Yogi Land

In the wake of the China attacks that resulted in Google threatening to leave China, the search giant is abandoning Windows due to concerns over security.

According to the Financial Times, the technology titan has been slowly phasing out the use of Windows internally since January, not long after it was assaulted by Chinese hackers. For example, new hires are no longer offered Windows PCs — the choices are now an Apple Mac computer or a PC loaded with Linux.

Google’s policies surrounding the internal use of Windows aren’t clear-cut, though. Some employees can still install Windows on their laptops, but not their desktop computers. However, Googlers need explicit permission from “quite senior levels” in order to keep using the Windows OS.

The move makes sense: Windows and Internet Explorer have been implicated as vectors in which hackers accessed personal accounts and confidential data from Google’s servers. And of course, Microsoft is one of Google’s primary competitors.

It’s important to note that later this year, Google is expected to release Chrome OS, the company’s web-centric operating system. However, the decision to leave Windows behind doesn’t seem to be motivated by the impending release of its experimental OS.

Tags: Google, Linux, mac, Mac OS, microsoft, Windows, Windows 7

When Google Maps‘ walking directions instructed Lauren Rosenberg to walk along a very busy highway with no pedestrian walkway, she followed the directions exactly. Unfortunately, she was hit by a car in the process. Now she’s suing Google for damages, Search Engine Land reports.

The walking directions from 96 Daly Ave to 1710 Prospector Ave in Park City, Utah told Rosenberg to walk just over one half of a mile along Deer Valley Dr, also known as highway 224. The highway did not have sidewalks or any other pedestrian-friendly amenities, and Rosenberg was struck by a car driven by a man named Patrick Harwood.

Rosenberg filed suit against both Harwood and Google, claiming both carried responsibility in her injury. Her lawyers claim that Google is liable because it did not warn her that the route would not offer a safe place for a pedestrian to walk. Note that the Google Maps website actually does do that, as pictured here.

However, Rosenberg says she used Google Maps on her BlackBerry, which did not show that warning, so she’s suing for more than $100,000. She should have probably realized upon arrival that it was an unsafe place to walk, though — but isn’t that how these lawsuits always go?

Anyway, we’ve embedded the dangerous Google Maps route below in case you want to check it out.

Tags: Google, Google Maps, lawsuit, utah

The iPad has finally made its international debut, meaning that thousands and thousands of new users will be enjoying Apple’s latest device over the coming weeks.

With the launch of the iPad comes the international launch of the iPad App Store, making it possible for us to play Words With Friends with our friends in Australia. There are already thousands of apps available in the App Store, and with the exception of apps focused on media services like Netflix, ABC or Pandora, most are also available internationally.

We’ve been fortunate enough to have the iPad in our screen-smudging paws for the past two months and in that time we’ve surveyed well over 100 apps and games for the new platform. While this list could easily be four or five times as long as it is, we wracked our brains and decided to pick ten of our favorite iPad apps for the new iPad owner.

1. Air Video

The iPad is a great media player. The size of the screen coupled with the quality of the display really makes it a great way to catch up on lots of content. Although you can use iTunes to transfer movie and music files to your iPad, converting and transferring can be a complicated and tedious process. This is why Air Video is so great — it makes it extremely simple to stream video from your Mac or PC to your iPad.

Just install the free Air Video server client on your PC, tell it what folders to watch or include and then fire up the app. Now select your computer and feel free to go through your lists of available content and watch it in great quality on the iPad! Air Video does a really terrific job of “live conversion,” meaning your video is converted as it plays, which saves time and makes it really easy to enjoy your video collection on the couch.

2. Real Racing HD

Real Racing for the iPhone was a great racing game. Real Racing HD is even better. The use of the accelerometer for turning and maneuvering might make you look a little weird to your friends, but the graphics, sound, controls and gameplay are all top-notch.

Seriously, this is a great racing game and its a great game to really show off the power of the iPad!

3. GoodReader for iPad

We’ve written about our affinity for GoodReader both on the iPhone and the iPad in the past, but it bears a repeated mention. Simply put, GoodReader is one of the best document readers/file managers out there. Period. You can connect to Dropbox, Box.net, Google Docs, FTP servers, and local computers, and download files directly off the web.

More than just a PDF viewer (though it is a great PDF viewer), the app can read a variety of different file types and can even let you open documents inside other apps to make editing a breeze.

4. Mondo Solitaire

Mondo Solitaire was one of the apps we highlighted in our early roundup of iPad video previews. In practice, the app is extremely addictive and extremely entertaining.

Mondo Solitaire comes in two varieties, a pack of the most popular games or the whole shebang. If you like card games, we recommend getting the full package and then having a blast playing through tons of variations of Solitaire and Freecell.

I have personally spent many hours playing Mondo Solitaire that otherwise could have been spent sleeping or being productive.

5. Wired Magazine

Released earlier this week, Wired for the iPad has already sold over 24,000 copies. For good reason too: Wired for the iPad is a great example of what publishers and content creators can do when they really fire on all cylinders.

While we aren’t sure if we would buy Wired every month without some sort of better subscription plan, the first issue, which includes a look at the making of Toy Story 3, is really worth checking out.

6. Kindle for iPad

Apple’s iBooks application is fantastic, but when it comes to content selection, Amazon still has the lead. Kindle for the iPad is a really good e-reader app, and makes it easy to browse through books. It seamlessly launches the web-based book store to make purchasing a snap.

We think Apple has the edge in overall presentation, but you can’t beat Kindle in price or selection. Also, while not as utterly beautiful as iBooks, Kindle for the iPad is still great to look at.

7. Epicurious

Even if you’re like me and cooking consists of re-heating take-out and making reservations, there is something to love about the Epicurious app. There are so many recipes and ideas, not to mention gorgeous pictures, that this is a great app to have on hand before hitting the market or just to gaze at while waiting for the pizza delivery guy.

8. Dropbox

If you are a Dropbox user, you owe it to yourself to get the Drobox app for the iPad. It brings all of what makes the iPhone app great and makes it even better. You can save content directly to your device, you can upload content off your device and you can view and playback media content all in the app.

Dropbox is a great way to stay connected to the documents on your computer no matter where you are.

9. The Guardian Eyewitness

UK publication The Guardian released a really terrific iPad app that features its stunning photography. Visually, this app is one of our favorites. The form factor of the iPad makes it perfect for really enjoying and studying the art that accompanies news stories.

10. NewsRack

NewsRack is our current pick as the best newsreader available for the iPad. It syncs with Google Reader seamlessly, so if you add a feed, it is added to Google Reader — if you remove it, it’s removed there too. However, you can selectively sync only certain feeds or categories, which can make news reading on the iPad more manageable.

The iPad is a terrific way to browse the web, and that includes RSS feeds. NewsRack is a top-notch app that also works on the iPhone, if you want to keep everything in sync across devices.

Your Picks

You’ve seen our list of ten must-have apps, now tell us your picks! What apps do you love the most on your iPad, let us know!

More iPad resources from Mashable:

- 10 Awesome Apple iPad Cases
- 10 Great Sites for Watching Video on Your iPad
- iPad Accessories: A Quick Guide to Apple’s Official Add-Ons
- 10 Insanely Great iPad Apps We Can’t Wait to Use

Tags: apple, apps, ipad, ipad apps, Mobile 2.0, tech

Facing increasing pressure from Apple’s red-hot iPad, Amazon intends to fight back with a thinner, sharper and more responsive Kindle that will be introduced later this year.

According to Bloomberg, Amazon will introduce a new version of its popular e-reader in August. It will boast a thinner build, sharper contrast, and faster page-turning. However, it will not be a touchscreen device, nor will it boast color.

Apple is gunning directly for Amazon’s e-book business with its iBooks store, which publishers have embraced as an alternative to Amazon’s long-standing dominance in the e-book space.

The iPad’s multitude of uses and starting price point of $499 are a threat to the Kindle, although the iPad’s LED screen isn’t as well suited as the Kindle for extended reading. The Kindle utilizes black-and-white e-ink technology to make reading on the device less strenuous on the eyes.

While the upgrade should help Kindle stay relevant, we’re likely to see color and a touchscreen on Amazon’s e-reader device at some point. In February, the company acquired Touchco, a startup specializing in color touchscreen technology. It’s going to be some time though until Amazon is satisfied with a touchscreen interface that is also easy on the eyes.

Tags: amazon, apple, ipad, Kindle

According to Google’s AdPlanner stats, Facebook is the #1 most-visited destination on the web. Weighing in at an unfathomably heavy 570 billion page views and 540 million users, the ubiquitous social network outranks every other non-Google site, taking more than 35% of all web traffic measured.

The stats, which do not include data from Google.com and YouTube, detail the categories, users and page views for each of the top 1,000 sites on the Internet. They also tell which sites have advertising. Wikipedia and Mozilla.com are the only two sites in the top 10 that remain ad-free.

Destinations such as Mozilla.com, Yahoo.com, MSN.com and Live.com sit high in the rankings due in large part to their status as default landing pages for various browsers.

When it comes to non-Facebook social media properties, Twitter ranks 18th with 5.4 billion page views, Flickr is 31st with 1.8 billion views and LinkedIn sits in 56th place at 1.7 billion views.

And the usual blogging sites make appearances, too. Blogspot is in 7th place, WordPress in 12th and Blogger in 53rd.

Other popular destinations, according to Google’s report, are international web portals such as Baidu, Sina, 163.com and Sohu. Though relatively unheard of in American tech press, these sites are the online equivalent of our solar system’s Jupiter: enormous and a bit out of our reach.

Bank of America and PayPal also made the list, coming in at 93rd and 39th, respectively. And in the news category we find the BBC, which was ranked 43rd with 2.5 billion hits, followed by the New York Times’ website, ranked 83rd with 600 million views.

We think it’s pretty spectacular and surprising that Facebook has come to dominate global web traffic in just a few short years. Are any of these stats eyebrow-raising to you?

Tags: analytics, doubleclick, Google, stats, traffic

While many of us were focused on the Facebook privacy saga, an ongoing debate about access and transparency in regards to the much more critical problem of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill was taking place.

British Petroleum (BP) originally announced that it was going to live stream video of the “top kill” procedure to the public, only to later backtrack and say it wasn’t sure if it could “maintain a live feed” during the operation.

After considerable blowback from government officials, such as Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass), BP acquiesced and announced via its Twitter stream that it would continue to serve its live stream.

The “top-kill” procedure was started about five hours ago, but because most of what takes place is happening inside of pipes, most of the action won’t appear on camera anyway. You can still watch the live feed for any noticeable changes in the plumes of oil. BP says the procedure could take up to two days.

Tags: bp, environment, gulf oil spil, gulf oil spill, oil, public policy

MTV is using a novel approach to generate buzz for their upcoming new television series The Hard Times of RJ Berger: the company is launching a casual game that will tie into the show via episodic content.

The “Chain of Thought” game centers on the theme that it’s “difficult to talk to one’s crush.” Players get points and level up by completing “conversation challenges” in which objects must be connected in the correct order to produce a sentence that elicits a positive response from the crush character. The game introduces new users to the show about an unpopular 15-year-old boy who deals with a sudden influx of newfound popularity at school and wants to figure out how to talk to his object of affection, Jenny.

The title also features a “build mode” that brings in an aspect of user-generated content. Players are invited to set up their own conversation challenges along with positive or negative responses, and see them played out in a level of their own creation. The idea is to help break the ice with an actual crush or at least have fun with a friend who knows about the situation — and MTV hopes that aspect of the game will encourage players to virally share it with their friends.

We spoke with VP of MTV Digital Colin Helm and Supervising Producer at MTV Digital Tom Akel about the project and wanted to know what led to the idea behind introducing a game before the series launch. Early on the team was looking for a way to “raise awareness outside of what we normally do.” As one of the first scripted shows that MTV has produced in some time, they had the benefit of a longer lead time with available assets including visuals and scripts. Using a viral casual game to promote a television series seemed like a timely play in the context of interactive digital entertainment.

As the TV show progresses, new “episodes” of the game will be unveiled as well, featuring actual dialogue and plot themes from the series. This type of tight integration between a television show and its companion game is a novel approach to episodic content, and we’ll be interested to see how much repeat interest is generated from the series to the game and vice versa.

The game itself is live now, so if you have a chance to check it out on MTV.com be sure to let us know what you think in the comments. The Hard Times of RJ Berger series itself premieres on June 6 at 11 p.m., and you can check out a trailer to get a sense of the show as well.

Tags: casual games, facebook, games, Hard Times of RJ Berger, mtv, MTV Digital, tv

If you were following Twitter around 7:45 P.M. ET today you were likely greeted by a tweet from Twitter with the F-bomb and an expression of emphatic love for Enrique Iglesias’s song “Escape.” If you’re like us, you were having a major WTF moment.

The screenshot above says it all, but the peculiar tweet reads, “I don’t know how Enrique Iglesias ended up in my iTunes but Escape is a catchy fuckin’ song! http://bit.ly/bcY3wm Sing, Enrique! Sing!”

Here’s what happened: Twitter’s account is managed by multiple parties using the Contributors feature that lets users flip between their personal account and a shared account on Twitter.com. In the byline, Maggie Utgoff is credited as the contributor for the strange tweet. Thus, we assume she meant to post the tweet in question to her account, but instead mistakenly hit the trigger button for Twitter’s official account.

She fessed up to the deed in a follow up tweet on her personal account that reads, “I shouldn’t assume ALL of TWITTER appreciates the musical stylings of Enrique Iglesias the way I do.”

Nothing but an honest mistake, but a rather funny one that exposed the faux pas to Twitter’s more than 3.2 million followers. Oops.

[img credit: alacooid]

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Reviews: Facebook, Twitter

Tags: twitter