Google Maps for iOS adds night mode for navigation

Following its latest update, which is already available in the iTunes App Store, Google Maps for iOS now comes with a night mode for the navigation screen.

It's incredibly surprising that this feature has so far been missing from the app's iOS version, especially since the exact same functionality has been available in Google Maps for Android for a very long time.

Regardless, it's now in there, so your iPhone won't blind you anymore while you're using Google Maps to navigate at night. Google Maps 4.9 for iOS also comes with the ability for you to label places so you can see them on your map and in search suggestions, and edit the photo captions you've posted. Additionally, the usual unnamed bug fixes are supposedly in too.

So you might not consider this a big update, were it not for that glaring omission of the night mode, which is now finally fixed.

Apple gets rid of online store section, integrates it into product pages

The Apple online store is one of the biggest online stores in the business, not only housing company's own products but also accessories from various other brands. In which case, you'd be surprised to know that the store page does not exist anymore.

But that doesn't mean you can't buy stuff anymore from Apple online. Instead of having a dedicated store page with all the products on it, Apple has instead provided a buy button on all its product pages. This means now if you're on the iPhone page, you can hit the buy button at the top and purchase from there instead of being sent to the store page.

US officials say Russian hackers compromised Pentagon computers

US officials have revealed that Russian hackers managed to compromise the Pentagon's Joint Staff unclassified email system last month. Calling it a "sophisticated cyberattack," they said the intrusion occurred around July 25, following which the system was shut down and taken off line.

The attack, which affected around 4,000 civilian and military employees of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, apparently used an automated system that quickly collected large amounts of data, and then distributed it to thousands of accounts on the Internet. It is being suspected that the attack was co-ordinated via encrypted accounts on social media.

Seagate announces new 2TB Game Drive for Xbox

Seagate has announced a new Xbox branded portable USB 3.0 hard drive. The drive has a capacity of 2TB and is priced at $109.99. The drive works with both, the Xbox One and the Xbox 360.

While the Xbox does come with capacious internal storage options, with the Xbox One topping out at 1TB, the sizes of games makes it easy to burn through that much storage easily, with several games now coming in at around 50GB each if you choose to download them.

WhatsApp for iOS now lets you include videos in chat backups

WhatsApp's iOS app has received an update, bumping it to version 2.12.5. The update brings some new and useful features, such as the ability to include videos in chat backups, custom notification settings for individual chats, and automatic loading of messages on scroll, among others.

The updated app lets you backup your videos along with your chats, something which you can do by heading to Settings -> Chats and Calls -> Chat Backup. In addition, now you can also set custom notifications for individual chats, and even mute the ones that make a lot of noise. The update also lets you mark chats as unread or read with a swipe to the right.

Facebook unveils live video broadcasts for celebrities

Today Facebook has announced a new feature. This one is going to be exclusive to celebrities, though. Starting today, verified athletes, musicians, politicians, and "other influencers" will be able to share live video with their fans.

This will happen through Facebook Mentions, the special app designed just for celebrities. Obviously though, you won't need a special app to watch said live video broadcasts from your fav celeb - they will show up in your News Feed on the Facebook website and in all of its mobile apps.

This being Facebook, you can like, share, and comment on the live videos as they're being broadcast. You also see when your friends or other public figures start watching a stream. And if you don't catch the live broadcast, you'll be able to watch any such video later on the specific celeb's page.

Google's Project Tango goes international, now available in Canada and South Korea

The Project Tango tablet - which was announced by Google back in February last year and went on public sale in the United States in May this year - can now also be purchased in Canada and South Korea, making them the first countries outside of the US where the device is now officially available.

And it looks like more countries will be added to the list soon - the Mountain View, California-based company has said that the tablet will also be available in Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom starting August 26.

Canon ME20F-SH is company's first ultra-high-sensitivity video camera, capable of ISO 4,000,000

Canon has announced the new ME20F-SH video camera for extreme low light photography. The main selling point here is the ultra high sensitivity sensor that can shoot with a minimum subject illumination of less than 0.0005 lux at maximum 75 dB gain setting, equivalent to an ISO sensitivity of over 4,000,000. Previously this kind of low light recording would have required an infrared illumination, which can only record in black and white but the ME20F-SH can do full color recording.

Making this possible is a 2.26 megapixel full frame CMOS sensor. While the resolution might seem low, the sensor is as big as on a DSLR, which means the pixel size is 19μm square, which is more than 5.5 times the surface area of EOS-1D X sensor pixel, allowing it to capture way more light.