Google and the Phantom Town of Argleton

For ages, map makers have protected their own maps by adding little landmarks and towns that don't exist, sort of a hiding-in-plain-sight watermark. Well, the Telegraph UK reported that it had spotted one such town in a Google Map, which was using Tele Atlas data. Argleton, in Lancashire, simply doesn't exist, even though you can plainly see it. What happened? Apparently, the name was quite possibly sucked up with other data when Tele Atlas' map makers were busy inputting info from old maps. This isn't unusual, though you'd think there'd be a more rapid fact checking process. By the way, we didn't cover it because nowadays, the story isn't really whether or not Tele Atlas is stealing maps from old dead cartographers, but whether or not Google is stealing the map business from Tele Atlas. [Telegraph UK via Valleywag]

10 Years of Steve Jobs' Apple Product Unveilings

MacLife created a choppy but thorough video of Steve Jobs unveiling everything from the original CRT iMac to the video-camera equipped iPod Nano, with bits of Schiller thrown in out of necessity. It's a fun encyclopedic romp (though I'm sure some of you can tell me what's missing). The biggest reason we didn't post it? We didn't want to be sued for all the fanboys who suffered heart attacks—or the ones who maybe escaped cardiac arrest but came away with Teen Wolf palms. [MacLife via 9to5Mac]

AT&T's Foray Into In-Car Satellite TV Goes Miserably Wrong

After four months up and running, the CruiseCast satellite-TV service for cars bit the dust hard, with refunds and paid un-installations going out to current subscribers. What was AT&T and its partner, RaySat, thinking when they launched it? $1300 up front and no major sports channels or adult programming to speak of? That just doesn't—excuse me, didn't—make sense. Good thing zero point zero readers fell for it. Right guys? [Engadget]

Robots Will Soon Learn How to Smell Fear

Just as drug-sniffing dogs can be replaced by machines that aren't so prone to smack addiction, scientists are developing sensors—nowhere near ready but due in 2012—that home in on the pheromone released when people experience stress or fear. Like what Leslie Nielsen must have felt when he got that call from OJ, asking about the Naked Gun 10-year reunion. [PopSci]

For them, what comes across is a smell of fried steak, hot metal and even welding a motorbike.

There you have it, fried steak and hot metal. Much like my apartment. Omega Ingredients—probably an Spectra subsidiary—is working on this space fragrance based on the testimonies of the astronauts who have been in space. You know, all those guys and girls who went into the Moonraker program. The resulting meat-and-metal eau de cologne could—according to them—be used by NASA to increase the realism of their simulations. [Daily Mail]

Starting in September the company will send every e-book purchaser a sticker to put on their laptop that has an 'old book' smell. Of course, college students are fully backwards-compatible with real books. [CafeScribe]

Product Page [via Gadget Lab]

The other noteworthy cellphone, the SO703i, is made by Sony Ericsson makes use of scented sheets. These sheets are supposed to relax users while making calls. Uh, unless you're calling the Pretty Girl From Class for the first time, why would you be nervous making a call? Those wacky Japanese. – Nicholas Deleon

New phones feature touch panel, smell [Reuters]