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Google Latitude has allowed its 10 million users to see on a map approximately where their friends are. But until now, it provided no way for a user to pinpoint his own location with a check-in, a la Foursquare and others. Now users will be able not only to broadcast their exact location to their friends on Latitude but also to publicly share their check-ins through their Google Profile. They’ll also be able to garner “VIP” and “Guru” status based on the number of their check-ins. This is rather ho-hum news, considering so many other check-in services do much the same thing. But where things get interesting is that Google will allow users to automatically check themselves in to specific locations, without having to whip out their phone.

The Games Businesses Play with Customers Boomers and Generation X will remember the days when the Yellow Pages was the encyclopedia of local business. Now services such as Foursquare bring the Yellow Pages alive. Add to the fact that the people we know and trust share their experiences and endorsements or critiques with every checkin, we’re given access to something quite remarkable. Additionally, businesses are given a special opportunity to learn more about the people who are checking-in and also about those who are not. Foursquare offers a powerful set of business tools that can help local businesses, chains, destinations, you name it, more effectively connect with the people who can not only keep them in business, but grow it as well.

So can computers actually help improve our concentration and contemplation, instead of leading us into distraction? The problem, as Pang puts it, is that "Technologies that were supposed to help us think better, work more efficiently, and connect more meaningfully with others now interrupt us, divide our attention, and stretch us thin."

In the paper he outlines give principles of contemplative computing; Build awareness through DIY and self-experimentation Recognize that we are cyborgs, and humans Create rewarding challenges Support mind-wandering Treat flow as a means, not an end

Pang suggests that we don't have to choose between information technology and contemplation, and suggests contemplative computing as a new way forward. He describes contemplative computing as something you do, not a product. But the principles of contemplative computing could be extending to application design. "The problem is that today's information technologies are often poorly-designed and thoughtlessly used: they're like unreliable prosthetics that we have to depend on, but can't quite control or trust," Pang says.

Integrated campaign to launch the new range of Canon Pixma printers.