Hasta La Gadget!

Last week, Google released a new version of Google Maps that brought indoor maps to folks living in the UK. Well, this week Google has decided to increase its usefulness to Android users in the US with a new version of the app that brings indoor maps for museums in the country. According to an official announcement on the Google blog, Google Maps now gives you floor plans to twenty popular museums in the country: the de Young Museum in San Francisco, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Cincinnati Museum Center, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, 17 Smithsonian Museums and a zoo.

To access a map for a museum, just run Google Maps on your Android device and zoom in on the museum of your choice. You can even enable the “My location” feature if you need directions on how to get where you want to go. More museums will be added in the future, but for now you can download the latest version of Google Maps from the Google Play Store.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Google Maps for Android updated, Google Maps 6.5 for Android released,

If you’re forever getting lost looking for Barratts, or feeling faint hunting down a Greggs to fill your mall-explorer’s belly, then Google Maps to the rescue. Mountain View’s already made it clear it doesn’t want walls to get between you and its mapping of the world, and now those hungry Android-using indoor Britons can get in on the action. There’s only a hair over 40 venues covered right now — a mix of museums, stations, malls and airports in the main — and most of them in London. With building owners being able to upload their own maps, however, this should / could expand quickly. Good news either way, though if you can get lost at London Bridge Station, then no amount of maps will likely help.

Google indoor maps comes to the UK, helps commuter meet pasty in record time originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Jul 2012 13:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TomTom has seen the inexorable rise of smartphone navigation and decided that it needs a cheaper way of updating its head units. Its cunning solution has been to open its MapShare community to all 60 million TomToms in the wild — which was previously limited just to smartphone apps and select devices. MapShare works by allowing users to update their, erm, maps, when they spot a change has been made, which is then uploaded when they get home. It’ll now be aggregated and pushed out as a free daily download. Users can filter updates, deciding if they want ones submitted by “some,” “many” or those officially verified by the company itself — so don’t bother trying to game the system to make your morning commute easier.

Continue reading TomTom opens up MapShare to all 60 million of its GPS units (video)

TomTom opens up MapShare to all 60 million of its GPS units (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 09:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Too lazy to download and install the brand new Android SDK yourself and don’t feel like tweaking an AVD for optimal operation? Don’t know what an AVD is? We don’t blame you, and that’s why we’re here. We fired up Jelly Bean in the Android emulator and started poking around a bit. Sadly, most of the most exciting new features — offline speech recognition, Google Now — don’t work. And we couldn’t really delve deep into the new notifications system thanks to some limitations on the SDK. We could, however, play with the new version of Maps and demo the new widget placement tweaks. Most of the UI should look familiar. In fact, the only obvious changes we noticed were the new search widget and a few tweaked buttons, like notification clearing option. You’ll also notice a new layout for the clock and date in the notification pull down. Mostly, from a aesthetic point of view, the refinements are minor, but welcome. Everything feels a little more spacious, less cramped, without becoming overly simple. Want to see it for yourself? Check out the gallery below and the video after the break.

Continue reading Android 4.1 SDK hands-on

Android 4.1 SDK hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jun 2012 19:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve seen Google take Maps indoors, with interior schematics and even photos, but the Nexus 7 tablet brings a new twist to that familiar nav experience with 360-degree venue photos. Engineering Director Chris Yerga demonstrated the new feature within a local San Francisco bar called District, moving the device to show us how the compass and gyroscope work to provide 360-degree views based on your current direction and angle — it’s a pretty slick effect. There’s also offline map viewing that expands the Google Labs map caching to include entire cities, which should definitely come in handy for navigating beyond your comfort zone (and mobile coverage area). Naturally, there’s also an updated YouTube app, letting you take full advantage of that 7-inch display with video preview grids and HD playback, with a familiar Play store-like interface. Stay tuned for a closer look at these apps and more in our Nexus 7 hands-on.

Check out our full coverage of Google I/O 2012’s opening keynote at our event hub!

Continue reading Google modifies Maps, YouTube for Nexus 7 tablet (video)

Google modifies Maps, YouTube for Nexus 7 tablet (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jun 2012 13:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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