Tech 2.0 for Friday, September 21, 2012

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Contributor: Matt Davenport

Email: mdavenport@kpvi.com

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Published: 9/21/2012 3:13 pm

Updated: 9/21/2012 3:23 pm

Today's the day millions of people will be lining up at Apple stores -- or keeping an watchful eye on every delivery truck that passes their street. The iPhone 5 is officially being released. And as night turned to day around the globe, Apple fans have already been jamming stores from Sydney to Tokyo to pick up the latest model of the smartphone. In Hong Kong, the first customers chanted "iPhone 5!" as they were greeted by Apple staffers who escorted them through the front door. Here in the U.S., stores are expected to be jammed with those who want to be among the first to get the phone, which has a larger screen and is lighter than its predecessors. Customers in Britain, Canada, France and Germany will also see the phone released today. In all, analysts estimate Apple will ship as many as 10 million of the new iPhones by the end of September.

It's supposed to be one of the new features in the new Apple mobile operating system. But in some ways, it's considered a flaw. You may have heard by now that in its new iOS6, Apple has ditched Google Maps and replaced it with its own navigation system. Some of those who have upgraded say the new maps appear less detailed, have misplaced landmarks -- and plain look weird. Depending on the angle, the "Flyby" mode seems to make some trees appear they are growing out of a lump of concrete. And when you look at New York's Madison Square Garden from above, it's rendered as green park space -- because of its name. The TD Garden arena in Boston gets the same treatment. An Apple spokeswoman says the app will improve as more people use it -- since users can report errors and omissions from within the app. There has been a Google Maps app on the iPhone since it was launched in 2007, but it's always come with the operating system. But with this new OS and new iPhone, Apple has dropped it and Google-owned YouTube from its list of "core" apps.

We all know someone like this: one of those people who just can't seem to shut -- well, let's be nice and say: know when to stop talking? You'd figure someone who could find a way to stop people from rambling should get some kind of award. Well, they have -- and they have. Two Japanese researchers have come up with something called the SpeechJammer. It's a device that repeats a person's own voice at a delay of a fraction of a second. The delay is just annoying enough to get the chatterer to sputter and stop. The researchers have won the Ig Nobel prize. It's an award sponsored by the Annals of Improbable Research magazine for weird and humorous scientific discoveries.