ITWire

One of the biggest drawbacks of Google Maps for overseas travellers was that the service was built on the assumption that wireless access was available everywhere at a marginal cost of (or at least close to) zero. But that's not the case, especially if you're travelling overseas where massive roaming charges mean are the rule - not to mention reception blackspots such as some underground railways.

But now that's changed. A new version of the Google Maps for Android app includes the option of downloading maps of up to six areas before setting out. That's especially useful if you'd rather use your cheap home bandwidth rather than the expensive mobile kind, or if you're staying in a hotel with free Wi-Fi.

In iTWire's initial testing, the maximum map size appeared to be around 60MB, which was enough to cover the whole of metropolitan Melbourne from Sunbury to Philip Island and from Werribee to Warburton. The map data downloaded very slowly, but that could be due to heavy load on Google's servers following the announcement.

The new version of the free app is available from Google Play.