Month: April 2022

Look at all those details! Maps will show traffic lights, stop signs, and building outlines in navigation mode. (credit: Google)

It might be hard to believe, but there are still some incredibly useful features that can be added to Google Maps. The latest addition brings traffic-light and stop-sign icons to navigation mode.

Traffic lights have appeared in Google Maps in some areas since 2020. Not everyone had access to them, though, and they never seemed to show up while navigating. Now, lights and stop signs will appear on everyone's routes while navigating. That should give users a better feel for how their trip will go and when they should turn. Google says many more normal map details will soon be visible in the navigation view, including building outlines and areas of interest.

While a ton of details pop up on the regular map, navigation mode previously stripped out most of them, and the spaces between roads have usually been blank. For cities with a high level of Google Maps details, you'll also start to see the specific shape and width of a road, including medians and islands.

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Enlarge / The Pi OS is getting a new setup wizard to help it shed its old username. (credit: Raspberry Pi Foundation)

Since its launch, the Raspberry Pi OS (and most operating systems based on it) has shipped with a default "pi" user account, making it simpler to boot up a Pi and start working without needing to hook up the device to a monitor or go through a multi-step setup process. But as of today, that's changing—new installs of the Raspberry Pi OS are shedding that default user account for both security and regulatory reasons.

Raspberry Pi Foundation software engineer Simon Long explains the thinking in this blog post.

"[The "pi" user account] could potentially make a brute-force attack slightly easier, and in response to this, some countries are now introducing legislation to forbid any Internet-connected device from having default login credentials," he writes.

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Google has announced plans to make it easier to fix a broken Pixel phone. Starting later this year you’ll be able to buy spare parts and tools to fix Pixel 2 and later phones from iFixit.

Google says things like replacement displays, batteries, and cameras will be sold as individual parts and as parts of kits that include suggested tools including screwdriver bits and spudgers. Parts will be available to customers in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and in countries in the European Union where Pixel phones are sold.

The announcement comes about a week after Samsung announced it was also partnering with iFixit on a Self Repair Program for recent flagship phones and tablets.

In some ways Google’s program goes further, as the company is promising to make spare parts available for every phone it’s released since late 2017, including models like the Pixel 2 and Pixel 3 which are no longer covered by Google’s software update policy. But Samsung also produces a much wider range of hardware than Google does, so it’d likely take a bit more effort to offer spare parts and repair guides across the company’s entire lineup.

That said, it’s good to see more companies jumping on the right to repair bandwagon and offering more alternatives for folks who want to try their hand at fixing their own gear, which can often be cheaper and sometimes faster than sending your broken devices to the manufacturer for repair or taking them to a professional repair shop.

Google also notes that making official replacement parts available will also help “independent repair professionals” as well as individuals with a DIY streak. And Google says it will also continue to partner with independent repair providers including uBreakiFix who provide in-warranty and out-of-warranty repair support for folks who may not want to perform surgery on their own phones.

The folks at iFixit note that repair guides are already available for Pixel 2, 3, 4, and 5 series phones and guides are on the way for the Pixel 5a, 6 and 6 Pro.

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Enlarge / Roberta Williams and Ken Williams at the 2022 Game Developers Conference. (credit: Sam Machkovech)

SAN FRANCISCO—Legendary game programmer Ken Williams needed only a moment to chew on my question. He and equally famed game designer Roberta Williams had set themselves up for the query by recounting a principle from their time at Sierra On-Line, the video game company they founded that revolutionized PC gaming in the 1980s and '90s.

Sierra games, they said, stood out because they were built "with blinders" from the rest of the games industry. Nobody worked at competitors' companies; nobody played competitors' games. And after each Sierra games release, its individual sales record would determine the budget and scope of the lead designer's next game.

I asked how that math works for their new, out-of-nowhere game announcement in March 2022, Colossal Cave 3D. This reimagining of the very first text adventure, the one that Roberta eventually modded into her own classic 1980 game Mystery House, is about as detached from her designs in Sierra's heyday as it can be, mostly due to its shift into (optional) hand-controlled VR adventuring. Does Sierra's founding principle about budgets and production scope still apply if a lead designer's "last game" launched over 20 years ago?

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One of the most affordable ways to get your hands on a Windows on ARM computer is to spend $219 on a Qualcomm Snapdragon Dev Kit for Windows. For that price, you get a compact Windows desktop computer with 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c processor.

But now there’s another option that costs a little more, but which offers more options including optional support for 4G LTE as well as extra memory and storage.

The Apcsilmic Dot 1 Mini PC is a small desktop computer with the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c chip that powers the Snapdragon Dev Kit that launched late last year. But the Apcsilmic model is available with up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. Prices range from $229 to $309 depending on the configuration:

Note that some models are currently out of stock, and there doesn’t even seem to be a price listed for a 4GB / 64GB WiFi + 4G configuration at the moment.

Each version of the Dot 1 Mini PC features two HDMI ports, two USB 2.0 ports, a Gigabit Ethernet jack, support for WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.1, and 3.5mm mic and line jacks. Apcsilmic says the Dot 1 Mini PC can support up to two 2K displays.

The little computer is passively cooled, which means there’s no fan or other moving parts to generate noise. And while it’s likely that most folks looking to pick up a cheap Windows on ARM desktop at this point are probably looking for a development platform, Apcsilmic notes that the system could also be used for “freelance work, watching your favorite movies, streaming, games or you name it.”

One thing to keep in mind though is that while the little computer comes with Windows 11 pre-installed, it’s an unlicensed version of Windows. If you want to activate a Windows license you’ll need to pay another $100 to Microsoft or Apcsilmic.

via Windows Central

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