Google Maps to support Offline and 3D maps

The Google Maps team held an event to announce their latest innovations at their San Francisco office. Among the things that they announced which got out attention is the offline support for Google Maps on Android devices.

After years of being internet-dependent for maps, the folks at Google Maps has finally got in to their senses and decided to develop support for offline maps.

Taking cues from OVI Maps or lately called Nokia Drive, the team mentioned that users will now have an option to download the full map for a certain place and view it later on even without having internet connection.

Another thing that they announced during the event is their continuous efforts of bringing 3D support for their applications and the recent developments on the said feature. Since it was first announced 7 years ago, the team is still trying to produce a more realistic representation of a specific place.

So far theyâ€™ve made a heck of an improvement as the video demo gives attendees a feel that theyâ€™re really flying above the area. Watch this short demo of Google’s 3D map:

Other than this, the team did not disclose any further information about the crucial updates. There are no words about the date of availability or its OS compatibility. We hope that Android 2.X will be able to support this update as majority of smartphones here in the country still runs on earlier versions of Android.

{source}

Ronnie Bulaong

This article was written by Ronnie Bulaong, a special features contributor and correspondent for YugaTech. Follow him on Twitter @turonbulaong.

https://www.yugatech.com

10 Comments

TinCan says:

12 years ago

parang sim city yung video
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Pipo says:

12 years ago

Wish they’d bring turn-by-turn here in PH na. I sortof miss my old N97 which had free navigation. Now, I just use 3rd party apps that don’t seem to update the maps here in PH
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ady says:

12 years ago

This will be a great innovation, people can now easily search the locations without internet connections.
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yadda says:

12 years ago

Matagal na yang offline caching feature – you can pre-cache the entire set of tiles for a particular point of interest (with a 10-km radius yata)

Settings > Labs > Pre-cache map area
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yaddayaddayadda says:

12 years ago

Matagal na yang offline caching feature – you can pre-cache the entire set of tiles for a particular point of interest (with a 10-km radius yata)

Settings > Labs > Pre-cache map area
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Iyan Sommerset says:

12 years ago

Finally. I’ve been using Maverick for the past few years, and it has served well as an offline/precached map tool. Let’s see how Google can top that.

BTW, we need Google Streetview here. At least for EDSA/C5 and/or Makati/Fort/Ortigas at least.
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Taz says:

12 years ago

still dont get it why google cant make google navigation to our country and other asean countries. not sure about sg though.

sa nokia drive super awesome ng navi feature for free pa
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duke_06 says:

12 years ago

They should’ve also included offline route planning; it is also an edge if they included that feature to Android devices.
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'em says:

12 years ago

Nokia Drive rocks!
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dulfo says:

12 years ago

Offline map access on Android devices. How about the other mobile platforms? or desktop pc? Still good news for Android users.
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