Google has updated its Android Maps application with the ability to store offline mapping and location data:
Google has upgraded its Android Maps app so it can provide directions when not connected to the internet. The software also lets devices find businesses' locations, opening hours and telephone numbers while offline. The firm said tourists visiting places outside their mobile subscription plans and people living in emerging markets, where data can be expensive, would be among those who would benefit most.
But one expert said budget-phone owners would now have to juggle data. "Entry-level Android smartphones sometimes only have four gigabytes of onboard storage, making it a precious resource," commented Ben Wood from CCS Insight. [...] Google said downloading most of Greater London would take up 380 megabytes on a device, while storing the San Francisco Bay area would require about 200MB.
It allows you to define a rectangular area specifying the mapping data you want to have available offline. The article mentions that Nokia Maps, now known as Here Maps, has offered a similar feature for years.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Shimitar on Thursday November 12 2015, @08:57AM
This is not much news. Don't get me wrong, while it might seem so, it's not.
For two reasons:
1. Lots of other products exist with same (even better) feature. "Here" is mentioned in the submission, but "Here" it's, again, one of the latest to enter the market too. Garmin as well a TomTom and plenty of others (Sygic and many more) are just examples. This is "news" only because it's google. Like when, back in time, Microsoft used to make news because they added Movie Maker or embedded ZIP support. Not news, just the latest solution to an old problem others have solved already but are not big enough to make news.
2. Google Maps already had this feature for ages. Yes they kept masking it to the point of making it unfindable from one version to the other, but still i used it a few times in the last years (yes, YEARS). The only news here is that you can keep offline a bigger portion of data, while before it was quite unclear how much and for how long you could keep it offiline.
In other words, Google is the new Microsoft all round, 20 years later, even in the news.
Coding is an art. No, java is not coding. Yes, i am biased, i know, sorry if this bothers you.
(Score: 1) by Shimitar on Thursday November 12 2015, @08:59AM
I missed the "offline directions" part of the news... which might seem a little bit more "news".
My previous points still stand, tough, specially because it's not news, but just "changelog".
Coding is an art. No, java is not coding. Yes, i am biased, i know, sorry if this bothers you.
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Thursday November 12 2015, @09:59AM
I missed the "offline directions" part of the news... which might seem a little bit more "news".
They're not the first to have that feature, either.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Thursday November 12 2015, @02:25PM
Full disclosure: I work for HERE.
Which is funny, because it is one of the core features of HERE maps which you mentioned :-) BTW: HERE was one of the latest apps entering the Android market, but the company under its previous name is one of the first and best-known to offer map data. It was previously known as Navteq, 2008 bought by Nokia (Nokia Maps/Ovi Maps was available for Symbian phones for some time), and made it to Windows Phone 2011 as one of the few good reasons to want to have a Windows Phone that time. Rebranded to HERE, in 2013, iirc.
Ok, then you are right, of course.
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 3, Informative) by TheRaven on Thursday November 12 2015, @02:49PM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2) by kadal on Thursday November 12 2015, @05:50PM
Have you had good luck with the navigation? Google Maps' big advantage is the ease of finding what you're looking for.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Thursday November 12 2015, @06:27PM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 1) by driverless on Friday November 13 2015, @01:58AM
2. Google Maps already had this feature for ages. Yes they kept masking it to the point of making it unfindable from one version to the other, but still i used it a few times in the last years (yes, YEARS).
That was my reaction to the post as well, haven't they had this for ages? Admittedly it sucks so badly it's basically unusable (I spent a day wandering around Paris without a map thanks to Google's "offline" mode, luckily I found a paper map in a tourist place). Then I discovered Nokia's "Here" maps, and have never looked back. It's actually fully functional in offline mode, I've replaced Google maps with it as my default mapping app.
If anyone has other suggestions I'd be happy to look at them, I just found Here so much better than Google's app that I didn't look much further.