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Google Maps 4.3 for Android adds public transit upcoming schedules

By | June 22, 2010, 12:26pm PDT

Summary: Google Maps for the Android platform keeps getting better and better and now you can see the upcoming schedule for public transportation so you can save time and get to where you want when you want.

One of the first things I do to start my daily train commute is visit the Android Market on my new Sprint HTC EVO 4G. This morning I was very pleased to see that Google Maps version 4.3 was available as a free update. This latest version provides you with the latest information on restaurants, upcoming bus, train, subway, and ferry schedules, and the ability to find friends and family in Latitude.

I was most interested in the public transit schedule support since I find myself visiting the Sound Transit page if I need to jump on a different train due to a change in my schedule and that happens about once a week. Unfortunately, my Sounder train schedules are not yet in Google Maps. However, there are a ton of bus and even Washington State ferry schedules in there so it is still a very helpful layer to enable. The ability to view when the next bus or ferry will be available is extremely helpful and much better than just having a list of departure times. I wonder if the times change dynamically as real-time data is sent from buses, trains, and ferries?

The quick feedback on restaurants may also come in handy for those times you are visiting a new city or want to try someplace else to eat. You can also now share your location with people from your Google Contacts list and quickly send them a sharing request or drop them from the suggested friends list.

Google Maps on the Android platform is one reason I am a fan of these devices with the superb Gmail support being another key factor.

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Matthew Miller started using a Pilot 1000 in 1997 and has been writing news, reviews, and opinion pieces ever since.

Disclosure

Matthew Miller

Matthew is a professional naval architect by day and a mobile gadget freak at all other times. He purchases his own devices and then sells them on eBay or Craigslist to buy more. Many other devices are sent for review on a 30-day loaner basis and then returned to the carrier or manufacturer. If any are provided as “long term loaner units” this will be clearly disclosed in his reviews.

Biography

Matthew Miller

Matthew Miller started using a mobile devices in 1997 and has been writing news, reviews, and opinion pieces ever since. He is a co-host with GigaOM's Kevin Tofel on the MobileTechRoundup podcast and an author of three Wiley Companion series books. Matthew started using mobile devices with a US Robotics Pilot 1000 and has owned over 125 different devices running Palm, Linux, Symbian, Newton, BlackBerry, iOS, Android, webOS, Windows Mobile, and Windows Phone operating systems. His current collection includes an HTC Radar 4G, Dell Venue Pro, Apple iPad 2, HTC Flyer, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Nokia N9, Apple iPhone 4S, MacBook Pro, and many more, along with tons of accessories and classic devices like the Apple Newton MessagePad 2100 and Sony CLIE UX50. Matthew can be found on various discussion forums under the user name of "palmsolo".
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RE: Google Maps 4.3 for Android adds public transit upcoming schedules
WindowWasher 25th Jun 2010
There are all kinds of warnings in the market comments for 4.3 that it screws up the GPS ("my location is now out at sea" and others). I am planning on skipping this version, since I can't figure out how to back up the existing version to fall back to in case of trouble.

By the 4.2, and earlier did transit schedules.
Matt, have you tried One Bus Away ( http://onebusaway.org )? It also provides public transit schedules for the Seattle area, including Sounder, and it does have real time updates for Metro, some ST, and Pierce Transit buses (dunno about Sounder).

For example, here are the arrivals for the next half-hour at King Street station: http://onebusaway.org/where/standard/stop.action?id=40_S_KS
(I guess there aren't any as I write this.)

I believe it also has its own Android app as well.
Google Navigation is the only reason why I am staying with Verizon on my Motorola Droid versus going to AT&T and getting the new iPhone.
Google Navigation is the only reason why I will not get rid of my Android phone and get the new iPhone.
I wonder if they will be able to tap into the system in Portland. At least for the Max they show when the next train hits a particular stop, not just when it is scheduled to get there.
Android is open with regard to applications; that is a major plus compared to iPhone. iPhone has finally sought-of caught up with multi-tasking... but I use SSH port forwarding to connect to my home server... then use another application on top... like VNC... its slow but sometimes there is no other way.

> with the superb Gmail support being another key factor.

It would be much better if you could edit quoted text --- please support the support request at
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?fid=0512ada5772c347c00048995cba3072f&hl=en
There are all kinds of warnings in the market comments for 4.3 that it screws up the GPS ("my location is now out at sea" and others). I am planning on skipping this version, since I can't figure out how to back up the existing version to fall back to in case of trouble.

By the 4.2, and earlier did transit schedules.

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