Category: Apps

Update for Android’s Google Maps introduces new navigation UI

| September 4, 2015

The latest version of this mobile app will be adding a range of new features that are meant to boost the experience.

Google has now released a couple of new updates to the Android version of its Google Maps app, which has provided a number of features that include everything from thumbnail previews of a Street View spot to added navigation UI for users.

These latest updates to the popular mobile app have been released over the last couple of weeks.

The latest version of Google Maps for users of Android based smartphones is rolling out already, but people who aren’t willing to wait can still download or sideload the APK file with the Google signature. The most recent edition of this mobile app is its version 9.14 and it is starting to hit various Google Play locations around the world. From the look of it, it can be assumed that the primary focus of the latest updates to the app has been to improve its overall navigation for a smoother and more convenient experience.

The navigation in the Android version of Google Maps has received a new settings interface for navigation.

Google Maps - AndroidIt has also made it possible to see the thumbnail view in the mobile app, and the navigation search has been taken away with a larger image revealing the routes has replaced it. In the most recent of the updates, the maps on the app’s navigation page have zooming and scrolling features that cannot be used in the previous version of the app’s thumbnail view. Moreover, there has been a subtle shift in the position of the option to select the mode of transportation. It is now located under the start and destination fields.

Additional details have also been added to the route page with the latest update. These can be accessed by the user in order to learn more about areas in which there could be potential slowdowns in traffic along the recommended routes. Moreover, more information about the routes is provided than had been available in the previous version.

The newest version of Google Maps also gives the user the chance to touch to choose routes based on estimated ETA, which includes data with regards to road blocks or potential delays.

Mobile payments will be mainstream soon, says 1 in 3 consumers

| September 3, 2015

In the U.K., a rising number of people feel that they will be using their smartphones regularly in stores.

Though mobile payments have been slow to take off, they are rapidly becoming more popular and now a new study based on a survey from Lloyds Bank has shown that many consumers feel that they will be regularly using this tech within five years from now.

In fact, one quarter of the study participants felt that by the end of 5 years, mobile phones would replace cash.

One in four participants in the U.K. study felt that between mobile payments and contactless cards, they would no longer need to carry cash. Moreover, recent statistics from Barclaycard have revealed that contactless spending in the United Kingdom is three times greater than it had been a year ago. In the Lloyds survey, conducted by Ipsos Mori, with the participation of more than 2,000 people, 43 percent of consumers agreed that technology is the way that payments are going in the future.

The survey also showed that 1 in 3 people feel that mobile payments will be used daily in five years’ time.

Report - Mobile PaymentsOver the summer, Apple Pay made its way into the U.K., drawing a considerable spotlight to the concept of mobile wallets. That said, while there are quite a few people who believe that mobile devices will become a typical payment method within the next five years, there also remains a much larger number that has stated that this technology will never become their primary choice for completing payment transactions.

According to the stats from the survey, it looks as though it is younger consumers who are more enthusiastic about the use of their mobile devices for this purpose than their counterparts who are 45 years of age or older.

When survey participants were asked about why they were not yet using mobile payments, 44 percent stated that they were not satisfied with the security or safety of the transactions. Another 18 percent said that their mobile devices were not compatible with the necessary technology, and 17 percent said that they didn’t know anything about this form of transaction.