Originally posted on the Geo Developers Blog
Posted by Ankur Kotwal, Developer Advocate
Some Android Wear apps are most useful when they are always available to the user, even at a glance. Now, with Google Play Services 8.1, the Google Maps Android API supports ambient mode, the API that provides always-on capabilities. In ambient mode, the map adjusts its style to provide a simplified, low-color rendering of the map. All markers, objects, and UI controls disappear, keeping the map on the screen while letting the user know that it is not currently ready to accept user input. An important advantage is the camera position and zoom level are retained, thus keeping the user’s context within the map.
The screenshot below show how maps appear in interactive mode and in ambient mode.
To implement ambient mode in your maps, follow these steps:
dependencies { compile 'com.google.android.support:wearable:1.2.0' provided 'com.google.android.wearable:wearable:1.0.0' }
<application> <uses-library android:name="com.google.android.wearable" android:required="false" /> ... </application>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WAKE_LOCK" />
setAmbientEnabled()
GoogleMapOptions.ambientEnabled(true)
onEnterAmbient()
MapFragment.onEnterAmbient()
MapView.onEnterAmbient()
onUpdateAmbient()
onExitAmbient()
MapFragment.onExitAmbient()
MapView.onExitAmbient()
With always-on maps on Android Wear, you can now show maps at a glance. For more information on these APIs check out the documentation and the sample code.
Posted by Jen Kovnats Harrington, Product Manager, Google Maps APIs
Originally posted to Google Geo Developers blog
People don’t think of their location in terms of coordinates on a map. They want context on what shops or restaurants they’re at, and what’s around them. To help your apps speak your users’ language, we’re launching the Places API for Android, as well as opening a beta program for the Places API for iOS.
The Places API web service and JavaScript library have been available for some time. By providing native support for Android and iOS devices, you can optimize the mobile experience with the new APIs by taking advantage of the device’s location signals.
The Places APIs for Android and iOS bridge the gap between simple geographic locations expressed as latitude and longitude, and how people associate location with a known place. For example, you wouldn’t tell someone you were born at 25.7918359,-80.2127959. You’d simply say, “I was born in Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida.” The Places API brings the power of Google’s global places database into your app, providing more than 100 million places, like restaurants, local businesses, hotels, museums, and other attractions.
Key features include:
To get started with the Places API for Android, watch this DevByte, check out the developer documentation, and play with the demos. To apply for the Places API for iOS beta program, go here.
A new release of Google Play services has now been rolled out to the world, and as usual we have a number of features that can make your apps better than before. This release includes a major enhancement to Maps with the introduction of Street View, as well as new features in Location, Games Services, Mobile Ads, and Wallet API. Here are the highlights of Google Play services release 4.4:
Starting with a much anticipated announcement for the Google Maps Android API: Introducing Street View. You can now embed Street View imagery into an activity enabling your users to explore the world through panoramic 360-degree views. Programmatically control the zoom and orientation (tilt and bearing) of the Street View camera, and animate the camera movements over a given duration. Here is an example of what you can do with the API, where the user navigates forward one step:
And while we are on the topic of maps, let’s turn to some news in the Location API. For those of you that have used this API, you may have seen the ability already there to detect if the device is in a vehicle, on a bicycle, on foot, still, or tilting. In this release, two new activity detectors have been added: Running, and Walking. So a great opportunity to expand your app to be even more responsive to your users. And for you that have not worked with this capability earlier, we hardly need to tell the cool things you can do with it. Just imagine combining this capability with features in Maps, Games Services, and other parts of Location...
In the 4.3 release we introduced Game Gifts, which allows you to request gifts or wishes. And although there are no external API changes this time, the default requests sending UI has been extended to now allow the user to select multiple Game Gifts recipients. For your games this means more collaboration and social engagement between your players.
For Mobile Ads, we’ve added new APIs for publishers to display in-app promo ads, which enables users to purchase advertised items directly. We’re offering app developers control of targeting specific user segments with ads, for example offering high-value users an ad for product A, or new users with an ad for product B, etc. With these extensions, users can conveniently purchase in-app items that interest them, advertisers can reach consumers, and your app connects the dots; a win-win-win in other words.
For the Instant Buy API, we’ve now reduced the work involved to place a Buy With Google button in an app. The WalletFragment API introduced in this release makes it extremely easy to integrate Google Wallet Instant Buy with an existing app. Just configure these fragments and add them to your app.
And that’s another release of Google Play services. The updated Google Play services SDK is now available through the Android SDK manager. Coming up in June is Google I/O, no need to say more…
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