Google Maps goes 8-bit Dragon Warrior-style for April Fool’s

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  • April 1, 2012 at 1:37 am

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Google Maps 8-bit cartridge for NES April Fool's

What could be the biggest, and most hilarious, upgrade to Google Maps? Going 8-bit of course! In an ode to console RPGs of yesteryear, and to poke a bit of fun, Google has just added one more view option to Google Maps, called Quest. By selecting this, your neighborhood and the entire world goes 8-bit Dragon Warrior-style.

Most famous landmarks are still there, like the Pyramids, the Taj Majal, Mount Rushmore, the Parthenon, Mount Fuji, the Eiffel Tower and there’s even a UFO in Area 51.
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Zagat acquired by Google

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  • September 8, 2011 at 4:08 pm

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Zagat acquired by Google

Zagat is best known for its pocket-sized, burgundy colored, restaurant guidebooks offering reviews and recommendation based on the feedback from 350,000 surveyors around the world. Zagat also operates a website sharing the same crowd-sourced expertise. Today Google and Zagat Survey announced the acquisition of the latter and its inclusion in Google’s growing family.

Although the move is unexpected, it does make a lot of sense; Google needs the expertise and trusted opinions for its Maps/Places products and Zagat needs the traffic that Google can provide. I’ve used both Zagat printed guidebooks and its website and I’ve found the reviews to be mostly on the ball. I also love the convenience of discovering new restaurants and cafes on my smartphone using Google Places but honestly the reviews are hit-or-miss.

Zagat was founded in 1979 by Tim and Nina Zagat as a sort of social experiment, and now the company’s 30 point scale ratings include restaurants from around 100 countries. The terms of the deal with Google haven’t been disclosed.
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Google Maps for Android adds shortcut ‘Bubble Buttons’ for navigation and calls, here’s how to enable them

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  • August 17, 2011 at 6:44 am

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Google Maps Bubble Button shortcuts

So Google must have been reading my mind, because I have been wishing for a way to quickly jump from a Maps result to Navigation or just quickly call a business I’ve searched for. Google Maps v5.9 for Android, which was released yesterday, has added the option for two ‘bubble buttons’ which act as shortcuts to call or navigate to a result from the main map area. The feature has to be enabled manually first, so read on to find out how.

The latest version of Google Maps also brings voice and ring tone notifications for Transit Navigation as well as support for Transit Navigation on tablets.
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How to: Pre-download a map area in Google Maps for Android

GuidesNews

  • July 11, 2011 at 7:42 am

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Google Maps 5.7 for Android - Download map area

One of our biggest frustrations with Google Maps for devices has been that you couldn’t set the application to pre-download a specific area, city or country. So, if you were travelling to, let’s say France, with no data access — unless you opted to enable very costly data roaming — what you could end up looking at was a not-so-helpful blurry image, like the one below.
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