While it is unknown how much the management at Fiat had to do with the stunt, it is believed that an employee used news of Google’s arrival (for Street View filming in Sweden) as inspiration to take a Fiat 500, and park it in front of the VW headquarters’ doors in enough time for the camera cars to capture the moment, and presumably also fast enough to avoid a telling off from their VW counterparts until the picture was posted, which is now.

It remains to be seen what Volkswagen will make of the images, but it could be the start of a rally of retaliation, and possibly other companies attempting this prank-style marketing technique…

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Barbra Walker, whose family have owned Pray since the early 1950′s, rents out the property to the remainder of the town’s 11 residents, and was recently threatened with seeing its Post Office (the building which allows it to be formally named as a town) shut down as part of nation-wide cost-cutting measures, but it appears that the issue is now out of the way, and for someone willing to become the landlord of an entire town, $1.4m is the starting price that it will cost you for the ‘privilege’.

You would get the deed to the town as well though, so (with natural limitations), you could in theory do what you want with it…

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Previously used in other selective other parts of the country, the vast open roads of the Nevada desert will be considered key in clocking up further mileage to the automated car product.

The car itself is a modified Toyota Prius complete with a large number of sensors to determine exactly what is going on around it (presumably with backups for safety reasons), and an ability to know where the user/’driver’ is going (based on regular integrated satellite navigation), and naturally recording information (such as distances, speeds, and proximity of other cars/items) at a fast processing speed, meaning that it is being trained up to be the ideal product for anyone whose driving capabilities may be limited, or just doesn’t feel like taking the wheel.

The possibilities of a self-driving car seem to be never-ending, and could be done completely legally, as Nevada DMV spokesman Tom Jacobs (who has been on-board a short test drive) explained: “When the car is on self-driving mode, it doesn’t speed, it doesn’t cut you off, it doesn’t tailgate.”

Tests have already taken place in the city of Las Vegas (USA), on the famed ‘Las Vegas Strip’ road, meaning that trials will take place in more than just ‘easy roads’. With development now occurring fast, when will the next stage in the self-driving car’s story now occur?

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Aided by comic actor Tony Robinson (Blackadder), and joke writer Richard Preddy (writer ofGreen Wing), staff at Chiltern Railways will be trained in making a series of select humourous PA messages on their flagship London-Birmingham line, in an effort to lift the mood of those involved in the journey.

Preddy said of the plans to bring in the additional announcements: “We have all waited for a train or a bus into work as the rain pours down and bustled our way to a seat and I think comedy can help to alleviate that stress. Everyone we met was so enthusiastic and the feedback so far has been fantastic. It’s important to note that we aren’t trying to turn everyone into a comedian. Rather we are hoping to bring out a little more of the staff’s personality and humour via their day-to-day announcements and help cheer up the commuters along the way.”

He added of the vocal ‘coaching’ provided by Robinson: “One of the performance notes that Tony gave train managers was to perform the announcements as if they were everyday announcements that they’ve done 900 times before. If you’re a commuter and if you’re not fully paying attention you might get to the end of an announcement and think, ‘God, that was a bit odd’. And if you listen to it you’ll realise that it’s meant to be funny – or hopefully funny! Ad-libbing is good… Chiltern Railways were very keen to have them [drivers and staff making announcements] inject some of their own personality into this.”

A selection of the announcements that Birmingham-London passengers can expect to hear will include:

- “I’d like to welcome passengers boarding this 7:33 from Birmingham Moor Street to London Marylebone. If you’ve just bumped into someone who you barely know, you now have one hour and 30 minutes of awkward small talk. Good luck.”

- “Welcome to Marylebone. If you’ve traveled to London for a business meeting later, today’s recommended meaningless phrases are ‘blue sky thinking’, ‘moving forward’, and ‘low-hanging fruit’.”

- “We will shortly be passing through West Ruislip where we will be racing the Underground trains. Do please feel free to cheer for our driver.”

One race that the link-up has ensured a win in is the ‘honour’ of being the country’s first alternative railway announcement service, but is it a trend that GOLD will attempt to introduce to other journeys?

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After acquisitions of the likes of C3 Technologies, Placebase, and Poly9 to help with the ongoing development of this home-grown system, Apple are believed to be planning for an integrated maps ‘app’ that will be able to fully rival their Google counterpart.

The app is set to feature key 3D features developed by C3, and is due to also include in-build add-ons such as a system similar to Google Street View, as the company plan to create a rival that could match or better the long-standing king of online mapping.

A video clip of C3′s 3D modeling system in action can be seen below. Will it consistently carry over to a potential mass-usage product?

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Available for download now in the USA and Japan, the key feature launched is the (USA-only) addition of ‘Google Offers’ into the portable service, a system which links up with the map to offer a geographical location of the best local deals in stores, restaurants, and other relevant locations.

Set to be able to pop up while users are out and about on their smartphone or device, the best local offers and discounts featured (if appealing to the user) will be able to be ‘used now’ (most likely obtaining a specific code for the featured offer) or ‘saved for later’ (returning in the next browsing session until the deal expires).

Meanwhile, Google are also adding to their ‘interactive floor plans’ feature released last year, now adding in official ‘walking directions support’ based on the blueprints supplied to them, in case anyone actually gets lost inside a store, though it could be more useful for larger and more crowded ‘indoor’ spaces such as airports and shopping malls.

An extension of this is the ‘Google Business Photos’ feature now integrated to the 6.7 app, which allows a user to see a Google Street View-style panoramic and scrollable photo of local businesses featured. With being able to really ‘visit in advance’ now in an even more connected manner than before, what will the next move be for Google’s in-house portable mapping service?

An official video detailing the Google Offers section of the update can be seen below:

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Set to cover an area of around 40 km-sq, the currently unnamed city will be built in a replica style of South Carolina settlement Rock Hill (USA), and will cost in the region of $1b.

The ‘scientific ghost city’ in the deserts of the state of New Mexico (more specifically Lea County) will be built and managed by Pegasus Holdings (alongside regional subsidiary CITE Development (Centre for Innovation, Technology, and Testing)) as a means of being able to test and develop upcoming technology without interfering with the day-to-day life of regular residents.

Items set to be included on the project list include ‘automated washing machines’, ‘self-flushing toilets’, traffic systems and the application of self-driving cars, such as those produced and trialed by Google .

As a touch of authenticity to the experiments, all buildings (residential and business) will be equipped with all ‘necessary’ furniture, appliances and utilities, meaning that each house will look, feel, and act like a real home with electricity and plumbing.

The project is due to see a total ‘initial development cost’ of $400m, with estimates that full investment post-completion (such as for new projects and refurbishment) will surpass the $1b mark. The move is proposing to create 350 ‘direct’ jobs with the city, and 3,500 ‘indirect’ roles for areas such as city building and project development, with operational staff set to be able to take parts of the city for their own fields of work, such as traffic and electricity grids.

The nearest ‘real’ town to this place will be Hobbs, as their Mayor Sam Cobb states: “It brings so many great opportunities and puts us on a world stage.”

Pegasus Holding’s senior managing director Bob Brumley claims that his company will begin work on building their city on 30 June. Will Pegasus Holdings-ville become the most functional of deserted towns?

Incoming satellite searches:-

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Their neighbours south of this body of water would prefer it being described as the ‘Arabian Gulf’ but it appears that at least on Google’s perspective, they have taken the parenting-style view of ‘if you keep arguing, then none of you can have it’.

While Google Earth is said to feature both titles, the disputes between the two sides over which name is correct (despite a UN ruling in 2006 that the Persian Gulf is the correct name) mean that Google Maps leave the title of the body of water blank.

Former ambassador to Iran Sir Richard Dalton said of the problems: “Undoubtedly, the correct geographical term in history is the Persian Gulf. Iran recognises it’s largely international waters and they’re not laying claim to it as part of their territory in terms of hydrocarbon resources and so on. The correct terminology is an emotional issue for many Iranians. The British don’t mind the French calling the English Channel ‘La Manche’, but Iran just doesn’t see it that way.”

It seems to be an argument of regional pride, but unfortunately for the Arabian Gulf name-pushers, the waterway has long been associated with the Persian moniker. While this dispute is likely to continue, neutrals can at least take solace in the fact that the Persian Gulf leads to a further waterway called the ‘Arabian Sea’…

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Said by some to be a mystery, the reality is that they are the proud work of German artists Rainer Bonk and Bertamaria Reetz, who claim that they have taken their collection of plastic sheep (painted blue) to the city as a means of promoting positive messages.

Planted in this case outside the city landmark of Schwerin Castle, the field, now packed with the blue sheep, with the producers of the piece claiming that it is part of a large art installation that promotes ‘equality, tolerance, and solidarity’.

Having been rumoured to have been seen in over 50 different cities around the world over the past 3 years, it is claimed that the plastic sheep are taken away from their temporary homes after a set period of time, leaving behind a message that ‘all are equal’, with one sheep always left behind to serve as a ‘peace ambassador’ to the city.

While they may have more of a ‘message’ than the ‘concrete cows’ located in Milton Keynes (England), will this batch of artificial farm animals ever get caught on satellite camera?

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The game, based on the satellite images provided by the Google Maps API, integrates a route and ‘checkpoints’ that need to be hit during a four-car race overlay, and while it would have been a difficult task to include physics such as building, grass, and sand-based speed traps, the checkpoint system is enough to ensure a fairly realistic driving route.

While a big feature of the game is the ability to create your own race (by typing in a ‘from’ and ‘to’ address), there are also 9 preset routes, currently covering virtual representations of 8 different countries (Australia, England, France, Gibraltar, Ireland, Italy, Spain, USA).

With an almost literal never-ending landscape to expand upon, will Real World Racer manage to develop into a hit online game?

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