GoKawiil
Tech News
The home of Flock Safety's chief executive has had its image blurred out on Google Maps and its listing obscured on Zillow, apparently after users flagged the address in response to privacy concerns about the company's surveillance camera network. Commentators note that such blurring requests are free and available to any homeowner who wants their property hidden from these mapping services.
Josh Mackanic, a former Pacific Gas and Electric engineer, founded CivilGrid in 2020 after experiencing costly delays caused by unknown buried pipes during excavation projects. The startup aggregates data on utility lines, property ownership, and environmental regulations into a unified underground mapping platform, and has now raised a $26 million Series A led by Spark Capital, with participation from Afore, A*, Ford Street Ventures, SNR, and Energy Impact Partners.
Apple has started displaying advertisements in its Maps app in the US and Canada, marked only with a small 'ad' label next to some search results. The rollout is inconsistent—not every search or city shows ads yet—and there are no sponsored pins as seen in Google Maps, but unlike other apps, Apple has not provided any toggle to turn the ads off.
A teardown of Google Translate version 10.32.66 uncovered hidden strings describing a new 'Listening area' setting built specifically for Android XR smart glasses. The feature would let users toggle Live Translate between a 'Front only' mode for one-on-one talks and a 'Surrounding area' mode that picks up speech from all nearby microphones.
Google Maps users on Android Auto are reporting that color-coded traffic lines have disappeared from their car displays, even though the same trip shows normal traffic data when viewed directly on a phone. Several affected users trace the problem to the recent rollout of Google Maps' Immersive Navigation interface, which added 3D buildings and more detailed road visuals, though the server-side nature of that rollout makes the exact trigger hard to confirm. Switching to Overview mode or rolling back Maps updates offers partial workarounds, but neither fully restores normal functionality.