Today's press release highlights yet another organization snuggling up to Google for "its" maps. The cover of Backpacker, at one time my favorite print pub, is adorned with a Google Earth image near Going to the Sun Mountain in Glacier National Park. (Yep, been there. Awesome park.) The image helps introduce a whole "package" (the publication's term) on using technology for planning, executing and documenting trips electronically. That package is called "iHike."

I was disappointed:

(1) You can't see the cover image online.
(2) The release suggests Google is behind the images/data rather than the providers:

"The quality of Google's images--from the topography contours to the rich colors to the fine detail in the rock and snow--made our June cover an amazingly realistic representation of the mountain we selected."

There's a simulation (aka "game") called Space Shuttle Mission 2007. It includes actual "stories" from those missions and "players" get to toggle switches and follow each mission at different levels of difficulty. The game is $49.95. (I'm not a gamer and this was all news to me!)

News today there's a new set of free missions to download. One is based on the February 2000 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. Players "experience the launch, on-orbit mission including the deployment and operation of the special radar equipment, and return to Earth by manually landing the Endeavour at the Kennedy Space Center."

It sounds geeky, but also pretty cool and educational.

- IGN

The idea behind the patent, whose application is dated May 29, 2008, is to help device "behave properly" in different situations. There are a variety of ways for organizations to send out manners information, including if its suggested or required. A policy might mean that inside a university lecture hall wi-fi use is restricted or cell phone signals will not be transmitted. The title of the patent is Mobile Device Manners Propagation and Compliance. There may well be a geographic component as somehow the "range" required compliance must be designated.

via Unwired