Comments on: New Version of Google Maps for Palm OS Released

Google has quietly released an updated version of their popular Google Maps Mobile app for Palm OS-based devices. While Google's mobile map page does not indicate actual version numbers, a download and quick check of the Palm OS PRC file does indicate that a new version, 1.2.0.8 has been posted within the past few days.

On the Google Mobile Maps Treo-specific page, Google hints at speed enhancements in this latest version, along with real-time traffic reports and detailed directions. Google also touts "shorter startup time" and "stylus integration" as enhancements in this latest version of the app.

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Wow. What Support.

LiveFaith @ 7/8/2007 11:36:07 PM #

This is already one awesome user friendly, powerful app. They just update without cost and fanfare. I don't know how Google makes $$$ on this stuff, but they sure know how to garner goodwill in the Palm OS community.

Hey Google. Are you interested in buying 75% of a smartphone hardware company?

Pat Horne

Google map

philpalm @ 7/8/2007 11:59:17 PM #

At least Pretty earth works on a TH-55. All this stuff for a Treo may make me move to a Treo that doesn't use a phone service....Then again maybe it won't work if you don't have a data plan....

RE: Google map

LiveFaith @ 7/9/2007 8:16:10 AM #

Gotta have the data. The beauty of this thing is how seamlessly it uses the web to make maps. Even with EDGE on the 680, it is really tolerable. Zooming & panning are just so effortless.

Pat Horne

RE: Google map

joad @ 7/10/2007 3:52:15 PM #

I especially like that you don't need to wait for a "redraw" to zoom in several layers. Excellent feature.

useless without data plan

wushsuhsu @ 7/9/2007 1:43:22 AM #

Still no offline support.

RE: useless without data plan

drbuzz0 @ 7/9/2007 7:14:00 PM #

Wha? On a Treo? Buying a Treo without an unlimited data plan makes about as much sense as powering your house's electrical system on disposable AA batteries or heating your house with those little coleman propane tanks... or buying an ethanol capable car and filling the thank with Everclear.. or using bottled water to shower...

Seriously... doesn't having to count your kilobytes completely defeat the whole purpose?

RE: useless without data plan

DarthRepublican @ 7/9/2007 7:51:39 PM #

You could always try dial-up. It's slow, it's unreliable, and it's frustrating but eventually it works. Or you can switch to a cellular provider with a reasonable unlimited data plan.

RE: useless without data plan

hkklife @ 7/9/2007 7:54:55 PM #

What about those of us who do not reside in the U.S.? Poor ol' Timmmmay, for example, NEEDS wi-fi in a Treo because he has to put up such exhorbitant data plan prices Down Under.

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P

RE: useless without data plan

freakout @ 7/9/2007 8:06:42 PM #

^^ Indeed. $30 for 100mb a month??!! It's nuts.

RE: useless without data plan

hkklife @ 7/9/2007 8:18:11 PM #

Tim;

Do you at least get unlimited SMS there?

Can you believe I still don't get any free text messages on a $100/month Verizon dumbphone voice plan or on my $50 unlimited "PDA data" 700p plan?!?!

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P

RE: useless without data plan

freakout @ 7/9/2007 9:14:34 PM #

Yep. The "phone" part of my plan is actually pretty decent: I'm on Optus' $49 cap: $280 (or is it $250?) worth of calls and messaging a month - usually more than I use - and don't have to pay to receive SMS/MMS, as you poor Yanks do. But the data plans here are just hopeless. It's depressing.

On the flipside, it's wonderfully easy to switch carriers here when better plans become available. I've switched from Virgin to Optus to Vodafone and then back to Optus so far; it's the beauty of everyone using GSM.

RE: useless without data plan

wushsuhsu @ 7/10/2007 2:23:31 AM #

You're vastly underutilizing your Treo if you think you need a data plan. I have an offline news reader, games up the wazhoo, thousands of contacts, TomTom Navigator maps integrated w/ contacts, ListPro, calendar appointments every day, eReader and pdf viewer with lots of documents loaded on my SD card, lots of mp3 songs that I play with my high quality Shure e4c earphones, a gadzillion file notes that I use to replace yellow stickies, public transit schedules, and lots of other things which I don't have the space to list here. Furthermore, I used to have a data plan, but EDGE was so painful, I almost threw my Treo out the window, not to mention how horrible the brower is. As for email, I get thousands of email messages a day, so I just classify them and read them on my notebook. When Palm gets 3G, I plan to get the data plan, but not before.

RE: useless without data plan

freakout @ 7/10/2007 4:47:10 AM #

I would say that a Treo is only half a Treo without a data plan. ;) Don't use it for email so much, 'cause Versamail doesn't sync with T-Bird, but I use the on-the-go web stuff quite a bit. That said, I know it's not necessary, but it is extraordinarily useful.

RE: useless without data plan

potter @ 7/10/2007 10:01:21 AM #

hkklife wrote @ 7/9/2007 8:18:11 PM #

Do you at least get unlimited SMS there?
Can you believe I still don't get any free text messages on a $100/month Verizon dumbphone voice plan or on my $50 unlimited "PDA data" 700p plan?!?!

The voice plans that VerizonWireless is now pushing (at least they are trying to push them on me. I think they just started pushing them about 2 or 3 months ago) now includes unlimited SMS.

RE: useless without data plan

joad @ 7/10/2007 3:36:00 PM #

I think the fact that Sprint has quite a few more towers than they had in 1999 and AT&T is getting some serious attention has begun to scare Verizon a bit - they can't just sit there and stick it to their customers on voice and data rates anymore. When a simple home page on a website can easily exceed 1MB, paying a carrier by the KB is just insane.

I have Sprint (with roaming incl) and have done drivearounds with Verizon users - negligible difference. Certainly not worth paying Verizon their quoted rate of DOUBLE my comparable service plan with Sprint.

TX users...

t3h @ 7/9/2007 5:43:08 AM #

Still no 320x480 HiRes+ support. But then again, this is meant for the Treo users (although it's fine on a TX)...

Palm TX + 1GB SD + Motorola v3x = awesomeness

RE: TX users...

sremick @ 7/11/2007 9:00:05 AM #

Well since Palm is trying to downplay their best handhelds and pretend they never came out with high-res units, and instead turn back the clock and try to convince us that a square 320x320 screen is "modern" and the best...

http://www.vtbsd.net/

Been using for about a week

a_nonamiss @ 7/9/2007 7:51:59 AM #

I just happened to stumble on this update about a week ago and installed it. It has some other nice new features. (from the version I was using before, 1.1.something.) Notably, you can now lookup contacts from the Palm on the to:, from: and find location screens. Also, it's definitely zippier than before, and has more hotkeys. Visually, it now has icons to get to the find location, find nearby business, directions, traffic and satellite view.

Easily one of the best designed apps on the Palm. I'm glad Google hasn't abandoned us!

Arthur

Palm Pilot 1000 > Palm Pilot Professional > Palm III > Palm M100 > Sony Clié PEG-T415 > Palm T|T3 > Samsung SCH-i730 > Palm 700p

Nice Update - can we have a home location

bbmitch @ 7/9/2007 9:34:22 AM #

Google - nice job. I also echo the comment on your ongoing support and recognition of the Palm platform and the Treo. The update to the app is great. It now starts to feel like something I will use more often - especially because of the integration with the address book (contacts).

Being able to set a home location (with an associated icon) would be useful. I realize you can do this in a workaround way, but that home key and shortcut when looking up directions (to and from) would be very useful.

Thanks again

And Hybrid View too please!

freakout @ 7/9/2007 9:37:03 AM #

Top app made better. Cheers Google.

RE: Nice Update - can we have a home location

joad @ 7/9/2007 5:14:54 PM #

Yes, the addition of being able to grab addresses right out of contacts is great - now it finally feels integrated into the Treo. It was odd with the prior versions to have to leave googlemaps, open contacts, write down the address on paper, open googlemaps and write it down.

They still have no GPS support for whatever reason, but it's an incredibly designed application even without it. Does seem a little quicker, and the GUI is outstanding considering the real estate they have to work with.

One great addition would be "walking" directions.

RE: Nice Update - can we have a home location

hkklife @ 7/9/2007 7:48:40 PM #

As I said on the TC forums earlier, I SUSPECT Palm has weighed the wishes of their beancounters, their feeble R&D department, FrankenGarnet's limited capabilities, the wishes of their masters (ie the carriers) and the interest of the consumer market to arrive at the grand conclusion that integrated GPS is the lesser of the evils between it, a larger/higher-res LCD and wi-fi.

I predict Palm is going to integrate GPS into at least one Treo before 2007 is up...probably the Treo 800p. I'd expect Palm to "hog" a tweaked version of Google Maps supporting live GPS functionality for inclusion in the ROM of that device.

All speculaton, mind you, but still a good way for Palm to send Garnet out with a bang instead of a whimper and good practice for the Google team to work alongside an, ahem, "hardware company".

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P

Awesome Program!

MJustice @ 7/9/2007 9:40:44 AM #

I use Google Maps on my Palm Treo 700P and Dell Axim X51V, it works great on both. My only complaint is that the Palm OS version does NOT support GPS whereas the Pocket PC version does!

RE: Awesome Program!

hkklife @ 7/9/2007 10:48:43 AM #

Perhaps that's because Palm is hogging the GPS-enabled POS version for themselves until the release of the 800p this fall. First Palm OS smartphone with integrated GPS and Garnet's swan song, perhaps?

All sheer speculation on my part but Palm might have figured out that between a larger/higher-res screen, built-in wi-fi, and integrated GPS, GPS was the easiest/safest thing to do when taking into consideration the desires of the carriers, battery life issues, and the limitations of Garnet. And Palm HAS been pushing GPS bundles and peripherals for some time so I've been expecting Palm to integrate GPS into one of their devices for a couple of years now.

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P

RE: Awesome Program!

freakout @ 7/9/2007 8:10:15 PM #

http://blog.treonauts.com/2006/04/treo_with_built.html

Chips are shrinking all the time, and this was a year ago. Looking forward to the day it's built in.

RE: Awesome Program!

joad @ 7/10/2007 3:39:52 PM #

Even an old outdated chip would be affordable and welcome in the Treo. Sooner or later Palm's gotta start contribute SOMETHING new to the Treo beyond what was already on the plan when Handspring released this formfactor in 2003. Linking my PDA/smartphone up to a dedicated external GPS module is *so* 1998.

Did they add proxy support?

michael.graff @ 7/9/2007 11:48:27 AM #

Blazer has a way to enter a proxy address. Did Google Maps add this feature?

RE: Did they add proxy support?

freakout @ 7/10/2007 8:37:26 AM #

Nope. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

crashed my treo 680

cjcpeter @ 7/9/2007 3:41:17 PM #

don't know if it's my problem or it's a universal bug
crash my treo when I try to leave google maps
and after I reset the software, it can't be opened ...

Love this app

Gazpacho @ 7/9/2007 4:59:28 PM #

Truly a great killer-app. When presented correctly (iPhone, cough), leaves the mainstream people in awe.

http://foleocentral.blogspot.com

FoleoCentral is the news, opinions & review blog about the Palm Foleo Mobile Companion

RE: Love this app

sgiga @ 7/9/2007 9:00:13 PM #

You know of course that this app is available for every java enabled mobile phone on the planet? + Gmail + Calender (PIM), Just like Opera.

Really cool though, but how do they make money on it?

RE: Love this app

sgiga @ 7/9/2007 11:19:15 PM #

I have to say that the Gmail is probably a much more killer app. On the (so called dumb) phone it runs as a Java app, you only log on once the first time, and it is in perfect sync with your desktop. Attachments as PDF and Word works and can be viwed right on the phone.

Pretty soon most phones will come with Gmail and Google Calendar as standard.

In short: Google is King.

RE: Love this app

freakout @ 7/10/2007 8:36:03 AM #

Really cool though, but how do they make money on it?

I wondered about that too. Maybe they just see it as another method of herding more people into using their search engine, and being exposed to their ads. Do businesses pay to have their contact details (as in phone number and website, not just address) listed on the maps? Anyone?

RE: Love this app

joad @ 7/10/2007 3:50:25 PM #

Google makes it's money by aggregating information about *YOU*. They are in the business of selling *YOU* to their customers, so every little scrap of data they can tie into *YOU* allows them to get deeper and deeper into your habits and motivations.

Look at what superbowl advertisers pay for 30 seconds of bombarding one channel of TV with their "message" to anyone watching... and you can see it's a little more efficient to simply get inside *your* brain and emotions, figure out what and where you go - then use that information to "suggest" stuff for you to spend your time and money on. These are just baby steps right now.

So is it useful for Google to "give away" stuff that just happens to feed data into their unregulated database covering you (they seem to tie it in with your phone number and/or IP)? Apparently.

That's how they can build a great app like this and afford to give it away. We are *not* their customers, any more than we are the commercial broadcaster's customers - our *attention* is the product and the customers are the advertisers and government.

Damn.. It's missing two things I really wish it had

drbuzz0 @ 7/10/2007 7:59:46 PM #

It's a great program. An excellent one, but i just really wish it had two little things:

1. Support for KML files

2. Unlimited zoom - it only lets you zoom into the highest resolution satellite images avaliable for an area. Now granted, if you zoomed more, it would just be enlarging the images without adding any detail, but it would mean a bit less squinting.

SD Card Install

hambug @ 7/11/2007 10:13:54 AM #

Can this be installed on a SD card?

ham,(ham radio operator,N4WSH). bug, (I have a restored 66 VW Bug) = hambug :-)

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