maps - 3/6 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Sep

Google Maps With Navigation Arrives In Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan And More MENA Countries

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Google, News, Videos

Last Updated: March 12th, 2013

While we still wait for newer products like Play Movies or Play Books to reach a wider audience, Google's been hard at work bringing a slightly more useful product to additional countries: Google Maps with Navigation. After bringing voice navigation to India, nine more new countries are being added to the supported list for the Navigation beta. Including the following:

Egypt
United Arab Emirates
Saudi Arabia
Qatar
Kuwait
Lebanon
Bahrain
Jordan
Algeria

Unfortunately, the service will require Android 4.0 or higher. This is likely due to Arabic script API incompatibilities with older versions. Though, it's a little unclear on just when all the necessary features would've been added (for example, bi-directional text was only added in Jelly Bean).

Sep

[New App] Official My Disney Experience Guides You Around Walt Disney World With GPS Maps And Wait Times

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Applications, News

Walt Disney World Resort might be home to the Most Magical Place on Earth®, but with 30,000 acres and millions of visitors every year, it's awfully easy to have a bad day there. To that end, Disney has released its very own guide app, covering all four theme parks and the various satellite tourist areas around Disney World. The most useful feature is probably the detailed maps, complete with annotations for rides, shops, restaurants, et cetera, and GPS tracking to help you find your way around. (Incidentally, they'll also point you to the nearest restrooms.) You can even make a reservation at one of the restaurants without leaving the app.

Sep

[Update: It's Live] Google Bringing Voice Navigation In Maps For Android To Indian Markets

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

Earlier today, Google India uploaded a video to YouTube demoing a long-awaited feature for the Indian market: voice navigation in Maps. However, mere minutes after the video went live, Google made it private - but not before some users caught a glimpse of what was to come.

It's still unknown when Google will make the service available to the public, but considering a video has already been uploaded, we won't be surprised to see it officially announced within the next day or two.

As noted by all the comments below, Voice Navigation is now live in India. Go somewhere!

Update: Google just posted the official announcement on the Maps blog, along with a few more new tidbits: bike maps for New Zealand, Street View for over 150 university campuses, and a nifty video featuring some of the interesting things that can be done with Maps.

Aug

[Updated] Google Maps Update 6.11.1 Adds Biking Navigation, Appears To Resolve Boot Issues On HTC Phones

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, Google, News

Update: Not only does the update address the reboot issues, but it also brings about a very useful new feature: cycling directions for 10 different countries (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK)! This includes full turn-by-turn, voice-guidance in Maps Navigation for all 12 supported countries (all previously mentioned, plus the U.S. and Canada), as well. Getting around on your bike has never been easier!

Today, Google's most downloaded app, Maps, saw a small update. The changelog on the Play Store doesn't explain what's new, but according to some XDA users, it appears to fix an issue that caused some HTC devices to reboot while using Navigation.

Aug

Latest Google Maps Update (v6.10) Causes The HTC Rezound To Reboot, Leaves Users Finding Their Own Way Home

Posted by John Thompson in Applications, News, Rezound

Google Maps received an update yesterday, making it a lot more friendly for users who rely on public transport to get from A to B by adding departure times for railway stations, among other new features.

Unfortunately, the new update is causing a few issues for HTC Rezound owners, who have found that the app causes their phone to reboot itself after using it for a few seconds. Users on forums such as XDA, The Milk Milk and AndroidCentral have all been complaining about the issue, so it looks to be pretty widespread.

It appears that Rezound owners will encounter the issue after opening an app that is tied in with Maps, whether it's the actual Maps app, Latitude or Navigation.

Aug

[Update: It's Live!] Google Maps Is About To Get An Update To v6.10, Adds A Ton Of New Public Transit Info And Features

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, Google, News

It's not quite live yet, but Google would like you to know that Google Maps 6.10 is on its way to handsets by the end of the day. "What's new for me, the public transit user?" I hear you ask. Quite a bit, in fact! First off, Google has announced that it now has data on more than one million transit stops worldwide, spread throughout almost 500 cities. In an effort to make that information more usable, the Transit Lines map layer can now me narrowed down to a single method of transportation. Um. Yes please.

In addition, station pages will now show departure times, which lines serve the station, and how far to other platforms nearby.

Jul

Google Launches Indoor Maps For The UK, Can't Avoid Rain Jokes Any Better Than I Can

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Google, News

Indoor maps are becoming the hot new thing in the world of not getting lost. Google may be using fancy 3D planes to map everything the sky can see, but sometimes it's just as easy to get lost in a train station as it is in a city. Google's recent indoor maps have made navigating easier, and now UK locations are being added to the supported list.

The maps have been seamlessly integrated into the Google Maps app. Just zoom in to a location and the indoor maps will "magically" appear. You can even search for directions from within the building, across multiple floors.

Jun

Google Maps Now Features Offline Support, Streetview Sees Improved Compass Mode

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Apps/Games, Google, News

In yet more app news today, Google pushed out updates to Maps and its cousin Streetview.

First, Google Maps received the promised offline mode, wherein you can pan to a certain area and save it for use without an Internet connection. Pretty neat, though it remains impossible to use navigation offline, limiting the practical applications of this feature.

Additionally, Street View saw a minor update that should improve everyone's favorite compass mode - devices with a gyroscope should now be able to use it more smoothly.

The updates are available now on Google Play, so download away!

Google Maps

QR code for https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.maps

Streetview

QR code for https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.street

Jun

Google Expands Live Traffic Info Into 7 New Countries, Updates 19 Others

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Google, News

One of the coolest features of Google Maps is the ability to show live traffic patterns on major roadways. Now, Google is rolling out this feature to seven new countries, as well as expanding coverage in 19 others. The new countries in the inner circle are Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Mexico, Peru, Romania and South Africa. Exciting!

As users of the service are no doubt aware, having your country or city covered doesn't necessarily mean every street is covered. So, Google is expanding to include more of the roads a man must walk down. Here's the full list of expanded territories:

Australia

Belgium

Brazil

Denmark

Finland

France

Germany

Israel

Italy

Japan

Netherlands

New Zealand

Puerto Rico

Russia

Spain

Sweden

Taiwan

UK

All in all, it's a solid update to a valuable service.

Jun

Google Earth Gets Some Amazing New 3D Maps, Rubs It In Apple's Face Just A Bit

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Google, News

Today's Google Earth announcement brought a couple of nice new features to the Google Maps suite. In addition to moving offline maps out of Labs, the company also pre-empted rumors of Apple-branded 3D map software with a demo of some stellar 3D maps that Google has been creating with high-tech camera planes. Yes, Google now has camera planes.

The company is using some sophisticated mapping software and planes outfitted with a bevy of camera sensors to create photo-realistic 3D maps of the entire terrain of a metropolitan area. This is in stark contrast to the previous method of simply using 3D building models.