Mapping

Google Maps seems to have found its way onto iOS 6 with help from a hacker, though it's not quite ready for its public debut.

Self-proclaimed iOS hacker and engineer Ryan Petrich tweeted yesterday that he was able to coax Google Maps to work on iOS 6 "with a little trickery." Though mum about his methods, he said that he was able to port the iOS 5.1 version of Google's app to run on an iPhone 3GS that had been updated to iOS 6. Petrich also included a short video clip showing Google Maps in action … Read more

Nokia has a new mapping partner in Amazon, a new report claims.

The companies recently inked a deal that will see Nokia power the built-in mapping services in the Amazon Kindle Fire 2, Reuters is reporting today, citing sources. The move is seen as a snub to Google, which powers the Android platform likely to be running on the next Kindle Fire. Google's mapping service comes built-in with Android.

The Google snub, if true, is the second the search giant has faced this year. Apple announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June that it was removing Google Maps … Read more

Google has announced an 88 percent price cut for those using Google Maps on high-traffic Web sites and services.

The move, which Google Maps API product manager Thor Mitchell announced yesterday, comes a few days before the developer-oriented Google I/O show and two weeks after Apple ditched Google Maps for the upcoming iOS 6.

Google lets others embed Google Maps on their own sites and services through the Google Maps API, or application programming interface. When Google announced new limits to Google Maps usage last October, Mitchell said at the time, "We need to secure its long-term future … Read more

There's a little battle forming up in a new mobile app segment: the graffiti app. The idea with these apps, of which Catarina Fake's Pinwheel is one, is that when you go to a location, you mark that you've been there and then maybe leave a note or a photo. Later, when your friends (or maybe not your friends) show up at the location or nearby it, they can see what you said and add their own comments.

The highest concept of these new companies is Wallit, which makes an augmented reality tagging app. You hold your … Read more

I have tremendous respect for two groups of engineers: Apple's hardware designers and Google's Web programmers. But when it comes to Google Maps, boy, do I wish the two got along better.

For months now, I've suffered from a problem using the mouse on Google Maps: when I'd click and drag to pan the map using the Magic Mouse, the view would zoom out when I released the button. Instead of feeling the magic, I felt hexed.

The issue stems from the fact that sliding your finger forward or backward along the Magic Mouse is equivalent … Read more

Foursquare is one of a number of Web sites jumping ship from Google Maps to an open-source alternative. You can put a good part of the blame on Google's hefty licensing fees.

A wide variety of sites use Google Maps on their own pages to pinpoint locations, offer directions, and provide other travel info. But according to The New York Times, the fees charged by Google for the privilege can easily run into six figures.

A recent blog posted by the Web site StreetEasy confirmed a price tag of $200,000 to $300,000 shelled out each year to … Read more

You may like that Google Maps is free, but a French court says it's actually anticompetitive.

A Paris court earlier this week ordered Google France and its parent company Google to pay plaintiff Bottin Cartographes 500,000 euros (about $660,000) for providing its free mapping services to businesses across the country. The court also required Google to pay a 15,000 euro fine for its practice.

"We proved the illegality of (Google's) strategy to remove its competitors," Jean-David Scemmama, attorney for Bottin Cartographes, a company that provides mapping services to businesses, told the AFP in an interview earlier this week. &… Read more

Google has released Google Earth 6.2 to smooth over earlier versions' unsightly patchwork caused by stitching together widely varying satellite photographs.

The result is a more realistic and less distracting (though still optimistically cloudless) view of the planet. Update: It turns out that by turning on the weather layer, you can dispel Google Earth's sunny optimism and see if it's really cloudy by showing live weather data.

Google Earth offers a terrific interactive view of the planet, complete with 3D buildings in some parts of the world. But I have to say, though, that I was more … Read more

People looking for information on a natural disaster or other emergency anywhere in the world can now stay abreast of the latest details courtesy of Google Maps.

The new Public Alerts page, which Google is launching today, aims to keep you informed of emergency alerts for floods, tornadoes, winter storms, and other dangers that may be headed your way.

The idea is tell you what's happening, when and where the disaster may hit, how severe it will be, and what resources are around to help you, according to a Google blog post.