Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

Google exhibit lets you explore the Sydney Opera House from your couch

Add as a preferred source on Google

You can get the full Sydney Opera House experience without even booking a plane ticket. Well, almost. Google has launched a new interactive feature on Google Maps that puts you inside the Opera House, one of the most iconic buildings in the world.

The online exhibit was launched by the Google Cultural Institute, which hosts virtual museums from all over the world, and through it you can check out more than 1,000 of the building’s artifacts. These include early architectural designs by Jørn Utzon, rare photos of the building in its early stages, and information about the Opera House’s massive mechanical organ, which is the largest in the world.

Recommended Videos

“The sculptural elegance of the Opera House has made it one of the most recognizable buildings of the 20th century,” said Kate Lauterbatch, program manager at the Google Cultural Institute, in a blog post. “In addition to exhibits which tell the stories of the history and development of this architectural masterpiece, today’s launch includes a brand new 360-degree experience offering insights into the between-the-acts magic of the House.”

The experience offers a 360-degree view of the backstage area, which can be looked at either online or using a virtual reality headset. There’s even see a virtual performance on the Opera House stage by Nicole Car and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. You can also wander around the outside of the building, taking in the view using new Street View imagery. All this reportedly took six months to put together.

Of course, the new exhibit isn’t the first breathtaking exhibit on offer through the Google Cultural Institute — it’s not even the first in Australia. The Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Australian War Memorial have both also been put on display by the institute.

Sydney Opera House 360° Experience featuring soprano Nicole Car and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra
Christian de Looper
Christian de Looper is a long-time freelance writer who has covered every facet of the consumer tech and electric vehicle…
Your Windows touchpad is about to make scrolling long pages way less tiring
Three touchpad tricks that make long documents feel a lot shorter.
Windows new scrolling feature

Today I learned about a touchpad tip that I think every Windows laptop user should know. Microsoft shared it as its Friday Windows tip of the day, and it’s all about scrolling.

If you read long documents, browse webpages, or write code on a Windows laptop, you know the drill. You swipe, lift your fingers, and swipe again until you reach the part you need. Microsoft has three touchpad features that cut down on all that swiping.

Read more
This app turns the iPhone Duo into a pocket-sized Mac
Headroom uses macOS's built-in Screen Sharing to let users control their Mac from the foldable iPhone, without installing additional software on the computer.
Headroom App on Apple iPhone Duo controlling a Mac

The iPhone Duo has barely been out for a day, and someone's already found a way to run their Mac on it. Well, sort of. Headroom, a remote desktop app from MusicFlow, lets users control their Mac from Apple's new foldable phone, with an interface that adapts as the device opens, closes, and folds in half. Think of it as turning a pocket-sized phone into a miniature MacBook, minus the actual MacBook.

Headroom turns the iPhone Duo into a mini Mac

Read more
AI helped uncover a hidden PHP flaw. Now websites worldwide are facing millions of hacking attempts.
A critical PHP vulnerability has websites worldwide racing to install security patches.
php-flaw-websites-under-attack

PHP is the programming language behind roughly 70% of websites, and it just ran into a serious problem. Security researchers used AI to uncover a critical flaw called PHP2Shell, which could let attackers take over web servers, steal data, or disrupt online services. Since the discovery, websites worldwide have been hit with millions of attempts to exploit it.

Hackers moved fast once the flaw went public. Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince said the attack attempts jumped from tens of thousands within 45 minutes to millions overnight, The Guardian reports.

Read more