has been leading the charge into wireless music for a while now, and its app is a natural companion to its speakers. It lets users stream different music in every room, add songs to the queue from any music service and save as a playlist, as well as customize alarms to wake up to every day. However, we previously noted one major drawback with the Sonos setup — the lack of updates for its mobile controller app — making it look dated and confusing to use at first, since the last visual overhaul was back in 2009. It’s therefore a welcome change for…

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Appmethod: a new platform for creating “truly native” apps for Android, iOS, Windows and OS X

Mar18
by on March 18, 2014 at 12:40 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Design & Dev, Insider, Product Launches

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Embarcadero, the database and dev tools maker, has launched Appmethod today, a new single code base platform for creating native apps for different operating systems with minimal effort. The company says that its platform provides a complete set of tools to help developers create apps “from tooling to cloud” for devices running the Android, iOS, Windows and OS X operating systems. While it’s by no means the only company trying to make app development easier, it claims to be one of the only ones in the space to offer “truly native” app development that doesn’t require JavaScript interpreters or virtual…

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Soundwave comes to the desktop with a Chrome extension to let you share more of the music you love

Mar18
by on March 18, 2014 at 12:17 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Product Updates

soundwave
Music taste-sharing app Soundwave, which can perhaps best be described as a mobile-first alternative to Last.fm, is coming to the desktop today by way of a Chrome extension that allows you to share what you’re listening to in your browser. Once installed, the extension picks up the tracks you play via 11 Web-based music apps, including Rdio, Spotify, Deezer and Google Play Music, and posts them to your Soundwave account for others to see via the mobile app. To get started with the Chrome extension, you’ll need to update your Soundwave mobile app (on iOS or Android) to a new…

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