Go ogle the free new Aussie Google Maps Navigation (Beta)!

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 17 November 2010 15:08

Your IT - Mobility

It's no longer just Nokia offering free navigation on a range of its smartphones, but now Google too, on Android phones running OS 1.6 and up, ensuring most phones on the market either already work from today or will with a free Android market download of the latest Google Maps version.

When it comes to Google and its propensity to release beta software that gets rapidly improved on-the-fly, beta, like butter, is definitely better.

Well, it's better when bugs are quickly fixed, updates and new information can be inserted into the system for review and cross checking with other reports from live users in the field, and if major interface changes are made, it's easy to go back to the older version if you want to, with Gmail a great example of that process in action.

Google's long awaited free Internet-connected turn-by-turn GPS Navigation has finally launched in beta status in Australia, bringing what US users have enjoyed for some time now to life for Android users down under. 

As Google describes on its brand new navigation page, which even includes videos so you can see all of the features in action, also includes a scannable QR scanning code to link to the latest Google Maps download, text instructions on how to find it in the Android Market, as well as a link to where you can 'Find an Android powered mobile that suits you' so that 'you can start exploring with Navigation'.

Google had a press demonstration of the system earlier today, although didn't show any video of the system in use, showing instead some of the new features, sharing the system's benefits and answering a range of questions, which will go into on page three and four.

For now, let's learn about the benefits of Google's new navigation system, which can harness live updates about road closures and route changes from users in real-time, as well as the aggregate location of all Android devices, making for a very dynamic and powerful GPS navigation environment in a sea of GPS satnav's and GPS-enabled smartphone competitors.

To start with, Google's Navigation software lets you search Google maps in plain English, without even needing to know the address. Google says that you can 'type a business name or even a kind of a business, just like you would on Google.'

Google then says you can 'search by voice and speak your destination instead of typing', so you could easily say "Navigate to Taronga Zoo". Happily, Google has clearly tweaked its voice recognition algorithms, because it says that that searching by voice 'works for Aussie accents too!'.

Directions are naturally spoken to you on a turn-by-turn basis, upcoming turns are displayed using Street View images, street names are spoken and your destination is show using Street View too, making the navigation process as ultra-modern and easy to follow and understand, just as you'd expect.

There's plenty more Google Maps Navigation (Beta) can do, please read on to page two!