The virtual streets of Google Maps were yesterday transformed into Pac-Man’s chomping grounds in celebration of April Fools’ Day.
Google Inc added the option to convert its popular navigation service into the Pac-Man video game yesterday morning, on a day when Google shows off its playful side by injecting more frivolity into its services.
The gag on Google Maps enables visitors to click on a Pac-Man symbol in the lower left of the screen to play the video game on whatever location is listed in the address bar. As has been happening for nearly 35 years, Pac-Man eats blinking dots while trying to elude four “ghosts” — Pinky, Blinky, Inky and Clyde.
The game can be played in Google Maps on desktop computers or mobile devices that have the latest app update for Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android software.
This is not the first time that Google Inc’s engineers have paid tribute to Pac-Man. In May 2010, Google tweaked the doodle on its main search page to accommodate games of Pac-Man.
Planting Pac-Man into maps probably will not be Google’s only April Fools’ stunt, based on the company’s colorful past. Among other things, Google previously has promised to introduce search by smell, provide a translation tool for animals and posted notices for jobs on the moon.
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Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last