The Download Blog

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One of the highlights of Android 2.0 has been the Google Maps Navigation app that delivers voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation on your phone for free. Until now, only Motorola Droid owners could take advantage of this sweet perk, but times they are a-changing.

On Monday, Google announced that its navigation app is now available for devices running Android 1.6 and higher, including the T-Mobile G1 and T-Mobile MyTouch 3G. While still in beta, the app provides voice-guided directions between two points, traffic information, and business searches.

This release also includes a new Layers feature that lets you overlay more information on the map, such as transit lines and Wikipedia articles about places, but it does not support the "Navigate to" voice command feature found on Android 2.0, so you'll have to input all your destinations using your phone's keyboard.

Google Maps Navigation for Android 1.6 is now available for download from the Android Market. Unlike other navigation apps or location-based services from the likes of TomTom, Garmin, and TeleNav, you don't have to pay a one-time fee or monthly subscription to use Google Maps Navigation. All you need is a data connection and you're good to go.

Don't try this on game day, but the new Google Maps Navigation application will show you how to take a spin past Boston's Fenway Park.

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You can almost hear the portable navigation industry swearing already.

Google is announcing plans Wednesday to release a new Android application called Google Maps Navigation. When combined with a GPS-equipped mobile phone running Android 2.0, it provides turn-by-turn directions powered by Google Maps and a slick user interface that combines features such as voice recognition and Google Street View. Google Maps Navigation, like seemingly everything that emerges from Google, will be free.

"Mobile platforms--Android and others--are so powerful now that you can build client apps that can do magical things connected to the cloud," said Google CEO Eric Schmidt in a briefing for reporters at Google's headquarters on Tuesday.

The standard Google Maps Navigation view.

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Companies in the cell phone navigation industry have seen this day coming for quite some time. Right now, the beta application only works on phones that will use the Android 2.0 software, which is scheduled to be available very soon with the expected arrival of Motorola's Droid phone on Verizon's network.

Google's Vic Gundotra appeared to demonstrate the application on the Droid: he wouldn't confirm it, but it was a shiny black Android 2.0 phone running on Verizon's network and bearing Motorola's stamp, so we're probably not going too far out on a limb here. (Update, 7:24 a.m. PDT: Says Google's Wednesday morning press release: "The first phone to have Google Maps Navigation and Android 2.0 is the Droid from Verizon.")

However, Google is working with Apple on bringing it to the iPhone, and it's not ruling out licensing the software to makers of portable navigation devices used in cars throughout the world, said Gundotra, vice president of engineering at Google for mobile and developers. The process involving Apple is slightly different from the usual App Store submission process, because Maps is a built-in iPhone application, he said.

The application works like any navigation system that you may have used, but it combines Google Search and Google Maps functions that are normally only available on the desktop and brings them to the smartphone. Perhaps the most interesting and useful feature comes from Google Street View, allowing Google to provide a Street View image at every turn that the application suggests during your journey.

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If you haven't recently updated Google Maps for your BlackBerry, do. Earlier this week, Google bumped up its BlackBerry map app to version 3.2. As with Google Maps on Symbian Series 60 and Windows phones, Google's BlackBerry map app now supports layers.

In the layers submenu on the maps app, you'll find a list of layers you can turn on while mapping. These include Wikipedia entries, local transit lines, traffic, your personalized My Maps, and Google Latitude.

When accessing your My Maps listings, Google Maps for BlackBerry 3.2 prompts you to log in to your Google account before letting you load onto the mobile screen the saved routes you previously mapped on a desktop.

You can download Google Maps for BlackBerry 3.2 for free from m.google.com/maps.

(Credit: CNET/Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt)

Google Maps for Windows Mobile and Symbian Series 60 phones can plot you, your friends, and businesses on a map. Now it can also layer on transit lines, traffic, and points of interest that correspond to Wikipedia articles.

Google Maps for Mobile 3.2's new layers option for its mobile Maps is accessible by pressing the "2" key or by selecting "Menu" and "Layers." In addition to traffic and transit, Google opens the door to personal maps you've saved using the My Maps feature on Google Maps for the desktop. The latest version of the map app also adds to its approach to search results. In addition to a handful of points marked as red waypoints, you'll see many more small red dots that represent other applicable locations. These won't show up on the text list, but you will be able to tap them to access their Web site, reviews, and other practical details.

Users in the U.S. and China can furthermore browse popular search categories (like Restaurants) to cut down on typing time.

As good as Google Maps is, there are still areas open for improvement. We weren't able to input text into Google Maps for Mobile from our preferred keyboard on the Samsung Omnia. Reverting to the cramped default one diminished the experience and made typing a challenge. We'd also like to save new maps and direction routes to My Maps, and would like to interact with transit lines directly from the map, not only through the Directions menu.

Google Maps for Mobile 3.2 is available now for Windows Mobile and Symbian Series 60 phones. You can download it by pointing the mobile browser to m.google.com/maps. Release notes can be found here.

(Credit: Google)

This past weekend, Google introduced a new version of its glossy Maps application for Android phones. Version 3.1.0 brings with it several new features, including voice search to go with its text search field and transit and walking directions to go with step-by-step driving directions.

In tests, Google's voice search on Android was fairly consistent with other voice search apps we've tested. That is to say, a skosh inconsistent. Most searches for banal items of daily life like "shoe repair shop" and "coffee" plotted the sought-for neighborhood responses on the map. Once or twice, even in a quiet house at a quiet hour, did a phrase like "sushi" yield "nc," with the map racing off to North Carolina.

The trip planner in particular worked extremely well for San Francisco. As with the online version, Google's Transit works in 250 cities. Indeed, Google Maps quickly and accurately planned and timed my commute, providing options for other routes in the near past and future. To get directions with public transit, tap "Directions'" from the menu, select the middle icon, of a bus, and enter the end point, which can be an address or a business name. You're also able to set a specific departure time or arrival time and day. For city-dwellers, accurate walking and transportation directions are a necessity.

Rolled into the release is an experimental feature. Updates, which is connected to Google Latitude, lets you actively change your Latitude status for friends to see--so long as they're also using the latest version of Maps.

The erasure of Street View as its own map mode is another change you'll see. Instead, it has been integrated into any search result where the view is applicable. Pressing a point on the map will also bring up a Street View thumbnail if there's an available image.

For a change, Google Maps 3.1.0 isn't being automatically pushed to new users. To get it, download it fresh through the Android Market on your phone. The application is compatible with Android platform 1.0 and 1.5, so G1 and HTC Magic users can fire it up alike.

The tip of Mt. Fuji, now in higher resolution from GeoEye-1 satellite imagery in Google Earth.

(Credit: screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Google has begun offering the first high-resolution imagery from the GeoEye-1 satellite it helped sponsor--but only as an optional layer in Google Earth for now.

"In the coming months you will start seeing stunning GeoEye-1 imagery blended into our database and viewable through Google Earth, Maps, and Google Maps for Mobile," said Dylan Lorimer, strategic partner manager; and Jacob Schonberg, associate product manager, in a Google Lat Long blog post Wednesday.

Until then, some shots can be viewed by downloading add-on imagery for Google Earth from Google's GeoEye-1 preview site, they said. Because Google Earth now works as a plug-in to some browsers, the full Google Earth application doesn't need to be installed to get a taste. Clicking the thumbnail images in the film strip on the page will launch the in-browser version.

GeoEye launched the satellite in September and plans to launch another with a higher-resolution camera in 2011. However, U.S. government limits the resolution of the images Google shows to details measuring half a meter. GeoEye shared a view of President Barack Obama's inauguration and other teaser images.

GeoEye-1 imagery, such as this shot of Nukuoro in Micronesia, is available in Google Earth as an extra download.

(Credit: screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Thankfully, recent developments in mobile search applications have given us a handful of sturdy options when it comes to launching search from a Windows Mobile phone. Last month, Microsoft released a credible update to Live Search for Windows Mobile. This month it's Google's turn with Google Mobile App for Window Mobile smartphones and Pocket PCs.

Although Google has a precedent of mobile search applications established for BlackBerry and iPhone, Google's mobile division has tailored this iteration of its Mobile App to the logic of Windows Mobile's Home Screen, to good benefit. See for yourself in this First Look video.

(Credit: Google)

Windows Mobile owners tired of opening their browsers every time they want to start a Google search can now put that habit to rest. On Wednesday, Google released a version of Google Mobile App for Windows Mobile phones (rate it here).

On Microsoft's mobile platform, the free, native application installs a home screen plug-in from which you can launch a handful of Google's mobile services. About two thirds of Google Mobile App is dedicated to its search field. The other portion is populated with thumbnail icons that open your Gmail, Picasa Web albums, Google Docs, and so on, in your default browser, except the Google Maps icon, which will open or install Google's downloadable map and directions application on your phone.

While Google Mobile App for Windows Mobile surfaces your history and search suggestions just like the BlackBerry and iPhone versions, the Windows Mobile version is the first not be a full-screen application. Even when you open Google Mobile App for Windows Mobile from the program menu, you'll see it as a strip floating at the top of the screen.

Treating the mobile app as a horizontal swatch is actually an asset, thanks to some time-saving tweaks Google added to this version--like mapping the app to a hot key so you can start a search without having to first open an app from the program list, and searching within a specific domain. These make Google's mobile application a quick-acting reference resource for anyone with a Windows Mobile phone.

Google Mobile App will work on Windows Mobile smartphones and Pocket PCs in the US, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, and Spain.

Google Latitude shows your friends on a map--as long as they've agreed to share their location.

(Credit: Google)

Just because the Internet has broken down geographic barriers, don't assume that Google doesn't care about geography.

The company plans to launch software called Latitude on Wednesday that lets mobile phone users share their location with close contacts. Google hopes it will help people find each other while out and about and to keep track of loved ones.

"What Google Latitude does is allow you to share that location with friends and family members, and likewise be able to see friends and family members' locations," said Steve Lee, product manager for Google Latitude. For example, a girlfriend could use it to see if her boyfriend has arrived at a restaurant and, if not, how far away he is.

To protect privacy, Google specifically requires people to sign up for the service. People can share their precise location, the city they're in, or nothing at all.

"What we found in testing is that the most common scenario is a symmetrical arrangement, where both people are sharing with each other," Lee said.

The software spotlights Google's fixation with mapping and location technology. Location is an important part of navigating the real world, and Google clearly sees its geographic services as a way to establish a more personal connection with customers who today use Google chiefly for the virtual realm of the Internet. And of course money is involved, too: Google hopes its mapping technology will lead to location-based advertising revenue.

Google's power is firmly lodged in search and search advertising, but the company is trying to expand to broader online services, too. That includes online documents and various aspects of social networking, which are much more personal services and ones that put Google into more direct competition with rivals such as Microsoft, Facebook, and Yahoo. Like using Google profiles to contact information with select contacts, using Google Latitude tells Google who's who in your social graph.

Latitude lets you contact somebody who's close by.

(Credit: Google)

How it works
Latitude is part of Google Maps for Mobile, the company's mapping software for mobile phones, but also can be used through a gadget loaded onto its iGoogle customized home page. It'll work in 27 countries at launch, Google said.

Initially, it will work on most color-screen BlackBerry phones, most phones with Windows Mobile 5.0 or later, and most Symbian-based devices such as Nokia smartphones. An update to the Google Android operating system now being distributed to the T-Mobile G1 phone also enables it, and iPhone and iPod Touch users will get the option "very soon," Lee said.

Latitude uses Google's technology to judge a user's location not just by GPS satellite, but also by proximity to mobile phone towers and wireless networks.

That's a much more automated approach than the manual "check-in" process used by Dodgeball, a service that Google decided in January to shut down.

Other competitors exist, though. BrightKite and Loopt offer mechanisms for people to find each other by mobile phone, for example. Then there's MobiFriends, Tripit, and Dopplr.

And Google's clearest competitor, Yahoo, offers some competition with Fire Eagle. That service doesn't provide location information, but it does provide a mechanism to centralize people's geographic privacy choices, in effect taking care of some of the social graph management when it comes to location information.

To use the service, you need a Google account to record who has permission to see your location. For choosing who gets to see your location, you can use contacts stored with Gmail or Picasa, Google said.

The white lie
With the service, you can hide from specific people or disappear altogether. And you can manually set a specific location if, for example, your phone can't show it with sufficient precision or if you wish to tell someone a white lie about whether you really aren't going to go to the candy store.

People must agree to share their location before Latitude will work.

(Credit: Google)

Google envisions two broad classes of people with whom you might want to share location information. First is a small, close-knit circle of friends and family with whom you're willing to share your exact spot. Second is a larger group with whom you're happy to share city-level detail, convenient for finding out when somebody's in town but not much more.

When somebody is close, the software lets you contact the person various ways--by calling or sending an e-mail or text message, for example. It also lets you hide from that specific person.

Privacy is of course a significant concern when it comes to sharing this sort of information. If you want to use Latitude, you must specifically enable the service.

Meeting your pals at a bar is an obvious example of the software's possibilities, but there are softer cases I see as useful, too.

Lee pointed to a case where a friend's girlfriend, though far away in Seattle, will "virtually place herself next to him." That sounds a little sappy for my tastes, but I can still relate. My wife is on the other side of the country right now, and it would be heart-warming to see just where. There are a lot of occasions where technology is better for maintaining relationships than it is for establishing them, and this looks like one to me.