Google Launches 'Live View' AR Walking Directions For Google Maps (techcrunch.com) 20
Google is launching a beta of its augmented reality walking directions feature for Google Maps, with a broader launch that will be available to all iOS and Android devices that have system-level support for AR. On iOS, that means ARKit-compatible devices, and on Android, that means any smartphones that support Google's ARcore, so long as "Street View" is also available where you are. TechCrunch reports: Originally revealed earlier this year, Google Maps' augmented reality feature has been available in an early alpha mode to both Google Pixel users and to Google Maps Local Guides, but starting today it'll be rolling out to everyone (this might take a couple of weeks depending on when you actually get pushed the update). We took a look at some of the features available with the early version in March, and it sounds like the version today should be pretty similar, including the ability to just tap on any location nearby in Maps, tap the "Directions" button and then navigating to "Walking," then tapping "Live View" which should appear near the bottom of the screen.
The Live View feature isn't designed with the idea that you'll hold up your phone continually as you walk -- instead, in provides quick, easy and super-useful orientation by showing you arrows and big, readable street markers overlaid on the real scene in front of you. That makes it much, much easier to orient yourself in unfamiliar settings, which is hugely beneficial when traveling in unfamiliar territory.
The Live View feature isn't designed with the idea that you'll hold up your phone continually as you walk -- instead, in provides quick, easy and super-useful orientation by showing you arrows and big, readable street markers overlaid on the real scene in front of you. That makes it much, much easier to orient yourself in unfamiliar settings, which is hugely beneficial when traveling in unfamiliar territory.
Nice not seeing anonymous hate posts any more (Score:2)
I know that this is off topic, but it's nice being able to read a discussion and not seeing the usual anonymous hate posts. I was going to collect stats on the numbers of each category of hate posts today because it was really getting out of hand, but now I've lost my research material. Definitely not complaining, though. Good move!
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"not seeing the usual anonymous hate posts."
That's one of the few drawbacks of having the first post.
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What Ironymous Coward said.
Look, APK guy was a nuisance, but it wasn't worth destroying the best moderation system on the entire Internet to get rid of him. (If, indeed, that was the real motivation).
Free speech cannot exist if you remove the option of anonymous speech. That's been true since the days of Thomas Paine and god knows, it's even more true these days.
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The whole free speech argument is and always has been total bullshit. You're free to set up your own server, with your own website. Who's stopping you? Not slashdot, that's for sure.
Arguing that anyone should have to post your speech is a direct limitation on their freedom of speech. You can't compel a business to host your hate speech, and that is what most of the anonymous posts were lately. It had gotten to the point that I had decided I would do a study and inventory all the anonymous posts for tod
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it wasn't worth destroying the best moderation system on the entire Internet to get rid of [APK]
A system that allowed trolls to post multi-page rants not just once but identically many times over in the same thread was not "the best moderation system on the entire Internet". It was not the anti-Jew, anti-Kendall and the swastikas that I particularly minded, as much as the sheer volume of them. Looking for on-topic posts was becoming like looking for needles in a haystack. I was about to give up coming here, so what worth then would "the best moderation system on the entire Internet" have been.
If
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And yet, the quality of Slashdot discussion tended to be as good as anything you'll find on the Net, parent poster notwithstanding.
The APK posts and the swastika posts were unpleasant and annoying. But they were a minor annoyance, and 90% of the time, you could eliminate the annoyance just by browsing at 0 and above.
"The best moderation system" =/= "a perfect moderation system". To paraphrase Winston Churchill, the Slashdot system was the worst system in the world, except for all the others.
Great Step (Score:1)
Also, downsides? (Score:2)
Also:
Will they record what they see?
Will they add it to Street View (and/or other database of how the world looks and what's where?
Will they not just figure out where you are, but archive and analyze where you've been?
How will they monitize this? Who will pay to know what about where you've been, what you've seen, what happened where and when that your camera happened to capture, who you were near and when, what was said, in what lang
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Unless you're using an iPhone, in which case any errors are due to you holding it wrong :-)
Good for Walking (Score:2)
Google's walking directions seems to have trouble with device heading and orientation. Several times I've been at an old city intersection where five or six streets come together, the road signs have been stolen, and I need to get half a block down its "best guess" street before it reorients itself and tells me I'm a street off.
Having a quick AR overlay that I can match to the actual landmarks would be fantastic, urban canyon or not.
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Back when I was using google I noticed the same thing. Directed me to streets that didn't connect (you can't get there from here even though they say you can), or sending me in the wrong direction when I can SEE where I want to go further down the block. One time it told me that I should turn left in 5 feet , but left was an open field for hundreds of feet in both directions.
A few times I've had to rely on guesses and hope I end up recognizing something.
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Having a quick AR overlay that I can match to the actual landmarks would be fantastic, urban canyon or not.
The feature actually works the other way around -- it doesn't show you buildings on the screen for you to match, it sees the buildings through the camera and it matches them. You hold the phone up so it can see the landmarks and it figures out your precise location and orientation and uses that to correctly navigate you... including by placing virtual blue signs overlaying the image in front of you to show you how far to go, where to turn, etc.
Note that the intention isn't for you to walk holding your ph
"Hugely beneficial"? (Score:2)
You know, I guess the app itself is mildly interesting, but I for one could have done without the breathless marketing-speak that BeauHD inserted into the summary. "This makes it much, much easier to orient yourself in unfamiliar settings?" Really? You're sure it's "much, much easier", and not simply "much easier"?
"Hugely beneficial when traveling in unfamiliar territory." Just wondering: does anyone out there use Google to orient themselves when traveling in "familiar settings" or "familiar territory"?
T
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Meanwhile, in Cupertino... (Score:2)
"Hey guys! Look at this! Giant artwork in AR!"
Dumbasses.