Google has announced it has managed to shrink its Street View photography rig -- usually seen attached to cars or pulled by bikes -- down to a portable size that fits into a backpack.

The new "Street View Trekker" is perfect for peeking through your windows when you least expect it going places wheeled vehicles can't, like the Grand Canyon, the slopes of Tahoe, and other destinations Google employees are psyched to visit for work.

Of course, it could also be crowdsourced to provide maps of remote areas of the world that still haven't been rendered in 3D for our virtual tourist enjoyment.

[google.]

The Stuxnet virus, an advanced worm that has been spreading around the Internet since 2010, has been revealed as a combined effort by the U.S. and Israel to cripple Iran's nuclear program. The virus was created as part of an operation called Olympic Games, started under the Bush Administration and continued under President Obama, according to David E. Sanger's new book Confront and Conceal: Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power.

Initially meant to target Iran's Natanz nuclear plant, the virus broke loose in 2010 due to a programming error. In an emergency Situation Room meeting, Obama approved continued cyberattacks on the Natanz plant, and more advanced versions of Stuxnet eventually took out 1,000 of Iran's 5,000 uranium-processing centrifuges.

According to Sanger, Olympic Games "appears to be the first time the United States has repeatedly used cyberweapons to cripple another country's infrastructure, achieving, with computer code, what until then could be accomplished only by bombing a country or sending in agents to plant explosives."

The future of the virus is uncertain, but the administration has considered using it in North Korea, China and Syria.

Sanger's book is due out next Tuesday.

[nyt.]

Facebook has hired a team of software and hardware engineers to create a Facebook-branded smartphone that could be released as early as 2013, The New York Times reports.

The Facebook Phone team includes a handful of engineers with experience on Apple's iPhone, and Facebook is also continuing its previously-reported partnership with HTC.

"Mark is worried that if he doesn't create a mobile phone in the near future that Facebook will simply become an app on other mobile platforms," said one Facebook employee.

As for Facebook's official comment, all the company had to say was that "Our mobile strategy is simple: we think every mobile device is better if it is deeply social."

Would you buy a Facebook phone if it came out next year?

[gamefreakz / nyt.]

Way back in 1993, before the movie version of Tony Stark ever improvised his first Iron Man suit, a frenchman named Emile Leray escaped being stranded in the desert in northwest Africa by converting his broken-down car into a working motorcycle.

Unlike Stark, Leray managed to hack together his escape plan without essential tools like welding torches and arc reactors. All he had was a hacksaw. Apparently, Leray drilled the necessary holes by bending, sawing, and then unbending various metal parts.

It all sounds a bit farfetched -- after all, repairing a car has to be easier than building an entire motorcycle, right? -- but it's apparently a true story.

If you're able to read French, you can find the original story at Chameau D'acier.

[gizmodo.]

Hardware hacker Jeri Ellsworth turned a Commodore 64 into a working synth bass guitar using the SID chip and an FPGA, and it's hooked up to a wearable synth.

What's more, she operated the whole setup at the Bay Area Maker Faire while wearing rolling skates.

And, as if you're not already impressed enough, Ellsworth's day job is working on top-secret projects at Valve Software. She's truly a geek to be reckoned with!

Check out some more details on the keytar's construction in a video interview with MAKE.

[waxy.]

Several news sources (including the Wall Street Journal and Reuters) have reported that the next iPhone will feature a 4-inch display, but what does that mean for the iOS experience?

9to5Mac says the 3.95" display will have a resolution of 1136x640, up from the iPhone 4S's 960x640. Those new pixels will reportedly make room for a fifth row of icons on the home screen, but they could also make trouble for developers who will have optimize their apps for the new phone's aspect ratio.

As far as the device's form factor, it's not expected to change. The dock connector, however, may shrink, making current sync cables obsolete.

The new iPhone is believed to be in testing right now, with Apple employees carrying it in a nondescript shell that hides the new design.

[dvice.]

Facebook's hotly-anticipated stock offering will begin trading Friday morning at $38 a share, near the top of the possible range the company has discussed. Facebook's IPO is expected to raise $16 billion, which would put the company's valuation at $100 billion -- the highest valuation of any company in history at the time of its IPO.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's personal wealth may actually shrink on the first day of trading. His net worth is currently at $16.5 billion, but Forbes calculates that number will briefly drop to $15.5 billion.

[cnbc.]