Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Google Maps 4.1.1 and Buzz

(sorry, no screen caps)

Today, out of boredom and courtesy Telenor's data package (no, they haven't sponsored this post), I decided to download Google Maps on my S60v3 phone.

There are minor changes in the Maps program. The cellphone doesn't feature a GPS receiver so cellphone triangulation was used.

I decided to check out the app (since I took the bundle* ) and see what's new - and saw the option to Buzz about a place.

And so I did. I was at Kamran Market (an area in Rawalpindi, Pakistan) at that time. The Buzz interface was actually fairly neat - it gave me a portion to insert text and an option to take a picture. I snapped a picture of the road leading to Kamran Market and decided to upload it. It worked fine - and it seemed to upload a relatively small picture (55K). Considering the low quality camera, the picture actually came out fairly nice!

But cellphone triangulation was a mess. Yes it's not perfect, but I didn't realize that the center point was mistaken for some other place. I wasn't in a mood to reupload the image and Buzz - it costs money, y'know!

Anyway - I was happy. You get to see what people have Buzzed about (on your laptop or PC, not the phone) and can buzz about places as well. I actually felt happy (yes, you read that right!).

I'm hoping Google could improve upon Buzz and Maps. It would make a really good combination.