Announcing Google Maps Navigation for Android 2.0

A response to Announcing Google Maps Navigation for Android 2.0 as posted on Official Google Blog

Since 2005, millions of people have relied on Google Maps for mobile to get directions on the go. However, there’s always been one problem: Once you’re behind the wheel, a list of driving directions just isn’t that easy to use. It doesn’t tell you when your turn is coming up. And if you miss a turn? Forget it, you’re on your own.

Today we’re excited to announce the next step for Google Maps for mobile: Google Maps Navigation (Beta) for Android 2.0 devices.

This new feature comes with everything you’d expect to find in a GPS navigation system, like 3D views, turn-by-turn voice guidance and automatic rerouting. But unlike most navigation systems, Google Maps Navigation was built from the ground up to take advantage of your phone’s Internet connection.

As the VXW Droid release date keeps coming closer (this Friday!), and Android Mania continues to rise, more and more features of Android 2.0 are being unveiled, and one of the (if not the) coolest features so far looks like Google Maps Navigation, which will be released in it’s beta form.

Before anyone freaks out, Gmail was beta for what, 18 years before it was finally released?  So yeah, I wouldn’t worry too much.

I purchased a Garmin GPS a few months ago, finally fed up with bumbling my way around cities like Chicago or Lexington where I have close friends I visit regularly, getting lost while trying to make a catering delivery for work, or trying to find some random persons house or an unknown to me bar.  It’s pretty cool, picks up on FM traffic alerts which is nice in Chicago, and generally works pretty well.  The downside is it’s one more electronic device that I get to mess with, which I guess isn’t too much of a downside, since new toys are fun.

Regardless, I think one of the things the iPhone did is show that a well designed phone can really be much more, and that device integration is possible.  Music, maps, contacts, calendar, it’s all there, all on a fluffy cloud so you can sync it up with other stuff in your life, which is pretty darn cool, except that I still refuse to be on AT&T, and the iPhone Maps app, while cool, leaves a whole hell of a lot to be desired.

So enter the new Google app on Google’s Android 2.0 mobile phone OS.  You can port contacts in from Gmail and Facebook’s address book to your phone, input them, and because the Google app is connected to the internet, your map data will be up to date, which is cool, because my couple month old GPS with the newest map software (which is $100 to upgrade) isn’t.

Not something in your address book?  Search for it, either by categories (sushi near your mom’s house), or a bit broader (Colt’s Stadium in Indianapolis).  It’s a smart search, and is voice search compatible, but if it’s anything like Google Voice, it’s gonna be rough.

Top it off with street and satellite overviews like what can be found on Google Maps and Google Earth, and it’s pretty ****ing cool.

But will it be able to tell quickly when you’re off it’s chosen route and recalculate?  How quick will it be to update once you’ve made a turn?  What’s the overall UI really like?  Is Google going to slowly take over the world?

We shall see, and I shall see hopefully on Friday.  I totally plan on running both my Garmin and Droid in my car simultaneously, which I think will grant a bonus of +500 techie uberness to my VW.

I also want a job with Google.