If you weren’t sure about switching to an Android phone in the near future, this might put you over the edge. Google Maps Navigation is an absolutely killer app. And it is only available for Android 2.0 phones.
Today is Droid day, and for the most part Google is taking a backseat and letting their partners get most of the attention. But Droid is the first Android phone to run Android 2.0, and Google Maps Navigation is clearly the early trophy app for those devices.
Google Maps already has 50 million active users across various mobile phones, says Google. But what users have today isn’t even close to the new Navigation product.
First off, it’s connected, which puts it ahead of all but a tiny percentage of in-car navigation systems which have no Internet connectivity (Dash is a notable exception).
The application is also completely free. So all those paid navigation apps (Navigon, TomTom, CoPilot, MapQuest, GoKivo and Sygic Mobile) are at an immediate disadvantage.
But even if Google charged for this app, it would still win hands down. The features include easy search (no need for address), voice search, traffic information (from data sources and crowd sourced from app), and street view close up pictures when you get near your destination. And the car dock mode gives bigger, simpler icons and auto-voice mode (see video):
Search in plain English. No need to know the address. You can type a business name (e.g. “starbucks”) or even a kind of a business (e.g. “thai restaurant”), just like you would on Google.
Search by voice. Speak your destination instead of typing (English only): “Navigate to the de Young Museum in San Francisco”.
Traffic view. An on-screen indicator glows green, yellow, or red based on the current traffic conditions along your route. A single touch on the indicator toggles a traffic view that shows the traffic ahead.
Search along route. Search for any kind of business along your route, or turn on popular layers such as gas stations, restaurants, or parking.
Satellite view. View your route overlaid on 3D satellite views with Google’s high-resolution aerial imagery.
Street View. Visualize turns overlaid on Google’s Street View imagery. Navigation automatically switches to Street View as you approach your destination.
Car dock mode. For certain devices, placing your phone in a car dock activates a special mode that makes it easy to use your device at arm’s length.
Here’s Navigation in the Droid dock, followed by an image gallery for the app:
Amazing! Consider me a Iphone convert!
Nice to make map look in 3 dimentions, with converging lines. It looks like front view than top view. I have never seen this converging lines in maps software, though this method is used in arts a lot. This may not even require a compass.
And it works in a browser. Look out iPhone appstore. You’ve now got serious mobile website competition.
There is a problem. A BIG PROBLEM.
There is NO Offline facility…. and if you are out of coverage area, you are actually LOST, as there is NO data available offline.
iPhone? What’s that?
Imagine if you’re the executive who convinced Garmin to build the Nuvi phone right now.
Ouch. That’s got to be a bad day. Here’s how it probably went:
CEO: You idiot! Have you read TechCrunch this morning? We’re doomed! It’s over.
NuviDude: Relax, will ya? It’s free, so It’s probably craptastic, and you get what you pay for.
CEO: Two things: first, you’re fired. Second, we’re all freakin’ fired. It’s over. Game over, man. We have no business in this market anymore. Google just gave away, for freakin’ free, a product that’s WAY better than our Nuvi. It’s better than TomTom on the iPhone for that matter, and those idiots are charging $99!!!
NuviDude: Sorry, what did you say, sir? I was busy selling all my Garmin stock using my new ‘Droid phone.
Hilarious!.
CEO:
mwd.com
Thanks for the Humor upfront !!
The street view looks bit confusing, since I assume that the cars in the picture are not likely the cars I will see when I am driving.
If this app could show the real scene through the camera AND superimpose the route on the road, now that would be awesome!
Wikitude Drive?
Why not superimpose the arrows onto the windshield to look as if they are on the road..?
So would a teleport machine to and from NY to Frisco.
Android has an augmented reality app which does this rather well. Its called AugSatNav.
next task for google: arrows & icons on HUD display beamed from the phone over to the windshield (or hologrammed at a certain distance in the front for bikes)
Done!
Mobile phone projector
http://www.gizm...le-phone/10773/
I like the look of this program. Can we get it on the updated Google maps for Blackberry, Nokia, WinMo please?
Seems like a very solid product, and Google moving into navigation is big news.
hang on.. we have some kind of genius onboard the comment train!
Just a bot, don’t worry
one bullet loaded in the iphone killer gun…
I’m sick of Google now, honestly! They are too awesome! OMFG
Pretty impressive indeed
Pretty amazing stuff. I’m ready for this Droid phone to hit the shelves….
Does it have an offline option though?
When I’m abroad Google Maps on my phone is useless as it requires an incredibly pricey data connection, so I instantly use Ovi Maps which allows me to download the maps for the area I’m visiting in advance and I can just navigate away without needing any online connection.
Very impressive, but I agree with Alex: using this app abroad would cost me way too much for the data connection, so I will stay with my TomTom navigation software. But I would definately wanna give it a try inland.
I agree. I have a G1, and I wish Android would allow me to cache maps for certain areas. T-Mobile data coverage is spotty in too many areas to make Google Maps a seamless experience.
I hadn’t even considered spotty coverage – but of course that’s an issue as well.
The last two occasions I’ve travelled abroad (Italy and Greece), Google Maps wasn’t an option at all due to incredibly expensive roaming data costs.
I was therefore exposed to the reasonable experience of Ovi Maps, which was free, and saved me a huge amount of hassle getting around in my rental car.
If Google Maps can offer an offline experience for travellers, well it’s really going to wipe out competition.
I know they’re banking on a future where everyone is connected to the net all the time, but I don’t see travellers having a fair pricing on such things for quite a while yet – mobile networks are going to hold on hard to their excessive data charges for as long as they possibly can.
BUT BUT BUT,
Bandwidth is a limitation and limitations get overcome.
The whole Google machine is producing awesome experience.
Guess what, the big company producing these innovations is not small thing.
I hate single company to own large part of life but I dont see others (IBM, MSFT which I am sick of now with Win 7 launch parties and like) doing any real innovation.
What is MSFT doing with that boat shit of money?
You’re right. Come to think of it, where MS has been working on Bing, Win 7, and Office 2010 to get back into the game. Google has Voice, Wave, Android 2.0, Chrome 3.0, Chrome OS, Navigation, free Google Apps, and everything in Google Labs.
This is just slaughter. I hope MS gets back into the game instead of playing catch up.
Jason, it would be if anyone really gave a shit about Google Apps and Chrome OS.
Windows 7 and Office 2010 will dominate their markets in that field.
Search for Maverick in Android Market. No turn-by-turn navigation, but it can cache OSM, Google and Bing maps. Great for travel and basic navigation.
Yeah… No way I’m trusting a mobile based nav system for a cross country trip. I have GPS Drive for my iPhone and it’s a nice enough app that I use when I don’t have my garmin but I’ve been burnt by GPS Drive more than once and I’ve been burnt by all of the other phone based nav system I’ve had in the past.
I’m sure this app is great maybe even the best phont based nav app period but I don’t trust any of them. I’ll stick with my garmin for now.
I’m curious what percentage of smartphone users are overseas enough to warrant these kinds of jet-setting internationalist issues serious consideration. I’m not saying that it’s an invalid concern…just trivial. I’m willing to bet that for 95%+ of the population that will use this application, that don’t find themselves out of the country more than once every few years, will be just fine without an offline caching option.
This falls into the same ‘pretty moot point’ bin along with all the other complaints regarding Verizon’s network being on a different protocol than what most networks are running overseas, in my opinion…for the vast majority of people it’s a complete non-issue.
While the “international traveler” issue might be a small percentage, the spotty coverage issue is definitely the biggest concern. Places with spotty coverage tend to also be the areas where you need navigation the most.
So driving across the border to Mexico or Canada makes you a “jet-setting internationalist”?
@cs Not sure where that 95% figure comes from. GPS is most useful when you’re driving through unfamiliar areas. I don’t care if you’re happy doing all your travelling in your very own country. That’s your personal choice If Google is taking this product out of USA, offline caching of maps is what counts for us non-Americans. Especially where unlimited data plans are nonexistent.
Ovi Maps is really good for that – you can download and install maps for any country and use them abroad through GPS without a connection.
I wonder if Nokia will make Navteq voice guidance free to compete? Since it’s not that expensive they could bundle the cost with the phone.
Maps Navigation doesn’t even work outside of the US, so that’s a non-issue right now.
But spotty data coverage is a real concern. Pre-caching the route partially solves that problem, but often the user may stray from the route, or end up somewhere with no coverage and want to get to somewhere else, or they may start somewhere with no coverage, and then the navigation becomes useless.
I’d like to see Google give users the option to download a static, simple map of the entire country for failover when there’s no data coverage. Users can manually update this static map to keep data costs down. But even though this map will be outdated and light on features, it can still guide drivers when there’s no data coverage.
According to Gizmodo, “It’s android OS 2.0 only for now. And will be available when devices like that ship. (Google demo’d the app to us on a Droid, FWIW.) Other platform support will be announced “by carriers and phone makers” when they’re ready, but Google implied they are working closely with Apple now on it.”
It makes sense that Google would want this on the iPhone too, because it is always in their best interest to have more people using their services (for more ad dollars).
Unless they’re using it as a USP that is.
USA only, isn’t it?
I am sold!
“Other platform support will be announced “by carriers and phone makers” when they’re ready, but Google implied they are working closely with Apple now on it.”
Now Apply buying the Placebase (the mapping company) makes a lot of sense.
They probably understood that Google was going to enhance their mapping software for Android phones and Apple to compete with GPS/mapping apps had to have their own story.
I agree. But my only concern is, Is Google becoming a rival of every other company in whichever field they are IN ?
I hope TomTom hasn’t secretly been working on an Android version of their $99 iPhone app…
Alex Leonard makes a good point. The G1 was limited by it’s storage size but the newer Androids should have vast amounts of space to be able to store it. Not to mention better battery life if I can download and store my route maps while it’s charging and then head out with it.
Google has no incentive to “kill” the iPhone. They don’t make any money off Android. Android is just a hammer they can use to keep the other phone makers like Apple on the Google platform.
Good for competition. I am in the iPhone camp, but these moves keep everyone honest. Ultimately, prices will go down, features will go up, and consumers win.
RIGHT!!!
You almost sound like an economist…
This almost makes me want to give up my iphone. Let’s see. 30 (+) dropped calls a day or SWEET navigation!
As a developer, I was not moving into the space until 2.0. It is here. Android will overtake most of the other platforms rather rapidly in my estimation, particularly with such slick products.
Now it is time to get some media apps in the space. Gee, I wonder if they’ll let us embed and sell music within applications?
This is interesting, but no multitouch, still?
The connectivity issue will also put off some customers. While the plans in e.g. the US include unlimited internet, this isn’t always the case in other parts of the world. Also, Google should implement some smart caching around the established route, to avoid situations were loosing the internet connection (i.e. a tunnel or rural areas) might occur.
multitouch is supposed to be in android 2.0
http://develope...ml#UserFeatures
It has multitouch. Even the Hero has multitouch. And it clearly says that it caches the maps along your route.
Stop commenting and read the damn article.
“Still no multitouch, but as VP of Engineering Vic Gundotra noted at a press conference, there’s nothing stopping a company like HTC from adding that feature à la Sense UI.”
http://www.enga...-ui-to-android/
The App itself doesnt utilize multitouch (for instance when zooming in and out). Stop commenting when all you bring to the table is your own stupidity and lack of information.
In reality most of the features are already on GPS-based devices like TomTom (voice selection, POI browsing, etc). ‘Free’ is also not exactly to the point, as I guess that for what you pay in monthly fees for data plan exceeds the price you need to pay for a GPS device.
Sure it is handy to have one device only, but I wouldn’t announce the death of GPS devices.
Kudos for the app for Google though – now it makes sense for me how the development over last few years was made with mapping apps (maps, earth, streetview) – seems it was a long run strategy indeed!
Google LIVES on long run strategies! I am constantly amazed at how far ahead they look. Android itself has been a long thought out process (http://news.netapex.org/?p=471) that few people thought would work out in the beginning. I still feel they have a lot more (http://news.netapex.org/?p=429) in the works.
TomTom and all those other companies must be really pissed. How do you compete with a free app that has most or more functionality than your very expensive app/device, and it is built into something people carry around with them everywhere!
They aren’t going to fall apart overnight, but what incentive do people have to get TomTom when a larger number of phones have Google Navigator?
Not everyone trust FREE. Not everyone trust Google. That’s the incentive.
I’m not sure how you “trust” free in the first place, but I think I know what you are getting at.
However I have yet to find a reason not to trust Google. Sure they are out for profit, but they are also run by people who give-a-shit.
I have no issues with my privacy because I have nothing to hide. Furthermore, Google’s free products/services are often much better than the paid/free alternatives.
I was wondering why the search terms he uses in the demo seem so ridiculous, then it dawned on me. Having had so many false positives using the voice recognition on Google search on an iPhone it’s impressive that in the demo video the guy gets an “navigate to the museum in san francisco with the king tut exhibit” to work. Sounds impressive til you realize the reason his search was so ridiculously worded is because the voice search on Google is terrible at proper names like restaurants, museums etc. In fact I turned it off on my iPhone and just use the keyboard. And I have to imagine that most searches on Google mobile apps are proper names not “the museum in San Francisco with the King Tut exhibit.” Well done on the demo to cover up one problem with an otherwise cool service.
The speech recognition on my Hero is incredible. You really need to try it out on an actual android device if it’s sub-par on the iPhone.
I think the reason they gave such an absurd example was simply to show you how far they’ve come. An article a year back or so explained that the reason they made goog-411 free was to research the spoken english language…totally paying off now.
Holy crap – that is awesome. Nice last minute surprise! Can’t freaking wait for this phone to launch.
I’ve been playing with Waze (www.waze.com) – another crowd sourced mapping and traffic app, also free, works on Blackberry, iPhone and WInMo … less polished in some areas than the look of the Google app but more usable when driving (and it’s pretty good at pre-caching the route rather than trying to download new tiles at freeway speeds)
Waze also adds more real-time crowd sourced information like speed cameras, accidents etc to help alert drivers to hazards and help them route around it ….
If you don’t have a new Droid yet why not have a look? http://www.waze.com
Are you kidding? Waze has broken street data, a horrible UI, awful directions, and a laggy map view. It’s a decent alternative on the iPhone only because Google Navigation isn’t there yet.
amazing stuff, sweet sweet temptation to go from att to verizon for this. As sure as hell att will never get a half decent android phone as long as they have the iphone.
Calm down, we will get this on the iPhone in no time. Not an iPhone killer – but a Tom Tom killer it may be.
iPhones have GPS?
S & GS… Of course, and it should work with general location date from 1.0 as well.
It was already mentioned by Google that it will be on Apple if they want it, which in my mind means if somebody else develops it, and Apple approves such apps. Now we will see competition between the two companies.
Yeah they do, and a compass.
but you will have to close the map program to answer phone call, because “iDon’t multitask”
You know, it’s probably not a good idea to be talking on the phone, looking at an interactive map, and driving all at the same time.
Touché!
Unfortunately, having to reload the app and wait for the navigation stuff to kick back in and load, refresh the map, and re-locate after that call would be really annoying. Especially when you’re almost at your destination but haven’t looked far enough ahead to get the last few turns.
Cool! Can’t wait untill it’s be available for the iPhone.. (it will be, mark my words!)
Google can do this now because they’ve got their own map data for US. This therefore only works in the US for now…
CNET notes that Google and Apple are in fact working to bring the application to the iPhone, although no details of a launch timeframe have been released.
Who would like to bet that when the iPhone leaves AT&T it will suddenly have access to this, Google Voice, and a few other upgrades that “coincidentally” just finished development.
This is creepy , yet very cool! lol
There’s something seriously wrong when a company can have one product that makes money (AdSense) and use its excess revenue to systematically destroy value in other sectors by releasing free products.
Good for consumers in the short-run yes, but they’re effectively using monopoly power to destroy competition.
Not really Hauser . Kinda but not really. Like i said before. Not everyone trusts Free. That’s a fact, regardless of how the mass media tries to spin it .
With that kind of thinking and awareness of the world, you’ll continue to live a small mediocre life. Hope your head is comfortable in the sand.
That’s a great argument Jon. Hope your head is comfortable up Google’s ass.
WTFreek,
(I am NOT beneficiary from Google…..)
Are you out of you mind?
Do you want to go back to old days of locked down innovation and minting money on user’s blood?
I dont think you are getting it.
Google has not just new technology but a new business model. Here how it goes-
1. Develop best search engine
2. Get Ad revenue due to that
3. Develop many product, each with slight advantage over others and cover the eco-system
4. That drives more traffic to Google search engine
5. That drives more revenue
This cycle then repeats..
Isn’t it awesome…….
My last comment was for Hauser……
The problem, guys, is that none of these google products would survive independently: google essentially gives them life support, funding them with ad-sense until all the other competition goes down. It’s an unfair competitive advantage, pure and simple: some google products have been losing money for nearly 5 years, long enough to drive out competition.
In a sense though open source software having ‘crazy’ developers who are willing to work for free, has the same ‘unfair’ advantage.
Aaron: sort of. Open-source software developers only provide development cost for free. The cost of maintaining servers, etc. that are required for something like a navigation system is not free — companies are forced to come with viable business models. Google is not forced to come up with independent business models for its products; it just sticks them like leeches onto its ad revenue stream.
You’re correct. No other company can really afford to branch out like Google does.
I know I’d never pay for the Google Maps application when compared to Nokia Maps or another fully fledged maps app.
Google seems to competes their way, on their terms.
Its awesome, the only problem is its a phone and a phone is for calling. Someone will call which will interupt the whole navigation
let me guess, you’re an iPhone user, which “iDon’t multitask”. http://www.DroidDOoes.com
hilarious blah. The most intelligent comment yet!
a stress test for Verizon’s wireless network? I want to hear what the real world experience is, a month after the phones start rolling out.
It is five cents per MB if one goes over the 5 GB limit with Verizon, as of now.
Well Mr Apple, put gvoice on the iThing and we’ll let you have navigation
+1
Bye Bye Tom Tom
the nav demo looks ok, but i still cant get over what a hunk of junk that “droid” phone is, reminds me of this crappy htc thing i had back in 2002!
Data roaming charges will hurt like a bitch for people who usually only need Sat Nav when driving abroad.
I bet it goes dark as soon as you’re outside range of a data connection. Android’s Google Maps becomes useless, too.
The benefit of things like MapDroyd and AndNav2 is that they’ll work even without a data connection. (Like, while driving!) You can download several MB of maps to your several GB SD card, and never need to be online to see where you are.
Android is going to do to iphone what Windows did to the Mac, the only difference this time is that the market is maybe 3 billion users.
I agree and that is exactly the comment I made on another post before.
I think it will be-
20% IPhone, 60% Android and 20% remaining.
And, the developers aren’t going to be complaining! Thank you Apple for the lack of communication and not allowing competitive applications.
Also agree, except this time round they are being beaten by an open source product.
Does it include *spoken* turn-by-turn instructions?
Android comes with built-in text-to-speech, so one would expect it, but the promo video did not show it.
Thanks
Does this mean GPS is unlocked for the Google Maps app to use it, or do I still have to pay ten dollars a month to use the app?
did you missed the “free” part? your data plan already taken care of that.
This could also be achieved in iPhone as well because there is compass in 3G[S]. Just however is Google willing to open this up for Apple?
I have both an iPhone 3G S and an Android (Ion); I bounce back and forth just for the fun of it. After loading Donut (1.6), I’m having a hard time finding a reason to go back to the iPhone. By the time 2.0 hits, there will really be no reason.
I really think 2.0 will be a game changer.
That said, stuff like this is going to require beefier hardware (and thus battery). The Ion already crashes if I have Latitude and traffic on at the same time on maps.
iPhone innovation is slowing; Android is just getting started. I feel like Apple plateaued. It’s just going to be a bunch of dot releases for awhile. Android, in contrast, is blowing the doors off.
Android is having key APIs being built for 2.0 that Apple delivered some time ago. Android is in the news for that reason – it’s new and incomplete – not because Apple haven’t done anything lately. You just haven’t seen it!
Come talk to me when Apple has a REAL-time notification system in place. Not the crap, generic push alert that can’t tell the difference between a text, an email, an IM, or anything else for that matter.
They can’t (and won’t) because the battery just can’t handle it. I’ve said that from the beginning about the iPhone. For that reason alone, they only have so much more they can offer to a mobile user. (Another fart app anyone?!)
Now what will be interesting, is if the new, beefier Android systems will be able to work out battery issues. It’s easy to have a bunch of background processes running in an underpowered unit.
Ya! Whole heartedly agree.
What will truly differentiate this from other handheld GPS navigation systems (besides being free
) is when it includes augmented reality that layers the directions on top of what the device sees via the camera.
The points about offline access is very important & will continue to hold value for consumers. I wouldn’t be surprised if Garmin et al build devices with Android 2.0 & enhance their services with Google’s online servers. There could be rev share opportunities for any ads presented & clicked via the app on these devices.
great for consumers., they get to pillage free value. but sad news is…. yet another market disappers, thanks to google.
yeah that’s really sad. The market for horses is not there anymore due to cars and other transportation. Lets get back the horses for transportation it would be so much better..
Google’s announcement really doesn’t us the reality of the situation. There is no doubt this is impressive on first glance, looks like Apple actually designed it, but thinking carefully:
* You must be connected at all times: drop the network, no maps. Is this a deal breaker for everyone. If you can’t rely on the app you’ll end up buying one you can rely on! This is why Google Maps on iPhone etc isn’t already used for navigation. Mobile networks aren’t reliable at speed, and for 100% coverage, that’ll never happen. Look at your coverage maps in less built-up areas. In the UK, we have about 98% coverage, but that’s by population, not by geography.
* Roaming. GPS is one of the first devices people pack when going on holiday. This will be useless. No one will want to pay the roaming charges.
* The shiny street view interface is only available in a small minority of places. The nice “follow the line” graphics won’t be as useful when there is no picture, which will be in the vast majority of areas. Until Google map EVERY road in the world, this won’t help. In fact I’d like to see the UI when the app transitions from a street view to a generated display. That street map gets old very quickly too.
* Satellite view isn’t that helpful. Manipulating the low quality you get at any kind of useful magnification to a angled display to give a sense of 3D as they did in the demo will look horribly pixelated when zoomed in.
In the light of these issues I wonder how useful the app actually is. I doubt TomTom are worrying too much at this stage.
With a billion of debt I guess TomTom get worried by spiders on the wall.
Your first objection is the only truly valid one in my view. However, the inevitable trend: apps like this require bandwidth, people will want to use it (for obvious reasons outside your list), operators will be fight over them and more bandwidth and more MB/GBs will be available for both lower subscriptions and at lower prepaid rates.
Apart from that – it won’t make most of your home appliances obsolete, that’s for sure.
Roaming is still an exception and in increasing number of countries you’re able to purchase a prepaid SIM card with flat data. Street view is a cheery on a cake and there will be more cherries as time and Google trikes pass by.
As for TomTom (et al) – if they’re not worrying about the Google Maps Navigation map itself, perhaps they should be worried about what it did to their stock value.
I would say this app is an excellent example of long-tail effects of a company using it’s own platform and its workforce.
Cheers!
Shonzilla
This app caches the route and few surrounding areas and points of interests when you prepare the route for the first time and continues to provide directions even after losing the data connection.
When you go abroad, you can just prepare the route on a Wifi signal beforehand and go on your merry way after disabling the data connection.
But does it tell you to take the fastest route?
byebye telenav and the rest of the third-rate maps-as-a-premium-feature vendors.
Fantastic! and this is free from Google.