A new Google Maps update tells you if you're heading somewhere that's already closed (GOOG) | ||
| | ||
Sometimes you decide to try somewhere new to eat or grab a drink, only to arrive and find that the place is closed. That's why Google's latest Maps update now lets you know if the place you are trying to find will be closed by the time you get there, Mashable reports. If you look for a route on Google Maps to a place that is already closed, or will be closed by the time you get there, the app will flag it up. After telling you that "your destination may be closed by the time you arrive," Google Maps will also present you with the opening times for the store, restaurant or bar that you might be trying to reach, and an estimated arrival time. The update only appears to be available on Google's Android app right now. The last update to iOS was on June 8. Here's what the update looks like on your phone:
You could usually find opening times within the app by inputting a place's name and tapping on the listing for it at the bottom of the Google Maps screen for more information. But this tweak makes the whole process much simpler. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Here's what happens when you drop an Apple Watch face down on cement  | ||
| |
10 things in tech you need to know today | ||
| | ||
Good morning! Here are the 10 things in tech you need to know this Tuesday. 1. Facebook wants to build a new €200 million data centre in Ireland. The renewably-powered facility is planned for the town of Clonee, and will bring the social networking giant's Irish workforce to more than 1,000. 2. The UK tech scene is far more diverse than the US scene. That's according to a new study from startup accelerator Wayra. 3. US payment startup Stripe could crush one of Europe's hottest fintech firms. Stripe is launching in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland this week — putting it in direct competition with Klarna, a rival Swedish online payment company valued at £650 million ($1 billion). 4. Facebook has launched a new photo-sharing app called Moments. It uses facial recognition to detect who is in photos stored on your phone and asks if you want to send the images to them. 5. One-word messaging app Yo is attempting to make a comeback with Yo 2.0. The update will let users send photo messages or their location, as well as the word "Yo," and could help brands monetise their followings on the service. 6. 13 European startups became "unicorns" valued at more than $1 billion over the last 12 months. The list includes TransferWise, Shazam, and Rocket Internet — and is a massive jump from the just three new unicorns created a year before that. 7. Microsoft just made 2 big announcements that will seriously worry Sony. At the E3 gaming conference, the company announced an extensive backwards-compatibility program for the Xbox One, and is also partnering with games company Valve and its virtual reality headset — in addition to its partnership with Facebook's Oculus Rift. (Oh, and wildly popular game Minecraft is also coming to Microsoft's augmented reality headset HoloLens.) 8. LastPass, one of the most popular password security companies, has admitted it was hacked. The app lets users use just one strong password to log into all their services, but it has now been attacked. This doesn't necessarily mean that every password stored using the service has been compromised, however. 9. Evernote CEO Phil Libin wants to step down. Libin considers himself a "product person" and feels the company needs a "professional" CEO. 10. Facebook is being taken to court because it allegedly violated European privacy rules. Belgium’s privacy commission is suing Facebook over alleged violations of Belgian and European privacy laws. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Facebook tried to copy Apple with its big Oculus unveiling and it failed miserably  | ||
| |
Sony is bringing back classic gamepads for its new game console | ||
| | ||
It may not look "modern" anymore, but the flat greys of Sony's early PlayStation hardware brings wide smiles to those of us who grew up playing classics like "Resident Evil" and "Final Fantasy." Though years of play wore down the originals, Sony's issuing original PlayStation-themed gamepads and headphones in honor of the orig nal console's 20th anniversary. They look like this: The brand's seen a variety of applications in the past 20 years: four home game consoles, two handheld game consoles, countless services, peripherals and, now, a virtual reality headset, all branded "PlayStation." The gamepad, however, is especially iconic. Sony's "DualShock" line of gamepads has become a modern symbol for gaming, both literally and figuratively. When you're clicking through a menu of media types on a modern phone, a regular stand-in for the word "games" is a gamepad that looks distinctly similar to the classic DualShock design. The design set a standard for modern gamepad design. Both Nintendo and Microsoft took cues from Sony's original DualShock controller design when looking to their own gamepads. Ironically, the first DualShock controllers were introduced two years after the original PlayStation launched; the gamepad seen above is intended to celebrate the original console's anniversary, not the gamepad itself. The 20th anniversary edition DualShock 4 gamepad for the PlayStation 4 and Wireless Headset arrive this September, for $64.99 and $99.99 (respectively). The nostalgia is free. SEE ALSO: PlayStation's flagship game looks absolutely stunning AND: Sony's going to beat Apple to the a la carte TV game Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: PlayStation's flagship game looks absolutely stunning  | ||
| |
AC Milan sack Filippo Inzaghi as coach | ||
| | ||
Milan (AFP) - AC Milan on Tuesday sacked coach Filippo Inzaghi after what has been a bitterly disappointing season. Milan will not compete in Europe next season after finishing down in midtable alongside city rivals Inter, spelling the end for Inzaghi, who failed to lift the club out of the gloom after taking over from former team-mate Clarence Seedorf last season. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
| |
A new Google Maps update tells you if you're heading somewhere that's already closed (GOOG) | ||
| | ||
Sometimes you decide to try somewhere new to eat or grab a drink, only to arrive and find that the place is closed. That's why Google's latest Maps update now lets you know if the place you are trying to find will be closed by the time you get there, Mashable reports. If you look for a route on Google Maps to a place that is already closed, or will be closed by the time you get there, the app will flag it up. After telling you that "your destination may be closed by the time you arrive," Google Maps will also present you with the opening times for the store, restaurant or bar that you might be trying to reach, and an estimated arrival time. The update only appears to be available on Google's Android app right now. The last update to iOS was on June 8. Here's what the update looks like on your phone:
You could usually find opening times within the app by inputting a place's name and tapping on the listing for it at the bottom of the Google Maps screen for more information. But this tweak makes the whole process much simpler. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Here's what happens when you drop an Apple Watch face down on cement  | ||
| |
German dies of complications from MERS infection: ministry | ||
| | ||
Berlin (AFP) - A 65-year-old German man died this month of complications from a MERS infection contracted during a trip to the Arabian Peninsula in February, a German state health ministry said Tuesday. The man died in the western town of Ostercappeln on June 6 of a lung disease, the health ministry of Lower Saxony state said. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
| |
Greece could still make 'gestures' to creditors | ||
| | ||
Athens (AFP) - Greece still has "two or three gestures" it can make to avert a disastrous deadlock in its EU-IMF talks and a possible default, an opposition leader said Tuesday after talks with the prime minister. "The PM told me there are two or three gestures he can make. He hopes that our European friends will make equivalent gestures," Stavros Theodorakis, head of the small pro-EU party To Potami, told reporters. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
| |
200 years after Waterloo, Britain still battling Napoleon | ||
| | ||
London (AFP) - Two hundred years after the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon is still under attack in Britain, where the image persists of a military genius consumed by a fanaticism comparable with Hitler or Stalin. The emperor of French revolutionaries and regicides continues to strike fear in his neighbours across the Channel, long after his death on the South Atlantic island of St Helena, according to British historian and author Andrew Roberts. "Mothers used to quieten their children with the threat that if you don't watch out, Boney will get you," he told AFP. "There were still children in the 1950s being scared by this particular threat." Indeed, the title of his latest 900-page biography -- "Napoleon, the Great" -- raised more than the odd eyebrow. Firstly, most Britons would argue that "the Great" was not a fitting epitaph for "little Boney", who is still ridiculed for his small size and lust for war. For good measure, Channel 4 recently revealed in a documentary that the imperial penis "reached 1.5 inches" or 3.8 centimetres. "He was also very unlucky that he came to power at the same time as the greatest political caricaturists that the British ever created -- James Gillray and Thomas Rowlandson," said Roberts. "They always made him, somehow, to be small like a dwarf but also completely bloodthirsty." Their drawings depicting "the Lilliputian", "the Corsican plague" and "Beelzebub" recently went on display at an exhibition in London's British Museum. "I don't suppose anybody in history had been vilified and ridiculed in the way that Napoleon was vilified and ridiculed ever before," said Tim Clayton, a Napoleon expert. "Because you were frightened of him, you had to belittle him, make him seem not so frightening," added Sheila O'Connell, curator of the exhibition.
- Propaganda -
"Unfortunately, the British do have a very old-fashioned view of Napoleon, one that was created by the propaganda of the Napoleonic wars," said Roberts. Since then, the conservative image of Napoleon as "a monster and an evil dictator" has stuck, with the notable exception of great wartime leader Winston Churchill, who described him as "the greatest action man since Julius Caesar". "He was a conqueror," added Roberts. "Of course he was ruthless. However, all of these things must be seen in the context of a total war, one that lasted 22 years." "To blame him... for all the wars that took place and killed so many people in Europe, about six million people, I think is totally unfair." Faced with colleagues such as historian Adam Zamoyski, for whom Napoleon was "megalomaniac, incompetent and a usurper", Roberts argued that his hero was as much the victim of aggression as the perpetrator. The British, Austrians and Prussians launched the first war against revolutionary France in 1792, when Napoleon "was still a second lieutenant of artillery". However, he could be blamed for "the appallingly opportunist attack in the peninsula against Spain and Portugal in 1807 and 1808 and, of course, the invasion of Russia." His overall military record -- despite his crushing and decisive defeat at Waterloo on June 18, 1815 -- stands at 47 victories and seven "ties" in 60 battles.
- French 'rewriting history' -
The debate over whether he was a tyrant or hero has provided fodder for thousands of books, cluttering the shelves of British libraries and online shopping sites. With so much detailed analysis in the public domain, historian Roberts is perplexed that Napoleon can still be compared to Saddam Hussein and Moamer Kadhafi or Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, as in a recent BBC documentary. "These men had absolutely nothing in common, except that Napoleon tried to invade Russia and so did Hitler," he said. "Not only was he a fine soldier, and a brilliant strategist, but of course he was a head of state. He was altogether a much larger figure than Wellington," said Evelyn Webb-Carter, president of Waterloo 200, which is organising the bicentennial commemorations on the British side. "People who visit the battlefield at Waterloo notice that the shops, restaurants and the cafes are very much concentrated on Napoleon, who lost, rather than Wellington, who won," added Roberts. "That does irritate the Englishman rather a lot, especially the English tourist." The London media are also stoking the embers, accusing the losers of being deluded. The Daily Telegraph ran with the headline "French rewrite Battle of Waterloo to cast Napoleon as the victor" after Frank Samson, who will play Napoleon during the battle reconstruction, said: "In terms of his historical importance, it's clear that he won at Waterloo." Even Michael Haynes, one of the English extras at the battle site, in modern-day Belgium, treacherously confesses to having "a little bit of love for Napoleon". "Even though he was a little bit of a tyrant, he was a great general."
Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
| |
14 dead, 70 injured in Tunisia train crash | ||
| | ||
Tunis (AFP) - At least 14 people were killed and 70 injured when a train and a lorry collided south of the Tunisian capital on Tuesday, the transport and interior ministries said. The accident happened at El Fahes, some 60 kilometres (40 miles) from Tunis, at around 6:30 am (0530 GMT) in the midst of the morning rush hour. "The death toll could rise," Transport Minister Mahmoud Ben Romdhane told Mosaique FM radio. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
| |
Kurds in full control of Syria's Tal Abyad: monitor | ||
| | ||
Beirut (AFP) - Kurdish militia, backed by Syrian rebel forces, seized full control of a key border town from the Islamic State jihadist group early on Tuesday, a monitoring group said. "Since dawn this morning, not a single bullet has been fired in Tal Abyad," said Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman. "The Kurdish fighters now have full control of Tal Abyad," which was used by IS as a gateway from Turkey to its de facto capital Raqa to the south, he said.
Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
| |
REPORT: Greece's economy will be locked down with capital controls if it can't find a deal by the weekend | ||
| | ||
A report in Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper on Monday evening says European governments are ready to push for capital controls in Greece if there's no deal this week. That would mean a severe lockdown on flows of cash similar to the ones brought in for Cyprus in 2013 — strict limits on the amount that could be withdrawn from banks, taken abroad physically, or passed between international accounts. The move would slam the brakes on outflows of money streaming out of Greek banks, but it would also make it more difficult for the country to recover economically and remain a functioning member of the eurozone. Capital controls are easy to bring in and hard to get out of. Other European countries can't make that move on their own — there's no institutional procedure for the rest of Europe locking down an individual member state. Greece would have to pass its own law agreeing to the move. The controls would reportedly be brought in if there's no progress by Thursday's Eurogroup meeting of finance ministers. Greece's latest €7.2 billion ($8.07 billion, £5.19 billion) bailout tranche is still in limbo, with the country and its creditors unable to reach an agreement on what reforms it should undertake to access the money. Athens needs that cash to make payments to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on June 30 and to the European Central Bank (ECB) on June 20. Even before the Eurogroup meeting, Greece will have a crucial decision made for it — the ECB will decide Wednesday whether to raise the ceiling for the country's emergency liquidity assistance (ELA), the banking system's last lifeline. With money flooding out of Greek banks, the government will almost certainly want the ceiling raised. Here's how bank deposits look:
Bloomberg's Lorcan Roche Kelly flagged up this message from the ECB to Cyprus in 2013, the point at which it refused to keep raising the ELA ceiling, saying more funding "could only be considered if an EU/IMF programme is in place that would ensure the solvency of the concerned banks." A similar message to Athens could force Greece's hand and hurry either a deal or the implementation of capital controls. But Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis reportedly told Germany's Bild tabloid that Athens had nothing to present at the Eurogroup meeting Thursday. A statement from Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras accusing the institutions lending to Greece of pillaging the country with austerity measures was released Monday, making it clear that Greek negotiators have moved as far toward a deal as they intend to. Unless some urgent crisis drives the two sides back to the table, a deal this week looks very unlikely. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
| |
Toyota wins controversial investor vote on new shares | ||
| | ||
Tokyo (AFP) - Toyota won approval Tuesday for a controversial new stock sale that it defended as a way to lure stable, long-term investors, overcoming stiff opposition from some institutional shareholders overseas. The world's biggest automaker said 75 percent of shareholders voted in favour of the plan that would see it sell up to 50 million of the new shares, which must be held for five years and would not be publicly traded. Largely restricted to Japanese investors, the new "Model AA" shares carry voting rights and are to be priced at a 20 percent premium on Toyota's common shares, which closed at 8,395 yen ($68) in Tokyo. Dividends paid on the new shares would rise from 0.5 percent to 2.5 percent by the end of the five-year holding period when investors could convert them to common shares or Toyota would repurchase them, it said. Toyota, which booked a record $18 billion profit in its latest fiscal year, said the share structure would lure longer-term investors and help it fund expensive research work, particularly on next-generation technology such as fuel cell cars. The vote comes weeks after Japan formally adopted a corporate governance code that was hailed as ushering in a new era of transparency for investors. US-based advisory Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) warned that the new shares would reduce investor influence over management decisions. "It is difficult to escape the impression that the company wants to increase stable and silent investors by replacing common shareholders with Model AA shareholders," it added. The California State Teachers’ Retirement System, which said it would vote against the idea, said it was "not in the best interests of all Toyota common stock shareowners -- particularly foreign shareowners". We do "not believe that the creation of a dual class of common stock aligns with the 'one share, one vote' principle," it said. “Toyota’s Model AA Class Shares would be unlisted and offered only in Japan, thus hindering investors outside of Japan from participating."
Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
| |
Nestle is destroying £32 million worth of its most popular noodles | ||
| | ||
Swiss multinational food company Nestle revealed that it will destroy more than £32 million ($50 million) worth of its popular Maggi noodles in India after the country's food safety regulator said the products were "unsafe and hazardous." Nestle, which claims 80% of the Indian instant noodles market since it arrived with the Maggi brand in 1983, said in a statement that the noodles are safe and is challenging the ban. Nestle said it will remove the noodles from India's shelves in the meantime while a BBC report said it was destroying the produce. "There will be additional costs to take into account, for example bringing stock from the market, transporting the stock to the destruction points, destruction cost etc. The final figure will have to be confirmed at a later date," said Nestle in a statement, as reported by the BBC. On June 5, India's Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) imposed the ban on Nestle's Maggi noodles after it allegedly found higher-than-allowed levels of lead in some packets. Nestle said that the ban "raised issues of interpretation" in India's food safety laws and is challenging the decision in the Mumbai high court. Nestle also requested to see the results of the laboratory tests. Nestle's global chief executive Paul Bulcke promised to return Maggi to store shelves soon. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Forget the Apple Watch — here's the new watch everyone on Wall Street wants  | ||
| |
Second thoughts: Is a tiny addition in time too much? | ||
| | ||
Paris (AFP) - Question: When is a minute not a minute? The answer: At 2359 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) on June 30, when the world will experience a minute that will last 61 seconds. The reason for the weird event is something called the leap second. That's when timekeepers adjust high-precision clocks so that they are in sync with Earth's rotation, which is affected by the gravitational tug of the Sun and the Moon. Few of the planet's 7.25 billion people are likely to be aware of the change... and even fewer will have set plans for how they will spend the extra moment. But for horologists, the additional second is a big deal, and there is a wrangle as to whether it is vital or should be scrapped. "There is a downside," admits Daniel Gambis, director of the Service of the Rotation of the Earth -- the poetically named branch of the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS), in charge of saying when the second should be added. To be clear, the leap second is not something that needs to be added to that old clock on your mantlepiece. Instead, its importance is for super-duper timepieces, especially those using the frequency of atoms as their tick-tock mechanism. At the top of the atomic-clock range are "optical lattices" using strontium atoms, the latest example of which, unveiled in April, is accurate to 15 billion years -- longer than the Universe has existed. Outside the lab, caesium and rubidium clocks are the workhorses of Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites, which have to send syncronised signals so that sat-nav receivers can triangulate their position on Earth. On Earth, big-data computers may be less manic than atomic clocks but still need highly precise internal timers. The Internet, for instance, sends data around the world in tiny packets that are then stitched together in micro-seconds. Some algorithms in financial trading count on gaining a tiny slice of a second over rivals to make a profit. There have been 25 occasions since 1971 when the leap second was added in an effort to simplify Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the official monicker for GMT.
- Time to go? -
But over the last 15 years, a debate has intensified about whether the change should be made, given the hassle. "The argument of critics is that it's become more and more difficult to manage these days, as so much equipment has internal clocks," says Roland Lehoucq of France's Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). "The problem is synchronisation between computers. They do sort things out, but sometimes it can take several days." The last modification, on June 30, 2012, was disruptive for many Internet servers -- the online reservation system for the Australian airline Qantas "went down for several hours," says Gambis. "It's time to get rid of the leap second. It causes complications and bugs," argues Sebastien Bize, a specialist in atomic clocks at the SYRTE Laboratory -- it means Time-Space Reference System -- at the Paris Observatory. Gambis defends the change on the grounds of principle. "Should Man be the servant of technology? Or should technology be the servant of Man?" he asks rhetorically. After all, if the world got rid of the leap second, time as counted by mankind would no longer be coupled to the exact rotation of the planet it lives on. "That would mean in 2000 years, there would be an hour's difference between UTC and the time it takes for the Earth to complete one complete turn," notes Gambis. "It would mean that, on a scale of tens of thousands of years, people will be having their breakfast at two o'clock in the morning."
Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
| |
The leader of Al Qaeda's most dangerous affiliate has been killed in a US drone strike | ||
| | ||
Al Qaeda has confirmed that Nasir al-Wuhayshi, its No. 2 figure and leader of its powerful Yemeni affiliate, has been killed in a U.S. strike. In a video statement released early Tuesday by the media wing of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the group confirmed his death and said his deputy, Qassim al-Rimi, has been named its new leader. "Our Muslim nation, a hero of your heroes and a master of your masters left to God, steadfast," senior operative Khaled Batrafi said in the video, vowing that the group's war on America would continue. "In the name of God, the blood of these pioneers make us more determined to sacrifice," he said. "Let the enemies know that the battle is not with an individual... the battle led by crusaders and their agents is colliding with a billion-member nation." Al-Wuhayshi was the deputy of Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri and once served as Osama bin Laden's personal secretary. Rita Katz, director of the SITE Intelligence Group, told the BBC that this is likely the biggest strike on Al Qaeda since the US killed Osama bin Laden in 2011. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is thought to be the most dangerous of the terror organization's affiliates. It has been linked to a number of foiled or botched attacks on the U.S. homeland. In addition to leading the Yemeni affiliate, al-Wahishi also served as deputy to Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaida's top leader, who succeeded bin Laden in 2011. The death of al-Wahishi is the latest in a series of targeted killings of the Yemen affiliate's top leaders, including its most senior military leader Nasr al-Ansi, religious ideologue Ibrahim al-Rubish and others in recent weeks. Al- Wahishi was among 23 al-Qaida militants who broke out of a detention facility in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, in February 2006. In 2009, al-Wahishi announced the creation of AQAP, which gathered together Yemeni and Saudi militants.
Al-Wahishi's death is a major setback for AQAP, but the group's master bomb-maker, Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, is believed to still be alive. He is thought to have designed bombs that were slipped past security and placed on three separate American-bound airplanes, although none of them exploded. The group has also been able to expand its reach in recent months as Yemen has slid into chaos. Shiite rebels known as Houthis captured Sanaa last year and are battling southern separatists, Islamic militants and local and tribal militias across the country. Yemen's military, once a close U.S. ally against al-Qaida, has split between opponents and supporters of the rebels, and a Saudi-led coalition has been bombing the Houthis and their allies since March. Earlier this year, AQAP took advantage of the chaos to seize Mukalla. Al-Raimi, the new leader of AQAP, is thought to be the brains behind a series of attacks, including a foiled plot to mail bombs to the United States and multiple attacks against Yemen's U.S.-backed government. In writings and videos, he has vowed to topple the Sanaa government and strike America. In a May 2011 eulogy for bin Laden, al-Wahishi had warned Americans "the matter will not be over" with the death of al-Qaida's founder and that "what is coming is greater and worse." Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: 5 clever iPhone tricks only power users know about  | ||
| |
