When planning your next Japan visit, better put aside a night for a "factory night jungle cruise" if you want to be right up there with the latest Japanese otaku craze. They literally visit factories, at night. According to Japan Trends, which brought the fad to our attention, the "factory love" is popular among photographers—which I can understand, as lit-up factories can be quite scenic—but also families and couples too. A cruise around Panasonic's factory doesn't seem quite as romantic to me as cocktails at the top of the Park Hyatt Hotel, but then the 4,500 Yen ($50) cruise ticket price is probably cheaper than a few sake cocktails anyway. Continue Reading »

Whenever I meet someone who finds out that I work on the directions team for Google Maps, the first question I'm asked is often "So when's Google Maps going to add biking directions?" We're big biking fans too, so we've been itching to give you a concrete answer. I don't want to keep the good news a secret any longer, so the answer is: right now!Today we've added biking directions and extensive bike trail data to Google Maps for the U.S. My team has been keeping close tabs on all the public support for biking directions that’s been steadily coming in, but we knew that when we added the feature, we wanted to do it right: we wanted to include as much bike trail data as possible, provide efficient routes, allow riders to customize their trip, make use of bike lanes, calculate rider-friendly routes that avoid big hills and customize the look of the map for cycling to encourage folks to hop on their bikes. So that's exactly what we've done.Let's say you want to bike to work, or maybe you want to drive less and spend more time outdoors. Biking directions can help you find a convenient and efficient route that makes use of dedicated bike trails or lanes and avoids hills whenever possible. To find biking directions, select "Bicycling" from the drop-down menu when you do a directions search:So, how does it work? Well, I'm based in Seattle, along with the rest of the biking directions team. The city is notoriously hilly, but also has some great trails and a strong cycling community. Let's say I'm trying to get from Golden Gardens to a friend's house in Montlake:This route avoids hills (phew!) and puts me on the Burke-Gilman trail for most of the journey. When I need to get off the trail to cross town, biking directions makes sure to keep me on bike-friendly roads and avoid some of the city's busiest intersections. The time estimate for the route is based on a complex set of variables accounting for the type of road, terrain and turns over the course of my ride. If I decide that I want to stop at Woodland Park Zoo along the way, I can click on the blue path and drag it to my desired route — just like with driving directions — and we'll still customize the journey for cycling suitability. Over on the Lat Long Blog, you can read more about all the unique tweaks and calculations factored into our routing algorithm.We've also added information about bike trails, lanes and recommended roads directly onto the map. This can help you get a better sense of your route, or let you find trails nearby for a recreational ride. When you're zoomed into a city, click on the "More" button at the top of the map to turn on the "Bicycling” layer. You'll see three types of lines appear on the map:

• Dark green indicates a dedicated bike-only trail;
• Light green indicates a dedicated bike lane along a road;
• Dashed green indicates roads that are designated as preferred for bicycling, but without dedicated lanes

Thanks primarily to our partnership with the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, we now have more than 12,000 miles of trails included in biking directions and outlined directly on the map. We also have data on bike lanes and recommended streets for 150 cities across the country. We'll continue to add new trail information and encourage riders to send feedback (biking directions is in beta, after all) and route information for inclusion via the “Report a Problem” tool. When Map Maker is available in the U.S., all riders will be able to directly contribute their local knowledge about trails, bike lanes and suggested routes.We know that many of you have been anxiously awaiting this feature, so head over to http://maps.google.com/biking to try it for yourself and then hop on your bike!Posted by Shannon Guymon, Product Manager Continue Reading »

For those enjoying media bliss thanks to a little MediaSmart box humming away somewhere in the corner, life just got a even more lovely. HP has announced a partnership with TiVo that allows MediaSmart users to install a Windows Home Server add-in, enabling the two devices to talk sweet nothings to each other. From within the WHS console you'll be able to suck recorded content from the TiVo onto the MediaSmart's expansive storage array and, from there, play it on any of your compatible devices (PC, Mac, Xbox, PS3, etc.). Or, when you start to miss those happy TiVo sounds, you can send that content back over to DVR to view from there. The WHS extension is available right now to MediaSmart owners, so get on with the downloading already.HP MediaSmart add-in adds TiVo compatibility, enables video transfers to and fro originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 07:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |  HP  | Email this | Comments Continue Reading »

South Korea has overhauled its public transport network with recharging roads, where the vehicles use power from buried electric strips in the road. It was invented at the University of California, before South Korea adopted it for an amusement park. The system is being tested at an amusement park in Seoul, but if all goes well, the country hopes to expand it to the whole city's bus route—helping minimize unsightly overhead power lines and obviously doing a good turn for the environment. Dubbed the Online Electric Vehicle system, or OLEV, the magnetic electrical charging strips are buried in four different areas along the 2.2km bus route, with the buses sucking power which can be used to drive or just filling up the battery storage. When visiting cities like San Francisco that rely heavily on trams, which run on ugly overhead lines, I've often thought there should be a better way of networking public transport. This could be the answer—and help a little way towards reducing carbon emissions, too. Continue Reading »

Another day, another CEO with more lip gloss than brain matter. Jeffrey Katzenberg has been talking to USA Today on what seems to be his favorite topic these days, 3D, and telling us that the glasses ain't no big deal. After all, "many many many people" wear glasses -- that's three lots of many for those keeping count at home -- and the new and improved 3D appendages are so "beautifully styled" that he expects them to start popping up at your local optometrist right next to the sunglasses and designer eyewear isles. In fact, this dude's sipping the corporate firewater so hard, we half-expect him to tell us that 3D offers "very high value" for money or ... wait, he said that too? Alright, we give up.CE-Oh no he didn't!: Katzenberg says 'beautifully styled' 3D glasses won't make you look like a dweeb originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 07:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink I4U  |  USA Today  | Email this | Comments Continue Reading »