It’s a little embarrassing to be Verizon today after they have inadvertently embarrassed Motorola themselves through a holiday promo. An ad to promote the Droid X’s voice-guided Google Maps is using a digitally inserted screen cap of the Maps app from the iPhone instead, which not only runs on a rival platform to Android but was written by Apple itself. Oops.

It might not be such a big deal, but this puts Apple on a device that Motorola has repeatedly used in successful anti-iPhone ads. Accidents do happen, but this one should have been caught.

Xbox Live is having some problems. Apparently a new Modern Warfare 2 map update has made a number of Xbox Live features unusable or unstable, including online MW2 gameplay. Not good news for those who wanted to get some gametime in.

Word is that the Xbox Live Marketplace is off-and-on, and even Microsoft admits that several other things are acting strangely. However a fix is on the way, so maybe if you try again later it will be alright. You’re probably supposed to be working anyway right?

So you just saw a penis or some couple doing the nasty on Chatroulette and you want to know where these freaks are located. Understandable I guess. I would want to make sure they don’t live next door to me. And if they do, I might want to move.

Chatroulette connects you with a stranger directly rather than routing you both through another server, so you can see the IP address of everyone you connect to. And an IP address can tell you where that person is on a map. Pretty simple.

The New York Times has an interactive Web app that lets you see the popularity of various Netflix titles by neighborhood in a several different cities. It’s a pretty interesting voyeuristic look at who is watching what. But it leaves you with more questions than answers.

For instance Why is The Curious Case Of Benjamin Butler so popular in Chicago? Or for that matter why are any of these people watching Doubt? Don’t they have paint to watch dry?

Here’s a perfect accessory for tourists who get lost while visiting rainy cities. It’s an awesome alternative to GPS devices, that will help you find your way and keep you dry at the same time. It’s like having your own tour guide with you in the city, featuring a map of the city with such spots as cafes highlighted, along with restaurants and hot spots. The design shown is by Cansu Cender and features a map of Istanbul, Turkey. It can easily be of help in any other cities and it would be great to see these sold at tourist shops. Very nice idea.

NDrive’s G800 GPS is for the UK and Ireland only, but what’s interesting about it is that it’s the first GPS system that uses real photography for navigation as far as we know. Apparently, it comes with videos, photos, e-books, music, games, FM transmitter, calculator, and a 4.3-inch screen and Bluetooth.

If you live in certain areas of Europe, you can buy maps for your country. The info on how they manage to get aerial views and use them are somewhat vague.