Now we all use and love Google Maps, but turn by turn navigation has always been missing. With the Motorola Droid announcement today there was a mention of a new application: Google Maps Navigation, and as the name implies, it finally adds navigation capabilities to Google Maps, albeit with some limitations. It only works on Android 2.0 devices, and so far there is only one: Droid. And It only works in the USA, so Europeans and Asians are out of luck. Those small issues aside, you do get some nifty new features. The new voice API is used to enable hands free searching, and if you have a handset that supports a dock then you get “dock mode” so you can keep both hands on the wheel. Check out the videos below to get an idea of what Navigation is all about:
6 minutes 50 seconds: Intro to Google Maps Navigation:
1 minute: Google Maps Navigation Voice Search
35 seconds: Google Maps Navigation Car Dock
Quote of the Day: “Condolences to everyone who owns TomTom/Garmin/etc stock.” – @zacharye
Also let us not forget that the days of operators charging “some bullshit monthly fee” (quote from Simon in the ultra secret, ultra exclusive IntoMobile chatroom) are soon going to come to an end.