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

TomTom has finally arrived for Android. Although, I can think of one platform that might benefit from it much more than we can. All joking aside, TomTom is one of the more well-known names in navigation and the application brings 3.7GB of maps and route data straight to your Android device. It doesn’t get much more intense than this. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

A Google Maps update will be arriving shortly on your Android device. Once updated, your location searches from your PC browser will sync seamlessly with your mobile device at a faster pace, so that you can find info you’ve searched for in the past or even moments ago. All you have to do is sign into Google Maps and make sure your web history is enabled to get these new search and directions histories. 

An addition to Google Maps this morning should have all New Yorkers who take public transit very excited. Google has had transit times for local subways and buses for a while now, but they also know that sometimes those vehicles don’t arrive exactly on-time. To help with this, they have added subway alerts and delays to Maps.

The Android app and web version of Maps will now alert you if any of NY’s subways are experiencing delays from maintenance or anything like that. If you are using navigation, Google will include these alerts and automatically re-routes to get you to where you are going. Maps may arguably be Google’s best app and it seems to only get better and better.

What else do you want to see in Google Maps that they haven’t added already?

Via: Google

In the Android ecosystem, once Google Maps got the ability to navigate via GPS, most people moved over and used that as their go-to navigation system. Before that, TomTom was big and now they are looking to regain some of their market share by releasing their application on Android.

If you’re a diehard TomTom fan you’ll be happy to know that the app will most likely launch this summer. The report is that “summer season is important” for TomTom so we might get to see the application within the next month or so. On iPhone the TomTom app is $59.99, granted it has a few tricks that Google Nav doesn’t. Can an Android user justify spending that kind of cash on this application? We’ll have to wait and see.

Via: Phandroid | Pocket-lint