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TECHNOLOGY Friday 21 april 2017

Google Earth invites you to ‘get lost’ exploring the planet

ANICK JESDANUN effects of forest restoration Earth now works on
AP Technology Writer efforts. Google’s Chrome browsers
NEW YORK (AP) — Google The producers of “Sesa- for desktops. It still requires
Earth is getting a revival, as me Street” show off Mup- an app for phones and tab-
the 3-D mapping service pets from co-productions lets because of the heavy
reorients itself to become around the world; the map graphics involved; Google
more of a tool for adven- shows where the Muppets is rolling out updates for
ture and exploration. live and offer stories about Android, but there’s no
A central feature in the the region and its culture. Google Earth app for
new Google Earth is Voy- Separately, a new “I’m iPhones or iPads yet.
ager. Google has part- Feeling Lucky” feature Some older features will still
nered with such groups as takes you to a location se- require a software down-
the BBC and NASA to add lected at random. Google load on desktops. That in-
video clips, photos and text Earth is highlighting some cludes maps of Mars and
narratives to three-dimen- 20,000 lesser-known desti- the moon through a part-
sional representations of nations — the kinds of plac- Sean Askay, right, engineering manager with Google Earth, nership with NASA.
particular locations. es locals might frequent demonstrates features on Google Earth, displayed in back- Google also announced
The Jane Goodall Institute, or know about, such as ground, Tuesday, April 18, 2017, in New York. an update to a virtual-reali-
for instance, lets you jour- the Indonesian island of Bu- Associated Press ty version of Google Earth. It
ney to spots in Tanzania naken , part of a national load was required, limiting use Google Earth again. now works with Facebook’s
that inspired its founding marine park. its use. Google Maps has in- Google says that while Oculus Rift, not just the HTC
chimpanzee expert. You Google Earth used to be corporated many of those Maps is about getting you Vive. But it won’t work with
can also get overlays of the place to go to for sat- features, making Google to a destination, Earth is cheaper, phone-based VR
chimpanzee ranges and ellite views and 3-D images Earth even less necessary. about immersing you there, systems, such as Google’s
compare imagery from stitched together from aeri- Tuesday’s update is about or “getting lost.” Daydream and Samsung’s
2005 and 2014 to see the al fly-bys. A software down- giving you a reason to With the update, Google Gear VR.q

Google Home’s assistant can

now recognize different voices

MICHAEL LIEDTKE able to tell him what traffic That loophole allowed
AP Technology Writer is like on his commute, list Burger King to recently air
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — events on his daily calen- a TV commercial that in-
Google’s voice-activated dar or even play his favor- cluded the phrase “OK
assistant can now recog- ite songs. Then another user Google” to prompt Home’s
nize who’s talking to it on named Jane could get sim- assistant to recite the ingre-
Google’s Home speaker. ilar information from Home, dients of the fast-food res-
An update released Thurs- but customized for her. taurant’s Whopper burger
day enables Home’s built-in The ability to distinguish from a Wikipedia entry.
assistant to learn the differ- voices may help Home si- Google quickly blocked
ent voices of up to six peo- phon sales from Amazon. Burger King’s commercial
ple, although they can’t all com’s Echo, a compet- from toying with the Home
be talking to the internet- ing product that features assistant, but the market-
connected speaker at the its own voice-activated ing stunt illustrated how In this Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016, file photo, Google Home, right, sits
same time. assistant, Alexa. The Echo the technology can be ma- on display near a Pixel phone following a product event, in San
Distinguishing voices will al- doesn’t yet recognize dif- nipulated. Voice-personal- Francisco. Associated Press
low Home to be more per- ferent voices, so Alexa ization eventually could en-
sonal in some of its respons- can’t retrieve more person- able Home’s users to block while also answering a few other smartphones running
es, depending on who trig- al information for different others from accessing the specific questions just for on the latest version of its
gers the assistant with the accounts. device, but Google isn’t you,” Google spokeswom- Android software. Google
phrase, “OK Google” or Google’s voice-distinction ready to do that yet. an Kara Stockton said. doesn’t think the technol-
“Hey Google.” feature, however, won’t “It’s important to balance The voice-distinction fea- ogy is necessary on phones
For instance, once Home prevent unauthorized us- making sure the assistant ture also isn’t being of- because most of those
is trained to recognize a ers from activating the as- on Google Home is still use- fered for the same digital devices are password-
user named Joe, the assis- sistant, as long as Home’s ful and able to answer a assistant that operates on protected and are usually
tant will automatically be microphone is turned on. guest’s or friend’s question Google’s Pixel phone and used by just one person.q