Google Maps always point north?

[gewgluvr]

Does anyone know if google maps can point in direction of movement top instead of always north. Not good when driving. Borderline deadly.

 

[cNo7]

It's "Google Maps" and not "Google GPS" for a reason.

 

[punkzanyj]

Does anyone know if google maps can point in direction of movement top instead of always north. Not good when driving. Borderline deadly.

Yeah, fiddling with your phone while driving is pretty deadly. Should probably keep eyes on the road. Good point.

 

[pestilence]

Ummm... if you can't just imagine the map translating to the way you are facing like everyone else, you could always rotate the phone...

The real technical reason that it doesn't rotate is that the maps are tiles of bitmaps and the phone doesn't have the horsepower to rotate all of them in real time. If the maps app was updated to download the actual road vectors and render them locally, it could probably manage it. You'd lose satellite view in that case, though.

 

[gewgluvr]

Ummm... if you can't just imagine the map translating to the way you are facing like everyone else, you could always rotate the phone...

The real technical reason that it doesn't rotate is that the maps are tiles of bitmaps and the phone doesn't have the horsepower to rotate all of them in real time. If the maps app was updated to download the actual road vectors and render them locally, it could probably manage it. You'd lose satellite view in that case, though.

I disagree ... it would only have to render on redraw, not on rotation.

Besides what was the point of having the compass built in then? To look at street view? Street view is as useful as t.ts on a bull.

You wouldn't have to fiddle with the cell phone if it didn't always point north.

Heck even for walking it's a PIA ... where is the compass on the map?

Oh ... and if this is google maps and not google GPS, why does it give driving directions and not walking directions? Huh .... what?

 

[punkzanyj]

I disagree ... it would only have to render on redraw, not on rotation.

Heck even for walking it's a PIA ... where is the compass on the map?

You said yourself, the top of the map is always north, like most maps.

Oh ... and if this is google maps and not google GPS, why does it give driving directions and not walking directions? Huh .... what?

Because google maps online gives driving directions. Who would need walking directions? Last time I checked walking doesn't have one-way only streets or turn lanes.

 

[rzm61]

It probably points north because of the compass that is in the G1.

 

[pestilence]

I disagree ... it would only have to render on redraw, not on rotation.

That's what I'm talking about - rotation of the bitmaps, not rotation of the phone. Have you ever coded a bitmap rotation algorithm? It's a huge resource hog.

Besides that, if you DID manage to put together an image rotation algorithm that was fast enough, since the labels are included in the images downloaded from the map server, they would rotate with the images and all the text would wind up upside down or skewed along with the graphics.

I'm just telling you how google maps works. You can 'disagree' all you want, but that doesn't change how the app works.

Again, a future version might download the road vectors and render everything locally like a car gps does, but that's not gonna happen tomorrow unless google has a stealth project underway already or some third party does it.

 

[gewgluvr]

You said yourself, the top of the map is always north, like most maps.

Because google maps online gives driving directions. Who would need walking directions? Last time I checked walking doesn't have one-way only streets or turn lanes.

Most paper maps don't come included with a digital compass.

Anyone living in a city would need walking directions, especially if this phone was marketed towards someone on two feet and not 4 wheels. Aren't americans supposed to be moving to this so called green thing?

I still dig this thing .... but I hope they update maps to be more rural friendly and make the compass a more useful tool instead of fluff.

Case in point I wanted walking directions to a restaurant last nite that was 11 blocks walking ... 18 blocks driving.

 

[Milkboot]

Walking directions would indeed be differnt, if you are like me, and live near a major freeway, you can not exactly walk ON the freeway and take exits as you would in a car. [kick self for saying it] Other in-car GPS units do included walking directions because of that very reason, cant walk in the street [without getting in troubble]


be hard to get driving directions in San Antonio if you are on the river walk my old in-car GPS unit would give walking directions on the river walk.

 

[punkzanyj]

Most paper maps don't come included with a digital compass.
Anyone living in a city would need walking directions, especially if this phone was marketed towards someone on two feet and not 4 wheels. Aren't americans supposed to be moving to this so called green thing?

Uh, I live in Chicago, dude. I don't need walking directions. Maps are good at showing me where point A and point B are, but there are no rules for walking down the sidewalk, thus you don't need walking directions.

Case in point I wanted walking directions to a restaurant last nite that was 11 blocks walking ... 18 blocks driving.

Were some of those sidewalks one way? How many lanes on those sidewalks? Turn lanes? Do you get what I'm saying here?
On foot you have complete freedom to do whatever you want on the sidewalk, not so much driving on the road.
Driving directions are necessary because of one-way streets, interesections with no left/right turns. On a map a route may look like 11 blocks driving, but it's actually 18. Whereas when you're walking an 11-block walk on the map is still an 11-block walk because pedestrians don't have to worry about one-way streets and no left/right turn restrictions at some intersections. You might even be able to make it shorter by cutting across someone's yard or going through a building ---things you have time to decide on while walking, and certainly can't do in a car.

 

[Phases]

Bah. Who cares why someone wants something. Kinda like when I seek out help on something I want to configure on my 'nix box and people ask why.

I hate that, why is irrelevant, I've clearly got the need/desire.

I could see wanting on foot directions, myself. Especially if you don't know where exactly where you're going since you had to find some parking lot or garage blocks and blocks away from your destination.. it would help.

Although on the other hand - I guess just finding it on maps would be sufficient, plus I can see the that pedestrian directions (at least a 'follow me' type) really draining a battery down!

Anyway, carry on.

 

[gewgluvr]

Uh, I live in Chicago, dude. I don't need walking directions. Maps are good at showing me where point A and point B are, but there are no rules for walking down the sidewalk, thus you don't need walking directions.

That's crazy. Cool you know Chicago real well ... now come to NYC and see if you wouldn't like walking directions. Just like walking directions would be useful if I were in Chicago.

You have to constantly zoom in on each street to read where you make your turns. Instead of simply getting directions in nice clear textual print. In fact if you want to route directions to get proximity ... you have to guess if you don't have walking directions beacause the driving directions are totally different. It makes the route totally uses for people that enjoy travelling by shoes.

I'm sure walking directions will be coming soon. I was just wondering if anyone had some go around solutions.

On foot directions will tell me how far I will have to walk to get there. Driving directions do not. In most cases they tell me to walk backwards before I even start walking forward.

 

[RandolphNY]

This was a great question that I was ready to ask myself today until I found this message. Only owning my Droid for a week, I also find this to be a bummer for me that it does not rotate....I guess I will navigate each little trip to have the rotation work.

 

[takeshi]

...or find another nav app that does what you want.

 

[Hemorrdrhoid]

If you get directions and use the GPS Navigate feature it does rotate just like any GPS view. Walking is an option in that setup.

 

[brandmarked]

Doesn't Google maps on iPhone rotates to face the way you are heading? Sure I've seen it and it does it fairly smoothly and it ain't that much difference in processing power.

- Mark

 

[JRiles]

Okay, most of you guys are idiots, especially the first guy to respond. This is a basic piece of functionality on a gps program. All I wanted, and what the original poster wanted, was to switch to live view from north up.

So here's the answer I found myself: there is a little compass in the upper left hand corner. Click it once and it will toggle the view. Simple.

Msn, you guys just suck

 

[Harry2]

I wonder, had Google Maps this little compass feature already in 2008 ?

Harry

 

[chanchan05]

I wonder, had Google Maps this little compass feature already in 2008 ?

Harry

+1 The two guys above you didnt know how to read dates. They were replying to posts over a year old.

 

[Harry2]

To answer my own question
Google Maps got the compass mode with version 5.0 (December 2010)

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/next-generation-of-mobile-maps.html

Harry

 

[jim165]

I know the original post is very old, but I started having the problem of my maps not keeping the blue arrow pointed towards the top of the screen when travelling. The map also no longer presented in a 3D or bird's-eye satellite view, only 2D satellite view. It seemed to have changed overnight and I couldn't change it back to how it was before. After searching for a solution for awhile, it turns out the change is inherent with the latest update 5.10.1. This update was pushed automatically to all phones. By going to settings/applications/manage applications/maps, there should be the option to "uninstall last update". I pressed this and reverted back to version 5.0 and got my true functionality back. Hope this helps someone..