Ever since Google Maps Navigation was first unveiled last month, we’ve been itching to give it a test drive. And now it seems we might get the chance – albeit in a slightly “under the counter” fashion – because it has apparently been hacked to work outside the US. Read on for all the details.
Over at the XDA Developers Forum, big-brained Android code-twisters have reportedly rigged Google Maps Navigation to work in other countries, not to mention on Android devices other than the Motorola Droid (although it’ll need to be an Android 1.6 phone, which rules out the HTC Hero at the moment).
The hacking process looks fairly tricky to our non-egghead eyes, and of course performing it is entirely at the user’s own risk. If you feel brave, take a gander at the forum post.
Google Maps Navigation has caused a major stir because it’s the first “proper” turn-by-turn satnav to be absolutely free. Currently map license issues mean it’s restricted to the US, but Android’s developer-friendly open source nature means that hacks like this are bound to crop up from time to time. That doesn’t mean Google won’t act to squash the hack though.
If you do manage to get Google Maps Navigation running on your UK or Europe-based Android smartphone, do let us know in the comments below.
Out TBC | £TBC | XDA Developer Forum (via Engadget)
I really would like to have google map navigation in Europe
I think you’re not alone. Just out of interest, what would you consider an acceptable paid for satnav app price? CoPilot’s £26, but that’s still infinitely more expensive than free!
Copilot’s pretty good, but free wins every time. What’s more, Google Maps Navigation has lane assist, and streetview gubbins built in. I’d hate to be a product manager for a satnav firm right now…
The street view looks bit confusing, since I assume that the cars in the picture are not likely the cars I will see when I am driving.If this app could show the real scene through the camera AND superimpose the route on the road, now that would be awesome!
Maps Navigation works well in the UK. I installed it yesterday and tested it out last night.
On what phone Matthew? We’d love to test this out for ourselves.
It’s on a G1 running Cyanogen 4.2.5. A few messages were thrown up when running adb to say the files that needed to be deleted didn’t exist, but after running the commands listed the old maps icon disappeared off the home screen. Installation of the Maps app went smoothly. I have had to remove a few apps I don’t use to free up some memory, but if it becomes a problem I believe there is an app out there to move all programs to the memory card.
Hey guys, just a heads up, if you serach on the internet, there is a XDA member who has got this working in the Netherlands, he has hosted his .APK file. I downloaded it and tested (I live in the UK), and it works!!! Fantastic app, cant wait for the official to be released!
Hi Matty – we’d love to test this! Does the lack of caching prove a problem for it or have you found it works fluidly over 3G?
Just to add, there is a Cache to SD app which i use to free up resources. It moves googlemaps, gmail, browser cache to the SD card.
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Hi Looking forward to this but in meantime am using cracked co pilot and this works great……