Google tipped us off early this morning, aside from the leaks we saw previously, that Google Maps might be getting some love at this year’s I/O.  A preview build of the new Maps was shown on iOS and Android. It featured a new slimmed down look with a search bar that took you into a revamped reviews section that has a 5 star scale instead of the previous 4. Google Offers was also worked into this same space to make finding food and deals easy. 

A whole new tablet-based Maps application was shown off as well with the emphasis on “exploring” the world around you. Ratings of restaurants, places of interest and other things are tightly integrated into this new Maps for mobile. We didn’t get a specific release date, but it was said to be coming to Android and iOS “this summer.”

Google Maps for Mobile Gets Reworked, Coming to Android and iOS “This Summer” is a post from: Droid Life

A new version of Google Maps for the desktop was leaked last week showing a new look that provided a more full-screen experience while matching up to the Google Now-esque card style of other Google services. A release of this version seemed imminent, but most of us figured it would wait for a Google I/O unveiling. Tonight (the night before I/O), the sign-up for this new Google Maps was live briefly, giving us a glimpse at what we can expect when it officially goes live. 

The first highlight of the sign-up page mentioned a “tailored map for every search” that you perform, so that you’ll always have a map which shows you things that matter the most. We’re talking custom maps or at least maps that learn from you the more you use them.

The second thing that stood out to us was a “smarter search box,” which was actually mentioned in the previous leak. This search box lives on top of the full-screen maps, and makes all sorts of information (including destinations, ratings, reviews, and indoor maps) available as you search.

The new Google Maps also includes imagery from Google Earth, incorporates Google’s lesser known flight search, a comparison of various modes of transportation, and eventually adapts to your searches based on previous searches and ratings.

We didn’t see a mention of mobile at all throughout the short-lived new Maps page, but would imagine that these features would make there way over at some point in the future.

The page we visited has now been pulled.

Cheers Haowen!

New Google Maps Sign-up Page Goes Live Briefly, Reveals All Sorts of New Details is a post from: Droid Life

According to the folks at Google Operating System, Google Maps (the browser version) is about to get a major overhaul. The two images we have included in this post are reportedly screenshots of what the new interface will look like. As you can see, it’s a more full-screened experience, without the traditional sidebar for directions and search results. Results return on-screen and can even be tied to Google+ Circle recommendations (think friends’ restaurant recommendations). The color scheme has also been updated to match the style of the iOS Gmail app.

When first seeing this look, my mind – as it always does – ran to, “When is the mobile overhaul coming?!” But in reality, this is sort of how the mobile version of Maps works already, at least on bigger screens. You already get a full-screen experience because there is less screen real estate to work with in general on mobile devices. With that said, the look does come off as a bit more Google Now-ish, something we have seen from a number of Google apps over the last year. So in that sense, there is a chance that the mobile version is updated to at least match this look. 

This new version of Google Maps isn’t live yet, but with Google I/O happening next week in San Francisco, don’t be surprised if it’s here before long.

Even though I use mobile devices constantly throughout the day, I find myself using the web version of Google Maps quite often and am definitely excited to see a UI overhaul. Anyone else?

Via:  Google Operating System

Google Maps Overhaul Coming to the Web, Bye Bye Sidebar is a post from: Droid Life

Starting today, Google Map’s users in certain cities can check real-time public transit information. So far, only riders in New York City, Salt Lake City, and Washington D.C. get to see live service updates for their respective subways/transit systems, but more will come.

With this addition, there are no more excuses why you missed that bus or train. Go check it out.

Play Link

Via: Google Lat

Google Maps Adds Live Transit Info For Certain U.S. Cities is a post from: Droid Life

Today, you can take a VIP stroll through the halls of the Indianapolis Colts stadium. With a full 360 degree view from the 50 yard line to inside the locker room, this is a great new feature for Google’s Street View application.

Now what I want to see is this happen for every major sports team in America. Get on it, Google.

Via: Google Lat Long
Cheers Chuck!

Google Maps Gives Us a Look Inside Indianapolis Colts Stadium is a post from: Droid Life

As you arrive at your next winter vacation destination with your skis or snowboard packed, think about leaving room in a pocket for your smartphone because Google just announced that they have full maps of 38 of the most popular ski resorts in the country in Google Maps.

The new maps include lift and run guides, that feature color coded solid bars for black, blue, and green runs, plus red dotted lines so you can pin point your closest lift.

These are already available on your Android device or iPhone. 

Here is the entire list of ski resorts in Maps:

• Alpine Meadows - CO
• Alyeska Resort – AK
• Aspen Highlands – CO
• Aspen Mountain – CO
• Attitash Mountain Resort – NH
• Big Sky Resort – MT
• Big White Ski Resort – BC
• Breckenridge Ski Resort – CO
• Brighton – UT
• Buttermilk – CO
• Copper Mountain – CO
• Crested Butte Mountain Resort – CO
• Deer Valley Resort  - UT
• Granite Gorge – NH
• Heavenly Mountain Resort – CA
• Jackson Hole Mountain Resort – WY
• Lake Louise Ski Area – AB
• Mammoth Mountain – CA
• Mount Bachelor - OR
• Mount Shasta – CA
• Okemo Mountain Resort - VT
• Panorama Mountain Village – BC
• Park City Mountain Resort – UT
• Revelstoke Mountain Resort – BC
• Schweitzer Mountain Resort – ID
• Sierra-at-Tahoe Resort – CA
• Snowbasin – UT
• Snowmass – CO
• Squaw Valley – CA
• Steamboat Ski Resort – CO
• Stowe Mountain Resort – VT
• Sugar Bowl Resort – CA
• Sun Valley Resort – ID
• Telluride Ski Resort – CO
• Vail Mountain – CO
• Whistler Blackcomb – BC
• Wildcat Mountain – NH
• Winter Park Resort – CO

Via:  Google Lat Long

Google Maps Now Shows Ski Resorts With Lifts and Runs on Android and iOS is a post from: Droid Life

During the early parts of 2012, Google Maps was doing great. It led the top ten pack of monthly unique visitors against some stiff competition, mostly themselves, but there was still Facebook, Pandora, and Yahoo! Messenger (somehow). Out of the top ten most used apps in 2012 on iOS and Android, Google owns five of them, which is pretty impressive to say the least. 

Now what makes any of this interesting is that like I mentioned, things went South for Google Maps about the same time the iPhone 5 was released. With the launch of Apple’s new flagship, they dropped Google Maps in favor of their proprietary Maps app, which dropped Google down to second in terms of usage. Since being reinstated on iTunes, they still have not been able to come back, but in time they should have no problem doing so with download of Google Maps on iTunes through the roof.

What is even more funny is that with the Facebook app for Android being super buggy and us hearing usually nothing but complaints about it, that people continue to use the official app instead of alternatives. I don’t seem to have nearly half of the issues that others report, but we can all agree that the Facebook has come quite a long ways since what it used to be.

Via: comScore

Facebook Beats Out Google Maps as 2012′s Most Used App Thanks to iPhone 5 is a post from: Droid Life

In the past few months it has become abundantly clear that Google intends to support three platforms: the web, Android, and iOS. Google’s support for the web and Android should not come as a surprise; Google has always been a web company and Google bought Android to fight Microsoft in the mobile space. Even Google’s support of iOS is not all that surprising since the iPhone was essentially the Google phone before the G1. What is surprising, however, is that Google isn’t just making apps for iOS; they’re making really good apps for iOS.

Google has more than enough apps in the App Store to fill a whole page on an iOS device (23 total). While some of these apps are garbage and others are merely remnants of failed Google projects, Google has come out swinging lately with seven apps in particular: Google Search, Google Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Google Drive, Chrome, and Google+. All of these apps are available on both iOS and Android in near identical implementations (the only real difference between the Android and iOS versions of these apps is that pull to refresh is available on the iOS iterations while the Android apps still rely on a refresh button) save Gmail and Maps.

Google’s Gmail and Maps Android apps tend to focus on utility over appearance while the iOS apps tend to hide functionality, thereby presenting a cleaner user interface. While Google Maps for iOS looks and feels inspired by the Android app, the cleaner interface is far more inviting to use. While the iOS app emphasizes search and location, the Android app emphasizes utility in general.

Doing things like a search or finding your location are easy to do on both apps, but something like adjusting layers is far less obvious on the iOS app. In fact, settings are essentially hidden on the iOS app. In the iOS app Google chose to hide traffic, public transit, and a link to Google Earth (which is a rather strange inclusion) behind an Android style menu button. The implication here is that iOS users expect a clean interface while Android users expect a heavy amount of mapping tools available as soon as the app launches.

Gmail is probably the most surprising iOS app from Google. The iOS app again brandishes a cleaner UI while the Android app emphasizes utility at the expense of beauty. In fact, with its white expanses and red highlights, the iOS app is actually more faithful to the design of Gmail in a browser than the Android app.

Both apps have multi-user support, swipe to archive, label support, mute, and neither app can create a label (still!). In every screen the iOS app hides settings and options behind buttons while the Android app shoves them in front of users. Because of these UI decisions, the Android app places a very, very heavy learning curve on users in terms of learning the Gmail app’s unique iconography while the iOS app labels everything except for archive and trash. As a result, the iOS app has a much cleaner, if less immediately useful user interface.

In my testing, I actually found Gmail, Maps, Google+ and Chrome for iOS to be more of a pleasure to use than their Android counterparts, which is a strange thing to say. Usually companies put their best work on their own apps for their own platform (see Hotmail for Android), but Google’s apps are actually in parity with the Android versions or better on iOS. Between pull to refresh, the use of playful, colorful loading animations, and the simpler UI, Google apps on iOS tended to be more responsive and easier to use. If you want to live in Google’s ecosystem Android is no longer a requirement.

While I understand why Google would want to make good apps for iOS, I don’t understand why they would make better designed apps for iOS. Maybe Google believes that Android users want UI controls exposed and iOS users want them hidden or that Android users don’t mind cluttered UIs as much as iOS users. Those are just guesses; if I were Google I would want to make sure that the Android apps performed just as well and included little touches like pull to refresh and loading animations. That kind of attention to detail can make a tremendous difference in how an app works and feels. No matter what the reason is for the discrepency, it is nice to see some really nice design coming from Mountain View. Hopefully we see Google bring some of that finess and focus to their Android apps.

Google Apps on iOS and Android [Opinion] is a post from: Droid Life

This afternoon, Google has pushed an updated version of Maps to Google Play. It currently offers nothing extra except for a few bug fixes, but hey, we’ll take it. Don’t forget to be thankful for your Maps app, people.

Play Link

Cheers Adam!

Google Maps Updated With Bug Fixes is a post from: Droid Life

Click here to view the embedded video.

Well, it was fun while it lasted. While that whole iOS Maps fiasco was something the world had more than a good time with, Google has gone ahead and ruined some of our fun. Google Maps, with full turn-by-turn navigation, is now available for the iPhone. This new version of Maps has been “designed from the ground up to combine the comprehensiveness and accuracy of Google Maps with an interface that makes finding what you’re looking for faster and easier.”

The fun isn’t completely over, though. In Google’s announcement, they make sure to indirectly point out all of the flaws in Apple’s own maps product. By mentioning that Google Maps stores 80 million businesses and points of interest, has Street View, public transportation info, and updates tens of thousands of times daily to help with accuracy and comprehensiveness, this is Google’s way of saying, “This is how you do it, suckers.”

Via:  Google Lat Long

Cheers Adam, Will, John, Garrett, and Albert!

Google Maps Available for the iPhone, Making Fun of Apple Now Slightly Less Fun is a post from: Droid Life

Today, Google released an updated Google Maps API, allowing developers to take advantage of the insanely advanced Maps software that Google has slaved over for years. With new access to vector-based imagery, gesture features such as tilt/zoom, and Map layers (traffic, terrain, satellite), apps that use Google Maps just got a whole lot more exciting to use.

I myself don’t develop, but Google sure does like to make it look easy.

Via: Google Lat

Google Updates Maps API, Allows App Developers to Completely Utilize Software is a post from: Droid Life

Google, those kind-hearted mobile enthusiasts, made Street View available through Google Maps in mobile browsers, this morning. While Android users probably couldn’t care less because they have the best mobile turn-by-turn navigation and maps experience on the planet for free in the Google Maps app, this could be used as a backup. Oh who am I kidding, the only reason Google did this, was to let iPhone 5 and iOS6 users know that the mobile version of their Maps service is still better than what Apple is doing. Thanks, Google.

Via:  Google Lat Long

Google Adds Street View to Maps on Mobile Browsers, I Think We All Know Why is a post from: Droid Life

In a somewhat surprising turn of events this morning, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook posted a letter to their customers to address the Maps situation in iOS6. As you all know, the Maps app that Apple has created is, to put it nicely, atrocious. Turn-by-turn directions lead people to opposite sides of town from their actual destination, entire cities are missing, data is appearing that changed decades ago, businesses are showing as being located in bodies of water, etc. It’s a mess. In fact, it’s such a mess, that we couldn’t help but poke a little fun at the entire fiasco.

In Cook’s letter, he admits that Apple “fell short” on their commitment to release a Maps app that lives up to their “world-class” standards. He actually went as far as to suggest alternatives while they work “non-stop” until maps lives up to those high standards. And yep, Google Maps mobile browser version even came up.

I can’t help but think, “Wow, Apple admitting wrong? When was the last time this happened?”

And you’ll notice that he offers no time frame for a quality Maps app. Basically, Apple fans, you better cozy up to Waze, Bing, or MapQuest, because it’s going to be a while. 

To our customers,

At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers. With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better.

We launched Maps initially with the first version of iOS. As time progressed, we wanted to provide our customers with even better Maps including features such as turn-by-turn directions, voice integration, Flyover and vector-based maps. In order to do this, we had to create a new version of Maps from the ground up.

There are already more than 100 million iOS devices using the new Apple Maps, with more and more joining us every day. In just over a week, iOS users with the new Maps have already searched for nearly half a billion locations. The more our customers use our Maps the better it will get and we greatly appreciate all of the feedback we have received from you.

While we’re improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app.

Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world. We know that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard.

Tim Cook
Apple’s CEO

Via:  Apple

Apple’s Tim Cook Apologizes for Maps Debacle, Says App “Fell Short” is a post from: Droid Life

In a recent outing, Google’s Eric Schmidt made one thing very clear – Google has no Maps application in the works for iOS devices. According to Schmidt, the decision was entirely Apple’s and he still feels that they should have stuck with Google’s app. Both Google and Apple were in constant communication on the matter, but in the long run, Apple decided to go with a homegrown alternative instead. 

We think it would have been better if they had kept ours. But what do I know? What were we going to do, force them not to change their mind? It’s their call.

Schmidt went on to clarify that Google did want them as a partner, but with the tensions between the two companies at an all time high, it just wasn’t meant to be.

While in Japan to announce the availability of the Nexus 7, Schmidt took a moment to show off some of the more unique features of their Maps application. By moving the tablet around, instead of using your fingers, you get the sense of “looking around” and he quickly added, “Take that Apple.” Of course, he said it jokingly.

Via: Reuters

Cheers Craig!

iPhone Owners Waiting on Google Maps App, the Wait is Over – It’s Not Coming is a post from: Droid Life

Android friends and family, tomorrow is a big day. It’s time to start preparing. In case you didn’t realize it yet, September 21 is the day that millions of new phone owners across the globe will have trouble finding their way to work, to the nearest gas station, to their lunch or dinner reservation, and as you can see in the picture above, surviving through take-off at their local airport. Tomorrow, is iPhone 5 launch day. 

When doors open at your city’s Apple store in the morning and UPS drivers take to the streets with shipments of iPhone 5s, the number of confused and lost pedestrians, transit riders, bikers and car drivers will have increased by some 2 million people. So when I say that the Android crew needs to prepare, I’m suggesting that you put a shortcut to your Google Maps app on your home screen or quick launch bar.

Think of tomorrow (and for the foreseeable future) as an opportunity to help out a foe in need. After all, your Google Maps app with turn-by-turn navigation is free, so why not share it with those less fortunate smartphone owners. They may need confirmation that when traveling over the Hoover Dam, that they will succeed in crossing it.

They may need to ask for your help in telling the difference between the next Burger King or monastery or public building.

They may need to see underneath those clouds.

They may be confused as to why the Cayman Islands no longer have roads.

Is that a beacon from God?

And finally, those new iPhone 5 owners are going want to know if it’s OK for them to drive their car into a body of water and onto that new set of streets.

So again, keep your Google Maps app handy. There are going to be a lot of iPhone 5 owners wandering around bodies of water trying to find Chinese restaurants, avoiding interstates and bridges, wondering why that building that was constructed 10 years ago is now under construction, why their home town doesn’t exist, and showing up to transit stops that closed years ago, that are going to need your help.

To follow along in the never-ending fun that is Apple’s new Maps app for iOS 6, follow this Tumblr.

Android Friends, Be Kind to All of the New iPhone 5 Users Tomorrow – They May be Lost and in Need of a Maps App is a post from: Droid Life