<story><title>Google launches offline maps</title><url>https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2015/11/navigate-and-search-real-world-online.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Someone1234</author><text>This is amazing. Now things like Garman have no real purpose (offline maps was their niche as Google Map&amp;#x27;s version of the same was terrible).&lt;p&gt;Now who do I need to bribe at Google to get Google Maps to support Mirrorlink so it works with a quarter of a million vehicles? And to give Google Now a fake telephone number?&lt;p&gt;Google would prefer vehicles implement Android Auto. I&amp;#x27;d prefer that too. The reality on the ground is that about a dozen vehicles in the 2016 model year support Android Auto, while four times that support Mirrorlink (a Android Auto&amp;#x2F;Car Play competitor). That&amp;#x27;s a lot of vehicles who for their ten-twenty year lifespan won&amp;#x27;t have Google Maps without MirrorLink app support. So they&amp;#x27;re stuck using wonderful Android apps like &amp;quot;BringGo&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Sygic&amp;quot; that are MirrorLink compatible.&lt;p&gt;As to the Google Now fake phone number issue. Microsoft&amp;#x27;s Cortana does this, it rocks. A lot of vehicles totally botch Bluetooth. On a $20 Bluetooth Headset you can push and hold the call button and it opens up a audio stream to your smartphone, you say &amp;quot;OK Google&amp;quot; and Google Now works. Unfortunately many vehicles lack this very simple functionality. They outright refuse to open up a blank audio stream over Bluetooth, instead they want a specific phone number to call (that is stored on the vehicle&amp;#x27;s contact list). With no telephone contact in the directory the vehicle won&amp;#x27;t even pretend to start a call. Once you ask your vehicle to call someone, it opens up the Android dialer app and &amp;quot;OK Google&amp;quot; does not function (since you&amp;#x27;re now in a voice call). Cortana&amp;#x27;s fake number solves this outright, you &amp;quot;call&amp;quot; Cortana, she answers and you conduct your query. Your vehicle cannot know it isn&amp;#x27;t a real voice call, it is amazing.&lt;p&gt;PS - No, Tasker does not solve the bluetooth thing. You can intercept the call and start Google Now, but as soon as it hangs up the call the bluetooth cuts out.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>justinator</author><text>&amp;gt; Now things like Garman have no real purpose (offline maps &amp;gt; was their niche as Google Map&amp;#x27;s version of the same was 
terrible).&lt;p&gt;I see you&amp;#x27;ve never used a GPS in the back country for days at a time.&lt;p&gt;Things that are still wonderful about my eTrex 20 [0] is that it&amp;#x27;s cheap, it takes AA batteries, those AA&amp;#x27;s can last for 16+ hours continually, and it&amp;#x27;s not my phone. (phones are great, but I need it to operate as a phone, when I do need it).&lt;p&gt;And yes, I know your phone can do may wonderful things, and I am as grateful for that as you are, but of the few things they still are not getting right is: use in incremental weather. Like: winter outside, in a snowstorm, on a mountain. Or, being dropped onto things, like rocks. They seem to be allergic to those.&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;sites.garmin.com&amp;#x2F;en-US&amp;#x2F;etrex&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;sites.garmin.com&amp;#x2F;en-US&amp;#x2F;etrex&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Google launches offline maps</title><url>https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2015/11/navigate-and-search-real-world-online.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Someone1234</author><text>This is amazing. Now things like Garman have no real purpose (offline maps was their niche as Google Map&amp;#x27;s version of the same was terrible).&lt;p&gt;Now who do I need to bribe at Google to get Google Maps to support Mirrorlink so it works with a quarter of a million vehicles? And to give Google Now a fake telephone number?&lt;p&gt;Google would prefer vehicles implement Android Auto. I&amp;#x27;d prefer that too. The reality on the ground is that about a dozen vehicles in the 2016 model year support Android Auto, while four times that support Mirrorlink (a Android Auto&amp;#x2F;Car Play competitor). That&amp;#x27;s a lot of vehicles who for their ten-twenty year lifespan won&amp;#x27;t have Google Maps without MirrorLink app support. So they&amp;#x27;re stuck using wonderful Android apps like &amp;quot;BringGo&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Sygic&amp;quot; that are MirrorLink compatible.&lt;p&gt;As to the Google Now fake phone number issue. Microsoft&amp;#x27;s Cortana does this, it rocks. A lot of vehicles totally botch Bluetooth. On a $20 Bluetooth Headset you can push and hold the call button and it opens up a audio stream to your smartphone, you say &amp;quot;OK Google&amp;quot; and Google Now works. Unfortunately many vehicles lack this very simple functionality. They outright refuse to open up a blank audio stream over Bluetooth, instead they want a specific phone number to call (that is stored on the vehicle&amp;#x27;s contact list). With no telephone contact in the directory the vehicle won&amp;#x27;t even pretend to start a call. Once you ask your vehicle to call someone, it opens up the Android dialer app and &amp;quot;OK Google&amp;quot; does not function (since you&amp;#x27;re now in a voice call). Cortana&amp;#x27;s fake number solves this outright, you &amp;quot;call&amp;quot; Cortana, she answers and you conduct your query. Your vehicle cannot know it isn&amp;#x27;t a real voice call, it is amazing.&lt;p&gt;PS - No, Tasker does not solve the bluetooth thing. You can intercept the call and start Google Now, but as soon as it hangs up the call the bluetooth cuts out.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>giancarlostoro</author><text>&amp;gt; A lot of vehicles totally botch Bluetooth.&lt;p&gt;I had no idea, I got a 2011 car recently and it plays bluetooth audio and does calling as a separate functionality. I had issues getting it setup at first, but once I did, I haven&amp;#x27;t really thought of it sense. My only issue is I think Google should let you pick a default music software somehow, when I first started using it, it would open up the stock music player instead of Google Play Music (which is what I use by default). Now I go into my car and it autoplays, but I have to have the app open. Hopefully there will be progress in future versions of Android.</text></comment>