Google’s added a new feature to it’s Street View- directions with turns.

With the feature, a small camera icon appears next to the intersections in the turn-by-turn directions. Clicking on the icon brings up a view of the intersection so people can see the area in question. This is extremely handy in big cities where you’re not sure where you’re going.

While were at it, i’ll mention that Google Street View is available in 44 areas of the United States. Word has it this feature may spread to Europe as well. Not sure how to pull up street view? When you’re in an area with street view, hit the Street View button and place the little guy where you want him, and view away! Enjoy!

Google map directions get Street View [News.com]

It’s safe to say this rumor was missed by Manic Monday, but is enjoyed anyway. Yesterday, Apple updated their iMac line with four new models.

The two 20″ models are at 2.4GHz and 2.6GHz, respectively. The the first comes complete 1GB memory, 250GB hard drive, 8x double-layer SuperDrive and a ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT with 128MB memory, while the second bumps the standard memory to 2GB, the drive to 320GB and the video card to a ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB memory. Both are priced at $1199 and $1499, respectively. You can also get a 750GB hard drive as an option on the higher-end 20″ model (the entry-level maxes out with a 500GB BTO drive).

The 24″ models are 2.8GHz and 3.06GHz, respectebly. The first comes with 2GB memory standard, 320GB hard drive (500/750/1TB options), 8x double-layer SuperDrive and an ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB memory for $1799. The second comes with 2GB memory standard, a 500GB hard drive, an 8x double-layer SuperDrive and a NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS with 512MB memory.

All four of these look great and include both a FireWire 400 and 800 port standard and 3 USB ports. If you’ve been waiting for a new Mac, this is the time to do it (unless you’re wanting a laptop, then wait). Enjoy!

iMac Page [Apple]

Good Morning once again. Believe it or not, the end of April is almost here, which means some big tech news to come in May and June. But let’s focus on last week, shall we?

• Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron was released. It’s looks cool (haven’t tried it yet)
• The question is, can your girlfriend use it?
• Intel has cut their quad-core price by almost 50%- in your new machine soon.
• Windows XP SP3 it to hit the Automatic Updates tomorrow. Download Away!
• Should be cool as long as you don’t need a Password that 18770 characters.
• And what about the June 30 XP cutoff? Dell doesn’t care, Microsoft is covering their ears.
• Moving on, The Pirate Bay has hit 12 Million Users.
• Too bad the BitTorrent Throttling ISPs have been Exposed by Azureus.
• On to Apple stuff, the 3G iPhone could be here June 9th.
• Rumor has it Apple’s working on an iTunes/iPhone controller.
• Finally, the IT people have lost their no-Mac battle…

That’s this Manic Monday. I back it town to stay, so things on the site should be back to normal. And I still have no idea where Thursday’s post disappeared to. I guess you’ll be seeing it this week. Enjoy!

Okay, I’m not sure what happened to yesterdays post… it was somehow deleted. Sorry!

It’s been a while since I’ve done a Help Desk question- let’s take care of one more today. WFG reader Thaddeus has a question about quickly importing music.

I have a bunch of CD’s that I need to import onto my iPod. My problem? No time. Is there an easy way to import all my songs quickly?

Well Thaddeus, I have a solution. It’s something I adopted back in 2005 and have mentioned before. It’s been a while, though, so I’ll give it a re-hit. READ MORE »

With Vista’s transparency standards, some programs look great and other look horrible. Or what if you want transparent windows in XP or 2000? Blend is here to help.

First off, Blend’s system tray utility takes up very little memory (3 MB or less), and is highly configurable without confusing you. Setting Blend to only make certain desktop apps transparent is as easy as either the executable path or drag an icon onto the window you want to tweak.Also from the system tray you can easily kill or suspend transparent objects to save power if need be.

Thats all there is too it- a simple program for simple people, I always say. Blend is absoultly free and works with Windows 2000, XP, and Vista.

Blend [via Lifehacker]

I’m not big on the releasing of Service Packs (I know I said that last time), but this time I think we’re more excited. Windows XP Service Pack 3 has been released to the manufacturers, will be on the Windows Update on the 29th, in just seven short days.

No idea what the expected features are supposed to be, but I think it’ll be a hit- especially if that rumored 10% speed increase comes true. Enjoy!

Announcement from Microsoft [via Engadget]

After my quick leave last week and some much needed sleep over the weekend, I am back. Let’s start this Monday right with Manic Monday.

• Blue Jeans cable vs. Monster Cable- too bad the owner of Blue Jeans used to be a lawyer.
• Believe it or not, May is due to see Holographic Storage.
• Is the American Cell-Phone system all that American? Dvice begs to differ.
• Facebook and Digg have teamed up to allow you to import your Digg stories into Facebook. Cool.
• A U.C. Berkeley student arrested in Egypt saved by Twitter.
• Wanna big MP3 player? How does 500,000 GB sound? (Sounds like a lie).
• Wanna impress your friends? Make a sawed off USB key!
• Lifehacker show how to turn your iTouch into an iPhone with VoIP. Cool.
• Is faster memory really worth it? Tom begs to differ.
• Apple clone company Psystar might not need the courts to be shutdown- Apple’s using tech.
• But we can’t find their offices, so don’t worry too much.
• Looking to propose? Be a real hacker and use Bejewled.
• PayPal is at it again, this time, blocking unsafe web browsers.
• Finally, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says “Vista is a work in progress”. We knew that already.

That’s this week’s Manic Monday. I leave town again this week, but I should still be able to give you the best in tech content. Enjoy!

Yes, even I need time off every once in a while too. I’m running out of town for Choir tour the next few days, and will be away from my computer. I’ll have my iTouch for email, but that’s it. Unless something big breaks, I don’t plan on posting anything for a few days. I might do something on Saturday, we’ll see. Otherwise, I’ve got over three years of archives and plenty of non-time related material. Thanks, we’ll see you Monday.

You know how much I love iHome stuff. Yesterday, they released the iHome iP99.

Meet the new iP99, the world’s first clock radio for the iPhone! Designed and engineered to shield and avoid annoying iPhone/mobile phone TDMA noise so no airplane mode is required which means that you’ll never miss a call again when your iPhone is docked. The iP99 is packed with lots of innovative features, including alarm settings to complement your lifestyle so you can wake to your own custom iPhone playlist at different times on different days, a remote that controls the unit and iPod menu functions, AM/FM radio with presets, programmable snooze settings, and 3D sound for an enhanced audio experience. With our Reson8 speaker chambers, you’ll be able to enjoy great stereo sound around the clock.

That’s right- all the usual iHome goodies, but with iPhone compatibility. While I don’t have an iPhone, I am thinking about a new iHome (mine’s going on 3 year old) and this might be the one- we’ll. The iP99 doesn’t ship until June, but you can pre-order now. The iP99 will set you back about $150.

iHome iP99 Product Page [via iLounge]

I’ve got a great YouTube tip for you today. In recent months, YouTube has been pushing their higher quality video. This is great because only can you now watch the high quality video, you can download it too. The Google Operating System blog has figured it out. To download the MP4 files, you need to use the same URL like for FLV files and append “&fmt=18″:

http://www.youtube.com/get_video?video_id=ID&t=SIGNATURE&fmt=18

ID is the video’s identification value, SIGNATURE is a value that prevents you from downloading the file just by knowing the ID. If you want to make things easier, they’ve made a bookmarklet that will do the same thing. Just drag and drop into your bookmarks bar. The bookmarklet can be found on the GOS Blog page.

Once you’ve done that, you now have an option to download the file as an MP4 file. Just right click and save as. Now when you do this, by default it shows GetVideo.htm. You need to change this to whatever you want.MP4. This is will give you the format you need.

There you have it, high quality videos from YouTube. Enjoy!

Download YouTube Videos as MP4 Files [Google Operating System via Lifehacker]