Ever wonder what people do with their free time in other parts of the world? Earth Album allows users to navigate photos taken from around the globe, all from the comfort of their own homes.

It’s quite an interesting concept. The site actually doesn’t host any of its own pictures, but instead references them from Flickr. Earth Album uses Google Earth in its Hybrid Satellite View to “mashup” said images with the coordinates on the earth. Simple in theory, beautiful in execution.

Using Earth Album, it becomes immediately clear that you’re not just getting the watered-down, stock images of the mainstay temples and pyramids in other lands (sights we’ve become all-too-accustomed to seeing when viewing such photos).

In my first few minutes of exploring, I was pulling up images of lightning striking outside the bedroom window of one lucky Finnish photog. I witnessed people diving from Read the rest of this entry »

Want to perform a Google search without Google results?  Apparently someone does.

And that someone would be Finnish blogger Timo Paloheimo, who has created, ahem, “Google minus Google“.

The site
has
emerged as
a reactionary responseThe site has emerged as a reactionary response to a recent article written by NYT’s Miguel Helft.  Helft’s piece detailed the enormous presence of Google domains in search engine results (Knol, Blogger, and YouTube) and the potential for the company to achieve “Media Company” standing on the web, primarily as a result of Google’s reach and search engine prowess.

As it stands, when you perform a Google search on the web, inevitably you’ll find (mixed in with other results) YouTube videos, Blogger blogs and other Google-owned enterprises that may or may not capture your next click.

Clicks equal visits; visits equal potential advertising revenue through…clicks.

Timo could have no more of this.

And it didn’t take much time for his site to catch on: Read the rest of this entry »

Apple’s iPhone, and other subsequent touch-screen clones, have been hogging much of the high-end smartphone spotlight ever since the iPhone’s initial launch - and even more so after the recent media-hyped iPhone 3G release. And with little to no response from Nokia (by way of a competing piece of hardware), it would appear our Finnish friends have been hiding in the wings while the show goes on.

[Note: At the time of this writing, two new Nokia smartphones are set to be announced this coming Monday (August 18th): the N79 and N85 - both phones being touted as possibilities by the mobile community.

In late 2007, information regarding Nokia’s ongoing touchscreen development emerged from the horse’s mouth in the form of a marketing video shown at a London Expo. Later, filed patent information (and images) demonstrating a “Haptikos Tactile Touchscreen” leaked its way onto many websites virtually confirming Nokia’s intentions to develop not only a touchscreen device, but one that would sort of “touch” you back.

And if that wasn’t enough of a smoking gun, Nokia has $trategically placed a mystery touchscreen device (Nokia Tube?) in the hands of our universally loved, James Bond-esque vigilante superhero in the recent blockbuster, “Dark Knight”.

But while the ordinary citizens of Gotham wait for Nokia’s next jaw-dropper to emerge, third-party application development continues to flourish for our current (and much loved) N and E series Symbian S60 devices.

Below is a “Top 10″ (alphabetical) list of some of the Read the rest of this entry »

There’s a kid on the block, and he’s as cool cuil as can be — or at least he promises to be when he grows up.

Cuil (pronounced “cool”), is a Mountain View-spawned search engine (started by some star Google engineers) that promises to be every bit as powerful as its big “G” counterpart, but goes about achieving this claim in a slightly unorthodox fashion:

Cuil’s ranking is based less on Read the rest of this entry »

This past June, Google.org launched RechargeIT, a philanthropic investment and research program aimed to expedite the adoption of plug-in electric vehicles. Today it was discovered that two companies have made the investment list, and are in store for some serious Google “help” ($2.75 mil) to get their products up and running sooner than later.

The Two RechargeIT investment recipients:

Aptera Motors is building ultra-high efficiency vehicles based on improved aerodynamics and composite materials. Aptera’s first prototype achieved over Read the rest of this entry »