MrA Posted December 7, 2010 Share Posted December 7, 2010 Why look at static images when you can get a more 3D view of the urban scene? Google's Maps for Mobile 5 just got previewed on stage by Andy Rubin at D: Dive Into Mobile -- with a prototype Motorola Honeycomb tablet, no less! The biggest visual change is dynamic map drawing: vectors instead of flat images that scale without render hiccups and will show the buildings fleshed out for over 100 cities -- we gotta say, it looks great. Even more fun is that you can now use two fingers to tilt and rotate around the map (in addition to moving and pinch-to-zoom, of course). We've been told it's a much snappier experience, and the storage for these vectors is much smaller than the current images, which brings us to... offline caching. Maps will keep on file the locations that you go to (and search) most often, and it'll be able to reroute while offline in Navigation. You'll still need a connection for altering the route altogether -- sorry, subway-hoppers -- but once you go, even if you stray, you'll still be rerouted back on track. Source: Engadget I thought my fellow Android users might be interested in this. P.S. And before the iPhone users start to complain, they should remember that all first-party iPhone apps are developed by Apple. Complain to Apple, not Google. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kazuyette Posted December 7, 2010 Share Posted December 7, 2010 ooooh !!! Offline caching !!! I jizzed in my pants at this very moment :) When will this go live for us users ? edit : the supported device list ( according to the article ) is ridiculous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrA Posted December 7, 2010 Author Share Posted December 7, 2010 ooooh !!! Offline caching !!! I jizzed in my pants at this very moment :) When will this go live for us users ? edit : the supported device list ( according to the article ) is ridiculous. According to the article, sometime in the next few days. Oh, and the Nexus One is also supported, but doesn't have rotation due to lack of real multitouch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chasethebase Reporter Posted December 7, 2010 Reporter Share Posted December 7, 2010 Yeah that update sounds great. I have noticed that 3D buildings have rolled out to iOS with 4.2 possibly. Just go to a large city and zoom in far. Offline caching sounds to be the best feature though. Could come in handy regularly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrA Posted December 7, 2010 Author Share Posted December 7, 2010 Yeah that update sounds great. I have noticed that 3D buildings have rolled out to iOS with 4.2 possibly. Just go to a large city and zoom in far. Offline caching sounds to be the best feature though. Could come in handy regularly. I don't have an iPad, so I have no idea what features it has. Are the maps vector-based? Can you rotate and tilt the map? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chasethebase Reporter Posted December 7, 2010 Reporter Share Posted December 7, 2010 It's more of a template than an actual 3D model. Very barebones rather than full 3D if that's what Android just got. Plus the iPhone runs on iOS as well. :p Teaches me to read the article before posting. http://db.tt/db5w6RR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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