Create Custom Google Maps for Android

Custom Maps is an essential app for Android phones for any serious off-trail hikers, sailors or anyone else who needs detailed off-line maps.

The app lets you quickly create a custom map for your Android phone from any map image or photo file. The image can be a photo or scan of a paper map. It could even just be the photo of a map posted at the beginning of a trailhead or at the entrance to an amusement park, which you can capture with your smartphone camera.

To create a custom map all you have to do is choose two (or more) points in your map image and plot them on a Google Map. That's all it takes. Your finished map can then show your GPS location and will work even when a data signal is not available like in a state park or when abroad.

I have a boat that is moored on a river with lots of tributaries and creeks, some of which are navigable and some of which aren't. When you start exploring these backwaters it is very easy to quickly lose a sense of where you are.

Using Custom Maps I made an off-line map for my phone in less than five minutes using a scan of a river chart. Now I should never get lost on my boat again.

The source code for Custom Maps is also available on Google Code. Several new features are also planned for the app including distance measurement, marking map locations with icons and making it possible to geolocate map images without Google Maps or a data connection.

Via: Open Source at Google

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Worldwide Google Map of Speed Traps

Blitzer.de is a new Google Map, and Android & iPhone app which has a huge database of speed traps around the world.

Blitzer.de is the latest application from the ever impressive Ubilabs. The app allows you to view the location of speed traps in your region and around the world. More than 2,000 mobile speed traps are reported by the blitzer.de community per day.

The application allows users to search by location and filter results by fixed speed traps, mobile cameras and all speed traps. The speed trap markers include speed limits where available. Users of the map and the mobile apps can also add speed traps that are missing from the map.

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Google Maps for Men, Facebook for Women

A study by Nielsen into Android smartphone usage shows that the number one application (aside from the Android Market itself) is Google Maps.

Google Maps is the most overall popular app on Android smartphones. However there are some differences in the favourite apps between female and male users. The most popular app for female users is Facebook.

Does this prove that men don't like asking for directions or are they all, like me, just obsessed with maps?

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What's Happening on Google Maps?

Banjo is a mobile social networking application for the iPhone and Android phones that helps you connect with the people around any location.



When you open the Banjo app on your phone you can immediately see who is around you, no matter what social network you belong to. Banjo shows you Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Gowalla, TwitPic and Instagram updates from everyone who is nearby.



A really nice feature of Banjo is that you aren't restricted to just your current location. With Banjo you can view social networking updates from anywhere in the world. This means that if there is a big festival happening on the other side of the world, or a huge breaking news story occuring in another city you can open Banjo and view all the latest real-time social networking updates from that location.



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The New Yorker on Google Maps

The New Yorker has released a New York events listings phone application for both the Android and the iPhone.



The Goings on About Town app provides listings for music, movies, art, theatre and other events in New York. The app includes a 'My Location' feature that uses Google Maps to show you what events are occurring around your current location.



The app also allows users to search listings by date, to access restaurant reviews from the New Yorker and includes recommended places from New York artists and writers.



Via: Read Write Web



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Film Locations on Google Maps

Spott is a mobile phone application that lets you check for nearby places that have been used in movie or TV scenes.

Using Spott you can view a Google Map that shows locations near you that have been used in iconic scenes in films and TV shows. You can also search a particular city for locations or search by actor or film.

Registered users of Spott can add locations to the map and can even take photographs of themselves at film locations and add them to the Spott image gallery.

Spott is available both for the iPhone and Android phones.

Filmaps

Filmaps is a film locations website that also uses Google Maps to show the locations of movies. Filmaps want to help movie fans find the locations in their favourite movies.

It is possible to search Filmaps for a particular film or it is possible to search a location to see which film was made there. For example, a search for the Eiffel Tower reveals that four films in the Filmaps database have used the famous landmark as a location.

Each film has its own Google Map. When you are browsing a film's locations it is very easy to add another location if you know of one that hasn't already been added. To do so you just press the 'add a location button' and complete a very short form.

Movie Landmarks

Brian Lane's MovieLandmarks.com is a "location-based movie landmark search engine". Location and media data are added by users and the resulting data is then mashed up for all to explore! For an example check out this Blues Brothers landmark.

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Google Maps 5.7 for Android

Google 5.7 for Android has been released and it comes with a lot of really useful new options.

Transit Navigation
One of the biggest additions to Google Maps for Android in this release is Transit Navigation. Google has added turn-by-turn (or stop-by-stop) directions to the public transit systems of over 400 cities around the world.



Transit Navigation can help you catch the right train or bus and alerts you when it’s time to get off or make a transfer.

Offline Maps
One of the biggest requests for Google Maps for Android has been the option to view maps when the user has no data connection. Google don't seem to be promoting this function but Droid Life noticed that this feature has been added under the Labs tab.

If you head into Labs (Menu>More>Labs) and select “Download Map Area” option, you can download maps to your phone to give you offline viewing when you don't have a connection.

Google+
If you have downloaded the Google+ app for Android you can now also post your location to your Google+ stream directly from Google Maps. If you check into a venue using Google Latitude your current location can then be posted to your Google+ stream.

Official Google Mobile Blog

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View Cell Phone Coverage on Google Maps

Sensorly

Sensorly provides community powered mobile phone coverage maps. It is currently mapping 76 networks across the world. If you download either the Android or iPhone app you can also become a part of the crowd supplying data to these phone coverage maps.

You can use the Sensorly Google Maps to view how good network coverage is in a given location, for both WiFi and mobile phone networks. You can navigate to your part of the world by using the links beneath the map. You can also find the relevant map for your network from the tabbed buttons at the top of the map.

OpenSignalMaps

OpenSignalMaps is a great source for data about cell phone towers, cell phone signal strength readings, and Wi-Fi access points around the world. OpenSignalsMaps uses Google Maps to allow you to view the mobile signal strength for any location and view the locations of nearby towers for your carrier.

Using the map you can search by location and view a heat map of the signal strength for each of the carriers available in your area. You can select to view the data of individual carriers and quickly see how their local coverage compares. It is also possible to view the cell tower locations for each of your local mobile phone service providers.

The data for the map is collected from users of the OpenSignalsMaps Android application. Data from the downloaded apps is stripped of any identifying information.

Root Metrics

Root Metrics allows you to compare the signal strength of different mobile phone carriers at different locations in the United States. You can search a Google Map by zip code or address to find the strength of coverage at any location.

The Root Metrics Google Map allows you to compare the signal strength of different mobile phone carriers. The map shows you each carrier's aggregate grade and the carrier's voice and data strength.

The Root Metrics iPhone app allows you to view the data from your mobile phone. Users of the app also contribute to the accuracy of the data shown. Data from downloaded apps is collected anonymously to track each carrier's performance.

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Electric Car Charge Points on Google Maps

ChargeMap

ChargeMap can show you the location of charging stations for electric cars in France. The application is available for iPhones, Android and from the desktop.

If you enter your current location into the desktop application ChargeMap will show you the nearest charging stations on a Google Map. Your location is shown by a red marker on the map and the charge stations are indicated by blue markers.

Each charge station includes information about the distance from your current location, the number of charge points available and its exact address.

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Share a Google Map with Your Group

GroupMe

GroupMe is a mobile app that lets you create your own social networks to share group messages, conference calls, photos or Google Maps.

Using GroupMe you can create a group with people who are already in your contacts. Once you have created a group you can then text message the group, start an instant conference call, share photographs or share a Google Map showing the location of everyone in the group.

As soon as you create a group you instantly have access to a shared Google Map. The map lets you share your location with the people in your group, find out where your friends are and see them all on a map.

The GroupMe app is available for iPhone, Android and Blackberry.

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Share Your World with Google Maps

Mobnotes

Mobnotes lets you share your location with friends, share your favourite places, search for venues around you and view other people in your vicinity. The application is available from the desktop and as an iPhone and Android app.

Google Maps is used extensively by Mobnotes. The home page features a real-time animated map of the latest check-ins made by users of Mobnotes. You can also use Google Maps to show your location and to view places/venues and other users nearby.

You can also use Mobnotes to let your friends know where you’ll be at a particular time. You can specify a location and inform your friends when you will be there using the Mobnotes 'Events' feature.

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Geo-Tag the World with Google Maps

ToothTag

ToothTag is an app for Android phones that includes a number of very useful location services.

Using ToothTag it is possible to tag things and locations and receive notifications based on your proximity. For example you can tag where you have parked your car so that you can find it again without any problems. The application can also automatically check you in to a number of location based services, such as FourSquare or even alert you when friends are nearby.

ToothTag is built upon NeuAer's powerful Proximity Platform. The Proximity Platform is a lightweight client and hosted server side technology that allows mobile applications on Android devices to add presence events in their applications. The client can be used by Android developers to build their own automatic check-in services or present information to users based upon location.

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View Cell Phone Coverage on Google Maps

OpenSignalMaps

OpenSignalMaps is a great source for data about cell phone towers, cell phone signal strength readings, and Wi-Fi access points around the world. OpenSignalsMaps uses Google Maps to allow you to view the mobile signal strength for any location and view the locations of nearby towers for your carrier.

Using the map you can search by location and view a heat map of the signal strength for each of the carriers available in your area. You can select to view the data of individual carriers and quickly see how their local coverage compares. It is also possible to view the cell tower locations for each of your local mobile phone service providers.

The data for the map is collected from users of the OpenSignalsMaps Android application. Data from the downloaded apps is stripped of any identifying information.

Root Metrics

Root Metrics allows you to compare the signal strength of different mobile phone carriers at different locations in the United States. You can search a Google Map by zip code or address to find the strength of coverage at any location.

The Root Metrics Google Map allows you to compare the signal strength of different mobile phone carriers. The map shows you each carrier's aggregate grade and the carrier's voice and data strength.

The Root Metrics iPhone app allows you to view the data from your mobile phone. Users of the app also contribute to the accuracy of the data shown. Data from downloaded apps is collected anonymously to track each carrier's performance.

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Listen to Twitter on Google Maps

iHear Network

iHear Network is a free mobile application for Android that lets you visit any location in the world and hear commentary from people in those locations as they post their experiences to the web in real-time.

Using a Google Map it is possible to let iHear find your current location or search for any location in the world. Once you have set your location the application then reads out the nearest geo-tagged content from Twitter. It is possible to adjust the radius of the area you wish to hear messages from. It is also possible to select to hear "New Tweets Only".

iHear is a great idea for a geo-location Twitter application. Using the application it is possible to zoom in on locations around the world, for example try Tahrir Square today, and hear the latest real-time Tweets coming from that location.

I can't help feeling however that iHear are missing a trick by not letting you sign-in with your Twitter account. It would be nice to be able to filter out the background 'Bieber' noise and just listen to the latest Twitter messages from my Twitter friends.

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Pacman on Google Maps

PacMap

PacMap is an application that turns your neighborhood into a real-life Pac-Man game.

PacMap overlays yellow pac-dots on top of a Google Map of your location. Your goal is to walk your neighborhood gobbling up the dots whilst avoiding the familiar Pac-Man enemies.

You score points by eating the yellow pac-dots and lose the game if an enemy manages to capture you. You can adjust the difficulty level of the game and you can also set the time limit to 10, 15 or 20 minutes.

PacMap includes a couple of options that can help to save your battery life and data usage. If you disable the animation option your battery drains less quickly and if you switch from the default satellite view to map view you will decrease data usasage.

PacMap is available from the Android Market.

Via: AppBrain
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The Killer App for your Smart Phone

SightSpaceStation

SightSpaceStation, the amazing satellite tracking website that allows anyone to track satellites in Google Street View, is now also available for the iPhone, iPad, iTouch and Android phones.

The app uses augmented reality and Google Maps to show the real-time location of orbiting satellites. The app is also packed full of other interesting features (view the video above).

If you get a smart phone for Christmas and you want to show off to your friends then get the SightSpaceStation app. In my opinion it is one of the killer apps for Android and iPhones.

iTunes Link

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Google Maps Now with Vector Graphics

Google's Andy Rubin recently demoed at the Dive Into Mobile conference the soon to be released new version of Google Maps for Android.

The biggest change in Google Maps 5.0 for Android is that Google are dropping map tiles for vector graphics. The use of vector graphics will lead to two great improvements for Android mobile map users.

In the video above you can see the improvements that vector graphics provide in the display of 3d building outlines. The 3d buildings will have dynamic shading that update on the fly as you change the perspective of your view. The buildings also allow the maps to be rotated to orient to the direction your phone is facing and allow oblique views.

The new vector graphics will also give Google Maps much better caching capabilities. This should mean that Google Maps on your Android will work much better when you don't have a data connection.

Google Maps 5.0 is expected to be released in the next few days.

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Local Listings on Google Maps

Tupalo

Tupalo.com is a social yellow pages community, connecting millions of businesses and customers via the internet.

Using Tupola it is not only possible to search for local businesses it is also possible to add a review, check-in and earn badges and share your favourite locations with all your friends. The Tupola website makes extensive use of Google Maps. If you search for a location on Tupola you can view Tupola listings for the area on a Google Map.

It is also possible to use Tupola from your smartphone, with applications available for the iPhone and Android phones.

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The Beer Lovers Android Application

BeerWhere
BeerWhere is a new essential application for beer lovers who own an Android phone (an iPhone app is on the way).

Using data from the excellent Beer Mapping Project, BeerWhere uses Google Maps to show you the best brewpubs, beer bars and beer stores in your immediate vicinity.

Using the application you can use your phone's GPS to search around your current location. It is also possible to search by city or by the name of a venue.

The application even has a few social networking features, allowing you to save bars you like to your favourites and share your favourites with your friends.

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TweetDeck with Google Maps

TweetDeck for Android

TweetDeck the independent desktop client for Twitter is now available as an Android application with some pretty useful integration with Google Maps.

The TweetDeck application for Android, as you might imagine, allows you to send and read messages from Twitter directly from your smartphone. In addition the application is also integrated with Facebook, Foursquare and Google Buzz.

One of the niftiest features of the application is the deep location integration with checkins and venue details on Google Maps. The applications uses Google Maps to show you the tweets and check-ins around your current location. This allows the user to find nearby venues from Foursquare and read Foursquare tips about that venue.

TweetDeck also allows you to view the recent nearby check-ins of your Foursquare friends. Last week Max Howell, the developer of TweetDeck's Android application spoke at the London GeoMob.

Max spoke enthusiastically about the location features of the application, claiming that he now very rarely organises his social engagements. He now uses TweetDeck instead to find the venues his friends are currently frequenting to facilitate serendipitous social engagements.

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