Byte-size news: But will your car use emoticons?

A text from your car when it's getting low on gas?
Forget gas. Japan Toyota is planning for the future and says it's going to create a service that will see cars tweet their drivers when it's time for them to be recharged.
To be called the "Toyota Friend" it will work on electric cars and hybrid vehicles and is expected to be introduced next year.
It will see owners receive a tweet-like alert on their smart phone or tablet PC reminding them to recharge the batteries.
"Social networking services are transforming human interaction and modes of communication," said Toyota president Akio Toyoda.
"The automobile needs to evolve in step with that transformation."
Slumming it
And you thought your job was hard.
Google is about to send out a Street View team to India to capture every slum in its attempt to photographically map the country.
Street View, launched in the United States in 2007, has run into its share of conflict with several governments concerned about privacy.
Google said earlier this month that it would appeal against a Swiss court ruling that ordered it to ensure all people and cars pictured on Street View were unrecognisable. "Street View is designed to comply with all local laws including those related to security and privacy in India," Google India chief Vinay Goel said.
The images will be collected by special cameras mounted on cars and tricycles.
Street View tricycles have already collected imagery from international tourist sites including Stonehenge in Britain, Pompeii in Italy and Versailles in France.
"In India, too, we are planning to collect images of important monuments and tourist spots after getting necessary sanction from the authorities," Goel said.
YouTube's two days a minute, no sweat
YouTube has done the figures and found 48 hours of video are being uploaded to the video-sharing site every minute, up from 35 hours a minute at the end of last year.
The site is also getting three billion views a day, a 50 per cent increase over last year.
"That's the equivalent of nearly half the world's population watching a YouTube video each day, or every US resident watching at least nine videos a day," the website said in a blog post.
Pay-phone tipped
Google is reportedly getting ready to launch a way of letting shoppers use their smartphones to pay.
Google has invited news reporters to see its "latest innovations", but declined to provide any details.
However, a source has predicted the big surprise is a mobile payment system that will allow the user to make a transaction using their phone at the checkout.
If true, the move will follow Google building its latest-generation "Nexus S" smartphone with chips that turns them into virtual wallets.
Google chief executive Eric Schmidt reportedly said shortly before the Nexus S hit the market in December that he expects the tap-and-pay mobile technology to "eventually replace credit cards".
Got any news, gadgets or queries? Contact lindsay.harvey@apn.co.nz