iPhone users are rejoicing today as Google Maps is back in Apple’s App Store. Apple Maps became the default maps system with the introduction of iOS 6 in September, but the product was deeply flawed, with incorrect addresses and directions and distorted images.

The Australian police even warned the public that Apple Maps can be dangerous, as six Australians have been stranded in the desert because of the app.

So when Google revamped its application for iOS 6 and re-released it in the App Store on Wednesday night, average consumers and tech reviewers were very enthusiastic. The new Maps app includes spoken driving directions, real-time traffic conditions, a connection to Zagat reviews and other information about certain destinations, and solid data to back it all up. According to Business Insider, the app is already number one on the Apple App Store (h/t @VitroAgency).

What are your thoughts on the new Google Maps app? How have you fared with Apple Maps for the past couple months?

Current Occupation: Senior Biotech Manager/Founder BlackGirlsCode
Favorite website: www.BlackGirlsCode.com
Favorite read: The Alchemist
Recent read: The Hunger Games
2012′s ultimate goal: Grow and expand Black Girls CODE to three cities.
Quote Governing Your Mission or a Quote that Inspires You: “I come as one, I stand as 10,000″ Maya Angelou
Twitter handle: @Blackgirlscode

Welcome back to another installment of the largest running profile series on African-American women in technology.  I have a very special entry for you this time readers!  Ever met an extremely successful executive holding  it down who also runs a robust philanthropic endeavor ? Well, let me introduce you to Kimberly Bryant.   This biotechnology/engineering professional is changing lives in a profound way through her organization BlackGirlsCode that is fast becoming a premier collective that introduces young Black women  to technology and computer programming.  I am so glad to have caught up with this colleague.  Here’s a bit of our recent encounter:

LDC: So Kimberly, what was it like growing up in the South and what led you to pursue a career in engineering?

KB: I grew up in Memphis, TN which is a small metropolitan city in the South.  Although I was not surrounded by technology, I was lucky to grow up during a time when it was cool to be smart and at least for me I had many opportunities to strive and achieve throughout my K-12 academic career.  My strong focus in math and science led me to a career in engineering at Vanderbilt University at a time when the recruitment of women in STEM paths was at an all time high.

KB: I have worked in the Biotech/Pharma industry for more than 15 years in a variety of leadership roles in engineering management.  My current role is a Senior Biotech Project Manager.  In this role I get the opportunity to work with a multiple of clients on projects ranging from IT and infrastructure upgrades, manufacturing design projects, and technical transfer projects.  Because of my diverse background in engineering and IT, I have an opportunity to work in multiple business functions which makes my current position both challenging and exciting.

KB: After many years of working in Corporate America, I decided that my skills and abilities could be transfered to an entrepreneurial endeavor in the rapidly exploding mobile health field.  I began to network in the tech community and attend technical events where I found myself one of very few women and minorities.  My focus shifted at this point.  I felt a very strong drive to reach back into my community and help other young women of color discover the many opportunities for career growth and achievement in technology and decided to create Black Girls CODE as a vehicle to expose young women of color to the technical space and introduce them to computer programming and digital technology.  I feel strongly that it is our mission to “change the equation” so that more women and minorities enter the IT field as creators.

KB: From the start of our program, we made a commitment to be a part of our community and to offer the Black Girls CODE programs to the youth who were least likely to have similar opportunities or programs available to them.  The Bayview-Hunters Pointe community is one of the oldest and still largest African-American communities in the Bay Area.  It sits literally right at the footsteps of technology and discovery being less than an hours drive from Silicon Valley and at the foot of the biotechnology hub in the bay.  Yet most young people in the community have very little to no insight into biotechnology or computer programming and little exposure to these STEM areas as potential career paths.  We were very blessed to find a strong community partner in the Bayview Youth Organization- 100% College Prep Institute , who literally opened their doors and their rolodexes to help us get our program off the ground.  They allowed us to launch our pilot program from their new computer lab and actively recruited students from their existing programs to our pilot class.  We have maintained a strong commitment to Bayview-Hunters Pointe and will continue to reach out to these students and the community as we grow and expand.

by Lauren DeLisa Coleman

New year, new you! One of the top resolutions is usually to become better organized, and now a new tech company called QVIVO can help you do just that.  Organizing your digital media files is very important as more and more of your entertainment content becomes consumed in this manner.  Who wants to waste times with incomplete searches?  If  you are one who likes to shy away from that, there are a few choices that can get you started but a superior offer comes from the hot, new company QVIVO. Thanks to them, your entire personal media collection of film, music and television favorites can be made available to share and stream between any device with the QVIVO app installed – at home or on-the-go!

QVIVO not only automatically imports your media files but organizes them into beautiful libraries complete with cover art, trailers and even subtitles.  All the Internet’s popular files and formats are supported in gorgeous HD.  The company offers unlimited cloud storage which means that the content actually rests on another super computer outside of your own and is simply available to you whenever you log on (an example of content stored in a cloud is your daily use of Gmail, for example). Liam McCallum, QVIVO founder, and Executive

Producer explains, “Unlike other Cloud media platforms, we’ve spent a considerable amount of time perfecting video.  Uploads are lightening fast, and all the heavy lifting of converting files to right formats is done automatically for users in the QVIVO Cloud. “

Jon Niermann,  QVIVO co-founder, adds, “What’s really exciting about QVIVO is how it keeps the whole family’s media library in sync without the need to push huge files to each device. I can pause a movie on my PC and automatically resume it on my Mac.  Simply by clicking the play button, QVIVO  starts streaming from the original device across the network or from the QVIVO Cloud – whichever is closer.”

QVIVO is connected! You can also  link each family member’s profile to their Facebook accounts so that they can check-in, like and rate their favorite media.  In addition, with a single button users can tell friends what they’re into and then in real-time while watching video or listening to music.

But here’s one of the best parts: QVIVO apps are free; allowing users to play and stream media around the home. The PC and Mac apps are currently available to download with the iOS prepared for release in just a few weeks. QVIVO Cloud streaming plans featuring unlimited Cloud storage start at an incredible $1.99/mo.

You don’t have to be a super-techie to jump into this system. It’s fairly easy to navigate and the design is quite user-friendly.  See more at www.qvivo.com.  Organized files are just a few clicks away.  Enjoy!

(The Economist) — SOME fight wars with words, others with numbers. Hardly a day passes without new data on mobile apps, the small applications that can be downloaded to smart-phones to perform all kinds of feats, such as accessing social networks, playing games and identifying unknown music. Apple recently announced that its App Store now offers 225,000 apps, which collectively have been downloaded 5 billion times. Android Market, the storefront for the operating system that powers many other smart-phones, now boasts 60,000 apps and is catching up fast. And GetJar, an independent mobile store that offers programs for all kinds of handsets, claims 72,000 apps and 1 billion downloads.

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