I’ve been playing around with Google Maps 5 for Android for the last 30 minutes and I’m completely fascinated with it. The 3D capabilities are really cool and potentially useful. I’ve been entertaining myself by checking out my friends’ locations on Google Lattitude and reaffirming my own location (*snicker*)…in 3D! The tech is cool and surprisingly fun. Here are some official highlights:
- Tilting: Drag down with two fingers to tilt the map. Tilt while zoomed in on one of the 100+ cities around the world with 3D buildings to see a skyline spring to life.
- Rotating: Twist with two fingers to rotate the map. After tilting to see 3D buildings, rotate around them to gain a new perspective from any direction.
- Smooth zooming: Slide two fingers together or apart, and see the map and labels continuously scale to any zoom level, stopping when your fingers stop.
- Compass mode: Center the map on your location, and then tap the compass button in the top right corner. The map will flip into 3D mode and start rotating to match your perspective, while still keeping all the labels upright and readable.
Check it out and let me know what you think (please)!
I am having issues with zooming now. It rotates the screen more it zooms now.
Also WTF Dallas isn’t one of the cities?!?
Purposefully rotating and tilting are pretty nice