Google has just launched its Public Alerts platform for Google Maps that will allow users to get updates on emergencies in their area. These could include weather disasters, earthquakes and more. Created by the Google Crisis Response team, users can search by simple terms such as "flood in Indiana," as in the example pictured below.
Google has just released a teaser video, embedded below, that shows off an upcoming Google Maps-based game. Likely made for portable devices with a motion/gyroscope sensor, users would navigate a ball through the streets by making it follow a cursor, as mocked up in the real-life second video. The game will be powered by WebGL and be available through Google+ Games.
Audi used CES to unveil a new take on its car interface based on NVIDIA's quad-core Tegra 3 chip, and we got to try it for ourselves on the CES show floor. The new approach promises a much more discreet but also simpler and more powerful approach to controlling the car and its media than before. Read on for an early look.
Daimler and Google announced the strengthening of their strategic partnership, giving Daimler programmers full access to the suite of Google application programming interfaces (API) known collectively as Google Maps API for Business. The collaboration will enable Daimler to use Google Maps for their in-car map displays and speed development of other automotive apps.
In July, Google committed to digitally archive the devastation of earthquake and tsunami that hit northern Japan on March 11. Google has finished its efforts and has published the imagery on Google Maps using its Street View feature. Google has also created a special website, Memories for the Future, which offers both before and after photos.
TomTom has announced plans to make significant cuts to its workforce, a move that will leave 10 percent of its current employees out of work. The layoffs are expected to help the company reduce costs as it struggles to survive in a market that has encountered difficulty maintaining hardware sales.
Google added a major upgrade to the Android version of Google Maps (Android Market) Tuesday to bring an industry first for both indoor and outdoor maps. When inside key airports and malls, the app will automatically switch from regular view to a floor plan with places like departure gates and stores marked out. It intelligently checks elevation in multi-floor buildings and even has floor plans just for big stores.
Sony Ericsson is phasing out its Sony Ericsson Sync service in favor of Google Sync. It explained that the older service was meant for an older generation of phones. The company instead suggested that users switch over to Android's Google Sync, or alternatives such as Plaxo and UNYK.
Google has enhanced two of its core apps for Android phones. YouTube (free, Android Market) now has a +1 button to recommend videos as well as the addition of annotations. Google Maps (free, Android Market) now has nearby live events added to its Place pages for five major cities.
Google may have trouble competing with Nokia Drive once it rolls out to the broader market, Nokia's Executive VP of Location and Commerce, Michael Halbherr, told Electronista in an interview late Thursday. Despite Google Maps Navigation being a staple of Android, Google was a "new kid on the block." Nokia had the best map data and navigation in 90 countries, and automakers like BMW were relying on Nokia's platform.
An as yet unconfirmed claim has pointed to Apple being the mystery buyer of C3 Technologies. The firm is reportedly still working out of its Swedish office and is informally known as Sputnik, 9to5 heard. CEO Mattias Astrom, CFO Jkell Cederstrand, and lead product manager Ludvig Emgard are all still said to be working, although it's not clear if anyone was let go.
Google is reportedly expanding its Street View content to include interior images from businesses and stores. Anyone browsing Street View can take a virtual walk around the public areas in businesses that choose to participate in the program. The search giant has also worked with some businesses to add additional content, such as photos of food at restaurants.
Google Maps has been enhanced with a new Helicopter View. The new function gives users the opportunity to preview their trip in a 3D visualization. The feature uses the Google Earth browser plug-in to give users a top-down aerial view of the planned route as though seen from a helicopter flying about the route.
Consumer preference research house Nielsen has published findings from audience measurement data collected from Android smartphone users. The company found that Android Market was the top ranked app, followed by Google Maps, GMail, Facebook and Google Search. Nielsen also found that there were some gender differences with Google Maps having the second greatest reach for men after Android Market, while women preferred Facebook.
Google engineer Ari Gilder on Friday revealed that he had proposed marriage to his girlfriend Faigy with a very unique combination of Google Maps and a custom Android app. Along with planning a route full of relationship memories on Maps, Gilder had Faigy given a Nexus One with a custom app that would let her check in at each point to get a rose and a picture. With the directions to each new point locked by a password, Faigy had to take a question about her relationship in that location where the answer was the password.
Google has updated its Chrome browser with a new feature that allows users to take advantage of voice commands for Google Maps. Rather than using standard text entry in the search field, a microphone button now initiates a computer's integrated microphone to receive spoken search queries. The option is said to be geared for finding hard-to-spell places or asking for directions without typing.
Google pushed out an update to Google Maps on Android (Android Market) that catered primarily to tablet owners. Users with an Android 3 tablet can now get the same Transit Navigation as their smartphone-owning counterparts. Everyone in a Transit Navigation area also has the option of ringtone or spoken notifications to let them know when they're near a stop in a more direct form than vibrate mode.
Google Maps now sports public transport directions for London, UK in its iOS, BlackBerry and Android apps, the search giant said on Thursday. Earlier this month, Google introduced Transit Navigation beta for Android device owners that also allowed this for London and other cities. The new multi-platform app uses a user's current location to deduce the best trip to a destination using transit.
Google on Wednesday afternoon pushed out Google Maps 5.8 for Android users (Android Market) with a new photo component. Similar to Foursquare, users can now tag a place with photos to give a sense of the area or just to evoke a memory. Any shots snapped for Google Maps are automatically put in a special album in Android's Gallery for quick access later.
After a brief unofficial discovery, Google on Thursday confirmed that Google Maps 5.7 has the first experimental support for local maps downloads. Taking advantage of Maps 5's vector-based maps, Android users can zoom into an area and download map data within a 10 mile radius of a map point they've found. The feature can take several minutes but gives travelers basic mapping in another country without having to pay for expensive roaming data.
Google on Wednesday announced it has released a beta version of Google Maps 5.7 app (free, Android Market) that brings with it Transit Navigation. The new stop-by-stop directions are available for more than 400 cities around the world. It alerts users when they need to get off a bus or train or make a transfer, useful in foreign countries where maps or announcements are unavailable or can't be understood.
TomTom issued a warning Monday that its GPS units were losing share to Android and iPhone hardware faster than it first thought. Its North American stake was seeing a "faster rate of decline" than it saw at the start and would plunge 30 percent for all of 2011. Europe was seeing an expected 10 percent drop, but more of these GPS navigators were entry models and fewer were being stocked in stores.
Legal disclaimers in iOS 5 appear to support the idea that Apple has been developing its own custom mapping technology. The beta firmware has a set of new "Map Data" disclaimers, separate from those belonging to Google. While both listings mention third-party companies, many of the ones under Map Data are not associated with Google. A key example is Waze, which does real-time mapping and traffic information using crowd-sourced data, but has had to compete with Google Maps.
Google added one of the most often sought-after features to Google Maps today with the appearance of real-time mass transit status updates. Updates to the desktop app, mobile web page and the Android app (Market) will now show when a bus, subway, or train is actually expected to arrive and help curb unnecessary waits or being caught out by an early stop. Locations also flag alerts, such as detours or delays.
Garmin may be buying Navigon as a defense against the pressure on GPS devices from smartphones, sources divulged in a German leak on Friday. The deal would show Garmin taking advantage of Navigon's battering in the mapping business to pay something in the tens of millions of euros, considerably lower than what it would have been worth a few years ago. A deal could be completed as soon as June, the Financial Times Deutschland informants said.
Google's Location VP Marissa Mayer in an interview at the recently wrapped up TechCrunch Disrupt event skirted the question of Apple possibly dropping Google Maps. When asked what Google will do if iOS suddenly stops using its engine in favor of an in-house solution, Mayer sand she was "not going to speculate" as to future plans. She steered the question towards the importance of mobile as a whole and noted that mobile was due to overtake the desktop in the near future.
Despite recent reports suggesting Apple is moving to develop its own mapping service for iOS, separate sources now claim the company is planning to rely on Google Maps for iOS 5. The unnamed informant told 9to5Google the company is planning to continue improving the iOS Maps application, however an Apple=developed alternative is not said to be ready for the next major revision to the mobile OS.
Apple is now explicitly hunting for someone to improve the Maps app in iOS, a new job listing reveals. The successful candidate will take on the mantle of "iOS Maps Application Developer," working in or around the vicinity of the company's Cupertino headquarters. Applicants must have "real-world experience developing sophisticated user interfaces," and cooperate with the Apple human interface team to "add new and innovative features."
After missing its originally hinted ship date of March for the Samsung Galaxy S II, UK retailer Clove has now revised the listing for May. Exactly when the Android 2.3 smartphone will ship in May isn't being revealed, however. The 16GB model will cost he equivalent of $860 (£528), though, including all local taxes and without carrier contracts. The 32GB version will also be available, initially priced at the equivalent of $1,152 (£708) tax-inclusive, though when it arrives and final pricing is yet to be finalized.
Google late Monday posted an updated Google Maps app (Market) for Android devices. Most significantly, it brings with it the Google Location History dashboard, check in at home, and add new categories for rating places. The Location History shows users how far they've traveled and how much time they spent at home, work, and everywhere else.
Apple has opened a new job posting which suggests a major overhaul of the Maps app in iOS, as well as the platform's general location technology. The position is simply identified as iOS Maps Application Developer, but asks for someone to help "radically improve how people interact with maps and location-based services." Candidates must have a BS in Computer Science or an equivalent, and be familiar with object-oriented programming and design, particularly in terms of apps and user interfaces.
Google on Monday put out a beta version of Google Maps Navigation to add much requested support for traffic rerouting. Android phone owners can now be automatically guided through whichever route is the quickest with real-world traffic factored in. The approach uses historical data and gives a side-by-side view of different routes and their times taken to let drivers know how much time they will save on the fastest route.
Google showed the fruits of one of its 20 percent spare time projects today by starting up Google Art Project. The approach uses the indoor technology recently added to Street View to let users walk through certain wings of especially famous museums, such as MoMA New York or the Palace of Versailles. Viewers can zoom in on individual paintings and other art pieces at a seven-gigapixel resolution, in many cases getting as close as the individual brush strokes.
Google engineering VP Vic Gundotra and Apple marketing VP Phil Schiller came into intense conflict over Google Maps in 2008, according to sources cited by Bloomberg and 9to5Mac. A Bloomberg article remarks that as Android first became a threat to the iPhone, Apple began resisting Google claims to location data accumulated whenever an iPhone owner uses Google Maps. Negotiations became so hot, two sources say, that the CEOs of Apple and Google had to step in and resolve the situation.
Google has announced that it will begin several marketing initiatives for its Hotspot and Places location-based services. The pilot program, which focuses on Portland, Oregon, will bring Places kits to businesses. The kits include marketing materials to help businesses bolster their online presence, along with "Recommended on Google" decals to place in windows.
(Update: video, new photos, new details) Google VP Andy Rubin as part of his talk at D: Dive Into Mobile tonight showed off a prototype of Motorola's MotoPad. He used the likely seven-inch device to show off an upcoming version of Google Maps and confirmed some of the suspected details, including the use of a dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor and a front-facing camera for video chat. It would use Honeycomb (Android 3.0), which will have tablet optimizations such as splitting the display into multiple views.
Peek after a brief teaser today launched the Peek 9, the latest generation of its always-on e-mail reader. The new version earns its name by running about nine times faster than the Pronto as well as through better reception for its T-Mobile 2G connection. It also becomes a multi-app device for the first time as it can check Google Maps, Facebook and Twitter.
Google posted its second Android app update for today with word of updates to Google Maps. Walking Navigation has entered the app as a beta and, like the web version, will plot paths through parks and other areas unique to foot traffic. Adjustments have been made to reflect pedestrian travel: the phone vibrates for direction changes, voice guidance can be turned off and the bird's eye satellite view is turned on by default.
The UK's Information Commissioner Office on Friday found that Google's accidental Wi-Fi snooping didn't collect dangerous amounts of information. An investigation of some data saved by Google showed no "significant" levels of data that would compromise privacy or security. ICO still characterized the collection itself as "wrong" but said there was no immediate evidence of broken laws from the data itself.
Google has once again updated its Maps for Android software, now up to version 4.4. It now gets a dedicated Places icon that enables quickly finding a nearby point of interest. This includes restaurants, stores, movie theaters or other POIs divided into categories and searched for by typing or speaking a query.
Virgin America, which was the first to bring Wi-Fi to all of its planes, has now further upgraded its seat-back TV Internet experience. Fliers can now shop in SkyMall, view enhanced Google Maps and open a bar tab. This is in addition to services already available, including TV, music, games, passenger chat and food ordering.
T-Mobile has finally released Android 1.6 for Samsung Behold II handsets, with the software currently rolling out as an over-the-air update. Users will now be able to take advantage of Google Maps navigation, Voice Search, Swype keyboard, the quick search box, and several other improvements.
Samsung on Thursday added Facebook and Goolge Maps to its HDTV-based Samsung Apps library. All of its 2010 Blu-ray players, Blu-ray home theater systems, and most Samsung TVs sized at 40 inches and larger have the ability to download and use the apps.
Google has updated its Maps application for Android smartphones. Version 4.2 brings several enhancements, including a new bike layer that allows users to view optimal bicycling routes. Dedicated bike routes appear as solid green lines, while bike lanes are represented by light green. Routes that are "good for biking" but lack a dedicated lane are shown as a broken green line.
Google's Maps Navigation is still coming to the iPhone, the company has confirmed during a London press conference. The technology is an extension of the regular Maps app, adding free turn-by-turn directions for GPS-equipped phones. Navigation remains limited to Android phones at the moment, however, and Google says it still cannot say when the iPhone version will be ready, even months after the initial announcement.
Google's free Maps Navigation is now available for UK users. Like the US version, the software gives Android phones with a constant Internet turn-by-turn directions that allow searching for destinations or points of interest, either by voice or manual touchscreen input. The software also has a car dock mode that lets users hang their phone like a dedicated GPS on their windshield. Helping drivers are Street View and satellite photos that can be overlaid atop maps for help in identifying landmarks.
Apple has approved the universal version of Google's Mobile app for the iPhone. The latest version adds support for the iPad, while integrating a new My Location bar. Users can access a range of Google services such as Gmail, Calendar, Latitude and Docs. The interface also provides options to search through Google Maps, Images, News and Shopping.
Dell's upcoming Aero handset allegedly lacks Google Maps, Gmail, and other basic Android apps, according to an Engadget report. The omissions appear to be related to AT&T's customized UI, which integrates redesigned elements ranging from the home screen to keyboard.
Samsung and carrier Sprint on Tuesday announced that the Moment smartphone will be getting a software upgrade that will upgrade it to Android 2.1. The replacement for 1.5 is now expected to come sometime this spring. The update should bring Bluetooth 2.1 capability to the handset, a newer version of Google Maps, new browser and HTML5 support, among other benefits.
Garmin-ASUS today formally unveiled its two answers to the lackluster uptake of the original nuvifone. The nuvifone A50 is the partnership's first Android phone and combines both Garmin's nuvi-based GPS navigation with a more modern operating system than either the Linux-based G60 original or Windows Mobile devices. It supports newer Android features like multi-touch in the web browser and voice recognition for search.
