Welcome to The next generation of mobile maps
I’m excited to announce Google Maps 5.0 for Android, with two significant new features: 3D interaction and offline reliability.
We launched Google Maps for mobile a little more than five years ago. Since then, we’ve added dozens of features, and we’ve grown from a few thousand to more than 100 million users. Still, a couple of things have remained the same: a flat, north-up map and the need for a strong Internet connection. Today, we’re changing that for the first time.
Explore maps in 3D
Until now, Google Maps has always downloaded the map as a set of small, square images that we stitch together to form the map you see. (You’ve probably seen those gray squares getting filled in, block-by-block, as the images load over the network.) Starting today, we’ll use vector graphics to dynamically draw the map on your device as you use it, allowing you to interact with it in new ways:
- Tilting: Drag down with two fingers to tilt the map. Tilt while zoomed in on one of the 100+ cities around the world with 3D buildings to see a skyline spring to life.
- Rotating: Twist with two fingers to rotate the map. After tilting to see 3D buildings, rotate around them to gain a new perspective from any direction.
- Smooth zooming: Slide two fingers together or apart, and see the map and labels continuously scale to any zoom level, stopping when your fingers stop.
- Compass mode: Center the map on your location, and then tap the compass button in the top right corner. The map will flip into 3D mode and start rotating to match your perspective, while still keeping all the labels upright and readable.
I found 3D buildings especially useful on a recent trip to New York. From my hotel to the Google office in Chelsea and bars on the Lower East Side, this richer representation of the real world made the map much more helpful. And whenever I walked out of a building or subway station, I used compass mode to get myself quickly oriented and on my way. Check out the video below to see tilt, rotation, zoom and compass mode in action, or see more pictures.
Offline reliability
Google Maps has always been, and continues to be, a fundamentally Internet-connected experience, meaning you always get the freshest map and place data, search and voice search, live traffic conditions, satellite and Street View imagery, and much more. Still, we understand that mobile Internet connections aren’t 100% reliable. So today we’re happy to take the first steps toward greater offline reliability, so you can find your way even if you lose your connection.
In the past, you’ve probably had frustrating moments when you get stranded without a map, whether ducking into the subway, sitting at the back of a restaurant or traveling anywhere with a flaky Internet connection. But dynamically drawing maps requires 100 times less data to get maps across all zoom levels, so now we’re able to proactively cache (or store) large areas on your device based on where you use Maps the most. This way, you can rely on having fast, robust maps available to you where you’re most likely to need them.
For example, I live in San Francisco and work in Mountain View, so Maps makes sure I can always pull up detailed street maps of each city and area maps for the whole San Francisco Bay Area. When I do have an Internet connection, I still get live traffic, imagery, richer map details and all the other features I’m used to with Google Maps.
Rather than having a static set of maps when installed, Maps will automatically start caching the areas you visit the most when your device is plugged in and connected to WiFi (e.g., the nightly charge). We’re already hard at work improving the algorithms and technology behind these features, so over time you can expect to see maps work better in more offline situations.
Offline rerouting
If you’re one of the more than 10 million people relying on Google Maps Navigation (Beta), our free turn-by-turn GPS navigation feature, losing your Internet connection can be particularly painful. (This happened to me on a recent ski trip to Tahoe, and I was left trying to manually find my way back to my route.) So we’re also introducing offline rerouting. You’ll still need a connection to start a route, but if you miss a turn along the way, we’ll quickly get you back on track, even if you don’t have an Internet connection. We’ll be rolling this feature out gradually over the next few weeks.
These new features are just the first steps in maximizing dynamic map drawing technology to create a faster, more interactive experience where efficiency really matters: mobile devices. For example, we estimate that viewing maps now requires almost 70% less mobile network data overall than before. We can’t wait to take the next steps in making Google Maps faster, more reliable and even more useful no matter where you take it.
Get Google Maps for mobile 5.0 by searching for Google Maps in Android Market (or tap on this link if you’re on your phone). Android 1.6+ devices can get Maps 5.0, but 3D and offline features require Android 2.0+, and some features may not be supported for all devices or countries.
So try it out. Wander around in compass mode, explore 3D buildings—even dare to open Maps on the subway! I hope you enjoy all the new features as much as we do.
Posted by Michael Siliski, Product Manager
Google Latitude App for iPhone
Google has finally released a native iPhone app for Google Latitude. The web app is nice, but you can’t use it to update your location in the background. Google Latitude for iPhone uses one of the new features in iOS 4 that allows applications to track your location even if they aren’t in the foreground. That’s the main reason why it requires an iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 or iPad 3G running iOS 4. (Update: According to Google, “the Google Latitude app will run on the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad, and iPod touch (3rd/4th generation). However, background location updating is only supported on the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPad 3G.”)
The native app is better because it shows more information about the locations of your friends and it sends you to the map view when you click on a friend, but the web app is just a layer in Google Maps and this makes a lot of sense. Google Latitude should not be a standalone app, it should integrate with Google Maps and Google Contacts, so you can quickly find your friends.
Marissa Mayer, Google’s VP of geographic and local services, has recently said that Google Latitude will add explicit check-ins, inspired by Foursquare. “Latitude is useful for a smaller group of people. Only a handful of people you’ll want to know where you are at all times. There will be new layers coming on top of it. It’s more useful when more people are on it. And implicit and explicit — yes, the check-in. Maybe that’s in Latitude or maybe it’s in Maps.”
Priority Inbox for Gmail for Android and 44 more languages to the mobile webapp version of Gmail
The following new features are now available to all Google Apps domains:
Gmail for Android:
Priority Inbox – You can now see important messages in a new Priority Inbox view, see the importance markers and change the importance of conversations, just like in the desktop version. Additionally, you can now set up your phone to notify, vibrate, or ring on just your new important mail.
Improved Compose – You can now easily switch between reply, reply all and forward while composing your response. As well as that, if you’ve configured the ‘custom from’ feature in the desktop version of Gmail, you can now also send email from that address. Finally, you can also now respond to messages in-line.
Gmail webapp: Previously only available in U.S. English, the HTML5 webapp version of Gmail is now available to 44 languages.
The new languages are: Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English (UK and American), Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Norwegian (Bokmal), Polish, Portuguese (for both Portugal and Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukranian, Urdu and Vietnamese.
Editions included:
Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education
How to access what’s new:
Priority Inbox: In ‘Settings’, select Priority Inbox as the default inbox view and configure your notifications to be just for your important mail. This version of the Gmail app works for Android 2.2 (Froyo) and newer releases in most countries. (Not sure if your device is running the right version? Check here.)
Gmail mobile webapp: If your phone’s default language is one of those listed, go to gmail.com in your phone’s browser and the new interface will appear in your language automatically. This new version works for iPhones running iOS 2.2.1 and above, and all versions of Android.
For more information:
http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2010/12/gmail-for-android-better-priority-inbox.html
http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2010/12/and-bonjour-to-better-mobile-web-gmail.html
Vector-Based Google Maps for Android
Google’s Andy Rubin showed at the Dive Into Mobile conference an early prototype of a Motorola tablet running Android Honeycomb and demoed a new version of Google Maps for Android with vector-based maps and offline caching.
Engadget says that Google Maps 5.0 for Android will be available in the coming days, but not all Android devices will support the new features. “The biggest visual change is dynamic map drawing: vectors instead of flat images that scale without render hiccups and will show the buildings fleshed out for over 100 cities — we gotta say, it looks great. Even more fun is that you can now use two fingers to tilt and rotate around the map (in addition to moving and pinch-to-zoom, of course). We’ve been told it’s a much snappier experience, and the storage for these vectors is much smaller than the current images, which brings us to… offline caching. Maps will keep on file the locations that you go to (and search) most often, and it’ll be able to reroute while offline in Navigation.”
{ Thanks, Daniel and François. }
StatCounter: BlackBerry overtakes Apple in Mobile Wars
Boston, USA and Dublin, Ireland; Wednesday 1st December, 2010: BlackBerry OS overtook Apple’s iOS for the first time in the US in November in terms of mobile internet usage according to web analytics company, StatCounter. The company’s research arm, StatCounter Global Stats finds that for the first time in the US BlackBerry OS at 34.3% overtook Apple’s iOS which recorded 33% in November.
Google’s Android is rapidly gaining and has almost tripled internet market share from 8.2% last November to 23.8% this year. Apple’s iOS has fallen from 51.9% to 33% over the same period.
“These figures suggest that developers should not be developing solely for the iPhone to the exclusion of BlackBerry and Android,” commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. He added that, if current trends continue, BlackBerry and Android combined are on course to become twice the size of iOS as regards mobile internet usage in the next year.
Commenting on Microsoft’s new Windows Phone 7 he said that it was not yet registering significantly in terms of internet usage but would be interesting to observe over the next year. “This data demonstrates that there is a battle royal already going on in the smartphone market for the consumer and business internet user. You can never underestimate Microsoft but it looks to have its work cut out.”
BlackBerry’s US lead is not replicated in terms of worldwide share according to the StatCounter data. Globally Symbian OS leads with 31.9% followed by iOS (21.9%), BlackBerry OS (19.3%) and Android (11.6%).
StatCounter Global Stats are based on aggregate data collected by StatCounter on a sample exceeding 15 billion page views per month collected from across the StatCounter network of more than three million websites. StatCounter, which provides free website traffic information, publishes worldwide internet usage trends via StatCounter Global Stats, a free online research tool.
Ends
Press queries to: Kerri Crowley, Simpson Financial & Technology PR
T: +353 1 260 5300 or E: kerri@simpsonftpr.ie
For individual country analysis go to:
http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os-ww-monthly-200911-201011
You Can’t Google Search for Android from an Android Phone
This is a really strange bug. If you use Google to search for [android], [android market] or [android phone] from an Android phone, you won’t get any result. Google only shows ads related to your query and a standard message: “Your search did not match any documents”.
It’s not clear if this is an Android bug or a Google search bug, but it’s certainly not an Easter egg. If you don’t have an Android phone, try this page to use the Android-optimized interface.
Update: it seems that the same bug affects Google’s iPhone interface and there are many other queries that don’t return any result. “When signed into the mobile site, I see some search results, but not for all queries. I’m on a Nexus One. In the classic interface, everything works fine,” says a Google user. “I’m having the same issue on an iPhone 4. No results for super common terms, but images and location searches are unaffected,” confirms another user.
{ Thanks, Andrew. }
Google Voice iPhone App
Filed under: Featured, Google, IPhone Apps, Mobile App, iPod Touch
After almost two years of waiting, Google Voice’s iPhone app has been finally approved in the App Store. It looks much better than the HTML5 web app and you can enable push notifications for voicemail and text messages.
Google Voice for iPhone doesn’t beat the Android app because it doesn’t integrate with the standard phone app, doesn’t synchronize the inbox and doesn’t offer advanced options for notifications, but that’s because iOS has many limitations.
Google says that the application requires iOS 3.1 or a more recent version of Apple’s mobile operating system. Google Voice is still limited to the US, but you no longer need an invitation to use it. Hopefully, Google will add support for the VoIP service from Gmail in a future update.
Google Voice for iPhone
With this native app, you’ll continue to have access to all the major Google Voice features on your iPhone, like:
- Cheap rates for international calls
- Free text messaging to U.S. numbers
- Voicemail transcription
- Display your Google Voice number as caller ID when making calls
In addition to these benefits, the app provides some features that make using Google Voice on your iPhone a much better experience:
- With push notifications, the app will alert you instantly when you receive a new voicemail or text message
- Most of your calls will be placed via Direct Access Numbers, making them connect just as quickly as regular phone calls
Google Voice for iPhone is available to download from the Apple App Store today. You’ll need an iPhone with iOS 3.1 or later and a valid Google Voice account to use the app. At this time, Google Voice is available in the U.S. only.
Posted by Christian Brunschen
An Android Keyboard that Uses Google Scribe
Google Scribe may not seem very useful, but it’s one of the features that could significantly improve virtual keyboards from mobile phones. Instead of showing suggestions from a dictionary, Google Scribe can provide contextually-relevant suggestions.
Scrybe is a free Android keyboard that uses Google Scribe to generate suggestions. It’s not developed by Google and it uses an unofficial Google Scribe API, but it’s an interesting application.
Scrybe needs to fix many issues to become really useful. If you delete some letters from word, Scrybe is not able to detect that you’re not writing a new word. Another problem is that you can’t type very fast because Scrybe tries to fetch the suggestions.
Reddit users think that SwiftKey has a better approach: it preloads the data, so there’s no lag. “So this is basically the same thing as SwiftKey, but offloaded to Google’s servers? Seems to work well, but no better (and slower) than SwiftKey,” says Podspi. SwiftKey is $3.99 and there’s a two-week trial.
{ Thanks, David M. }
Google Apps highlights – This week
Improvements to Gmail in mobile Safari
If you’re reading this post on an iPhone or an iPad, head over to gmail.com to see how we made the Gmail experience in mobile Safari work more like a native application. First, scrolling is a whole lot more responsive to your touch gestures. A quick flick will scroll the page much faster than before. We’ve also improved the toolbar so it stays put at the top of the screen, even when you scroll down a long page. This keeps the most common actions in Gmail right at your fingertips—literally.
Chart improvements and drag-and-drop images in Google Docs
Last Tuesday we added the ability to drag and drop images to Google documents from your desktop or from folders on your computer. You can still add images through the image upload wizard, but this new method can save time, especially when you have several images to add. This week we also rolled out improvements to charts and visualizations in Google spreadsheets. You can now add annotated timelines, organizational charts, gauges, motion charts that visualize data changing over time, and other chart types more easily. The new chart editor helps you customize the design of your charts, and now you can publish dynamic charts on other web pages that automatically update when data in the source spreadsheet changes.
Automated workflow in Google Sites with Google Apps Script
Last week we introduced the ability for you to add automated workflow to Google Sites, powered by Google Apps Script. Scripts automate tasks such as sending emails, scheduling calendar events, creating and updating site pages using data from other systems, and more. For example, you can put a button on a course registration page that adds the course to the user’s calendar, sends them a confirmation email and includes their name in the course roster within the site.
Android device management
Just yesterday, we added the ability for businesses and schools using Google Apps to remotely manage security on users’ Android devices (Android 2.2 and beyond), whether those devices are user-owned or provided by the organization. This update rounds out our device management capabilities; now administrators can perform functions like remotely wiping Android, iPhone, Windows Mobile and many Nokia phones from the Google Apps control panel without needing any special hardware or software. Administrators running BlackBerry® Enterprise Server can manage their users’ BlackBerry® devices from the control panel as well.
App Tuesday: seven new additions to the Apps Marketplace
The number of third-party software applications available in the Google Apps Marketplace that seamlessly integrate with Google Apps continues on its rapid growth trajectory. This month, we added seven new applications that complement the growing set of applications offered directly by Google. We were especially pleased to see strong international representation among this new crop.
Who’s gone Google?
Google Apps is really taking off, and we’re excited to team up in the cloud with Virgin America. But they’re not the only large organization to “go Google” recently. Multnomah County in Oregon is moving 4,500 county employees to Google Apps, and the state of Wyoming is doing an even larger deployment with 10,000 state employees. Across the board, these organizations chose to switch because of substantial cost savings and tremendous productivity improvements made possible with Google Apps.
In the last few weeks alone, tens of thousands of small and mid-size businesses have switched to Google Apps, too. Several of these new customers have shared their stories with us, and we invite you to read more here: Jason’s Deli, MainStreet Advisors, Melrose Resources, American Support and Premier Guitar.
We also reached a big milestone in the education world recently: more than 10 million students, faculty and staff are actively using Google Apps at schools and universities worldwide. While we’re focused on bringing the next 10 million education users onto Google Apps, we still took some time to celebrate how far we’ve already come—with the help of the USC marching band!
I hope these updates help you and your organization get even more from Google Apps. For details and the latest news in this area, check out the Google Apps Blog.
Posted by Jeremy Milo,
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