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Google Maps Navigation finally activated in non-English speaking countries... and Canada
Google's turn-by-turn GPS navigation software for smartphones has today been enabled in western, continental Europe... and Canada!If you've not used it before, Google Maps Navigation, despite carrying Google's omnipresent 'Beta' tag,' is as good as GPS navigation gets. It might not be quite as refined as commercial, big-bucks navigation systems, but the sheer number of awesome features easily make up for any rough edges. It really is just Google Maps with voice guidance -- and it's free.
Speaking of voices: Google Maps Navigation has search by voice, and that's actually the focus of today's roll-out to continental Europe. Instead of dangerously (or illegally) fiddling around with the touchscreen while driving, just call out your destination! Watch the video after the break: it's impressive. As of today, you can also voice search in French, German, Italian and Spanish (along with English, Chinese and Japanese). See the full Google announcement for details.
As for which countries have been enabled (because Google hasn't said!), Engadget is reporting that the following have been switched on: Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland and even Belgium.
To install it, just search for 'Google Maps' in the Android Marketplace on your phone. BlackBerry, iPhone and Nokia S60 users should visit m.google.com instead.
Comments
5
Subscribe to commentsronmosesJun 9th 2010 11:17AM
No love for Palm/WebOS, I guess, eh? Too bad.
pontiac76Jun 15th 2010 11:48PM
The safety function is great, where you just speak to the phone and off you go. How it'll do when you're listening to music, or, having a conversation in the car (Until THAT becomes illegal) is probably going to be a different story.
The other issue I see is that my BB 8900 is 480x360... My Garmin 255w is 480 x 272 but it is a LOT easier to read than the BB when on the road. Less pixels, sure, but LARGER pixels. I've already used Latitude and Google Maps on my BB and without a question, I routinely go back to the 225w.
Sebastian AnthonyJun 16th 2010 6:08AM
Hehe, it's the classic case of 'too high res', like on new laptop screens!
I presume there's a 'large font' setting on the mobile phone...?
pontiac76Jun 16th 2010 9:22AM
If there is, it'd probably a PITA to swap font sizes.
The phone is physically smaller, top to bottom, edge to edge, and on top of that the 8900 has a keyboard which does NOT help the screen real estate.
scott1202Jul 10th 2010 11:57AM
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