Google Maps Released for Palm OS

A mobile optimized version of Google Maps has been released today for Palm OS Treo smartphones. It is a free downloadable application which provides directions, local search, moveable/scalable maps, location satellite imagery and live traffic updates while on the go.

Google Maps for TreoGoogle Maps for Treo offers real-time traffic info for over 30 major US metro areas, detailed directions and maps, integrated local business search, and the same movable maps and satellite views as found on the web version of Google Maps.

"Google Maps for mobile is one of our most popular mobile applications," said Deep Nishar, director of product management for Google, Inc. "We're dedicated to providing user-friendly services that make life on the go easier. It's been a pleasure working with Palm to bring our critically acclaimed local search and mapping application to millions of Treo users."

Google Maps for Treo has been optimized for the Treo 680, 700p, 650 and 600. It is available today free of charge. To download Google Maps for mobile to a Treo smartphone, users simply visit www.google.com/gmm from the Treo web browser.

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Works great on my Palm TX too!

marnold @ 10/12/2006 3:12:29 PM # Q
The headline says it all. With WiFi hotspots all over the place, this is pretty slick.

RE: Works great on my Palm TX too!
MyLifedrive @ 10/12/2006 4:03:53 PM # Q
Just what Ive been looking for!

(now I hope it works on my Lifedrive)

JDL

RE: Works great on my Palm TX too!
t3h @ 10/12/2006 9:10:13 PM # Q
Unfortunately, no 320x480, but it's designed for the Treo. It'd be really cool over the full screen though.

Soon to be getting a T|X ( or maybe T5, Lifedrive or Treo - I can't decide!)
RE: Works great on my Palm TX too!
hkklife @ 10/13/2006 12:01:19 PM # Q
No 320*480 is pitiful indeed!

Even TomTom Navigator 6 supports fullscreen on the TX and it's only being sold now via Palm's GPS Navigator kit for Treos. With the LifeDrive & TX still being actively marketed (and in the TX's case, presumably being manufactured) and supporting wi-fi we should petition Palm & Google to add 320*480 supprt in the next version.

Of course, the conspiracy-minded amongst us will point fingers at Palm artifically trying to smother out the remaining reasons to own a larger screened PDA over a SSS (small square screen) Treo. Remember, folks, the smartphone market still lags dedicated PDAs by several years spec-wise. Palm LOVES pushing Treos becuase they are higher-profit AND they use circa 2003 technology. What's not to love about those margin-boosting aspects?

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

RE: Works great on my Palm TX too!
viqsi @ 10/13/2006 12:52:46 PM # Q
hkk: Oh, c'mon. This is a FIRST version marketed ONLY to Treos. Due to the way Google Maps is designed fullscreen mode would require more bandwidth anyways, and they can prob'ly add it pretty easily later if there's sufficent demand. They wouldn't have bothered beforehand 'cause, y'know, it's probably going to be used mostly by Treo users anyways, so why add delays trying to add a feature that won't be used by the target audience when you can get them good stuff Right Now and get that other detail later?

Seriously, even TVoR managed words of praise here. Try to see the glass as half full for once, please.

--
Of course, I don't know how interesting any of this really is, but now you've got it in your brain cells so you're stuck with it. --Gary Larson

RE: Works great on my Palm TX too!
hkklife @ 10/13/2006 3:15:24 PM # Q
I'm still miffed at the lack of any new non-Treo product in '06 from Palm.

It's foolish to market ONLY to Treos. There's not a single Treo-specific system call in the whole app since it has been confirmed to run just fine on the TX. Besides, a TX would have much more bandwidth when connected to a wi-fi hotspot than a lowly Treo would have.

If there ain't TX/LD/T5 support NOW then there's likely never going to be it. All indicators point a 320*320, Treo-only future.

P.S.
If you'll compare past posts you'll find that I am absolutely bubbling over with rah-rah cheerleading for Palm in comparison to ol' Voice! ;-)



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

RE: Works great on my Palm TX too!
The_Voice_of_Reason @ 10/14/2006 12:49:04 AM # Q
Seriously, even TVoR managed words of praise here. Try to see the glass as half full for once, please.


Girlfriend, S T F U. hkklife tells it like it is. But in this instance the conspiracy might just have Goog splattered all over it rather than some messy Palmprints. Scaling this to 320 x 480 should be fairly easy to accomplish, but Google might be wise to reserve slick widescreen support for its own proprietary communication devices. In the meantime, Treos make a great test bed for the GOOG Gang to play around with looking for bugs before betting the house on a Google-branded phone.

God bless Dianne Hackborn...


TVoR


http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/14545052.htm

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NICE

T_W @ 10/12/2006 6:24:50 PM # Q
Wow. Transparent buttons. transparent overlays. Smooth scrolling *while* network activity is going on in the background.

Why can't Palm do stuff like this?

Whoops, VersaMail just sh*t all over itself again and deleted all of my accounts. Whoops, my saved preferences just got erased again resetting everything back to the factory defaults. Where did I leave that backup? *sigh*

RE: NICE
Billav @ 10/12/2006 7:10:45 PM # Q
Un-f'ing-believe-able. This is the coolest thing I've seen on a Palm, EVER! When I saw Jack doing stuff like this with his Treo on "24" I never thought that we'd be able to do it too. You can even switch to a satellite image, just like on "24".

Screw Apple buying Palm. I hope Google buys Palm.

RE: NICE
twizza @ 10/13/2006 12:37:10 AM # Q
The app looks like a bit of something proposed in some of Dimtry's offernings. Quite neat acutally. I can honestly see a full web browser come out of what Good did, and dang it is quite functional and works well. Kudos to Google on this app. Works well on my 650 too. I wonder how EVDO Treos would treat it, as it really looks nice.

mobileministrymagazine.com
antoinerjwright.com
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Zaurus

legodude522 @ 10/12/2006 7:38:39 PM # Q
I really want Google Maps on my Zaurus! Ahh, no flash support in browser. I wonder how this programme runs. Maybe someone can make a frontend for the Zaurus that utilises this.

Palm m125>Palm Zire71>Tapwave Zodiac 1>Palm Zire 72>Sharp Zaurus SL-C1000
[url=http://yatuc.com/3d_]Zaurus for sale![/url]
[url=http://yatuc.com/y2]Palm screen repair guide.[/url]
RE: Zaurus
AdamaDBrown @ 10/12/2006 8:20:18 PM # Q
Isn't there some kind of J2ME environment for the Zaurus? There's been a Google Maps program for Java for a small eternity.

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Limited by lack of Wifi on Palm OS Treos

grimpeur @ 10/13/2006 3:19:27 AM # Q
Google Maps for Palm is fantastic but if you have a limited data plan like most people in Europe you are going to have to be VERY careful how you use it.

In plain old maps mode it is fine as most of the graphics are vector based and so don't require a tremendouse amount of bandwidth. As a test though I put the app. in satelite view and zoomed in on my house. By the time I was zoomed in I had downloaded 1.2MB of data. Of course I could have waited until the very last moment when I was zoomed in on the right area before switching to satelite mode and that would have greatly reduced the amount of data downloaded. But 1.2MB, my data plan with Orange in the UK is 4MB per month basic!

Thankfully I have this installed on my LifeDrive so I can use it over wifi to my heart's content. But I can't help but feel this would be a killer app on a Treo with Wifi. If I was travelling I could browse the local area in Google Maps using wifi in my hotel before hitting the streets. The app also seems like a great time waster to use while languishing in the airport departure lounge!

Wifi, wifi, wifi!! We need it!



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Well done, Google!

The_Voice_of_Reason @ 10/13/2006 4:22:57 AM # Q
Along with Directory Assistant, this app showcases how useful smartphones can be.

Fairly decent performance on my Treo 700p.


TVoR

RE: Well done, Google!
souterj @ 10/13/2006 11:44:47 AM # Q
This thing rocks on my TX (when in WiFi range in case anyone thinks I'm a nut job).

Linking the famous 'Google Maps' functionality on Palm with a SatNav receiver - now that has to be worth someone thinking about!

Top marks to Google for this - I'm well impressed and could only be happier if a future version detects and uses the 480x320 screen on my TX.


KultiVator

RE: Well done, Google!
Ryan @ 10/13/2006 12:49:42 PM # Q
I agree, this is a superb app. It would be 100x better if it had GPS support, now that would be outstanding.
RE: Well done, Google!
The_Voice_of_Reason @ 10/13/2006 11:53:35 PM # Q
Ironically the the first route I asked Google Maps to calculate when I tested it gave a BETTER suggested route than my Garmin GPS!

It will be nice to see this app take advantage of cellphone GPS to produce a poor man's navigation device. Google could potentially kill off the market for cheap GPS devices almost overnight. If Google can purchase Zagat To Go and either purchase or come up with its own versions of Vindigo and Directory Assistant they will have a truly impressive mobile information suite.

- Enter a restaurant name as a Google search and have the Google Mobile Information Suite return a Zagat review, a link to the restaurant's website, option to initiate a call (regular or VoIP?) to the restaurant for reservations and calculate driving directions from your current location.

- Enter a movie name as a Google search and have the Google Mobile Information Suite return a review (or selectable set of reviews), list nearby theatres playing the movie (along with start times) and calculate driving directions to any theatre chosen. Maybe even buy your tickets in advance.

- Integrate with user's address books to list addresses of contacts on the maps.

- Add ability to look up addresses listed in the cellphone's Contacts application. (I'm kind of surprised this ability wasn't included in this initial release of Google Maps for PalmOS.)

- Integrate with an online "Buddy" locating service that can (when you want) share your current location with individuals on your Buddy list and quickly calculate ditections to anyone chosen on that list.

Google has the potential to make a well-integrated search engine the "Killer App" that finally takes smartphones into the mainstream. These are the kind of apps that should be built into the OS/Launcher of a Google-sponsored "free" Wi-Fi cellphone. Sony's MYLO device would make a decent (albeit expensive) template for the Wi-Fi Google phone. Selling such a phone at cost (likely around $100) ASAP would be a bold step towards Google dismantling the current cellphone carrier hegemony. The only question is whether or not Google would wait until it lights up its dark fiber and rolls out its own Wi-Fi networks before releasing the Wi-Fi Google phone. I don't think waiting much longer would be in Google's best interests.

TVoR

RE: Well done, Google!
KultiVator @ 10/14/2006 5:31:13 PM # Q
This kind of integration was what I was hoping for in Palm's Mythical 3rd Business!

I really hope Google continue to work on bringing their clever ideas to Palm handhelds - as this suddenly adds immeasurable value to almost any Treo or WiFi-equipped PDA.

Perhaps we are not far from being able to manage our Google Calendars via a native Palm app too?

KultiVator

Why is Google sponsoring the development of cheap phones?
The_Voice_of_Reason @ 10/15/2006 9:26:56 PM # Q
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/14545052.htm

"A small band of tinkerers with that old Silicon Valley can-do spirit say they are determined to build a better cell phone, whether wireless companies like it or not.

They have even adapted the name of the Homebrew Computer Club, which in the 1970s counted Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, the founders of Apple Computer, among its earliest members.

This time around, the Homebrew Mobile Phone Club's beef is that today's cell phones are not as flexible as personal computers. That's just not acceptable for a generation of Silicon Valley geeks who made a sport of building custom computers with off-the-shelf parts.

Homebrew's inaugural meeting was held in a conference room on the Google campus, and attracted about 40 participants, including a few veterans of the original Homebrew club, some 30 years ago."

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dsandler/144178567/

Bwahahahah!

Google is going to DESTROY the domestic cellphone industry as we KNEW it...


Perhaps we are not far from being able to manage our Google Calendars via a native Palm app too?

I thought someone already released a beta app that does this but it was buggy as he11.


TVoR

Google Maps being taken to the next level. Oh. My. Gawd.
The_Voice_of_Reason @ 1/6/2007 6:46:53 PM # Q
It's f***ing UNREAL!

Rumor has it that the GPS/Mapping/Business/Telephone integration is KILLER. This is what we've all been waiting for.

Allah Google be praised!


TVoR

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Battery Drain?

jimmythemoose @ 10/13/2006 8:27:42 AM # Q
Has anyone noticed that their battery drains after using this? I tried this twice yesterday for a few minutes each time and then closed out, but next time I checked my Treo, the battery was almost dead. Could just be a coincidence.

RE: Battery Drain?
T_W @ 10/13/2006 9:21:10 AM # Q
No drain on this end. Just usual battery usage given that the radio is on.
RE: Battery Drain?
KultiVator @ 10/13/2006 2:42:09 PM # Q
No noticeable drain here either - but then the TX is pretty good on battery life.

I guess everyone's (battery) mileage will vary.


KultiVator

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Works on T5 also!

sduck409 @ 10/13/2006 6:26:53 PM # Q
This thing is a killer app. I've been dying waiting for this. I've got a TX, and of course it works on that, but we got it going (in less than a minute!) on a friends T5 this morning. He's a Mapopolis user, but could see that this might be a lot better in many situations. I'll be emailing google requesting the 320x480 support....

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Experience on Recent Trip

Richard @ 10/31/2006 9:20:30 PM # Q
I just got back from a trip to Seattle and I was very impressed with it. It worked extremely well in navigating around a city I didn't know very well. There were a few glitches where: (1) it wouldn't find a location in directions unless you first found the business and then did directions from there; or (2) where it took us on a route that it shouldn't have. It also seemed to have problems with anything in Redmond. I don't know if that was a commentary on Microsoft or just the first problem I mentioned. Still it was very useful. We hardly opened any of our triple A maps.

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