Nintendo 3DS is Coming Soon

A Nintendo spokesman told Bloomberg Japan that Ninty yeah 90 plans to announce the Nintendo 3DS  price and release date on September 29th. Prices will be lie between $249 and $299 and the release dates will be between October and March, 2011.

I'm very excited about it, are you? Id yes then let's talk over it...

An Even Better Way to Find Places Nearby

With six updates in six months, Google Maps for Android has been getting plenty of new features, both big and small. A continued focus with each update has been on giving you better ways to find places nearby. In the most recent updates, Maps has gotten features like swiping between search results and info like photos, reviews, and more helpful content on the result pages. With today’s launch of Google Maps for mobile 4.4, we’re introducing an even easier way to find places around you: a dedicated Places icon that lets you quickly look up nearby places and pick a place to go using updated Place Pages, just like on your computer.

On Android-powered phones with Google Maps 4.4, you’ll find the new Places icon in the app launcher with the rest of your apps. Press and drag it right onto your home screen to use it when you’re looking for a restaurant, shoe store, movie theater or any other type of local business. You'll get a detailed list of all the nearest places and can choose one to learn more about it on its Place Page.

Search for several convenient types of places with the default categories or add your own for your most frequent searches. You can also use the search bar at the top to type or speak any query. I tend to use the “coffee” search a lot, but I’ve also looked for “gas stations” on the road, “ice cream shops” in my neighborhood, and even specific places like “Chelsea Market” on a recent trip to New York.

Of course, you’ll often want to learn more before deciding where to go. With updated Place Pages, you should be able to find all you need to know about a place, whether you’re wandering into a new restaurant or deciding from your couch. In addition to photos and reviews, Place Pages now have a bunch of new details, such as prices, parking and menu links to inform your quest for the perfect steak. You'll also notice that the search results list now highlights business opening hours in addition to compass direction and distance -- consider it your late night caffeine radar.

Google Maps for mobile 4.4 is available now for Android 1.6 and above. Just search for Google Maps in Market or tap here from your phone. The Place Page and search result updates are coming soon for BlackBerry users so keep an eye out for an update at m.google.com/maps (from your BlackBerry Browser) or on our Twitter and Facebook pages.

Visit our Help Center to learn more, ask questions in our Help Forum, or give us suggestions and vote on other people’s on the Mobile Product Ideas page.

Update: Google Maps for BlackBerry version 4.4 is now available with the new search results view and Place Page details. From your BlackBerry's Browser, go to m.google.com/maps to install it now.

Posted by Michael Siliski, Product Manager, Google Mobile Team

Faster dialing with Google Voice on Android and Blackberry devices

(Cross-posted with the Google Voice Blog)

At Google we are obsessed with speed. Our mantra is faster = better. This is true for our Google Voice mobile apps as well. When you want to make a call, your phone should connect you as quickly as possible, whether you’re calling via Google Voice or not.

Today we are launching an enhancement to the Google Voice mobile app on Android and Blackberry phones, which makes placing calls much faster. We call this feature “direct access numbers.” Here’s how it works:

Until today, the Google Voice app had to make a request to the Google Voice server every time you wanted to make a call to send us the phone number you wanted to dial. Then the call would be connected via a Google Voice access number. With direct access numbers, we assign a unique phone number to every person you call. This means that we no longer need to use your data network to access the server each time you make a call, so calls will be placed much faster.

The updated Android app is available from Android Market starting today. For Blackberry users, you can download the app by visiting http://m.google.com/voice from your mobile device. You will need a valid Google Voice account to use the app, and at this time, Google Voice is available in the US only.

Posted by Flavio Lerda, Software Engineer

Researcher will enable hackers to take over millions of home routers

Seismic's Craig Heffner claims that he got a tool that can hack "millions" of gateways using a new spin on the age old DNS rebinding vulnerability, and plans to release it into the wild at the Black Hat 2010 conference next week.

He has already tested his hack on thirty different models, of which more than half were vulnerable, including two versions of the ubiquitous Linksys WRT54G and devices running certain DD-WRT and OpenWRT Linux-based firmware. To combat the hack, the usual precautions apply for the love of Mitnick, change your default password but Heffner believes the only real fix will come by prodding manufacturers into action.

Xbox 360 Sale Increased 88% in June

Xbox 360 has increased their sales 88% in June month. This Microsoft's product won the title of best-selling console in June because of it's sexy physical redesign. NPD numbers showed that Microsoft shifted 451,700 units in the US, which is more than the Wii's tally of 422,500 and cover-up the PS3's 304,800 numbers.

As Sony US sales were said to have tripled in the immediate aftermath of the new SKU's release so Microsoft might have a little bit of catching up to do yet, but let's not forget that the king of all hardware sales remains the DS, which somehow managed to sell more than half a million devices in June, in spite of the whole world and its dog already owning one.

Hands on with Sony NEX-VG10 HD Camcorder

Sony is going to release NEX-VG10 camcorder into London just in time for today's showcase event. This device is the world's first consumer HandyCam with interchangeable lens, meaning you can share E-mount lenses with your young NEX DSLRs, or take advantage of the abundant A-mount lenses with the help of an adapter. Likewise, there are also hot and cold shoe mounts on the mic shaft to cater your current camera accessories.

Here's the details:

• Solid body or the mic shaft, and both ways provided comfortable grip without much fatigue due to the light weight.
• It didn't pick up any mechanical noise from its lens auto focussing.
• Stunningly accurate colors, sharp 1080/60i picture, and impressive audio sensitivity.

Follow Team HTC-Columbia on Google Maps and Then Let Others Follow You

In case you missed it, check out the Official Google Blog’s post about how Team HTC-Columbia is using Android-powered phones and a special version of the My Tracks app with SRM to share real-time data from the Tour de France. Head over to google.com/mytrackstour to follow along during the race and see riders’ real-time location along with their power, heart rate, cadence and speed right on Google Maps.



Want to record some of this data or share your location on Google Maps during your next big ride? Track your rides, runs, or walks in detail with the My Tracks app on your Android-powered phone. From many popular smartphones, you can share your location with friends using Google Latitude and then publish your location to the web with the Google Public Location Badge.

Posted by Chris Nguyen, Google Mobile Team

Interview with Cellphone Inventor - Marty Cooper

Marty Cooper - an cellphone inventor. No need to tell who's this guy but why I'm giving this intro as he's not such popular among us. He's the one who invented the cellphone in the early 1970s, however he has been more popular out in the public recently, when he has given an length interview to CNN in which he ruminates on the invention that quite literally changed the world. Perhaps most notably is that he says he and his team at Motorola always "knew that someday everybody would have a cellphone," but that he found it "hard to imagine that that would happen in my lifetime."

YouTube Mobile Gets a Kick Start

(Cross-posted with the YouTube Blog)

It’s well known that the mobile internet is huge and growing fast; what’s surprising is exactly how fast. According to a recent report, within 5 years more users will connect to the internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs. YouTube consumption on mobile devices has also grown considerably -- playbacks were up 160% in 2009 over the previous year. And we’re excited to announce that YouTube Mobile now receives more than 100 million video playbacks a day. This is roughly the number of daily playbacks that YouTube.com was streaming when we joined forces with Google in 2006.

We launched YouTube on mobile devices in 2007 with about 1,000 videos available on the mobile site (m.youtube.com). While this suddenly opened up the possibility to access videos on the go, our site, mobile browsers and the hardware had limitations that prevented the mobile experience from keeping up with YouTube on the desktop. Today, more than ever, we know that you want to be able to find and access your favorite videos wherever you are. That’s why we’ve been working hard to roll out an updated version of the mobile site.

Here's what's new about the new mobile site:

• It's really fast.
• The new user interface incorporates larger, more touch friendly elements, making it easier to access videos on the go.
• It incorporates the features and functionality you’ve come to expect from the .com site, like search query suggestions, the options to create playlists,the ability to designate “favorite,” “like,” or “unlike” videos directly from your device.
• As we make improvements to Youtube.com, you’ll see them quickly follow on our mobile site, unlike native apps which are not updated as frequently.

As the world continues to go mobile, we think this is a great improvement for users who want a more consistent YouTube across many devices, no matter where they are. We're launching in English only today, but will be rolling it out in other languages in the coming months. You can access the latest YouTube mobile site from your iPhone or Android browser. To learn more, visit m.youtube.com to check out the latest improvements and take a minute to watch this demo video:



Posted by Andrey Doronichev, Product Manager recently watched "Insane street football"

Classic White PS3 Slim with 160GB HDD coming soon in Japan

Sony just launched "classic white" PS3 Slim, model CECH-2500 for the Japan only, is coming soon on July 29th with 160GB HDD only. For 34,980 yen (approx. $400 US).

Also, you can now start off with 320GB of storage in your "charcoal black" model. The aforementioned 160GB still retails for 29,980 yen ($342).