New Google Maps Update - Useful Tidbit

[NickinVA]

Hello all - like many of you, I'm sure, I enjoy using the Note 3's big screen for navigation in the car. I was one of the very vocal critics of last year's update, which crippled a lot of functions which I used for nav. If you've been gun-shy, or if you've disabled the updates as a result of that debacle, I strongly recommend the latest update. It is excellent all the way around.

I know there are still elements which some folks don't like, but this latest update solved my biggest issue, so I wanted to highlight it here since I don't think I'm the only one. I don't use the turn by turn direction 90% of the time, but I use the nav every time. What I'm using it for is like an interactive road map, showing me traffic and incidents well before I get there. To use it this way, you really want to use the trip preview view. In the old update, they took away the ETA data on the preview view - it's back! Also, and this is cool, if you set the turn by turn view to relative (as opposed to North up), when you go to preview mode it automatically shifts to North up. This is awesome! Less touches while driving is key!

Big fan of the new update. Any little nuggets the rest of us should know about?

 

[anon8380037]

Haven't tried it for nav yet, but I remember reading on AC's article there is lane guidance as well?

Sent from my N9005 using Tapatalk Pro

 

[NickinVA]

Haven't tried it for nav yet, but I remember reading on AC's article there is lane guidance as well?

There is - it hasn't saved my bacon yet, since I've used it on roads I know well, but it does indeed pop at every intersection.

Sent from my N9005 using Tapatalk Pro

 

[FBA]

That update was last week and has introduced a few really handy changes that I saw...

1) You now have distance to destination, time to destination, and ETA all on screen at once, which is great - and wasn't there before
2) Active Lane Guidance is there now (I thought this was a Garmin patent)
3) Maps can now be saved far more easily to the device for offline use.

One thing I love about Google maps, is that any search I may perform say on my Windows or Mac Desktop, shows up right away on my device...it just makes it less work while driving!

 

[JimSmith94]

Now if they could add the posted speed limit to the screen, it would have everything I miss with my dedicated GPS. That has saved my bacon numerous times.

 

[FBA]

They in fact could, if they want to pay for the data...and I would think it's coming as well. The lane guidance data wasn't free to them either, and it's now part of their mapping.