Business News Roundup, Sept. 4
Google is retiring its Photo Sphere Camera app on iOS and the Street View feature from the Google Maps app on Android in favor of a new app for both operating systems: the Street View app.
The Mountain View company said Thursday that the stand-alone app will let people explore collections of 360-degree panorama photos of locations (both interior and exterior), and make their own contributions to public photo galleries.
Users can snap 360-degree “spherical” photos directly from their Android or iPhone, or use a dedicated 360-degree camera such as the Ricoh Theta S or NCTech iris360.
Other users can then view those images when they tap on a map location within the app.
“In one gallery, you can explore Street View collections and content from Google Maps alongside photo spheres contributed from people around the globe,” said a product manager at Google Maps, Charles Armstrong.
[...] whether you want to track the Loch Ness monster in Scotland, scale the famed rock wall El Capitan in Yosemite, or hike Mount Fuji, the Street View app has you covered.
To combat inappropriate content that often goes hand-in-hand with user-generated content, the app will have a feature that lets users report problems.
The company said at the time that the frozen foods sales have been declining and that people also seemed to be shifting to traditional “blocks” of frozen vegetables, which cost less than the vegetable blends and packages with sauces that Green Giant makes.
Kraft Heinz is expanding a recall of Kraft Singles products, saying a problem with the packaging film affects 10 times as many cases as it first thought.
The company recalled 335,000 cases Thursday because a thin strip of film may stick to the slice after the wrapper has been taken off, creating a choking hazard.
Three people were charged Thursday with running a $54 million Ponzi scheme built on promises of a green energy technology that would turn trash into fuel and “carbon-negative” housing developments, neither of which were ever fully developed, federal prosecutors said.
Troy Wragg, 34, of Georgia, Amanda Knorr, 32, of Pennsylvania, and Wayde McKelvy, 52, of Colorado, were charged with wire and securities fraud and conspiracy.
Prosecutors said the three lied to investors that their “biochar” technology and “carbon-negative” housing in Tennessee made millions, but they had almost no earnings and used the money to repay earlier investors and for themselves.
Leon Gorman, a grandson of L.L. Bean who led a modernization of his family’s outdoor clothing and gear business after the founder’s death, died Thursday.
Average long-term mortgage rates rose this week after a sharp drop the previous week.
Mortgage giant Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage increased to 3.89 percent from 3.84 percent a week earlier.