Google has announced a lot of new products at Google I/O and as expected it has also unveiled an update to its Maps. Google maps team has worked from the scratch to give a completely new look to the Maps, which also happens to be the first major design overhaul for the web interface ever since its launch almost eight years back.

To begin with, for desktops Google has changed the whole look of the service with more crisp and clearer visuals of vector maps and has eliminated the search bar on the side so the map now runs edge to edge on the screen. The search box has been placed on the top left side of the screen, and also offers updating to the existing features while including some new ones as well. Basically, the search option in maps has been made more intelligent to suit your interest. For instance, the search locations are now supplemented with regularly searched locations, places of interest, as well as recreational places like restaurants and more, visited or reviewed or recommended by friends, to give it a more personalized touch.

Moreover, you can now choose to explore a place which will result in several category-based options popping up in the form of cards to offer you information on restaurants, shopping centers, places to visit and more.

When the user clicks anywhere on the map, it will function like earlier but it will now offer more information that will be relevant to the search query.

Users will be able to expand maps to see the places with Street View and even the innards of a restaurant or a shop at 360-degree viewing angles. This will give an immersive imaging experience giving the user a better insight of the place in question.

The details on roads, streets, hills and more on the map are all revamped in terms of colors and visuals, and have now got a real time touch that changes the view as per the Earth’s position.

As far as the Android and iOS users are concerned, Google has announced an updated UI and features like Google Offers which will include deals and coupons from a number of restaurants and retail outlets. Google has partnered with Zagat for this. Users will be able to access these services, or can even read and review restaurants by rating them in numbers.

Google is planning to roll out the update for Maps across platforms in the summer, and the good news is that this updated version will run on the iPad as well.

As rumored before, Google has just announced its iOS Game Center competitor called the Google Play game service. The gaming service will not only be available on Android, but will also be available across iOS and the web.

The Google Play game service recognized by the gaming controller icon on Android will boost multiplayer gaming and bring in features like achievements, in-game chat, matchmaking, cloud save syncing, and a leaderboard feature. As was reported earlier, the service is also expected to be deeply integrated with Google+ which will handle all user ID information.

In addition to the gaming service, Google also announced a couple of other APIs as a part of Google Play services for developers to integrate on their apps like an updated Maps API that allows developers to use 3D maps inside their apps, Fused Location Provider that can acquire locations faster than before while using less power and a synced notification feature that will allow users to dismiss a notification on an Android phone and a tablet at the same time. There is also a Geo Fencing API as well as a cross-platform sign in functions that will allow users to register on different apps via your Google+ account.

The government should book Google for “violating” India’s defense regulations on maps and force the company to surrender its “illegally stored” data to the Surveyor General of India, BJP MP Tarun Vijay says.

“Getting every inch of India mapped by illegally inviting people to send the data for their US-based servers presents a grave danger to the security and poses a challenge to the Indian state,” Tarun Vijay told IANS in an interview concerning Google’s Mapathon 2013 exercise.

Mapathon 2013 – which started last month and culminates on March 25 – is an India-wide mapping contest by Google with prizes for top mappers. Google Maps users from all over the country have been invited “to help create better maps for India” by adding knowledge of their neighborhoods through the Google map maker.

The Bharatiya Janata Party MP said Google had broken the statutory norms by running a Map India campaign without permission.

“The Mapathon activity by Google Maps is in contravention of the National Map Policy and map restriction policies issued by the defense ministry from time to time,” he said.

Tarun Vijay said that the Surveyor General of India (SOI) alone was mandated to undertake “restricted” category survey, mapping and disseminating India’s topographic map database.

The MP, who is also a BJP spokesperson, said the defense ministry has identified and prepared a list of civil and military Vital Areas (VAs)/Vital Points (VPs) in consultation with the home ministry and this was regularly updated.

“From the national security point of view, these VAs/VPs cannot be shown in the maps/data published in the public domain as Google is doing,” he said.

Calling for tough action, he said Google should be taught to respect India’s laws.

“Restrict them, invoke the relevant law to book a case against them, interrogate their CEO in India and make them surrender all data illegally stored to the Survey of India. The law must prevail, however influential such agencies might be,” Tarun Vijay said.

At the same time, the MP said that Google had done a great service to mapping the world over and had changed the way people used maps or located places.

“Still, the Indian state can’t be dwarfed by a US-based agency whose operations are not under our control. People can be involved, but with the active monitoring by the Survey of India alone so that the sensitive maps can be identified and kept out of the public domain,” he said.

Asked about his meeting with Defense Minister A.K. Antony earlier in the week during which he had demanded an inquiry into the issue, Tarun Vijay said he had been informed after the meeting by the Survey of India that it had taken up the matter with Google.

He said Survey of India officials had also taken up the issue with the defense ministry for steps to stop “unauthorized” mapping activity.

Tarun Vijay accused the government of being insensitive to Google’s mapping activities.

“The lethargic attitude is disappointing.The government should have been the first to promptly register a cognizable offence case against Google,” he said.

Answering a query, he said Google had not responded to issues raised by him.

Tarun Vijay said that India’s mapping policy was available on government websites and bookstores and ignorance cannot be an excuse.

Zomato for iOS has been updated bringing with it new features and security updates. But among these updates, the one feature that Apple device users in India will welcome is the app’s integration with Google Maps.

Zomato till date had been using Apple Maps and as the app heavily depends on the user’s location, the results and recommendations weren’t always accurate. But with the use of Google Maps, we can now expect accurate results and more relevant recommendations.

Besides the integration with Google Maps, Zomato has also introduced other features like ‘Happy Hours’ for restaurants, improved Facebook integration and the ability to use your Google account to login to the app.

If you haven’t used Zomato yet, you can download it from the App Store.

Google Maps for iOS has hit version 1.1 and the new update for the free mapping solution brings a number of new features including the ability to search addresses of contacts from within the app. More so, users can now search for a multitude of categories that include food, coffee, bars, gas stations, attractions and many more.

But the bigger deal is the ability to search for addresses saved in your Google contacts. If you are logged-in, then you can search for a friends name and if he or she has added their address then you will be able to search for it. However, for this to work the user will need to enable Google Contacts sync via CardDAV on the iPhone or iPad.

An English version of the app is also hitting a number of Middle Eastern countries that include – Bahrain, Egypt, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and UAE. As always the app can be downloaded from here.

Google has announced a mapping competition, Mapathon 2013, in India, which will help Google in improving its maps for India. Starting from February 12 to March 25, 2013, this is a mapping contest wherein any Indian citizen can participate and and add information about their neighborhood via Google Map Maker.

Participants are required to add information and details in Google Map Maker, which will help Google in sprucing up its Indian maps. All one needs to do is to register themselves at http://g.co/mapindia2013, and then follow the steps to make changes in Google Map Maker. One can select a specific map area, update or add more local information like information on local businesses, restaurants, shops or even routes can also be added and submit it. This new information will be verified by Google’s own team before being added to Google Maps.

Out of all participants, the top 1,000 contestants will get a chance to win Android tablets, smartphones, gift vouchers and Google merchandise.

When Apple launched the iPhone 5 with iOS 6, the new maps app was universally panned. Apple had replaced Google Maps with its own homegrown solution, but its data was gravely lacking and faulty which eventually led to the sacking of the iOS head Scott Forstall. At this time Google did not have a native Maps app for iOS and Waze in many ways became the best Maps app for iOS. Of course this has changed since Google released its fantastic new Maps app for iOS. Now, TechCrunch is reporting that Apple is in advanced talks to acquire Waze, to bolster its default Maps app for iOS.

UPDATE: Turns out it was a rumor and TechCrunch is now reporting there is no deal happening.

According to the report Apple has offered Waze $400 million plus $100 million in incentives, while Waze is demanding $750 million. Waze had less than $1 billion in revenues last year and these too primarily came from ads.

That said, Waze has strong mapping data in particular in Asia and the Middle East and Apple is in grave need of this data. Even in India, we can testify that Waze has a vastly superior maps database than Apple, so it does make a lot of sense for Apple to acquire the company. But, as mentioned above both parties are yet to settle on a final figure, so the negotiations could take some time or even fall through.

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Just minutes ago we reported that Google was scheduled to launch the Google Maps app for iOS today and now the app is officially live on the Apple App store. More importantly, this app brings along a long awaited feature – voice guided turn-by-turn navigation. Additionally, it keeps a tab of transit routes for trains, subways, and bus and even provides walking directions.

More or less it is a native iOS app, but unlike the previous app this one has been made by Google and one can clearly see the experience is vastly superior to the older app. In fact, one can go as far to say it is a lot closer to the Android experience, which is a very good thing. Google also touts the brand new interface and the app is also optimized for the 4-inch Retina display on the iPhone 5.

Devices running iOS 5.1 and upwards are supported by the app so this means a large variety of iDevices will be compatible.

Only a couple of weeks ago Nokia had released its Here app for iOS and many felt that Google had missed the bus. But luckily for them the experience provided by Here was not up to scratch and it was missing voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation.

For most iPhone 5 users, this is the Eureka moment you have been waiting for considering perhaps the only glaring flaw in the iPhone 5 was its mapping experience.

The bigger piece of news, however, is that Google has also released an SDK for developers to include Google Maps in their iOS apps rather than relying on Apple’s solution. It doesn’t get any bigger than this and for all practical purposes ensures that Google Maps becomes the default navigation service for iOS devices.

Google Maps for iOS 6 users are scheduled to the Apple App store later today if a report by AllThingsD is to be believed.  The report says that it will come tonight, but that’s because the report is coming out of the US and they expect it to be available anytime soon, so we can expect the app to be available today.

This of course is a massive boon to iOS 6 users who were left in the cold when Apple launched its own Mapping service, which turned out to be sub-par. Apple had touted the new 3D Maps app as the flagship feature of iOS 6 and overall the system was not only missing maps data but was rather unreliable and buggy. As a fall out of this, iOS chief Scott Forstall was ousted and Tim Cook publicly apologized for the gaffe.

Apple for its part claimed that it wanted to offer features like turn-by-turn navigation, something, which Google had not added in the built-in iOS maps app. Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt had hinted that the app would be coming soon and the rumor mill generally pointed towards a December release for the app, so all this is happening more or less according to plan.

Previously it has also been suggested that, new Google Maps app will have turn-by-turn navigation enabled by default, so let’s see if that happens because that will definitely give Google the edge over the built-in Apple Maps and also other free competitors like Nokia’s Here apps that basically seems like a port of the Symbian app.

In the meanwhile, keep your fingers crossed and keep checking the site, as we will update it as soon as the Google Maps app goes live on the App store.

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Google is preparing a Maps app for the iPhone after Apple booted it out from the latest version of its iOS operating system. Google Maps had been the default mapping app for iPhone since its launch in 2007 but Apple decided to go for its own maps solution in iOS 6. We know where that story went. WSJ is claiming that Google is currently giving final touches to its Maps app for iOS before it submits it to the App Store for Apple’s approval.

The news comes barely a couple of days after Nokia announced it had submitted its maps app, called HERE, to the App Store and is expecting it to be available in a few weeks. Notably, WSJ claims that the Google Maps app on iOS also features turn-by-turn navigation, which was not present in the earlier default maps app that was powered by Google.Turn-by-turn navigation on Google Maps is now live in India on Android and we would assume that the same feature would be available when it is released on iOS as well.

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It is a very well known fact that Apple maps on iOS 6 is the worst navigation solution on offer on any smartphone platform. Entire cities went missing or were marked incorrectly when Apple decided to chuck Google Maps and go for its own in-house mapping solution. Till now over 100 million iOS users have upgraded to iOS 6 and millions of them have already complained about the new Apple maps. Initially Apple dismissed its incompetency and claimed that its maps would get better overtime as more people used them. However, Apple probably did not realize that its maps were no only unreliable but also completely unusable.

Today Apple CEO, Tim Cook, officially acknowledged Apple’s failure and apologized to users for letting them down. In an unprecedented move, Cook even suggested users to use online versions of Google and Nokia maps highlighting the extent of problems in Apple’s maps. This suggests that Apple maps would not improve dramatically in the coming weeks and months and it would rather take them much longer to achieve what they had embarked on with their maps.

This provides an interesting opportunity for both Google and Nokia, both of whom already have world class maps and navigation services. So far it is understood that Google has not submitted a maps app for iOS and have left the ball in Apple’s court to decide weather they want to continue with the arrangement the two companies had prior to iOS 6. Nokia, on the other hand, is already touting its maps and location services as a key differentiator in its upcoming Lumia smartphones.

Apple finds itself in unfamiliar territory as usually it is the one that dictates terms to its partners. What remains to be seen is weather Apple bows down and agrees to Google’s terms amidst consumer backlash.

Here is the open letter from Tim Cook apologizing to Apple users.

To our customers,

At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers. With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better.

We launched Maps initially with the first version of iOS. As time progressed, we wanted to provide our customers with even better Maps including features such as turn-by-turn directions, voice integration, Flyover and vector-based maps. In order to do this, we had to create a new version of Maps from the ground up.

There are already more than 100 million iOS devices using the new Apple Maps, with more and more joining us every day. In just over a week, iOS users with the new Maps have already searched for nearly half a billion locations. The more our customers use our Maps the better it will get and we greatly appreciate all of the feedback we have received from you.

While we’re improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app.

Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world. We know that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard.

Tim Cook
Apple’s CEO

iOS hacker Ryan Petrich claims to have ported Google Maps on iOS 6. He took to Twitter to announce his feat and said that he was running a port of the Google Maps app from iOS 5.1 on an iPhone 3GS running iOS 6. He has posted an video of the Google Maps app running on iOS 6 in a YouTube video.

His hack, however comes with its own set of kinks. For starters, it is quite buggy and prone to crashes. The hack also only works on jailbroken devices and it cannot be distributed to the public. He says that if the distribution issues are sorted he will release a copy of the app with an installer.

Apple has copped a lot of flak for the removal of the Google Maps app from iOS 6 in exchange for its own nascent solution, which admittedly is not as fully featured or accurate as Google Maps. As of now users have reverted to creating a short-cut of the Google Maps webpage on iOS 6, but that has proved to an inefficient solution.

Google’s executive chairman and former CEO Eric Schmidt told Reuters that his company had not submitted a Google Maps app for iOS at an event in Tokyo, Japan. Previously, rumors were perpetuated by Apple watcher 9to5Mac that Google had submitted the app and was waiting for approval from Apple.

Schmidt was present at the launch of the Nexus 7 tablet in Tokyo. He further reiterated that Google was in talks with Apple. Ever since Apple dropped Google Maps as the stock map backend for iOS, in lieu of its own new solution there has been a great uproar as consumers and tech pundits in unison believe that Apple’s new map app is inferior to the Google maps app it replaces.

Apple of course lags behind Google in this space and is relative newcomer, while Google’s service is considered amongst the best in world which has been continually evolving with the influx data provided by millions of users iOS and Android smartphones.

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The release of iOS 6 has recked havoc amongst a number of iDevice users as the update has replaced the long standing Google Maps app with Apple’s new solution which is being called inferior to the product it replaces. Apparently, Google already has an iOS version of its popular maps app ready if a report by 9to5Mac is to believed. According to the report, the app has been submitted to Apple for approval, but Apple is yet to give the go ahead.

TechCrunch also is reporting on similar lines, but it says that Google hopes to have the app out before Christmas.

In stark contrast Apple expert Jim Dalrymple says believes this not to be true. In his customary way he posted ‘Nope’ on the LoopInsight.

Common sense dictates that Google builds an iOS version of the Maps app, not only in the wake of this iOS 6 backlash, but also for the user generated map data that it has been gathering from the legions of iOS users over the past few years. With the removal of the Google Maps app from iOS, Google will not get this data, so it is imperative for the company to have a competing product in the App Store.

Apple on the other hand could possibly block the Google Maps app, if it contends that the app competes with the core-iOS functionality. However, the App Store is already home to a plethora of map applications like MapMyIndia and the blockage of a Google Maps app would be like rubbing salt in the wounds of its own customers.

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