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May

[I/O 2013] New APIs For Location, Single Sign-On, And Google Cloud Messaging

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Development, Google, News

Right off the bat here at Google I/O, the company is telling developers about some awesome new tools for apps. A new series of APIs will enable a variety of new services for both developers and end users. Here are some of the highlights.

Version 2 of the Location API, which includes:

Geofencing (assigning triggers to specific geographical locations) and up to 100 fences per app

a fused location provider, which should allow for active location gathering at just 1% battery drain per hour or increased accuracy
Activity recognition - API can recognize if users are walking, biking, driving, et cetera.

Apr

Google I/O 2013: Google's To-Do List This Year

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Android OS, News

Last Updated: May 3rd, 2013

Google I/O is coming! We'll know about all of Google's new projects in just 2 ~~short~~ agonizingly long weeks. While we desperately count the days until May 15th, we thought it would be a great idea to take stock all of the things we've caught wind of lately.

Calling this an "I/O Preview," sounds a little too certain. I'm not predicting everything here will come out at I/O, this is just a list of everything we know Google is working on - their "To-Do" list. Just like any to-do list, Google could cross something off and release it, or endlessly procrastinate, or completely cancel something.

Apr

Google Map Maker Comes To The UK, Bringing More Detailed Local Maps With It

Posted by John Thompson in News

While Google's UK Maps service is far from incomplete, it's not easy to comprehensively cover a vast array of British towns and countryside without a bit of local knowledge. Hopefully, that's exactly what we'll get with the launch of Google Map Maker in the United Kingdom, including the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey.

The idea behind Map Maker is that local residents can contribute to Google's existing maps, and when any additions or edits have been approved, they will become available on Google Maps and Google Earth. The difference that this can make to local areas and attractions is clearly quite significant, as you can see on the before and after shot of Bletchley Park, in Milton Keynes.

Apr

In California, Using Your Maps App Is Just As Illegal As Texting While Driving, Court Says

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Legal, News

Texting and driving is a pretty heinous crime. Bad enough that it's spawned entire ad campaigns devoted to educating the public on the dangers of such acts. Of this, you are no doubt aware. What you may be less aware of is the fact that figuring out where you're going is exactly as dangerous as sending someone a message that says "Doesn't the Peachoid look like a giant..."

California, despite having no known Peachoids, knows this very well and a court has ruled that using a mapping application is just as bad (and illegal) as texting behind the wheel. This isn't the first time California has come down hard against GPS in cars.

Apr

Google Maps Navigation Going Live In A Bunch Of Countries Including Bulgaria, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovakia And More

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, Google, News

Back in December, we noticed that a bunch of countries had been added to the list of supported areas for Google Maps Navigation. That list was promptly updated to remove most of them, but now it looks like they're (almost) all back and available for use right now, including Bulgaria, Lithuania, Slovakia and more.

Here are all the new countries that have been re-added to supported list:

Bulgaria
Estonia
Ghana
~~Iceland~~
Ivory Coast
Kenya
Latvia
Lithuania
Senegal
Slovakia

Of those, we have independent confirmation from users in Bulgaria, Lithuania, Estonia, and Slovakia that turn-by-turn navigation is available as of right now, which leads us to believe that the entire list is legit.

Mar

Google Adds Live Transit Info To Google Maps For Seven NYC Subway Lines, Buses And Trams In Salt Lake City

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, Google, News

Back in 2011, Google added the ability to keep up with live transit updates to Google Maps. After all, commuters in big cities that require cars to get around (like my own Atlanta), have traffic info for highways. Why not people who primarily use the subway to get around? One glaring omission from that service, though, was the New York City subway system. Today, that problem is rectified.

Starting today, seven lines of the MTA will show live arrival and departure times for stops along their routes. Additionally, public transit users in Salt Lake City can get the same information for buses and trams in their area.

Mar

Google Continues To Make The Extravagant Mundane, Allows You To Explore Everest, Kilimanjaro On Your Phone With Google Maps

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Google, News

Have you ever wanted to scale a giant mountain? It's a really cool thing to do that challenges you to reach your peak physical condition, invest heavily in gear, and the payoff is joining a tiny percentage of the population that can say they've seen the world from one of its highest points. Or you could just go to Google Maps, now that the company has added images taken from the peaks of the Seven Summits, the highest mountains on each of the seven continents.

The company sent several of its engineers to scale some of the highest mountains in the world and bring back Street View (can we really even call it that at this point?) data that you can now explore.

Feb

[APK Teardown] Google Maps 6.14.3 - Next Stop: Lane Guidance

Posted by Ron Amadeo in APK Teardown, News

Ok, here's a short and sweet edition of APK Teardown coming your way. Prepare yourself.

What's the one remaining thing a standalone GPS unit can do that Google Maps can't? (Besides work offline) Lane guidance.

Right now, Google Maps would best be described as "Turn guidance." It will tell you when to make a right turn, but that's about it. Lane guidance is a step further: Your next exit is coming up on the right, and a TomTom (pictured) will better prepare you to make the exit by directing you to the right hand lane in advance. This saves you the surprise "turn right" command which suddenly means you need to cut across 40 lanes of traffic.

Feb

Google Adds 38 Run And Lift Maps From Major Ski Resorts To Google Maps, But Please Don't Use Them On the Mountain

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Google, News

A non-zero number of Android Police team members enjoy skiiing. Who wouldn't, right? Well, people who get lost for starters. Mountains can be mazes! However, Google did what Google does best and made some sense of the madness. Now you can find guides for 38 different resorts all on your mobile phone.

The runs are color coded by difficulty, as they normally are on the mountain. You can view them with GPS on your mobile phone, or even check them out on the desktop before you hit the snow. A few slopes even have a Street View preview (though they're not quite as thorough as regular Street View).

Dec

Shadowgun: Deadzone Update (v1.1) Brings New Maps, Weapon Upgrades, Hats, Bug Fixes, And More

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Games, News

Wonderful news for the roughly everyone on the planet who plays Shadowgun: Deadzone: a whole bunch of new stuff is rolling out today! Notably, there's the Gangs feature which allows you to create groups of friends to play with. There are also a couple new maps that you can explore. And by "explore" I mean "kill things in."

There are also new weapon upgrades, some additional hats (because every game has to have hats now, right TF2?) and bug fixes and tweaks all over the place. Here's the full changelog:

What's in this version:

☣New Features:
* Two New Maps
* New Weapons Upgrades
* Chat in Main Menu
* Gangs (Play with Friends)
* New Hats
* Rewards for finishing Zone Control or DeathMatch
* Player Rank increased up to 50 now
☣ GamePlay Tweaks:
* Redesigned Weapons Stats
* Weapons&Gadgets Are Limited by Ranks
☣ Bug Fixing:
* Improved Hit Detection
* Fixed VoiceChat
* Fixed Network Code
* Renderer Optimization
* Fixed Wall Exploits in Several Levels