Android 2.0 SDK Released, Google Maps Navigation Announced 121
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Soulskill
from the android-will-find-a-way-home dept.
from the android-will-find-a-way-home dept.
stoolpigeon writes "The Android 2.0 SDK is now available from Google. This puts to bed concerns about Google not releasing the SDK or perhaps being in some kind of exclusivity deal with Verizon around 2.0. The release notes give a nice overview of what is there. Those who already have the SDK can grab the updated tools as SDK components; everyone else will pick up everything when downloading the new SDK."
Relatedly, reader riffzifnab reports that Google has also announced Google Maps Navigation, a GPS application for Android 2.0 that takes voice input and integrates with internet searches and Street View.
Not releasing? (Score:3, Interesting)
"This puts to bed concerns about Google not releasing the SDK" - There should be a warning on this link: Warning, text does not refer to linked information.
Seriously. The 'concerns' were that Google hadn't released it -yet-, not that they weren't going to release it. There is only a month until some of the new devices come out with SDK 2.0 and devs were concerned they wouldn't have enough time to fix any bugs in their apps. Since other SDKs have come out -way- ahead of time, I'm sure Google was doing their best here and just had some issues.
Hardware requirements for 2.0 (Score:5, Interesting)
I wonder how well 2.0 will run on say a G1, HTC Hero, ,Moto Clik or the Samsung Moment.
And will updates be made available?
Send route from computer to phone? (Score:4, Interesting)
The feature I've always wanted from a GPS is the ability to go to google maps on my computer, come up with a route on there, and then send it to the device. This looks like it could easily offer that ability but curiously it's not mentioned in any of the blurbs that I've seen. Anyone know if it's supported?
Multi-touch for developers but not for end users (Score:3, Interesting)
The good news are that they seem to finally have added the long-awaited support for multi-touch. As listed in their relese notes [android.com]:
MotionEvent can now report simultaneous-touch information for devices that support it. Up to three pointers can be tracked simultaneously.
The bad news are that, apart from some improvements to the on-screen keyboard, the GUI doesn't seem to be making use of it at all. So, those of us hoping to impress our acquaintances by zooming web pages in and out iPhone-style will probably have to wait until 2.1...
Bad for Garmin and TomTom (Score:3, Interesting)
iPhone (Score:5, Interesting)
So no google maps navigation for the iPhone?
Pardon me, but part of the appeal of the iPhone is it was best-of-breed Apple and Google. With the recent split, and if this continues, I see my next phone will be an Android device, and on the superior Verizon network.
I've been an iPhone fan boy for about 3 years, but I see a lot of delicious crow coming my way.
Re:Search on your route is a great feature (Score:2, Interesting)
I don't know where Google Maps gets its data for Australia, but when I recently tried a GPS device "powered" by Whereis [whereis.com], I found the latter sadly inferior. All it was able to accomplish was a latitude/longitude reference in many locations where Google Maps offers a reasonably complete map. Fortunately the device was on loan, so it wasn't the result of an expensive mistake.
Re:Search on your route is a great feature (Score:3, Interesting)
There are already PDA map applications that pre-download google maps at multiple zoom levels along your planned route.
Doesn't that violate Google's terms of service? You are not allowed direct access to tiles on Google's servers so far as I know.
Certainly possible with map tiles from openstreetmap.org [slashdot.org] though.
Re:Search on your route is a great feature (Score:3, Interesting)