Google Maps 5.7 for Android introduces Transit Navigation (Beta)

Google releasing Google Maps 5.7 for Android. From Bangkok to Baltimore, they added Transit Navigation (Beta), updated access to directions, better suggested search results, and a photo viewer to Place pages—all of which can help you whether you’re traveling to an unfamiliar part of town or visiting a city across the world.

Transit Navigation (Beta)
Google Maps Navigation (Beta) currently provides over 12 billion miles of GPS-guided driving and walking directions per year. Now, GPS turn-by-turn (or in this case, stop-by-stop) navigation is available for public transit directions in 400+ cities around the globe with Transit Navigation.
Transit Navigation uses GPS to determine your current location along your route and alerts you when it’s time to get off or make a transfer. This is particularly helpful if you’re in a city where you don’t speak the language and can’t read the route maps or understand the announcements. After starting your trip with Transit Navigation, you can open another application or put your phone away entirely and Google Maps will still display an alert in your notification bar and vibrate your phone when your stop is coming up.

Left: Transit directions without Navigation. Right: with Navigation

Navigation alerts appear even if you switch to another app
Now you can spend more time enjoying the sights out the window and less time worrying about how many stops are left, where you are along the route or whether you missed your stop. Since Transit Navigation relies on GPS signals, we recommend using this feature for above-ground transit.

Updated Directions
Now that we’ve improved our directions services, we wanted them to be incredibly easy to pull up on your screen. If you select the driving or walking icon and your route is supported by Google Maps Navigation, the Navigation icon will automatically appear so you can get access to step-by-step directions in one click. Note: this change is currently only in place for driving and walking and does not appear for public transit.

One-click access to Navigation from directions
We’ve also streamlined how you access directions from within a Place page. Before, clicking directions in a Place page would bring up options for “Driving Navigation,” “Walking Navigation” and “Directions.” Now, you’ll be taken straight to the map and see the new directions box shown above.

Improved Search Suggest
We’ve made two changes to search suggestions that improve their quality and speed. First, we’ve added category icons, so instead of all search suggestions displaying the same icon, the icon next to the listing will reflect the type of result. You’ll see a pin for a Google Places listing, a star for a starred Place or location, a clock for a previously used search term, a person for contacts and a magnifying glass for “anything else.”

Two examples of search suggest with new icons
Also, any place you got directions to or called directly from its Places page will be included as a suggestion for a relevant search. For example, if you recently received directions to the U.S. Post Office on Wilshire Boulevard, afterward, when you begin a search with [p] or [bou], that U.S. Post Office would appear as a search suggestion.

Photo viewer for Place pages
Since we released business photos for Place pages last October, millions of photos have been added to Place pages around the world. To enable you to view these photos on the run, a slick new photo viewer has been added so you can browse photos while deciding where to go.

Left: Business photos in Place pages. Right: New photo viewer
To start using Google Maps 5.7 for Android, download the update here. This update requires an Android OS 2.1+ device and works anywhere Google Maps is currently available.

Animate your SketchUp models

In the past five years since Google purchased SketchUp (and then made it free), we’ve seen it receive a ton of improvements. Last fall saw the release of SketchUp 8, which added a bunch of great new features, and last month they released another update that provided SpaceNavigator support and a very helpful bug fix.

Despite all of that, there is still one feature missing that users are wanting — animation. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to animate your models from within SketchUp? Thanks to developer MorisDov and his “Proper Animation” plugin, now you can!

Check out the video below for a brief sample:

The plugin works by allowing you to create various positions for your model, and then those model moves to those various positions, creating the animation. It’s a very useful plugin, and I’m sure many SketchUp modelers will be thankful to MorisDov for creating it.

To get started, head over to his site, read this SketchUcation thread, or head over to the Google SketchUp Blog for a nice walk-through.

Have you tried this plug-in yet? What do you think of it?

Няма актуализации за Windows и IE през този месец

Както знаете, от Microsoft пускат актуализации на продуктите си през всеки месец. Обикновено обновленията се отнасят за операционните системи Windows и офис пакетите на редмъндската компания. Тези актуализации се появяват във втория вторник на всеки месец. Както сами се досещате, на 9 ноември ще пристигне нова „доза“ от ъпдейти.

Този месец има три бюлетина, които поправят 11 уязвимости в Microsoft Office и Microsoft Forefront Unified Access Gateway. Един от тях е класифициран като критичен. Няма актуализации за Windows.

Ъпдейтите ще поправят уязвимости в следните продукти:
• Microsoft Office XP SP3;
• Microsoft Office 2003 SP3;
• Microsoft Office 2007 SP2;
• Microsoft Office 2010 (32-bit & 64-bit);
• Microsoft Office for Mac 2011;
• Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer;
• Microsoft Forefront Unified Access Gateway 2011 (включително Update 1 & 2).

Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 се появи пазара едва през миналата седмица, а вече има обновление за пакета. Същият ъпдейт, обаче, е пуснат и за Windows-базираните версии на Office.

Интересното тук е, че това е първият месец от цяла година, в който няма да има актуализации за Windows. Освен това, стана ясно, че наскоро съобщената уязвимост в Internet Explorer няма да получи поправка.