Google Maps

Remember the summer vacations of our youth? Sitting in the back seat, wondering if we are there yet, looking for out of state license plates, watching anxiously while Mom and Dad argued over the sprawling paper map? Well, those days are over. These days, a family road trip is more likely to involve kids wearing headphones and watching a movie on the iPad, while Mom and Dad navigate with the help of a smartphone. Less headaches, sure. But weren't the headaches part of the fun?

Tropical Storm Isaac appears to be making a beeline for New Orleans and the southern coast of Louisiana. And the National Weather service warns that by the time the storm makes landfall late Tuesday or early Wednesday, it will no longer be a tropical storm, but a Category 1 hurricane. Many across the nation are crossing their fingers that those in the projected path of the storm will stay safe. Google however, has done something more concrete: The company's crisis response team has created a map that provides information about, among other things, where the storm is headed, wind-speed probabilities, locations of and live feeds from webcams, current traffic conditions, active shelters and evacuation routes.

Square has introduced a monthly pricing plan that should benefit businesses that use the start-up service to process more than $10,000 in transactions. The company announced it's now offering business the option to pay a $275 monthly fee instead of paying 2.75% of each transaction. The new plan allows businesses to skip paying a processing fee for every swipe. "Square is committed to offering prices that eliminate uncertainty and are lower than those traditionally only available for big businesses," the company said in a press release . The new plan will benefit businesses who process more than $10,000 a month using Square, other mobile payment systems or credit cards.

Google updated its Android Google Maps app this week with new features, but the most noticeable change is a new icon for the app. The new icon, which you can see in the picture above, shows the Google "g" subtly added on top of a map that also includes the iconic Google Maps pin. Previously the icon only showed a blue dot on top of a bland map (you can see the old icon here ). The icon is not only cleaner and more attractive, it pushes the Google brand more. Besides the new look, the app also has some cool new features.

We went for it anyway ... even though we were geographically undesirable. Love knows no bounds, right? So we flew in the face of reason and committed to a commuter relationship. If it weren't for the vexing distance between us, we'd be the inspiration for a Lifetime movie. His marriage officially dissolved the same week my husband died 51/2 years ago. Middle-aged, hearts trampled, we rediscovered joy and magic and all those things supposedly reserved for the young. We'd been friends for 30 years.

Google has admitted to a British regulatory agency that it did not remove all Street View data it had promised to delete two years ago. The tech company sent a letter to  Britain's  Information Commissioner's Office on Friday saying that after going back in and giving Street View a manual review, a small portion of the data that should have been removed was discovered. "Google apologizes for this error," wrote Peter Fleischer, Google's global privacy counsel, in the letter, which is on the ICO's website . Street View is Google's feature within its Google Maps service that lets users get an on-location look at a place with pictures from the real world.

Yahoo has named Marissa Mayer, a longtime Google executive, as its new CEO. The beleaguered search giant announced that it had appointed Mayer president, CEO and a board member effective Tuesday. She becomes the company's fifth chief executive in as many years. “The appointment of Ms. Mayer, a leading consumer Internet executive, signals a renewed focus on product innovation to drive user experience and advertising revenue,” Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo said in a statement.

Anyone who has ever longed for more expressive ears, your moment has arrived: This week the Japanese company Neurowear has made Necomimi -- its plush, mind-reading cat ears -- available in the U.S. Using electroencephalography (EEG), the same technology doctors use to detect seizures and measure brain activity, the company has created a pair of plush catlike ears that are supposed to respond to the wearer's mood -- drooping when you are lost in thought, perking up when you are concentrating.

Along with airports and shopping malls, museums are some of the toughest indoor places to navigate. Who hasn't found herself wandering aimlessly around a gallery of Greek and Roman artifacts while trying to find an exhibit of Impressionist paintings , or peering at a dimly lit minerals exhibit at a natural history museum when really you want to see the giant whale skeleton? Well, help is on the way. This week, Google announced it added indoor floor plans of 20 American museums to its Google Maps for Android.

As expected, Google on Wednesday revealed the Nexus 7, an in-house-developed Android tablet that is now available for purchase. The 7-inch-screen tablet will run Google's latest Android OS, Jelly Bean, and will feature a 1,280-by-800 pixel high-definition screen. Google said the Nexus 7's video "looks stunning. " The Nexus 7 runs a Tegra 3 quad-core processer and a 12-core GPU. Google called the device, which is built by Asus, "super thin" and said it weighs only 340 grams.