Visuals of Darfur tragedy on Google Earth

Stark visuals of the ongoing genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan -- including maps showing where millions of refugees have gone -- are now available on Google Earth in a partnership with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The museum works to stop current genocide in addition to educating people about the history of the Jewish holocaust, and Google Earth can help the museum demonstrate the destruction in Darfur in new ways, said Sara Bloomfield, museum director.

While people can find information about the crisis in Darfur, more information in new formats is needed to spur more people to action, she said during a launch of the Crisis in Darfur project at the Washington, D.C., museum. Although information about recent and past genocides has been available, many people have had trouble comprehending and responding to the tragedies, she added.

"We learned the difference between information and understanding," she said. "Adequate response requires both understanding and empathy -- understanding of the scope and the magnitude of the situation and empathy for these victims as individuals."

The museum's partnership with Google presents a "unique opportunity" to show the scope of the problem in Darfur, she said.

Daowd Salih, a refugee from Darfur, agreed, saying more people need to be aware of the crisis. "People around the world need to see what genocide looks like," he said. "It's not about numbers, it's about people, people like my brothers and sisters who are still in Darfur. We need people to understand what is happening."

As many as 400,000 Darfurians have been killed in the conflict, according to numbers from aid organizations. The government and Janjaweed troops have killed "innocent children, women, and elders," Salih said.

The Sudanese government disputes the death estimates from aid organizations and has denied backing the Janjaweed militia.

One map available on Google Earth uses flame symbols to show the location of more than 1,600 Darfurian villages that have been damaged or destroyed by Sudanese troops or the Janjaweed militia. By zooming in on the map, Google Earth users can see markers for the tens of thousands of homes that have been destroyed since mid-2003.

By selecting a 3D option, Google Earth users can see the population of camps where the 2.5 million displaced Darfurians have gone. Another map shows areas where it's too dangerous for aid workers.

Along with the maps and charts, there are photographs and videos showing the situation on the ground. One photograph shows an infant with a bullet exit wound in her lower back after being shot by raiders. The maps and other media on Google Earth also link to pages telling users what they can do to get involved.

Google sees the project as an important part of the company's social responsibility, said Elliot Schrage, the company's vice president for global communications and public affairs. Schrage called the crisis in Darfur a "global catastrophe."

"We believe technology can be catalyst for education, for understanding, and importantly, for action," he added.

Get iPhone Look... on Your Pocket PC

Pocket PC users can get the look and feel of the iPhone before the iPhone even hits the shelves.

Despite efforts by Apple Inc. to block it, a small software program that gives Microsoft Corp. Pocket PCs a user interface that looks much like the iPhone's is still available online.

A blogger who says he's a lawyer in Poland has posted the software on his Web site, offering it to anyone who wants to download and use it.

The move follows an incident that has unfolded over the last few weeks. It started when a software developer, who goes by the name Youmolo and appears to live in Malaysia, posted a video on YouTube in late February of how his software works. On March 2, he wrote on his blog that after he posted the video, his blog received almost 5,000 visitors in five hours, too much for the site to handle.

Still, those visitors who managed to get through may have been disappointed to find that he wasn't distributing the software. "A lot of people have asked me to send them the iPhone software that was featured in the video. The short answer is no. I cannot do that because I'll get sued," he wrote on his blog.

The next day, Youmolo wrote that the video had been removed from YouTube. He later posted a letter he said he received from YouTube, saying that the video had been taken down due to a request from Apple.

Youmolo has also posted a letter that purports to be from an Apple lawyer, requesting that he stop developing and distributing the software, remove postings of the software or videos featuring the software from any Web sites and destroy any portions of the software that infringe on Apple's rights.

But on April 1, a Polish blogger and lawyer, Tomasz Rychlicki, began hosting the software on his site, inviting anyone to download it. He argues that Apple doesn't have a right to claim copyright on the icons or wallpaper images included in the software. He also says that because the iPhone isn't available yet, the software programmer couldn't have copied it.

Even though YouTube has removed the video from its site, users have repeatedly re-posted it. In the video, Youmolo says he has written software to make a Pocket PC phone have the look and feel of the iPhone. "Hello everyone. Today I am going to show you the Pocket PC version of the iPhone," he says at the start of the video.

He shows a phone called the E-TEN M600 that has a start page that looks like the screen shots Apple has released of the iPhone. Users run their finger along a bar at the bottom of the screen to unlock it. The next screen is full of icons, also similar to those released of the iPhone, that when touched lead to various phone functions such as calendar, camera, clock, notes and a phone touchpad for dialing calls. Youmolo wrote the program using Pocket PC software, he said.

The iPhone isn't available until June but since its introduction early this year has caused a frenzy of anticipation among consumers as well as potential competitors in the mobile phone industry.

Palm on Linux Platform for Future Smartphones

Palm Inc. will unveil a platform before the end of 2007 that runs the Palm OS on top of a Linux kernel, allowing the company to improve the performance and stability of its handhelds and smartphones, CEO Ed Colligan said Tuesday.

Palm will also continue to use Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Mobile OS, which is in high demand by business customers and global telephony carriers. By continuing to develop applications on both tracks, Palm will extend its ongoing transition from selling PDAs (personal digital assistants) to smartphones, Colligan said at the company's annual analyst and investor day in New York. The event was also webcast.

Since Palm developed the original Palm Pilot handheld organizer in 1996, the company has come to rely heavily on the Treo smartphone as its top seller, available as the 700w (running Windows), 700p (running Palm OS) and other models.

Palm does not intend to license the new Linux-based platform to other handheld vendors, but will use it to upgrade the Palm OS, allowing it to handle simultaneous voice and data traffic while preserving its instant-on and instant application-switching abilities.

Palm also plans to increase the number of new products it launches in 2007 and 2008. Palm designers have created a reference design for a common smartphone platform, allowing them to slash development schedules even as they save money through high-volume purchases of shared components.