In 1 of the much more geeky (and equally amazing) stories I came across today, a Google engineer by the name of Ari Gilder proposed to his girlfriend today making use of a mixture of Google Maps and a custom app he built on his Nexus 1 The girlfriend was given the Nexus One and then, using the Google Maps to strategy her route, she would check in at numerous locations utilizing the custom app to get a rose and a picture.
Directions to the next location had been locked by a password that the girlfriend had to figure out by effectively answering a question about their relationship. You see, this would never ever work if it was turned around. Men forget every thing. Anyway &mdash back to the story. As soon as, future Ms. Gilder, reached the final checkpoint she was then met by Ari who dropped to one knee and popped her the final question (I promised myself I wouldn&rsquot cry).
This just goes to show you the creative minds working at Google. Oh- and thanks Ari for creating the rest of us men appear bad. I can barely build a tiny house out of popsicle sticks let alone a custom Android app. In any case, congrats Ari and his fiance!
Google will mount the trike onto a boat to take photographs as it floats down the river. The tripod — which is the identical program they use to capture imagery of organization interiors — will also be utilised to give you a sense of what it is like to live and work in locations such as an Amazonian community center and school, says the company.
In other Google Maps news, you can now get neighborhood weather simply by clicking on the layer in Google Maps. To add the weather layer, hover over the widget in the upper appropriate corner of Google Maps and pick the weather layer from the list of choices.
Above is a video shot with an HTC Desire HD utilizing LapseIt, a time lapse application obtainable on the Android Market. Time-Lapse – Lite also continuously shoots pictures and assembles them together as a .mov video file that could be uploaded to YouTube or played back in VLC Media Player.
Google infuses a new feature allowing you to check-in to places without needing a separate app. Another venture in making out-of-the-box Android devices more independent without relying on facebook, foursquare, or the slew of other apps made for location status. Using Google Places via Google Map 5.1 users will be able to check-in at wherever they happen to be and share their experiences with pictures and comments. This will also be integrated with latitude allowing your friends to receive notifications if you check in to nearby locations. You can also setup automatic check-ins and check-outs from specified locations. Check-ins will only be viewable by people you choose to share them with. The regularity and the amount of check-ins will affect the users title at said place to “Regular” , “VIP”, or “Guru” on the Google Places page. It’s a free update and should now be available on the Android Market.
One of my personal favorite and most used apps for BlackBerry, Google Maps, just got an update to v4.5.2. We aren’t seeing a changelog posted so our guess is that this is just a bug squishing release. The previous version was 4.5.1 which we saw released back in October of last year. If you notice any significant changes drop a comment below, or discuss your findings in the forums! To download the update head over to m.google.com/maps on your BlackBerry. Thanks to everyone that sent this in!
Ford just updated its Sync features to hookup to your Android device. You’ll now be able to plot your route from Google Maps on your Android handset and push it to any ‘10 or ‘11 Ford that supports Sync’s TDI.
With the app you’ll also be able to view traffic updates for your route and even let it predict traffic based on weather; now if it will only tell us when your teenage driver is out, we’d be set for life.
That little orange man, the sum of our drag and drop location love affair, is getting a little addition to his normal attire of orange: a festive red Santa hat.
Enjoy him while you can, this one is sure to leave with the holidays!
This week was chock full of new apps and games, but there’s only so much we can shove into one video. I take a look at some of the more significant updates and new app releases, such as Facebook FINALLY adding chat features. I also take a look at the new Google Maps, Amazon’s big Kindle update to bring in magazine and newspaper content, and a new app from Comixology that should get any comic fan excited. If that wasn’t enough, a tour of the new version of the Android market awaits you if you have yet to be updated. There’s a lot more to be had, too, so be sure to watch this week’s edition of the Phandroid AppCast.
Howdy and welcome to the weekly app roundup! We’ve corralled some apps we reckon you folks want to take a gander at. Speaking of taking a gander, if you haven’t taken one at your calendar yet, I reckon you do and start to panic. The final countdown to Christmas is on!! Today, we announce the winners of the SBSH Calendar Pro giveaway and also give you the chance to win one of 10 copies of GPS Ski Maps – good for 1 resort! Have a rootin’ tootin’ weekend! Giddy up!
Freebies of the Week: My BB Bat, Biotech, PointsPlus Calculator
In Case You Missed It: Monitor, ProOnGo Expense
New This Week: ProTimer Stopwatch, My Health Records – health n family, TextNANNY
Cool at BlackBerry App World: uMobility
Contest: Win one of 10 copies of GPS Ski Maps (for 1 resort)!
Last week we told you that Andy Rubin was showing off the new Google Maps, which replaces the classic tiles with vector graphics, at All Things D. It definitely looks like a pretty big step up from the version we know today, but I have to wonder how it may run on older devices.
If you’re interested in seeing a better example of how it all looks, the Google Nexus YouTube channel has uploaded a 3D render, which you can check out after the break.
The official YouTube account for the Nexus S was just updated with a 2-1/2 minute walkthrough of Google Maps 5.0. Using the new hot Android smart phone, we get to see all the features in the upcoming Maps release, including the 3D buildings. If you are newer to Android and have seen the latest versions of Maps offers, this is a great place to start. If you are considering picking up an Android phone, this demo will surely help convince you of the prowess behind the Nexus S and Google’s Maps. Video after the jump!
Hot on the heels of Rubin demoing a Honeycomb device, he decided now is a great time to preview Google Maps 5 for Mobile.
Among the new features: Vectors rather than boring flat images. Tilt and rotate with two fingers, when you’re not pinching and zooming. And, finally, caching. No longer will Google Maps navigation be dependent on a data connection.
Thankfully, most of the semi-modern phones and on (read Droid) will be able to taste this. Endadget got a list of the phones that will support GM5 100%:
Ever been using Google Maps on your phone, only to get to a point on the map where you have to wait for another tile to load? Well, soon, those woes will be no more, as Andy Rubin has been doing some showing off at D: Dive Into Mobile. The latest shots show Andy using a prototype tablet running Honeycomb, but that’s another article in and of itself. What we’re focusing on here is the new Google Maps, which takes out the tiles and adds in vector graphics.
Andy Rubin said the update will drop as quickly as “in a matter of days”, and will also bring to the table better zooming and panning, 3D graphics and offline caching.
Be sure to hit up the source link for all the action from D: Dive Into Mobile, and be sure to let us know what you think in the comments below!
I told you the story about my wife and the Nokia N8 and am happy to report that I was able to get her a blue Nokia N8 through a timely purchase and swap deal that worked out for me and Mike Macias. She has been using it now for about a week and a couple of days ago I showed her the power of the device and she is even more pleased with the N8.
My wife is a Party Lite consultant so she travels around to different homes and has parties showing off candles, accessories, and food so having a reliable GPS system is extremely important to her. She has a 2002 Acura with a navigation system in it, but you need to pay $200 a year to get an updated DVD and the user interface blows. I showed her how to use Ovi Maps and we setup an account for her to use so she could enter in show addresses in advance and have them synced to her N8 as favorites.
Well, the other day she decided to follow the specific directions from the hostess to a location about 35 miles away from our house. She called me in a bit of distress because the directions she was given were junk and not getting her to the destination. I told her to give me a couple of minutes as I was going to help her using her new N8. Now, she could have simply launched Ovi Maps and went through entering the destination manually, but the specific address was on her desk at home so it was easier for me to just go into her Ovi Maps account on my Mac, enter the address, and click on the star icon to save it as a favorite. I then told her to start Ovi Maps and sync to her account. She tapped favorites, tapped the address, and within about 10 minutes she was successfully pulling up to her destination. I was a hero thanks to Ovi Maps and she will now start using her N8 even more for getting to her shows.
Speaking of Ovi Maps, there is a brand new beta version available over on Beta Labs, version 3.06, so make sure to go get it for your N8 right now. The list of new features is below, but one of the coolest is the ability to download maps for offline navigation right to the device, via WiFi, so you won’t need to connect through a PC or Mac and use MapLoader.
Download street maps directly to your device! A new feature called “Update” on the main menu which allows you download Street Maps directly (via WiFi) to your phone without a PC! Please note that phones without WiFi (e.g. Nokia 5230) will not work.
My Position and Search are now integrated (now called Map). When accessed, it will show your last map view
Back button in Favourites
Long tap functionality to delete & rename collections & routes
Pop up for first time use – to inform user to download new map data (when upgrading 3.04 > 3.06 for the first time)
Improved behaviours of transit lines settings in map toolbox (no more grey out)
Compass calibration hint
Refreshed place details information view
I personally find the lane assist through city driving to be essential and plan to record a video of Ovi Maps in action on my N8 soon so you can see what I am specifically talking about here. Anyone else have an Ovi Maps success story?
One of my favorite Android apps of all time, Google Maps, has been updated to version 4.7. The update includes support for Google Places, so you can now rate locations, get personalized information, and add a widget to your home screen. Street View also got a bit of an upgrade, which is always welcome.
All in all, this isn’t a MAJOR update, but if you’re a fan of Google Places, you should probably head on over to the Market (or follow our link below) and update!
A new update to the Google Maps app seems to have some interesting UI changes, and rumors are they are the types of styles we can expect to see in Gingerbread. The UI change comes by changing the API level from 8 (Froyo) to 9 (Gingerbread). If you take a look at the image above, you see Google Maps as we know it today on the left, and the supposed UI change on the right.
Now, you may be thinking to yourself that this is not exactly a mind blowing change, and you’d be correct in your thought process. However, keep in mind that we’re only jumping up by .1 in version number, and not all the way up to 3.0 as previously thought. In all honestly, though, I think I kind of like it the way it is now, but what do I know?
It’s also important to keep in mind that this is just one example of a change brought by 2.3, and that we won’t know the full extent of the jump from Froyo to Gingerbread until it is upon us. If this one example is any indication, however, I wouldn’t count on a great deal of changes to the UI in 2.3.
Google doesn’t seem to rest when it comes to continually updating their mobile version of Maps for Android. Another new update is out bringing Maps to version 4.6 and refining the way you find nearby places and friends.
You will find that Place pages in the mobile app have been updated to reflect recent design changes to the dektop version of the service. Reviews are now organized between web reviews such as those from Yelp and Zagat and reviews posted by others using Google Maps.
You will also find new filters for search results. What used to only be sorted by distance and rating can now be filtered by what’s open, which neighborhood and establishment is located in, and also by related searches.
And for those using Maps 4.6 on and Android 2.2 device the experimental “real-time updating” option can be be enabled for Latitude users, providing quicker updating of location information.
Most people should be prompted to install the update on their handset, but you can always go to the Android Market to locate the latest version as well.
Guess what? Google Maps just got updated to add weather to the live wallpaper. Noticed it on my market. Small update, but still pretty cool. Using it right now and it seems like it will be useful. Check out in the market folks! Let us know what you think!
The premier Ovi service is clearly Ovi Maps and today during the keynote we heard that a new version was available that added features such as public transport maps (such as for the London Underground), an improved search experience, the ability to share a place, the ability to check-in via Facebook and other social networs, and new drive assistance mode with live traffic flow. Version 3.06 is available now to try out so get it installed on your device and give it a go.
Supported devices for this latest version include the following: Nokia 5230, Nokia 5230 Nuron, Nokia 5235 Comes With Music Edition, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia C6-00, Nokia N8, Nokia N97, Nokia N97 mini, Nokia X6, Nokia X6-00. I currently only have a Nokia N97 mini to try it out on and cannot wait for my own N8 to arrive to use with the application and service.
Unfortunately, S60 FP1 or FP2 devices are not supported with this current beta release.
Nokia’s Ovi Maps moves to 3.06 beta
In a move designed to pit Nokia head-to-head with Google, the Finnish phone company touted the new beta of Ovi Maps as the best mapping and route planning experience available.
Nokia Launches Check-ins on Ovi Maps, Takes Location and Privacy Seriously
Nokia debuted a new feature for its Ovi Maps service at this week’s Nokia World 2010 event in London: check-ins . But, thankfully, the company isn’t hopping on the bandwagon of location-based social sharing with its own self-branded service (also known as “yet another social network I have to sign up for.”) Instead, Nokia is taking the idea of location seriously, enabling real-time social …
Meanwhile, the WiMAX Forum says in their August Newsletter that as of the end of 2009, WiMAX covered more than 620 million people across the world, and that number is estimated to grow to 1 billion by the end of 2011.
On August 20th, WiMAX Forum published a WiMAX Product guide featuring over 280 WiMAX end-user devices. Each one of these devices is available today.
We’ve seen some colorful map mashups in the past, like Hypercities and HeatMap, but few are as abstract and beautiful to look at as Stamen Design’s Pretty Maps.
The aptly-named app pulls sets of geodata from various freely available open mapping projects and plots them atop one another. Pretty Maps grabs street-level data from OpenStreetMap (the “Wikipedia of maps”), land formation data from Natural Earth and place-name and place-shape data from Flickr shapefiles — Flickr’s outlines generated by the tags people have attached to photos taken in that place. So all the data is from crowdsourced databases and either public domain or licensed through the Creative Commons. The maps are generated using TileStache and PolyMaps, two open source tools developed in-house at Stamen.
The result is a map that’s not so much usable for navigation as it is pretty to look at. Cities degrade into abstract and unique blobs, with pastel colors overlaying one another. The shapes are alien looking in texture and density, but instantly recognizable if you’re already familiar with the terrain.
Stamen Design is a small, San Francisco-based data visualization firm best known in its early days for its work with Digg. Stamen specializes in abstract, trippy geo-spatial data visualizations like Trace and Cabspotting. The firm was also awarded a Knight News Grant in June to visualize publicly-available civic data.
Pretty Maps is both pretty and pretty slow. The tiles take about ten seconds to render at the lower zoom levels. This is because the Stamen team hasn’t really optimized Pretty Maps for performance. The multiple data sets get pulled in separately and are layered inside your browser using JavaScript instead of being combined first and served as one, a conscious design choice: “We wanted to leave all the plumbing exposed so that people could look at it and learn from it and, hopefully, build something new,” Stamen says on its website.
So, there’s your invitation to View Source and start digging around. We can only hope the little Grover “Near, Far” zoom controls are part of the package.
A couple of days ago I mentioned that Sygic sent out an email letting us all know Mobile Maps 10 was available as a free upgrade to N900 owners. I went on a short camping trip and wasn’t able to test out the latest version until last night, but shot the video embedded below and took the screenshots you see below in the image gallery. I am going to do some more extensive testing over the next couple of weeks and will post a review here when I finish checking it out. Here are some initial thoughts on my experiences, along with the video of the program in action.
What is improved?
Even though I have only spent a few hours with Sygic Mobile Maps 10 for Maemo I can tell you already that it is much improved over version 9 that I found wasn’t very useful at all. Here are the following improvements found in Mobile Maps 10:
A new and better look and feel with default full screen mode.
Online services for speed traps, traffic (not yet enabled), and incident reports.
Navigation to addresses stored in your contacts database.
Improved finger scrolling support.
Updated maps with more detail.
Auto & instant rotate between portrait and landscape.
Initial experiences
As you can see in my video, I was sitting in the back seat with my Nokia N900 (in default configuration mode) held between my knees and the N900 seemed to secure a GPS signal within a minute. This time Sygic tracked my position accurately where the last time it kept jumping around on the screen and couldn’t seem to find my actual location.
The user interface was quite fluid and it was easy to navigate around the software. I jumped to Navigate to… and entered an address down in Seattle and then a couple seconds later the route was calculated and shown. You can select your country and the voice you want to use for navigation. You can change settings to customize your experience, including how you want the main navigation panel to appear as you drive around. Other settings include 2D/3D toggle, dynamic control settings, day/night control, sounds, online settings, online services, advanced settings (similar to what we say in Sygic Mobile Maps 9), planning preferences, toll charge settings, language and voice selector, and more.
There are some extra utilities in the application, including a world clock, calculator, unit converter, and weather.
The one issue I seem to be having issues with is the selection of POIs as you drive. For example, as I am riding along and see a POI appear I tapped on it, but was just taken to the first settings menu. I would think that tapping on the POI would tell me what that location is and give me the option to choose to navigate directly to it or call the location. You can go back to the navigation setup and choose a POI in the area, but this requires several steps and I was thinking of something easier to find an interim stop.
Mobile Maps 10 is a free update for Mobile Maps 9 owns or EUR49.99 for new buyers. I will post a more detailed written walk through the application as I take a few more trips with it. In the meantime, if you have any questions please post them below and I will try to answer them all in my review.
I previously wrote up my first impressions of Sygic Mobile Maps 9 for the N900 and covered most of my thoughts in the 13 minute video. I found the application to be decent, but could not recommend it for EUR49.99 based on the fact that it kept jumping around the map, required too many button presses to navigate around, and did not seem to be quite ready for primetime. I was going to follow-up with a full review, but did not find the software useful enough to do so. Thus, I was pleased to receive an email this morning that Sygic just released Mobile Maps 10 for the Nokia N900 and I will be taking a closer look at it over the next few days with a full review coming here so you can decide if it is now worth the
According to the email I received Mobile Maps 10 for the N900 includes the following:
The app has new look and feel.
While all maps and content are stored on the phone, we added online sharing of speed traps or road incident locations and within few weeks also real-time traffic.
Navigation to addresses stored in phone’s Contacts is available.
Scrolling through menus, lists and map zooming supports touchscreen gestures so that no buttons are needed when using Mobile Maps.
Recent state or country is stored automatically, new destination entry is easier and non-relevant cities from various states will not pop up. If you want to pick a destination from a country other than the one you used the last time, just tap Back button on the keyboard to display the list of all available countries.
Maps have also received an upgrade. Now with more detail, safer and easier navigation.
There is a detailed upgrade process for those with Mobile Maps 9 that includes a few manual tasks that are just fine with us geeks who like to tinker, but may be a bit of an issue for newbies. The download for US maps and the application was 1.28GB so it took quite some time to download the update. Make sure to follow the directions specifically to complete the upgrade process.
I will post some quick first thoughts here with an update after I get the huge download to finish up and get the update installed. Nokia did upgrade the Ovi Maps client for the N900 in the last firmware update, but you still cannot get offline maps with Ovi Maps so this is one area where Sygic Mobile Maps 10 is better for sure.
I told you the 
I previously wrote up my 
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