Dashing through the snow with NORAD and Google

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog and Lat Long Blog)

Every Christmas Eve, children all over the world ask themselves—and their parents—questions about Santa’s magical journey. How does Santa visit so many children in one night? Will he eat the cookies I left out? How does he fit all those presents into his sleigh? These childhood mysteries are part of what makes the Santa tradition so special.

There’s one timeless question that we’re proud to say we can help answer: Where in the world is Santa at this very moment? Thanks in part to recent advances in warp-speed GPS technology and some very clever elves (elveneering?) NORAD Tracks Santa is once again prepped and ready to go.

Starting tomorrow, December 24 at 2:00am EST, visit www.noradsanta.org to follow Santa as he journeys around the world delivering presents to children in more than 200 countries and territories. There are a few different ways to find the jolly old man in his unmistakable red suit over the course of the day, so feel free to track him using any of the following methods:

• See Santa on a Google Map: On your home computer or laptop, visit www.noradsanta.org and choose your preferred language. You’ll see a large Google Map on the page displaying Santa’s current location and his next stop. Click the video icons to watch “Santa Cam” videos, and click the gift icons to learn more about each city.
  
  
• Watch Santa fly with the Google Earth Plug-in: From www.noradsanta.org, click on the link Track Santa in Google Earth. Youll see Santa steering his sleigh right on the webpage. If you dont have the Google Earth plug-in, you can get ready by downloading it ahead of time.
  
  
• Follow Santa on your phone: Track Santa from your mobile phone by opening Google Maps for mobile and searching for [santa]. Or, visit m.noradsanta.org on your phone’s browser.
  
  
• Subscribe to his YouTube channel: Santa’s home on YouTube is at http://www.youtube.com/noradtrackssanta. That’s where you can find videos from his journey throughout the night.
  
  
• Get real-time information about Santa’s location: Use Google’s Realtime Search to get updates from social networks, news and micro-blogs like Twitter at @noradsanta, and keep up with news about his journey on this Facebook page.

For any techie questions you might have, we’ve also put together some helpful tips and tricks about all the cool ways you can experience Santa’s journey. Now that you know how to follow Saint Nick on Christmas Eve, it’s our tradition to tell the story of how this all started...

NORAD (North American Aerospace Defence Command) first began to track Santa in 1955 when a misprinted advertisement in a Sears & Roebuck catalogue mistakenly led callers expecting a Santa-hotline to the NORAD commander-in-chiefs telephone. Embracing the spirit of the season, NORAD used its satellite and radar capabilities to offer callers sleigh-location updates, and has tracked Santas whereabouts on Christmas Eve ever since. Then in 2004, Google started tracking Santa on Google Earth as a 20% project, which in 2007 grew into a partnership with NORAD, adding the mapping technology of Google Maps and Google Earth to the NORAD experience. Over the years, other Google teams have also joined in the holiday fun (YouTube, Google Voice’s www.SendACallFromSanta.com and Google SketchUp).

As we approach this year’s Christmas Eve adventure, Santa was able to take a break from the preparations to visit the New York Stock Exchange this past Monday. His helpful elves kept everything at the North Pole on schedule while folks from Google and NORAD attended the Closing Bell ceremony, and stood alongside Santa from Macy’s going over last minute details about tomorrow’s big ride.

Santa with NORAD, Google and members of the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation (that’s me, the tall guy in the back row clapping)

So don’t forget to visit www.noradsanta.org tomorrow morning starting at 2:00am EST when Santa embarks on his flight. From all of us here at Google, happy holidays and here’s to a very happy New Year!


Posted by Brian McClendon, Original Google Engineering Elf

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Comet ISON will be visible even through a pair of High powered binoculars

We’ve been following the comet ISON since it was first discovered. The comet is making its way towards the sun and putting on quite a light show as it does. The comet will reach its closest approach to the sun around Thanksgiving day, assuming it doesn’t break apart before then.

Amateur sky watchers wanting to get a look at the comet can now see ISON with a high quality set of binoculars or small telescope. The comet will make its closest encounter with the sun on November 28. That pass will bring the comet within 730,000 miles of the surface of the sun.

Sky gazer Pete Lawrence from Selsey in the UK said:

I have made my first confirmed binocular sighting of C/2012 S1 ISON as well. ISON’s head appears small and stellar through a pair of 15x70s optics.

The comet can be seen near the constellation Virgo right now. It’s visible low in the predawn eastern sky. Right now the comet is said to be about the same brightness as a magnitude 8 star. That makes it too dim to see with the naked eye, but easy to spot with a telescope or binoculars.

The comet will put on a nice light show in December, if it survives its pass with the sun. Some fear the comet will break apart as it approaches the sun. There is a chance the comet will get bright enough to be seen with the naked eye. SlsshGear , NASA

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A New Huawei Tablet With Super Thin And Sleek Design Passes Through Bluetooth Certification

Major Chinese manufacturer Huawei had some interesting things to show us at CES, like their TRON micro console that they showed off yesterday, as well as the Ascend Mate 2 which they announced. As for things unrelated to the Consumer Electronics Show, one of Huawei’s tablets recently showed up on the Bluetooth SIG website. The Huawei 7D-501L is the tablet we’re talking about, and it just received its certification for the Bluetooth wireless feature. Currently Huawei hasn’t officially announced anything about the tablet, but we do know that it is a 7-inch slate style that is a mere 7.5mm thick. (or should we say thin?) You can compare this to similar sized devices like the Apple iPad Air, which is 7.5mm as well, or compare it to the Nexus 7 2013 model that is 8.7mm thin. The Nexus 7 is already a thin tablet, so imagine this Huawei tablet in your hands.

The 7D-501L is made up of an aluminum alloy housing, which should give it a nice premium feel. It has support for WiFi connectivity, as well as support for connecting up to 3G and 4G LTE networks. While the aluminum-alloy housing is nice, sadly it looks like it’ll only come in one color, (a silver-white) which doesn’t leave much room for originality. Although this won’t really be an issue for most people as many of the tablets already offered currently, only come in one color as well. There is no actual mention of when we might exactly see this tablet show up for consumer purchase, but we do know “where” it will be headed thanks to the Bluetooth SIG. According to the site and document listing, the 7D-501L will end up shipping to North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. It looks like it’ll end up in a wide variety of locations, so if this tablet so far sounds like something you might be interested in, it’ll be available in many different regions and you should be able to pick one up.

Besides some of the still unknown specs of the device, we also have no word on what this tablet will cost. Huawei typically doesn’t charge an arm and a leg for their devices though so we can’t imagine it will be too expensive. Especially if Huawei wants to be able to compete with the Nexus 7.

The post A New Huawei Tablet With Super Thin And Sleek Design Passes Through Bluetooth Certification appeared first on AndroidHeadlines.com |.

via AndroidHeadlines.com | http://www.androidheadlines.com/2014/01/new-huawei-tablet-super-thin-sleek-design-passes-bluetooth-certification.html

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