maps

Dutch mapping and navigation firm TomTom has announced its continued partnership with Apple, as the two companies have agreed to renew their contract. TomTom has become very valuable to Apple and their iOS devices since 2012, when the Cupertino company launched its own maps application, ending a reliance on Google and their data. Most of Apple's map data for North America and Europe comes from TomTom, and this has allowed Apple to develop its own street-level navigation features.

Continue Reading

Regular Google Maps a little too boring for your tastes? There’s a new skin of sorts for the mapping service that overlays it with LEGO bricks, transforming your neighborhood — or anywhere else you want to search — into a LEGO universe. It’s called Brick Street View, and it includes minifigs and other LEGO devices, as well, allowing you to zoom into Street View and see everything from plastic trees to little LEGO characters driving around blocky LEGO cars. The map was created by Einar Oberg of Stockholm.

Continue Reading

Remember the news of a Google Map edit that showed an Android mascot relieving itself on an Apple logo? Well, that — among other low-brow or similarly bad taste edits — have caused Google to suspend edits via Map Maker. The feature, which allows us to make our own edits to maps based on local knowledge, has been sidelined for a limited time, at least to some respect. It seems Google now wants to manually review submissions. This is why we can’t have nice things.

Continue Reading

Uber is best known for matching drivers with riders, but that's not the sum total of its ambitions. The company has been pushing other services that involve transportation, including its UberEATS service, which gets meals to people in select cities. Google Maps is one of the tools it uses to make that happen, but a new business move by the ridesharing service shows that such a reality could be changing. Uber has joined the battle for Nokia's HERE mapping service, placing its own bid for the company.

Continue Reading

Bing Maps has received another update, this one proving useful for commuters all over the world. Earlier this week, Microsoft added transit coverage from more than 3,000 transit agencies in several countries. With this, commuters are able to better plan out their transportation for the day, or for a special event like when on vacation or traveling for work. This includes expanded transit coverage in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Australia, and more (there's a total of 30 countries).

Continue Reading

Earlier this morning we asked a vital question to the public: Who added this Android peeing on Apple in Google Maps? Now we have the answer. At long last - several hours later, we've been sent the answer. It's this guy - this map editor from the masses - by the name of nitricboy. He did it, and he did it with a series of moves and subsequent edits to submissions you'll likely be unable to do yourself in Google Maps in the near future.

Continue Reading

Former phone manufacturer Nokia is said to be looking at its options to sell its maps business, known as HERE, as a way to fight its financial debt troubles. This information comes in a new report from Bloomberg, who add that HERE is valued at approximately $2.1 billion, based on Nokia's finance reports. No final decisions have been made at this point, and Bloomberg's sources for this news are "people familiar with the matter," but apparently Nokia is getting assistance from a financial advisor to find a potential deal.

Continue Reading

There are good reasons we like Google Maps when compared to Apple Maps. One of those reasons is Google Maps’ ability to provide us more info than what we’d find with a paper map, which Apple Maps largely fails to do. If you’re a dedicated Apple Maps user, there’s good news. You’ll now see hotel ratings via Apple Maps, provided courtesy of Trip Advisor and booking.com. Prior to these two new partners, Yelp was Apple Maps’ only ratings info provider.

Continue Reading

This morning Google started April Fools Day early with a bit of the ol' Google Maps invasion. This particular fool included Pacman, the original grid-loving game chomper, and his ghostly enemies. As it turns out, Google's release of this game around the world was not just limited to the desktop browser version of Google Maps. There's Pacman Fever to be had in Ingress as well as the Android version of Google Maps as well - just not with as all-inclusive a mapping experience as you'll see on the web.

Continue Reading

When you tell someone where you are in the world, you rarely give out your longitude and latitude (unless your name is Walter White). That’s because you probably don’t know it, can’t find it, or just plain don’t care. Today, Google figured out longitude and latitude are cool and science-y, but not useful for consumers. With their new Places API for Android and iOS, Google is letting Developers tap into your location signal to actually let people know where you are, not your coordinates.

Continue Reading

While Nokia will be largely remembered for its once glorious mobile and smartphone past, it is trying to forge a new image, and it might actually be successful in doing that. One of its latest, and so far its biggest, ventures is in the area of mapping, competing head on with the likes of Google Maps. But HERE Maps isn't a desperate attempt at relevancy. It is actually a formidable contender in this not yet crowded space. And its latest news just proves how much it can go even by itself.

Continue Reading

iPhone owners have another navigation app option today, with Nokia's HERE Maps for iOS landing in the App Store complete with full - and free - offline mapping support. The app, which has been available to Android users since a beta last October, allows those who might commonly be relying on Apple Maps or Google Maps to instead download entire countries-worth of navigation data to their iPhone, meaning even with data turned off while abroad they can still get around.

Continue Reading