GPS

Scout navigation app: Basic route guidance for free

In light of Apple's recent announcements about its Maps app, the idea of another navigation app for the iPhone might seem redundant, but Apple's program will have a hard time matching the route guidance capabilities of Telenav's Scout.

This recently released free navigation app builds on Telenav's extensive experience in mobile navigation. Telenav came up with a new interface design and made the app free as a way of competing in the increasingly cutthroat world of navigation software.

Scout's major drawbacks are that it is strictly an online app, and voice prompts require a $9.… Read more

A travel guide app for Subaru drivers by Subaru drivers

Looking for the best camping and hiking spots in your area that are also dog friendly? Subaru has created a guide for travelers just like you.

Subaru's Guide to Everything is like a Yelp for road trips. The new crowdsourced travel guide contains 250 unique reviews written by Lonely Planet, and other destinations supplied by Subaru drivers.

The guide is available online and as a free downloadable iPhone app. Guide users can search for or add locations for camping, hiking, biking, dining, and sightseeing, and write comments, reviews, and provide tips. There's even a travel section specifically for … Read more

Apple's homegrown Maps app debuts (First Take)

It's WWDC week, and one of the big announcements from today's keynote was Apple's new, homegrown Maps app, which will come baked into iOS 6 this fall. Here, we take a look at Apple's new offering and how it compares to the Google-powered app that it's replacing.

Built by Apple from the ground up, Maps uses a vector-based engine that maintains a crisp appearance and seamless rendering, even as you zoom in and out. For context, Google Maps has been using vector-based graphics since late 2010, so while the technology is worth mentioning, it isn'… Read more

Apple taps TomTom for new iOS Maps app data

Apple unveiled its new Maps app for iOS today at the World Wide Developers Conference, but it didn't reveal its new source of data since booting Google as its default maps app.

Now we have word that TomTom is one of the main providers of data for the new app. An anonymous tipster sent Engadget "leaked" screenshots that show the app on an iPhone 4S running the iOS 6 developer beta, as well as a shot of a TomTom copyright notice.

A TomTom representative told Engadget that the company "has signed a global agreement with Apple … Read more

New Google Maps kicks iPhone vs Android battle up a notch

Google is aiming to blunt Apple's upcoming abandonment of Google Maps. As Apple moves away from using Google as the built-in mapping product for iOS, Google is trying to keep control of the mobile mapping market in the way we like to see: By innovating on the product. New features from the Google mapping team will make its maps more fun and more useful.

Will they make Google Maps more fun and useful than Apple's maps? That's the big question.

3D: Table stakes Both Google and Apple now have technology to create 3D maps … Read more

Nokia: We're basically the world's largest maps company

Nokia wants you to know that it's one of the biggest mapping companies you didn't know about. In fact, when you add its in-car, Web, and mobile presence together, it's pretty much king of the maps.

Nokia's mapping platform powers Yahoo services and increasingly gives Microsoft's Bing its cartographic data.

Thanks to its Navteq buy in 2007, Finland's finest claims an automotive presence in more than 80 percent of in-dash navigation modules and after-market devices.

"We're basically the world's largest mapping company," Hans Peter Brondmo, head of innovation for Nokia'… Read more

Google unveils full 3D Google Earth feature

Google unveiled a full 3D version of Google Earth today.

The service allows users to move around, rotate, and interact with 3D images of cities. Google said it expects the service to work for a few major cities for Android and iOS in the coming weeks.

"We're trying to create magic here," said Peter Birch, product manager for Google Earth. "It creates the illusion you're flying over the city.

The service is expected to cover the location of 300 million people by the end of the year, Birch said. The ultimate goal is to get … Read more

Google unveils offline mode for Google Maps

Google unveiled an offline version of its Google Maps application, allowing phones to run the program without an Internet connection.

The offline mode would be coming to Android shortly, according to Rita Chen, product manager of Google Maps for mobile.

The introduction of the new mapping service comes just as Apple is widely expected to drop Google's mapping application from iOS in favor of its own proprietary version. Maps is emerging as the next major battleground for technology companies, with services, recommendations, and advertisements built around location.

The service would work whether the phone was abroad and without access … Read more

Can the automotive industry rescue Google Maps?

Google isn't saying much about how it's going to rescue its mapping product from the expected upset of losing the Apple deal. We're going to learn exactly what it's doing tomorrow at a press event that I'll be live-blogging. (Join us Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. PT.)

All Google has said so far is:

Brian McClendon, VP of GoogleMaps and Google Earth, will give you a behind-the-scenes look at GoogleMaps and share our vision. We'll also demo some of the newest technology and provide a sneak peek at upcoming features that will help … Read more