Google Maps to support Offline and 3D maps

The Google Maps team held an event to announce their latest innovations at their San Francisco office. Among the things that they announced which got out attention is the offline support for Google Maps on Android devices.

After years of being internet-dependent for maps, the folks at Google Maps has finally got in to their senses and decided to develop support for offline maps.

Taking cues from OVI Maps or lately called Nokia Drive, the team mentioned that users will now have an option to download the full map for a certain place and view it later on even without having internet connection.

Another thing that they announced during the event is their continuous efforts of bringing 3D support for their applications and the recent developments on the said feature. Since it was first announced 7 years ago, the team is still trying to produce a more realistic representation of a specific place.

So far they’ve made a heck of an improvement as the video demo gives attendees a feel that they’re really flying above the area. Watch this short demo of Google’s 3D map:

Other than this, the team did not disclose any further information about the crucial updates. There are no words about the date of availability or its OS compatibility. We hope that Android 2.X will be able to support this update as majority of smartphones here in the country still runs on earlier versions of Android.

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