Palm Pre Gains a Google Maps Boost?
Admittedly, I haven’t used Google Maps on my Palm Pre in a long while, so it’s difficult to see what might be new. PreCentral reports that Google quietly updated the Maps application for webOS, however. The software does appear to render much faster to me, so they could be on to something. I also don’t remember seeing kinetic scrolling nor the separate little “Menu” button that now appears at the bottom right, either. Tapping it takes you to the same menu structure found in the Apple and Android versions of Google Maps — it offers options for Traffic, Directions, Search, Map and Satellite view. This menu system was on the Pre before today, but it appears slightly tweaked.
There’s no mention of any changes on the Google Maps Blog so there might be other goodies tucked in there, just waiting to be found. PreCentral is pining for Google Navigation in webOS, but I’m quite happy with the included Sprint Navigation service. I also don’t know which platform Google would devote navigation efforts to first: iPhone or webOS. I suspect it would be the iPhone simply due to the sheer number of handsets out there. While Google is battling Apple in the mobile operating space, having Google Navigation on iPhone can benefit Google by gathering more information on where people are going and how they’re getting there.
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searching Google Transit is finally available on the Pre, and the overall feel is much cleaner, thanks for the heads up
Google Transit has been available for months now, and the menu button has been around since day one. :)
I’m a heavy user of Google Maps on the Palm Pre, I noticed something different but didn’t realize until I saw your post that there are some subtle, but improved changes.
1) The rendering does appear much faster. It seems to load quicker and the interaction is more responsive. While the iPhone version of Google Apps had the Pre version beat for responsiveness, this version feels more comparable to Apple’s.
2) The menu system is different. Previously the “Traffic” button was an enable or disable option. Meaning you could enable the Traffic overlay on the normal map, or shut it off. Every time you turned it on, it would delay a while then show up.
Now instead of Traffic being a toggle button, it is a map mode. So there are 3 modes, Map, Traffic and Satellite. Rather than toggling the traffic on or off, as you choose a mode, it is immediately viewable. The option becomes greyed out, and the other 2 views are clickable for fast switching. Again, moving through the views seems much snappier to me, that being a subjective gut feel not an observation based on actual measurement. All in all, it seems more intuitive to switch modes versus toggling an overlay on or off.
-dave
Plus Latitude works if you apply the iphone spoof patch…