Google have announced the latest evolution of Google Maps for mobile, and life for standalone PND apps just got a whole lot harder. Android 2.0 devices – such as the Verizon Droid by Motorola – now have access to Google Maps Navigation Beta, a turn-by-turn navigation application that supports voice guidance, search-by-voice and automatic re-routing complete with traffic information.
Video demo after the cut
Google have launched Android 2.0 Eclair, complete with SDK support for developers. Key changes for the new version of the OS include multiple Google and Exchange account support, two-way contacts sync, the ability to pull in contacts from multiple accounts, the ability to switch methods of communication and accounts within threaded conversations, and a unified email inbox. There’s also new camera functionality, including macro focus and integrated flash support.
Video overview after the cut
When HTC aren’t commissioning new ad campaigns they’re making smartphones, and while we would hate to put words in their collective mouth it seems highly likely that the HTC Dragon will end up packing Android 2.0. While Motorola may have beaten HTC to the jump with announcing the first Android 2.0 smartphone, albeit briefly, Gearlog have confirmed that the company is indeed already playing with the next-gen version of Google’s open-source platform.
It seems the rift between Google and Apple is growing; after the latter made moves to supply its own mapping technologies for the iPhone and iPod touch, Google now looks set to kick off its own music service to rival iTunes. According to TechCrunch’s sources, the so-called Google Audio service will launch on October 28th, and offer US users both access to streaming media together with purchase/download links.
Android is slowly but surely appearing on a number of UMPCs and MIDs, but if you actually want to buy one – as opposed to just read about it – your options are still pretty limited. Over at jkOnTheRun our friend Kevin C. Tofel’s patience has expired and so he’s loaded Android 1.6 onto his Samsung Q1UP UMPC, courtesy of the Android-x86 project.
Android 1.6 is only just rolling out to users of specific smartphones, but already we’re getting particularly excited about what’s set to occur in OS 2.0. The Boy Genius Report are doing nothing to minimize that excitement, either, with a photoset and run-through of just what’s going on in the latest 2.0 builds. Android 2.0 brings with it not only native Exchange support and a fresh – dare we say it “grown up” – new UI, but native Facebook integration, a unified email inbox and new Maps app.
Google have also obviously been working on streamlining usability, too, with more functional desktop widgets that step beyond mere shortcuts. You’ll be able to trigger a YouTube upload in literally two taps, from recording through titling and describing footage then squirting it off to the video sharing site, direct from the homescreen. Meanwhile, while there’s no multitouch support in either the browser or the new, layer-toting Google Maps app, there is double-tap to zoom.
Anyone who follows Google knows that he company has an odd sense of humor. Look no further than the changing logos to celebrate different events and holidays often of appeal to bankers and state employees. It is hard to miss the fact that the Android developers at Google have a fetish with sweets when it comes to naming their new OS versions.
Google has found that its street view service has landed it in a bit of trouble since it debuted. There was the time when the Street view team was driving around military bases making detailed maps that terrorists could use for starters. Then there is this photo the Street View team captured in front of someone’s home with their van on fire.
Samsung only made the Android-based Moment official a few hours ago, but we’ve already been playing with it today. Sprint’s first Android device certainly makes a good first impression, with an eye-catching, color-popping AMOLED touchscreen that’s certainly on a par with its rivals for capacitive touch-sensitivity, though we wish Samsung could’ve put the Moment on a diet before it launched as it’s not the smallest of handsets.
Samsung have announced their first US Android smartphone, the Samsung Moment, and it’s headed exclusively to Sprint. The Moment has a 3.2-inch 320 x 480 AMOLED touchscreen together with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, optical joystick, EVDO Rev.A and WiFi b/g; as a “with Google” device, it has the usual Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube and other software.
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