google shows me where to go!

as reported by gizmodo & android australia, and announced on the official australia google blog itself, google maps navigation has arrived in australia as of today. and thanks to the recent gift of a 1GB/month mobile data on my current Telstra plan (who would've thunk it right?), i tried it out tonight on the way to dinner, as well as for the trip home where i went the "wrong" way a few times to see how it copes with rerouting on the fly. i'm happy to say it works pretty well, and seems to do a solid job of delivering turn by turn navigation. while i don't have a great need for a GPS/satnav unit, this new feature of my android phone is a most welcome addition. i'm liking android more and more :)

From Walkman To Facebook: How Tuning Out Led To Tuning In

an insightful observation on how the walkman and its successors have affected the way we interact with each other. some excerpts:

The Walkman and its offspring, such as the iPod, completely changed the way we experience music [and] the way we interact (or don't interact) with each other... transform[ing] millions of us into isolated walking zombies... Three decades later, we find ourselves seeking social connections through the very devices that isolated us in the first place.

[....]

now my music player comes loaded with the tools I need to claw my way back to a state of social interaction that is a virtual replication of life before I took my first walk with a Walkman.

[....]

Still I wonder if we wouldn't be better off occasionally removing the headphones, turning off the smart phones and returning to an age when we gathered around some over-sized speakers and social networking actually meant being together.

Don’t you sort of like the sound of that?

i do. read the whole article here.