Yesterday’s fantastic interview with Andy Rubin also saw the Google man demonstrate the next version of Google Maps for Android in a lot of detail, with the BIG CHANGE being a complete switch to a brand new vector-based map display model.
This is huge news for mobile users, with the end of reliance on image based “tiles” letting phones download their entire routes in advance, much quicker, and should also allow Google to let users download maps for offline use.
Plus the new 3D interface lets users swoop down into streets and take a look at the size and scale of buildings. Rubin says new Google Maps will launch on Android in “a matter of days” – and it’s being coded specifically for Android, so ought to be a Google exclusive app for quite some time.
Watch Andy Rubin’s demo of the new Android Google Maps here. It’s actually very exciting. Looks like you might need a modern power-phone to make all the 3D business work properly, though.
Source: Droid NinJA
This was tweeted by google maps on there twitter digging around a lil bit found this posted :
The Google Map App on Android phones will soon get a major upgrade which will allow it to render map images a lot faster, incorporate 3D buildings, offer offline caching, and use the compass to orient the map. In a talk this evening at the D Mobile conference, Android chief Andy Rubin gave a sneak peak of the new app.
At the heart of the new app is a dynamic map rendering engine which draws maps as you use them, and offers smoother transitions when zooming in and out of different levels. The dynamic rendering will also make it possible to start to show 3D buildings as you zoom into the street-level view. The touch screen will allow you to tilt and rotate the map and buildings.
The new maps load faster because they require 100 times less data each. Instead of downloading the entire map image for each level, the app downloads meta data which describes the entire map at all different levels and then renders the appropriate sector on the fly. This will start to give Google Maps offline capabilities on mobile phones. It may be possible to cache a map of an entire city on the phone. And for people who use the turn-by-turn navigation in Google Maps, when the new app comes out it will be able to recalculate the route even without a data connection.
The Google Maps app will also use the built-in compass on Android phones to automatically flip the orientation of the map to the person holding the phone. That orientation feature will come in handy when you are coming out of a subway station in an unfamiliar stop, or exiting a building.
Google Maps
Company: Google Website: maps.google.com Google Maps is Google’s free web-based mapping application.
As of May 2008, Google Maps includes photos, videos, and user-created maps along with location searches. It uses Panoramio and… Learn More
Android
Company: Google Website: code.google.com/android Android is a software platform for mobile devices based on the Linux operating system and developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance. It allows developers to write managed code in Java that utilizes… Learn More
This is huge news for mobile users, with the end of reliance on image based “tiles” letting phones download their entire routes in advance, much quicker, and should also allow Google to let users download maps for offline use.
Source: Droid NinJA
This was tweeted by google maps on there twitter digging around a lil bit found this posted :
The Google Map App on Android phones will soon get a major upgrade which will allow it to render map images a lot faster, incorporate 3D buildings, offer offline caching, and use the compass to orient the map. In a talk this evening at the D Mobile conference, Android chief Andy Rubin gave a sneak peak of the new app.
At the heart of the new app is a dynamic map rendering engine which draws maps as you use them, and offers smoother transitions when zooming in and out of different levels. The dynamic rendering will also make it possible to start to show 3D buildings as you zoom into the street-level view. The touch screen will allow you to tilt and rotate the map and buildings.
The new maps load faster because they require 100 times less data each. Instead of downloading the entire map image for each level, the app downloads meta data which describes the entire map at all different levels and then renders the appropriate sector on the fly. This will start to give Google Maps offline capabilities on mobile phones. It may be possible to cache a map of an entire city on the phone. And for people who use the turn-by-turn navigation in Google Maps, when the new app comes out it will be able to recalculate the route even without a data connection.
The Google Maps app will also use the built-in compass on Android phones to automatically flip the orientation of the map to the person holding the phone. That orientation feature will come in handy when you are coming out of a subway station in an unfamiliar stop, or exiting a building.
Google Maps
Company: Google Website: maps.google.com Google Maps is Google’s free web-based mapping application.
As of May 2008, Google Maps includes photos, videos, and user-created maps along with location searches. It uses Panoramio and… Learn More
Android
Company: Google Website: code.google.com/android Android is a software platform for mobile devices based on the Linux operating system and developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance. It allows developers to write managed code in Java that utilizes… Learn More
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