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Google Maps for Android recently hit version 4.4, and the update brought a lot of great new features with it. Google Maps now makes it easier than ever to find new places around you with a new, dedicated Places application. If you already got the update to 4.4, you should now have a new Places icon in your application menu. Places is a powerful new tool that will let you find whatever sort of establishment you are looking for quickly and easily.

When you open up Places, you will be able to choose a type of place from a preset list that includes things like restaurants, coffee shops, and petrol stations. You can also look for any other type of place you might be interested in by doing a custom search. These are not ‘brand new’ features. Applications like Yelp, and Where have been providing similar functionality for a while now. Places really stands out because of the additional information it can give you.  If you are walking into a restaurant for the first time, just open Places, and you will find photos, reviews, parking information, prices, and a link to the restaurant’s menu when available. Places will also show you business hours right in the search results so you won’t ruin a first date by going to a closed restaurant ever again!

All of these great new features join the existing top notch navigation features you know and love from previous versions of Google Maps. Now you can pick a restaurant, get directions, and find out where to park all from your Android phone. Also, there won’t be any surprises when you see the prices on the menu.

Google Maps 4.4 is available now on the Android Application Market, and it will be available soon for Blackberry users. If you are running Android 1.6 or later, you could not ask for a better application to help you find new places near you. Not only will it tell you what’s nearby, it’ll also tell you how to get there, and what to expect once you are there. What more could you ask for? With all of these great features, Places and Google Maps 4.4 are both welcome additions to the Google application suite. Check it out the next time you are looking for a new place nearby.

]]> http://www.droid.net.au/2010/08/google-places-for-android/feed/ 0 http://www.droid.net.au/2010/07/google-app-inventor/ http://www.droid.net.au/2010/07/google-app-inventor/#comments Mon, 19 Jul 2010 23:15:31 +0000 Droid http://www.droid.net.au/?p=893

Google seems to be very keen to make Android the most popular mobile operating system. Few days ago the company announced new revolutionary service, which allows all users to easily create applications for their phones. Basically users will not require any programming skills or knowledge to create an application, and anybody will be able to do it.  This service is called Google App Inventor and is available for users to register their interest. The official website says that users will be given access to the service in the coming weeks. Users will be able to create and download applications to their phones, but not to other Android users at this stage.

In the application’s main window you see building blocks, which are used to create applications. You will get access to various settings, access to all phone functions, such as SMS messaging, Twitter, motion sensor, etc. Basically we are getting a powerful tool to freely express our individuality. After playing with the App Inventor for a whole evening, I can say that this application can and will change our perception about writing applications as a whole. Google is giving  a very powerful tool to non-programmers, and I am sure that many of them will use it to show off their creative potential.

No other company on the market offers such a tool to its users and they are not even close to be able to offer such functionality. I strongly recommend you to try this application – it is a revolution, which should not be underestimated. Latest figures show that Android Market has around 70 000 applications, and that the next milestone barrier of 100 000 applications will be reached in the near future. I will not even try  to guess the number of applications that will flood the market, when the App Inventor goes out of the beta stage. It will be stunning. For the first time the company turned not to the developers, but to all users, and provided a tool for creating programs for their phones. This is a truly amasing offering. Below is a video, which explains the process of creating a simple ‘meow-meow’ application. Personally, I am delighted of the number of opportunities that App Inventor opens for Android.

There is nothing more frustrating than being lost and not knowing how you got there. What if you are not looking for a specific building or house, not searching for the shortest route, you just want to return to the starting point in an unfamiliar area. There is an excellent program that will help you do just that – My Tracks.

There are plenty of situations where this program can be useful – bush walks, to be able to walk around the city and return to the hotel, to track the distance you’ve covered on foot, etc. For these purposes you don’t usually need maps of countries and cities.

The program is very simple and easy to use. All you need to do is click “Record track” button and go for a walk. That’s it. Just don’t forget to enable GPS.

To make the program experience better, you should download Google Maps, so your track will be displayed on the map of the area. You don’t have to do it, so if you are in the area with no mobile coverage, or you do not have any data included in your plan, the program will still record your track, but it will be on a white background. In addition you can add notes to the track you are recording.

Thanks to multitasking and unlike the iPhone, My Tracks works at the background and records your movements throughout the trip. I was surprised to find that I walked 22 kilometers in 3 days. Tracks and statistics can be viewed on a computer at home, because My Tracks is perfectly integrated with Google Maps. In addition, the data can be also upload to Google Docs, as well as saved on the memory card of your smartphone, so you can show it to friends and family at a later stage.

You can easy save the route in your maps and make it available to everyone right from your phone. For example, my trip can be viewed here.

Integration with other applications and systems is one of the most important features of mobile applications. It is unfortunate that only a few developers understand this. My Tracks is one of the applications that demonstrate how it should be done

I haven’t really touched on the settings and options available, but you should be able to check it all yourself.

I highly recommend this application to everyone, especially if you are traveling or walking a lot.

Everyone knows about Google’s navigation software for mobile operating systems (OS) – Google Maps. The application is used to find landmarks, addresses, navigation, and just to view a city plan and determine the best route. Recently Google released their new offspring for the Android OS, namely the application called Google Sky Map. “What is it?” – You would ask, “and what does it do?” It is used to find objects … objects on the star map.

The application may be considered useful for amateur astronomers as well as for people who consider themselves to be romantics… And who want to surprise (or impress:)) their friends, fellow travelers, or a loved one, showing him/her constellations in the sky or just individual stars.

Let’s talk about the program itself – it is simple and ingenious. When launched, Google Sky Map uses the built-in GPS-receiver of your smartphone to determine your current location. Next? You can simply point to the stars or constellations of interest to you and find their names, locations and/or coordinates. All the parameters are calculated using the G-sensor based on your location. If you just want to find a star, constellation, or a planet, simply use the search function.

Menu is very simple and easy to use. When you tap the Menu button, you get an option to use the search, enable/disable the night mode (changesthe color scheme), change settings, and learn more about the application.

In the settings menu you can choose what objects will be displayed on the screen, namely, stars, constellations or planets. There is an alternative and easier way to enable or disable the displayed objects -while browsing the star sky simply double-tap on the screen to open the side menu. You can then choosewhat objects should be displayed.

In conclusion I want to say that this application is a new, creative idea, and a breakthrough in mobile maps. I recommend everyone to at least give it a try. Google Sky Map is available on the Android Market.