map news, reviews, software and freeware

Google has a new Google Maps version which should help you navigate even better to the busy streets of the next city you're heading to. Google Maps 4.1 is now available to download and in case you depend on the application to get you to where you're headed then, by all means, go ahead and grab it.

What will Google Maps 4.1 bring to the table? As Google puts it you can expect "Search ‘s Swipe, Latitude Widget and More". First of all the results page has changed in order to give you all the info on a single page.


read more »

Robert Ciesnik who develops for Windows Mobile just released great mapping application OpenMobileMaps. It is similar to GoogleMaps but it's relying on OpenStreetMap.org. The application is made to be finger friendly and can show the map on fullscreen. Along with this has support for GPS and GSM triangulation (if no GPS device is present or there is no signal). Map tiles are downloaded and stored on your phone/storage and only new ones are downloaded and this saves your time and money, if you are on other than nolimit data plan.


read more »

If you heavily rely on Google Maps to do all the navigation for you and you also happen to love biking a lot then you'll be happy to hear Google has introduced navigation support for biking. Biking Directions is currently in beta and it will help you better plan your biking trails especially in busy cities and it will be easily accessible from your smartphone.

Biking directions will be available to the over 57 million bikers in the USA but it will not be available in other markets just yet. Users will be able to select starting points and destinations and have Google plan biking routes for them.


read more »

Buzz is new feature from Google, which they are rolling out to everyone and you should be able to use it via your Gmail account. In basic it allows you to see what's going on nearby, post a message tagged with your location, and follow your friends on the go. Now Google has released Maps Mobile 4.0 for windows phones and it has a Buzz layer.


read more »

Google has announced today a new service, Google Buzz, which is basically a social networking app built on the Gmail platform. Google Buzz will let you share photos and videos with your friends and you'll be doing everything from inside Google's Gmail.

You can check out your friends' status updates and write up your own. You can take advantage of Flickr, Picasa, YouTube and Twitter integration and as you expect the service will run flawlessly on your smartphones too.


read more »

One of the problems of the Motorola Droid was the lack of multitouch. And it would have been fine too if the Motorola Milestone, essentially the non-US Droid version, didn't come with multitouch features enabled. So naturally U.S customers have been also demanding multitouch support. Does that sound familiar? Well Google also forgot to include multitouch support on the Nexus One too.

Luckily for you Google has been working hard on updates lately. The Nexus One OTA update had multitouch support on board and now it looks like the Droid will also get some multitouch love.


read more »

TI has a new dual-core mobile chipset the OMAP 4 and we have a few reasons to be excited. The new chipset is the successor of the OMAP3, a processor currently found on the Droid and Palm Pre, and it will be interesting to see what smartphones will use it next.

The OMAP 4 has been able to make three independent display run 1080p video which is remarkable. Furthermore the processor promises up to 145 hours of battery life using just a 1,000mAh battery which is 3-4 times more than OMAP3's battery performance.


read more »

TripIt is a free travel app that keeps your TripIt itineraries and trip planning information at the ready. So if you travel a lot this app will be very handy for you.


read more »

HTC is going to have another busy year. The company is getting ready to launch new handsets and MWC 2010 might be the right time to announce new smartphones. While we're still waiting to see what Windows Mobile 7 phones HTC is ready to invent, we have a pretty good idea what Android smartphones to expect.

In fact seven unannounced handsets have already been leaked already although we expect HTC to launch even more Android handsets this year. While we don't have all the details about these upcoming devices, we do know what to expect from them:


read more »

We told you that Nokia was up to something and it looks like we were right! Although it still remains to be seen what the Finnish company will announce at the special event scheduled for London next week, we already know that a new Ovi Maps version is coming to Nokia smartphones and it will bring free turn-by-turn navigation to any GPS-enabled handset.

The move is not that surprising considering that Google has pretty much done the same thing for its Android customers in the USA. But Nokia will offer free navigation to all the smartphones it sells. Nokia's turn-by-turn navigation will be available initially in 74 countries which is quite impressive in comparison to Google.


read more »