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Traveling to the world's most famous attractions is far and away the best way to see them, but Google doesn't want those who are short of time or money to be left out of seeing icons like Stonehenge, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Starting today, Google's new World Wonders Project brings the company's famous Street View technology to 132 famous sites in 18 countries, sometimes using pedal power instead of its now familiar camera-topped cars.

Among the sites included in the project are Versailles in France, Jerusalem in Israel, Historic Route 66 in the United … Read more

I admit to having a certain fascination with the Nokia 808 PureView smartphone camera, which employs a much larger sensor than usual in order to take pictures up to 41 megapixels in size. Just how much larger that sensor is compared to the typical 5-megapixel and 8-megapixel smartphone sensors will impress you.

Yesterday I sat down with Juha Alakarhu, the head of camera technologies at Nokia for smart devices, who happens to be visiting the U.S. from Finland. After letting me tinker with the camera some more, he pulled out a felt-lined card studded with a trio of camera sensors and two camera modules, into which the sensors ultimately go.… Read more

Despite earlier reports saying that it might do so, Australia won't take aim at Google's Street View service over the collection of Wi-Fi data.

The country's news.com.au service reported today that Australia Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim was planning to evaluate a recently released U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) report on Street View data collection to determine if his office should call on the Australian Federal Police to launch an investigation into the search giant's practices. However, in a subsequent media statement, the commissioner's office made it clear no such investigation would be … Read more

Two congressmen have asked the Department of Justice to reopen its investigation of Google's Street View street-mapping service, which collected and stored data from unencrypted wireless networks.

Google's Street View cars, which were supposed to collect the locations of Wi-Fi access points, also inadvertently collected e-mail and text messages, passwords, Internet-usage history, and other data from unsecured wireless networks for two years or so, beginning in 2007.

In the wake of a recently released FCC report that concluded no laws had been broken by the surreptitious data gathering, Reps. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) and John Barrow (D-Ga.) … Read more

An annular solar eclipse will occur this weekend, giving people in Southeast Asia and the western U.S. the chance to witness something truly amazing. If you want to watch the solar eclipse but aren't sure what time it'll be visible in your area, there are a couple different ways you can figure it out.

iPhone app If you own an iPhone, you can download a free app that will use your GPS location to tell you if you'll be able to see the eclipse and at what time.

Annular Solar Eclipse 2012 (download link) goes one … Read more

As so many struggle with the ins and outs of advertising cars on Facebook, one piece of sublime inspiration from Sweden might show there are other media with more promise.

An employee of Fiat near Stockholm, Sweden noticed that Google's fine Street View drivers were making a sweep of the area.

As the Daily Mail reports it, he drove a Fiat 500 and parked it in front of Volkswagen's HQ in Sodertalje, around 30 miles south of Stockholm. He thought it might make for a fun picture when the Street View car came around. He was right.

Sure … Read more

Sparrow is an attempt to get away from supercomplex, feature-packed e-mail clients in favor of a simpler e-mail experience on iOS. The interface is elegant while remaining very straightforward: e-mails are listed with the newest on top, and all your actions can be completed with simple gestures. Setup only requires that you add accounts; then you can get started right away.

Though the interface is sparse you still get plenty of the common actions and options you'd expect from a basic e-mail app in Sparrow. You can save your draft e-mails; Star (or mark as favorite) specific conversations; add … Read more

NirSoft's DriverView displays your system's drivers in an informative list view. This free tool is invaluable for troubleshooting system problems, updating drivers, installing and uninstalling hardware, and all the other issues that always seem to show up just when you think you've got your machine running on all cylinders. Better yet, DriverView is available in separate downloads for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows.

Why does that matter? For starters, 64-bit Windows has performance advantages, such as handling more RAM. Most 32-bit apps will run in 64-bit Windows, but not vice versa. Also, drivers designed for 32-bit Windows won'… Read more

NirSoft's DevManView is a freeware alternative to the built-in Device Manager in Windows. It not only displays your system's devices but also those of any other computers on your network, as long as you have Admin privileges. It's a great choice for managing a home network, letting you keep tabs on each system's hardware and drivers from one interface. DevManView is available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions; we downloaded the 64-bit version for Windows 7.

We've tried many of developer Nir Sofer's excellent free apps, including the 32-bit version of DevManView, and we've … Read more