Tag: mobile 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 games aren’t being played as much as they once were

| September 2, 2015

Flurry Analytics has reported that people simply aren’t as into the gaming apps they used to play.

Though smartphones are very near to reaching the saturation point, to the level that even babies who can barely talk are perfectly capable of swiping on a touchscreen, mobile games seem to have been sliding in their popularity.

This indicates that the way in which people are using their smartphones and tablets is continuing to evolve.

While mobile games do still remain quite popular and they may have been the driving force behind the popularity of apps back when smartphones were still somewhat of a novelty, it doesn’t appear as though people are spending quite as much of their time with mobile gaming as they previously were. The results of a study that was recently conducted by Flurry Analytics has shown that Americans are now spending only about 15 percent of their total smartphone or tablet usage time by playing with these apps.

When considering that the figure from last year had been 32 percent, that represents a serious plummet.

Mobile Games - Game on SmartphoneFlurry Analytics has explained this downward trend in the amount of time spent playing mobile gaming apps by saying that there has been a reduction in both the strong new hit games over the last year, and the fact that a large number of millennials spend time watching other people playing games through services such as Twitch, instead of actually being the players, themselves.

It was also pointed out by Flurry Analytics that there was a rise in the number of users who were willing to pay for in-app purchases within the games that they play, instead of spending the time waiting to receive the same or similar rewards. They’d rather spend money to speed things up than have to wait to earn the prizes, reducing the amount of playing time that is required to achieve the same goal.

The mobile games report from Flurry explained that “Gamers are buying their way into games versus grinding their way through them,” adding that “Gamers are spending more money than time to effectively beat games or secure better standings rather than working their way to the top. This explains the decline in time spent and the major rise in in-app purchases, as Apple saw a record $1.7 billion in AppStore sales in July.”