Database Users

Google Maps 4.5 now available

Whether you’re going for an urban hike or wandering from your hotel to find that restaurant you passed earlier, you won’t have to flag down a local if you’ve got Google Maps for mobile 4.5 on Android. Maps already had Navigation and walking directions, and today we’re happy to share the perfect marriage of the two: Walking Navigation (Beta). If you need help deciding where to walk (or drive), you can now also use Street View smart navigation or the new Google Maps search bar to guide your choice. - Read more
Download here.

Or just use market.
Still doesn't support Australia properly though
I wish google would open it up to more countries, before they worked on new features..

The Brut mod with the last version of the maps works brilliantly and allows all the navigation features that the US has had for ages

antz88c said:
Whether you’re going for an urban hike or wandering from your hotel to find that restaurant you passed earlier, you won’t have to flag down a local if you’ve got Google Maps for mobile 4.5 on Android. Maps already had Navigation and walking directions, and today we’re happy to share the perfect marriage of the two: Walking Navigation (Beta). If you need help deciding where to walk (or drive), you can now also use Street View smart navigation or the new Google Maps search bar to guide your choice. - Read more
Download here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hope to see brut version release soon

I gave brut a try a long time and it was useless (it didn't work for me), but looks like it is indeed perfect now..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=630887
Still.. I wish Google would open theirs up to other countries so that we don't need to use hacked copies. But mad respects to brut.all...

cheers for the heads up, ill have a play with that lol

Is this a WVGA version or is it useable on HVGA also? I'd like to try it on my Spica but don't want to download it via gprs.

Thanks!
Thanks for the apk, it was not available for the Desire on the market!

Launging google maps in Android from website

I had a real quick question regarding google maps, if I have a map embedded on a website. Is there a quick and easy (i.e. without having to mess around with the android specific google maps API) to have the map automatically launch in the google maps app, rather than the browser? The google maps website and yelp seem to have it integrated.
(I know this isn't the usual topic around these parts, though I'm a bit too lazy to register for another android forum at this point)
-A

Launching*, sorry for the typo running on 2 hours of sleep and not nearly enough coffee haha.

Things that can make Android even better.

I have been thinking a lot lately about my phone, I have a Galaxy S and I felt some features that were not there or missing without the third party apps, I think putting these together will help making an already amazing operating system even better
1. SMS and call history
Google should come with service where these are backed up on Google servers, or have the option to save it to the external sd card, so that when you format your phone they should be back again. (Yes I know there are third party software’s that does that but something like that should be a part of Google android)
2. Google Talk with Video Integration.
(Right now Yahoo, fringe etc. are there for video chat) but Google should come up with their own video integration service.
3, Google doc support.
Android is lacking with Google doc support, I hope they come up with it, in coming versions.
4. Google chrome,
It should be the default Browser, and should come up as preinstalled browser on the Android.
5. Bookmarks.
Google should come up with a service like xmarks and xpass, which saves your bookmarks and passwords on the servers and sync them with your home and office computers.
6. Video/music player.
I saw this somewhere on the xda where they have put in upcoming default player for android that would be a great thing to come. Also I would want it to have an option where it gives you option to select the directory which you want to scan and put into the music and video player. I don’t want it pick anything and everything (Like the game video/music files)
7. Google sync.
Google should come up with a default pc application, not something like HTC has their own, and Samsung has bull**** kies. Also it should have options to save a back up for settings, sms, applications and call logs etc.
8. Market.
They made the interface better but they still need to sync it much better to the Google account and next time when you format the phone, the applications which the person has always be using, should come in the list of previously installed applications, so that we can install them all in one go.
9. Power saving feature.
I used the task killers etc.. They don’t really do anything. but one thing I do not know when you close the application why does it keep running in background? We don’t really need this, it should be more like Symbian once you close the app, it should not run unless you rerun it.. (This will help fix the battery issues)
10. Google maps.
They are getting better and better day by day with maps, but one thing I would say is still lacking is the navigation part. Google Navigation is really not as good as the Igo, Garmin etc. They should allow you to download the map of the city you are in and should show route by route navigation. Also There is a Mark your place option missing, you can mark your house etc, unless you save it as a contact on Google maps, which is annoying..
This is my experience on Android and features which I feel are missing and can make the Android the best OS on the earth ...
PS. This feedback is more related with software only, if you know any feature that you miss the most, comment
Gaurav Kainth
Android SGS user

196 views 0 reply
Guyz this is not something random picked from some site.. this is what I feel is missing on the android... worth a reading.. may be some devlopers put these issues accoss and might help us all

Contrary to popular believe google software is far from the miracle work it's made out to be. In fact their software is often rather immature. Best example of that is google maps but the whole android os is another example. However, unlike microsoft, google is not looking to provide an all in one solution by themselves. They are in fact intentionally leaving out many of the features you mention in order to make those a commodity (and it works, there are apps for most of those functions). It's bad and good for the enduser at the same time. But considering google's software quality, I think it's mostly positive.
PS: Leaving voice and video out of gtalk on the mobile is retarded. But it will likely change with the new apis introduced in android 2.3
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

They probably do back up your call history and SMS messages lol.

Market should be a part of Android (AOSP), not Google Apps.

1. SMS and call history
Syncing to a server would enrage privacy organisations, regular users don't flash thier phone every week. But being able to read them in Gmail would be awesome.
2. Google Talk with Video Integration.
Will be here within months, Andy Rubin already showed it on the dive into D:mobile interview
3, Google doc support.
Google docs = webbased, you can edit in the webversion.
4. Google chrome,
Browser already uses the V8 engine and the webkit renderer, just like chrome.
5. Bookmarks.
Bookmarks already get saved and synced on google phones and AOSP roms, samsung disabled it?
6. Video/music player.
7. Google sync.
it's called google apps (gmail, calendar, picasa, enz)
8. Market.
AOSP roms automatically reinstall all your apps after a reset/flash, samsung disabled it?
9. Power saving feature.
Apps dont keep running, they just keep in the RAM so they don't need to reload. They only keep running if they have ongoing processes, and then you probably want them to keep running.
10. Google maps.
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10charsoutsideaquote

RambJoe said:
They probably do back up your call history and SMS messages lol.
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Lol yeah you never know but atleast they should give users an access to that

I agree with every point.

[Q] Google Latitude replacement?

As we all know the Google Latitude service is shutting down on 9th August 2013.
Does anyone know of a suitable replacement?
p.s I never made it to the moon :crying:

The official replacement is "Locations" in Google+. Any reason why that won't work for you?

Solutions Etcetera said:
The official replacement is "Locations" in Google+. Any reason why that won't work for you?
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My family and friends don't use Google+, any other apps?

meyert11 said:
My family and friends don't use Google+, any other apps?
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Come next month, they won't be using Latitude either. I don't understand why looking for another app is preferential to switching to Google+. Is it just having to add it to your account? Or is it something else?

Solutions Etcetera said:
Come next month, they won't be using Latitude either. I don't understand why looking for another app is preferential to switching to Google+. Is it just having to add it to your account? Or is it something else?
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Google latitude ran under Google maps, so users of Google maps (virtually anyone) could follow each other. Now that latitude is being moved under Google+, only people with plus accounts will be able to use it. Since my family and friends don't use Google+, if we want to follow each other we will all have to sign up for Google+ accounts, just to use latitude. Seems like an unnecessary amount of work, for a feature that is useful during vacations and trips. Hope this explains it a bit.

meyert11 said:
Google latitude ran under Google maps, so users of Google maps (virtually anyone) could follow each other. Now that latitude is being moved under Google+, only people with plus accounts will be able to use it. Since my family and friends don't use Google+, if we want to follow each other we will all have to sign up for Google+ accounts, just to use latitude. Seems like an unnecessary amount of work, for a feature that is useful during vacations and trips. Hope this explains it a bit.
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Click to collapse
Google+ is a single option on a Google account. If they are using Maps with Latitude, the already have a Google account. IIRC adding Plus to an existing Google account is a single mouseclick.

Solutions Etcetera said:
Google+ is a single option on a Google account. If they are using Maps with Latitude, the already have a Google account. IIRC adding Plus to an existing Google account is a single mouseclick.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google+ is a social media service, like facebook, that is altogether separate. Larry Page is obsessed with having everyone sign up for Google+ because most people are surfing the web via their mobile phones and Facebook is dominating the mobile ad space. My friends and family are not likely to migrate from Facebook to Google+, so I need an alternative to Latitude.
If you'd like further clarity, feel free to PM me, rather than us having a long personal conversation on a forum about Latitude alternatives.

You don't have to use it, you just need to opt in to use the location services. I don't see what the big deal is but to each their own.

Solutions Etcetera said:
You don't have to use it, you just need to opt in to use the location services. I don't see what the big deal is but to each their own.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You will have to open the Google+ app to follow your friends and family. It has been physically removed from the updated Maps app.

The problem is that you don't even HAVE to have a Google + "account" just because you have a Google account. I can go into my Google account right now and delete my Google + profile. So that's not even true. To have to opt into and then use the Google + app is a pretty lame alternative. ALSO, the Google + Locations really sucks right now. My boyfriend and I are in each other's circles, have shared our locations with each other, and turned on background location reporting, but he does not show up as a person who I can see his location. He showed up for 1 hour when we first set it up, but he's since disappeared, even though I've been right next to him and seen his settings on his phone as we tried to troubleshoot. It needs some serious work before it's ready to replace Latitude.
I've been trying to use Glympse for those times when I need to let someone know where I am, and for them to track me. The only down side is you can only let people see your location for up to 4 hours at a time. When you've got an active Glympse running, your GPS is in constant use too, so it will drain your battery faster than Latitude did. You can opt to turn your GPS off and just let Glympse use WiFi or cell networks to locate you, but it won't be as accurate.
Other than that, all the other alternatives are also closer to social networking or checkin apps that also happen to share your location. I just want something simple, LIKE LATITUDE.
Oh. I guess the alternative is Latitude. I don't understand why they killed it off. I hope maybe Backitude will pull a Feedly and create something neat out of this.

Solutions Etcetera said:
The official replacement is "Locations" in Google+. Any reason why that won't work for you?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For me, three things:
1. No option to navigate to a person on the map
2. No "last update" time stamp means sometimes the locations are 5 minutes old. Sometimes an hour.
3. No accuracy bubble
It's basically useless as a way to figure out where people are at any given time. Extremely annoying to have that go away. Hopefully there will be a replacement that shows up that doesn't drain the battery. Something that automatically responds to a ping for a check-in rather than polling for locations every X minutes would be great.

ppdd said:
For me, three things:
1. No option to navigate to a person on the map
2. No "last update" time stamp means sometimes the locations are 5 minutes old. Sometimes an hour.
3. No accuracy bubble
It's basically useless as a way to figure out where people are at any given time. Extremely annoying to have that go away. Hopefully there will be a replacement that shows up that doesn't drain the battery. Something that automatically responds to a ping for a check-in rather than polling for locations every X minutes would be great.
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Hi, these are some valid concerns. I am not a big fan of the location tracking features so were unaware of these. Hopefully, as Google continues to unify its social services we will eventually see more granular features resurface. I miss the offline ability in the new maps more than anything else at the moment. Hangouts not showing online status is annoying as well. Its important to leave Google feedback through official channels when valued existing features go AWOL. It has always been Android's nature to throw out something half-baked, and improve (or kill ) it over time based on user feedback.
As for battery... Google announced a number of new API's that would be rolling out this year. Some of which are specifically designed to reign in apps that poll/push data. I remember location services being a big part of that.I'm willing to bet this will get better over time.

Solutions Etcetera said:
Hi, these are some valid concerns. I am not a big fan of the location tracking features so were unaware of these. Hopefully, as Google continues to unify its social services we will eventually see more granular features resurface. I miss the offline ability in the new maps more than anything else at the moment. Hangouts not showing online status is annoying as well. Its important to leave Google feedback through official channels when valued existing features go AWOL. It has always been Android's nature to throw out something half-baked, and improve (or kill ) it over time based on user feedback.
As for battery... Google announced a number of new API's that would be rolling out this year. Some of which are specifically designed to reign in apps that poll/push data. I remember location services being a big part of that.I'm willing to bet this will get better over time.
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I've already complained to google, but I'm not real hopeful there. If Latitude wasn't being used heavily, it didn't make sense to leave it in Maps cluttering up the interface. I don't blame them.
For me, literally the only thing I want to use this for is making it easier to coordinate with my wife, or friends/family when we're on road trips. I suspect thats how most people were using it. It's great to be able to see that she's left her office or is at our kids' daycare or is 10 minutes away from a restaurant without calling her a dozen times a day. Losing the 'last update' stamp ruins that use case. Really not sure how they envision people using the G+ locations feature.
Apple's Find My Friends was great when my wife and I were on iOS. It behaved almost exactly right, only ever reporting your location when someone on your whitelist opened up their FMF app. There was no real power drain associated with it. All the apps in the Play store that fill this niche seem to report locations on their own, which is dumb *and* a redundant power drain given that Google location services is already grabbing that location.
Oh well.

ppdd said:
Apple's Find My Friends was great when my wife and I were on iOS. It behaved almost exactly right, only ever reporting your location when someone on your whitelist opened up their FMF app. There was no real power drain associated with it. All the apps in the Play store that fill this niche seem to report locations on their own, which is dumb *and* a redundant power drain given that Google location services is already grabbing that location.
Oh well.
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Apple does it right in not allowing apps to just go out and post/get whatever they want, whenever they want it. The app has to register for the info, and the system coalesces these requests for when the corresponding hardware is connected. Google is well on their way to implementing this same behavior.
Having much of this stuff better unified is a good thing IMHO, and I understand the thinking that things related to friends and family should be found in + and not maps. And based on what I saw at I/O, this will get better.

From what I've heard, the previously mentioned Glympse is a pretty decent replacement depending on what features you need. It's more aimed towards temporary location sharing between people during car trips, theme park visits, going out for lunch, etc. There's no option to leave it permanently on, though, and it doesn't appear to use intermittent polling.
Now that Latitude is dead, who knows if it will introduce this functionality to get new users?

I'm hoping that there is a location history feature in the new Google+ locations as I use this a lot, but I would love to eventually reach the moon - and maybe beyond!

It's an opening for another Feedly to come in and increase their market share. Someone like echoecho or swarmly could tweak their application to provide the same functionality, while furthering their own growth, a percentage of those new users would start using their services as result.
If I knew enough about Android development I’d quickly drop an app that pulled the Google+ location information and dumped it into maps provided by the Google Maps API with the options for satellite imagery and streetview. I'm really surprised that Google didn't merge the existing functionality into Google+, it must be available as they'll only be leveraging Google Maps anyway, certainly in regards the above.

theickleone said:
I'm hoping that there is a location history feature in the new Google+ locations as I use this a lot, but I would love to eventually reach the moon - and maybe beyond!
Click to expand...
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Location history will remain:
If you use Location Reporting and have Location History enabled, your location data will continue to be recorded to your Location History. You can view and manage Location History data on the Location History dashboard.
Note: We’re no longer supporting Google Maps for Mobile 6.14.4 and below for Location History or Location Reporting settings.

google is forcing us to use their G+, first was gtalk converted to hangouts, now latitude
i have yet to find a map of people in G+ on the PC, i can only see people on the phone
now they have a universal "location tracking" setting in android, the new maps v7 is garbage, hopefully someone is able to mod the old maps apk to push and pull data from their new location service, reformat it and keep latitude working in the old maps

laur3n.newm4n said:
Other than that, all the other alternatives are also closer to social networking or checkin apps that also happen to share your location. I just want something simple, LIKE LATITUDE.
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Click to collapse
Hi laur3n.newm4n, I'm currently building location sharing app for many of the same reasons you mentioned. We're still in private alpha but if after you checkout the features and it's sound like we're solving your problem you can signup for the beta
Hope it will help: yougy.co

SM-G975F on Canadian Networks and Best ROM

Hi everyone. I am getting an SM-G975F with the Exynos chipset. I was planning on flashing LineageOS on it but now I have stumbled upon MicroG for LineageOS and been doing a little reading up on it. Now I am not clear what the best choice would be from a privacy perspective.
My intention with LineageOS was to *not* install GApps and see how much I can make do with the default apps (i.e. the stock mail app, etc.). If that is my intention, then am I better off with LineageOS? or MicroG?
I don't really care about Google Apps. The only thing I can see myself struggling without is without some kind of semi-decent mapping application like Google Maps. Is there a decent alternative? Do I need MicroG for that? If I do cave and find I need Google Maps, then would I be better off with MicroG or LineageOS?
Also, is there a way to get Office apps (Word, Excel, etc.) on LineageOS? Or is that undesirable from a privacy perspective?
Lastly, is there a way to enable LTE bands 29, 30, and 46 on the SM-G975F model? These are enabled on the SM-G975W (Canadian) model, and I will be using the phone in Canada on Bell Mobility.
If these questions have been asked/answered elsewhere, can you please just drop a link?
Thanks,
The Fish

Your post does not qualify for Development. Please read the stickies before posting!
Moved to Questions and Answers.

Hi XDA’ers
I thought I would provide an update on my experience thus far with LineageOS 19.1 on my Exynos SM-G975F and answer some of my own questions which I asked above. Maybe some of this is obvious stuff or maybe not. Maybe it will be helpful for others in the future.
The operating system​I installed LineageOS from the official lineageos.org website. I did not install GApps so I am operating without the Google Play Services.
While Android itself is open source, the “Google Play Services” are not. They are a proprietary library from Google that are included with most (all?) Android devices and provide a number of services, APIs, etc. to apps running on Android. It's not part of the operating system per se, but lots of apps require it. So, I am operating with LineageOS only without the Google Play Services.
As a side note, there is an open-source re-implementation of Google Play Services called microG. MicroG cannot be installed as an app but needs to be installed as part of the OS. There are basically two flavors of LineageOS that include microG. They are “LineageOS for microG” and /e/OS. Both of these include microG. Pure LineageOS on its own however includes neither Google Play Services (unless you install GApps bundle) nor microG.
I was surprised how small the download file was for LineageOS. It weighs in at just 777 MB. I am used to Samsung firmware that weighs in at about 6 GB. So, this seemed really small to me.
Upon first boot up I was impressed with how clean the operating system was. Not only is there no bloatware but there is basically almost nothing at all. There is a dialer app, an SMS app, a camera app, a calculator, and a mini browser. There is also a local-only address book (no link to cloud services) and a local calendar app. The browser is fairly limited but gets the job done. Notably there isn’t a mail app (although I understand that there used to be one on previous versions of LineageOS). So, I set about seeing what I could do.
Apps​I installed the F-Droid app store but there are not any mainstream apps in there. Some of the apps in there might be good (I still need to explore it more) but I needed a solid email app. My company is on Office 365 so Outlook would be my first choice.
I stumbled upon APKPure and APKMirror. Both are very ad-filled spammy looking website that seems to be a web-based front end to the Google Play Store. Using these sites website, you can download official APKs for mainstream apps like Outlook, Word, Excel, etc. Be very careful where you click. Lots of the ads on the site include "Download Now" type buttons that you can click on thinking you are downloading an APK but instead are clicking on a spammy ad. So, navigate carefully on these sites.
I was able to install Word, Excel, OneDrive and Outlook. This was huge because I needed a decent mail app. Being able to install OneDrive meant I could now sync my camera with OneDrive. All the Microsoft apps worked flawlessly on LineageOS even without Google Play Services. The one thing I noticed however is that Outlook does not give me notifications when I get a new email. I have to go into Outlook and swipe down to refresh. I believe this is due to the lack of Google Play Services. Maybe using microG would eliminate this problem (not sure). I can live with this for now but would obviously like a way to resolve it.
Installing Outlook synced the local Calendar and Contacts apps with my Outlook contacts and calendar so that worked great.
Bible Apps​Both the Olive Tree Bible Reader app and the ESV Bible app installed no problem from APKPure. Both of these are offline Bible apps (they download the whole Bible and can be used offline). I like Olive Tree because I have several translations (including the SBLGNT) and Olive Tree lets me switch between them. The ESV app is great because they have recordings and so you can hear Kristyn Getty or David Cochran Heath read the Bible to you in natural non-synthetic voices.
Signal​I installed Signal directly from their website (they offer the APK directly on their website). Signal detects that it is being installed on a device without Google Play Services and so registers itself as a service and consequently I do get notifications for new Signal messages (unlike Outlook). I wonder if there is some way to make Outlook run the same way. I tried installing Microsoft Teams which we use at work but don't get any notifications when people send me messages. So that makes Teams pretty useless.
Browser​The build-in default browser renders HTML/CSS just fine but is very limited in terms of features. When you install a progressive web app as an app on the home screen it works but launches in the full browser with the address bar visible which breaks the app-like experiance which is really the whole point of a PWA. So I set about trying to fix this. To my surprise I was able to install Microsoft Edge without ANY issues whatsoever. It works great and web apps pin to the home screen the way they should (and open as apps). So I made Edge my default browser.
Keyboards​The default keyboard in LineageOS does not have stickers or GIFs. That is as it should be I think for a default built-in keyboard. But it does not support swipe typing either. This surprised me. It seemed like a huge step backwards to have to tap out every letter with my thumbs. Do people still type like that on their phones?!?! Oh, the humanity!
There is a microphone icon at the top of the keyboard for speech-to-text transcription. I used this all the time before on my Samsung S8+. But tapping it did nothing. Apparently I am missing a speech-to-text engine. This surprised be because Outlook has dictation built-in using Microsoft's engines and works well. But it only works in Outlook and not universally throughout the phone as it would if it was built-in on the keyboard.
I installed the Microsoft SwiftKey keyboard and that gave me stickers, GIFs and... swipe typing! Woo Hoo! But I was really hoping it would give me speech-to-text since I dictate almost all of my text messages. I figured it would use Microsoft's engine like Outlook does since it was a Microsoft app. But tapping the microphone on the SwiftKey keyboard promptly tells me that I need to download "Google Voice Search".
Microsoft Authenticator​I installed the Microsoft Authenticator app for 2FA and it installed just fine. But it was impossible to add any accounts by scanning the QR codes. I think this is due to notifications not working properly, probably also due to the lack of Google Play Services or microG.
Outstanding Issues​So, the outstanding issues I have right now are:
Microsoft Authenticator is non-usable. This is a huge issue for me
No speech-to-text transcription from keyboard
No notifications in Microsoft Teams
No notifications in Microsoft Outlook (this I can live with).
What I Like​What I like about LineageOS is the clean, minimalistic design of the operating system. I am not pushed into any particular "ecosystem" be it Google, Samsung, Microsoft or Apple. I can decide which ecosystem I want to participate in and to which extent. For example, I could download Outlook without downloading Edge and I don't need to backup my photos to OneDrive unless I want to. You can do this, to some extent, with OEM versions of Android, but it requires ignoring and disabling things. Come to think of it, that is really what an operating system should be - a platform for running apps, not an on-ramp into an ecosystem.
What irritates me is that not all apps work as they should. It seems like Google Play Services is an important part of the mix and many apps fail to function properly without it. Signal seems like one exception. It detects that you are not using Google Play Services and adapts the functioning the app accordingly.

Just a minor update. I tried several diffrent TTS engines (Pico TTS, Flite TTS, RHVoice) and none of these gave me text typing.
I ended up installing Speech Services by Google and it worked. I was surprised that it worked considering I do not have GApps (and thus no Google Play Services) and no microG on my phone.
So, I guess I can live with a little Google on my phone, but I would have preferred to find an open-source alternative or, barring that, a Microsoft alternative.