[News] HERE Maps Now Available for Android
HERE Maps, a much talked about free mapping software for Windows Phone, have made it to Android users, in the form of a BETA (current) app!
A main feature of the Here Maps is the offline navigation. This means you can download the map of New Zealand (or any other country) and get turn-by-turn voice guidance with interactive maps, without an internet connection! Now this is great for travel, for which you can preload the country you are travelling to’s map and still be able to get navigations without an internet connection! As far as I know, Google Maps’ offline maps only let you view the map offline, but not provide turn-by-turn voice guidance and navigation, without an internet connection.
Speaking of offline maps use, public transport maps and directions for over 800 cities in over 40 countries, are available for use, again without an internet connection! But it does tell you that if you want better transit/traffic info, you need to have an internet connection.
Now you may be wondering, how does HERE Maps compare to Google Maps? Even before when these Maps were released for Android, I was using it on my Nokia Lumia 930 smartphone. I can tell you that offline navigation was pretty darn cool. Now testing this offline feature on my Nexus 5 Android was pretty good. Point of Interests could also be searched for while offline, and searching was all pretty nice and smooth as well!
The HERE Maps UI has a nice simplistic look, and it also has an on-screen speedometer as well! It is basically a TomTom but free, and now on Android as well!
Live traffic info is also available (also available on Google Maps) but will need an internet connection.
To download HERE for Android, you may have to adjust your phone’s security settings to allow installation of unknown apps. Then visit this site to download HERE Maps for your Android device: http://here.com/beta/android/?lang=en-GB
