New Technology Reviews!.: sweden

Apple acquires 3D mapping company C3 Technologies

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Apple has extended its mapping services to a number of mapping companies over the past few years. The company has reportedly been working on building its own solution to maps and navigation on the iPhone, beginning with its acquisition of Placebase in 2009 and continuing with a "crowd-sourced traffic" service this year. Although Google and Apple have recently renewed their partnership and kept Google Maps in iOS 5, if Apple makes full use of its latest acquisition, Apple may have no need for Google's services for much longer. In fact, Apple may have something up its sleeve that makes Google Maps look like a dog's breakfast.<br />
According to 9to5 Mac, back in August Apple acquired a Swedish 3D mapping firm called C3 Technologies. Former high-level heads of C3 are now all working within Apple's iOS division, though they're still doing all their work in Sweden. C3 Technologies uses some rather science-fictionish techniques to create photorealistic 3D maps with a breathtaking level of detail. Buildings, landmarks, and geographical features all render in 3D automatically, without mapmakers having to mock them up in CAD.<br />
Using missile technology developed by the Swedish military, C3 Technologies' mapping service is able to create 3D maps with a stunning level of detail. Google Maps has Street View and a couple of other 3D-ish hackarounds, but it's got nothing on the level of what C3 Technologies has shown. This is no pipe dream service that may work on iOS devices <em>someday</em>; in one of the videos below you'll be able to see a C3 rep scrolling through a 3D representation of London in real time on an iPad. That video came out in February of 2011, and the technology is almost certainly even farther along now that Apple has thrown its resources into it.<br />
If Apple is able to implement this tech into a homegrown Maps application, it would blow the current Google Maps app out of the water. The applications for 3D mapping at this level of detail go beyond its obvious utility as a navigation aid -- if third-party app developers were granted access to the Maps APIs, it could be a huge boon to game developers.<br />
Evidence has been mounting for years that Apple is moving away from its dependence on Google for several internet services, presumably because the two companies now find themselves in the paradoxical situation of being direct competitors as well as partners. Apple has already branched out to Yahoo! and Bing for web searches (although Google remains the default), and Siri does an end run around Google for many of its search functions. If Apple can have this mapping technology available in time for iOS 6's release (presumably coming sometime in 2012), Apple may be able to extricate itself from Google Maps once and for all.<br />
Below you can view a video showing an aerial view of Oslo rendered in 3D, plus a second video showing how well the service functioned on a first-gen iPad earlier this year.<br />
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Apple acquires 3D mapping company C3 Technologies

Apple has extended its mapping services to a number of mapping companies over the past few years. The company has reportedly been working...

Samsung Galaxy R Gets Official, Powered by NVIDIA Tegra 2 Dual-core [Hands-On]

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<img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="279" mce_src="http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/9084/galaxyr3540x465.jpg" src="http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/9084/galaxyr3540x465.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px;" title="Galaxy R_3" width="324" />Today Samsung and NVIDIA have officially announced the next NVIDIA Tegra 2 powered Android smartphone and that is the Samsung Galaxy R. This will basically be the little brother to the Galaxy S II that we have heard so much about of late. Now this isn’t the first time we’ve seen the Galaxy R as it leaked a few weeks back and even appeared on video but this announcement makes it all official.</div>
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Samsung is the words largest smartphone maker for Android and while the SGSII has been extremely popular with their own Samsung Exynos 4210 1.2 GHz dual-core processor on board but the Galaxy R will be shipping with the NVIDIA Tegra 2 superchip instead. It will be clocked in at 1.0 Ghz so basically just slightly under the spec of the SGSII. This phone will be the little brother to the Galaxy S II with a slightly smaller screen and camera, but other than that they are extremely similar and equally awesome.</div>
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The Samsung Galaxy R Spec sheet details as followed — A NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core 1.0 Ghz processor, a 4.2″ SLCD Display (SGSII is 4.3″ and AMOLED) and the Galaxy R will also be packing a 5 MP camera with LED Flash as well as a front 2 MP shooter for video chat. Powered by NVIDIA and Android 2.3 Gingerbread users can expect a seamless and fluid experience as well as the benefit of the Samsung Touch Wiz UX pre-installed over 2.3 Gingerbread. It will also come with 8GB internal storage and 1GB RAM with optional 32GB micro-SD support.</div>
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It is super thin and extremely lightweight and from initial reports it will only be a hair thicker than the Galaxy S II bigger brother so this is basically as good as it gets, without actually getting the SGSII. The GALAXY R is currently available in Sweden, and is coming to other regions soon, including North & Eastern Europe, South East & West Asia, Middle East Asia, and China. We have reached out to Samsung and NVIDIA and currently have no further details about a possible US launch but I’d love to see it hit the streets over here.</div>
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Samsung Galaxy R Gets Official, Powered by NVIDIA Tegra 2 Dual-core [Hands-On]

Today Samsung and NVIDIA have officially announced the next NVIDIA Tegra 2 powered Android smartphone and that is the Samsung Galaxy R. ...

Samsung Galaxy Z pics sneak online

<p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="90" src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//classifications/Mobile%20Phones/Samsung/samsung-galaxyz-200-200.jpg" width="120" /></p><br/>A new smartphone from Samsung has been announced by Three in Sweden, the Samsung Galaxy Z.<br/><br/>As Samsung hasn't revealed the handset itself we are not sure if this was a slip by Three, with the handset looking like a slightly less powerful variation of the Samsung Galaxy S2.<br/><br/>Specs-wise, the Samsung Galaxy Z is dual-core, packing two 1GHz Cortex-A9 cores, it's powered by Tegra 2 and has a 5MP camera and can shoot 720p video.<br/><br/>Considering the Samsung Galaxy S2 has a dual 1.2GHz processor, it is definitely the more powerful handset but the Galaxy Z is still an impressive piece of kit.<br/><br/>The 4.2-inch display isn't SuperAMOLED but it is SC-LCD with a WXGA resolution. When it comes to memory, there's 8GB space built-in to the handset.<br/><br/><strong>The Z factor</strong><br/><br/>The Samsung Galaxy Z comes with Android 2.3 and measures 25.3x66.1x9.5mm.<br/><br/>There's no Samsung Galaxy Z UK release date as of yet but it is up for pre-order in Sweden right now. Price-wise, you can get the Samsung Galaxy Z on a 24-month contract for 300kr, which is around £30 a month.

Samsung Galaxy Z pics sneak online

A new smartphone from Samsung has been announced by Three in Sweden, the Samsung Galaxy Z. As Samsung hasn't revealed the handset itself...