Google added bike lanes and bicycle directions to Google Maps today, allowing you to find routes that aren’t too hilly or congested. It’s pretty awesome!
Bike functionality is available for over 150 American cities at the moment, but it’s safe to assume that, like everything Google does, it will eventually expand to cover most of the planet. [Google Maps via Physorg]
First law of gadget recessionomics: Take something you make, which is great, make it ever so less great, and sell it for ever so less money. That’s how you end up with products like Microsoft’s SideWinder X4 keyboard.
$60 MSRP, $46 retail.
The SideWinder X6 was a marvelous fresh start for Microsoft’s rejuvenated gaming hardware division, designed with a brooding Death Star aesthetic, shit hot jog wheels, and a hot-swappable detachable keyboard that can be hooked up to the left or right side. It’s just $20 pricier MSRP (but retail, $12) than the X6, and I’ll tell you straight up, a better deal.
The SideWinder X4 is virtually identical at the core—same basic keyboard layout (including the too-long spacebar), chaos-red backlighting, and laptop-esque throw distance for the keys—but it ditches the most lovable aspects of the X6: the jog wheels and the detachable keyboard. Instead, it touts anti-ghosting, so you can mash 26 keys at once and have them all register. Also, it’s got fewer macros total (though really, it still has plenty enough). And a smaller wrist rest.
The core features are solid. It held up to the Twister-style keyboard gymnastics you occasionally have to perform in Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and the snap of the keys is on point: Crisp and squishy, like a croissant.
But! The fact remains, its older, more capable brother costs a few nickels more and is well worth the extra scratch. So if you can find the X4 for $20 in a bargain bin in a couple months and need a basic gaming, then it’d be a solid buy. In the meantime, if your’e gonna get a gaming keyboard, step up to the X6. (Personally, I’m waiting for the inevitable X10.)
We’re still suckers for the whole brimstone and fire in space aesthetic (for now)
A solid “basics” gaming keyboard, but why go for basics when it comes to gaming gear?
Software for keyboard is kinda eh compared to Logitech, SteelSeries and Razer
Too many features stripped for such a small price reduction
A t-shirt-stuffed Linux store has opened for business, the proceeds from which support the Linux Foundation. But since Linux users are such penny-pinchers, $18 is probably more than they’ll pay for a single garment of clothing. [LinuxStore via CrunchGear]
The Google Apps Marketplace will let third-party developers sell their Web apps to Google Apps customers. (source: Information Week) - News widgets and RSS feeds on Feedzilla.com
Column about a conversation between a CEO and a CIO about the power of cloud computing to reduce IT costs, accelerate processes and product development, and create opportunities to increase revenue. (source: Information Week) - RSS widgets and RSS feeds on Feedzilla.com