[Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

I just uploaded to extras-devel geeps. It is a front-end for google maps and uses the internal gps for your position.

It is very limited as it is but quite useful. More than once I have relied on it to get directions and arrive at my destination.

I don't have any intention to compete with all the other great location/gps packages but couldn't resist creating my own.

The most important piece missing, for me, is finding an address for a place (something like: take me to the nearest McDonalds?)... Google Places API is the perfect answer for this - unfortunately it is not an open api yet. If you know of any other api that could do the trick let me know! If you know how to get me a google maps key even better :) EDIT: I still don't have a google places api key but implemented the google local search for now.

Another idea for a next release is to allow other applications to request directions for a given address (e.g. from MyContacts get directions to visit grandma, from movie schedule get directions to the selected movie theather, ...). I will implement it as a DBUS interface and any developer will be able to make use of it.

Keyboard Shortcuts:

• ENTER: show your current location (if GPS is enabled)
• F: full screen
• 1-9: zoom
• left, right, up,down arrows: pan map
• shift + left arrow: center on previous step on current route
• shift + right arrow: center on next step on current route
• shift + up/down arrow: loop trough different routes (if alternative routes was selected on directions)

Some issues/comments/tricks:

• access to the internet is required (make sure to establish the connection before you start geeps) It will automatically popup the "connection" dialog (note: it will not work w/o internet connection so you can't just dismiss the connect window)
• you need to enable the GPS on the application menu ("position updates")
• in order to get directions from a location, other than your current location, you first need to deactivate the "position updates"
• use the volume buttons to control zoom

Some other ideas:

• allow to drag mapDone!
• auto rotate the map (like any gps)
• record POI
• track path
• calculate speed
• mixed view (map+directions)
• detect current step automatically
• ...

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

Some screenshots:
http://maemo.crochik.com/_/rsrc/1286...s/saopaulo.png
http://maemo.crochik.com/_/rsrc/1286...ng?width=400px
http://maemo.crochik.com/_/rsrc/1286...ng?width=400px
http://maemo.crochik.com/_/rsrc/1286...ng?width=400px
http://maemo.crochik.com/_/rsrc/1286...ng?width=400px

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

Nice! D'loading now...
Is the traffic layer in the future?

BTW, I pretty much drove that route you plotted, today out of New Castle, DE. :)

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

I am constantly surprised about the number of people who go near or in Maryland. =P

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

You should!!!! Google maps on iOS is the only thing I miss about my old iphone, and every maps solution on Maemo leaves something to be desired.

You should chat with the author of the ModRana application. He includes Google Maps search in his app, and fetching coordinates, etc.

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

I have already the coordinates search for an address. What I am missing is what google calls "Place search" so you can look for business by name, monuments, ... and get the address/coordinates. Even more important google will give you nearby places first so you can find the nearest movie theather for example.

By the way: have you tried google maps on the macuco browser? Soon I will be able to have it use gps ...maybe another option for you

EDIT: I have downloaded modRana and you are right: it does search for places.

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

Hi!

Would it be possible to enable scrolling the map with your finger? The 4-direction buttons don't quite work as well, I think.

Looking really promising!

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

Does it support Zoom In\Out functionality ?

Thanks for your effort . I really appreciate it .

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

Wow, that app looks really cool, well done! Look forward to trying it.

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

hi!

i gave i quick test for this and it looks neat. i ocassionaly have problem with freezing. the app frozen few times it just didnt do anything for a few moment. Dont know if that was just or because i use media player same time :)

to the directions it could be useful to have some sort of info about the route. lenght and time

nice!


EDIT: second time it didnt froze anymore, so it was my phone which caused it :)

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

Alright!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can't use drag and drop and no way to zoom into my current location quickly!

Updates for next version please! I can't tell you how happy I am that we have a native google maps app for this!!!

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

Nice! Do you release the source code? Maybe i could help you to get a fully featured google maps on n900 :)

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

I can't find it on extras-devel for some reason... :confused: anywhere else I can get it from?

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

Gorgeous :D

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

Very nice. Volume buttons work for zooming.

In addition to the other comments, it'd be nice to have a function to keep the screen on (while moving?). Tried it in the car this morning, plugged into the charger. Screen blanks after timeout, even though I have "Screen on while charging" checked in settings.

In their infinite wisdom, Nokia decided that the screen only stays on "while charging", not while plugged in, but full battery, so not actually "charging".

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

Nice work geeza - looking forward to seeing this app evolve :)

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

Use the simple brightness applet and set the screen to always on.

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

I could do that, but then I'd forget to turn it off later, and run the battery down. I'd be nice to have it integrated. Even as a setting (either on or off) while the app is active

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

Agreed.

Use the volume buttons... I will add a note to the original post...

Agreed... Still haven't figure out the best way to use the small screen but am working on it

Use the volume buttons for zoom. Use the enter key to center your location.

You can get the source code with "apt-get source geeps". It is a bit of a mess right now.

Have you found it? I got the category wrong... it may be easier searching for the name (geeps).

Agreed. Didn't know about the "while charging" thing - sounds almost like a joke.

Thanks. This will the first place I will look for how to implement that :)

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

Yup, found it now, thanks. Just finished installing. :)

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

Maybe that explains all the little WTF aspects of the n900. They're just Nokia's little jokes to keep us amused while they work on making the real thing.

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

That's with no doubt, the funniest and most true observation iv'e seen on TMO :)

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

Just downloaded the package. I think this is the best map app on N900 for my purpose so far. I would also vote for adding support for traffic layer (not traffic avoidance in direction, just view traffic info on current view) and ability to browse the map by swiping fingers rather than the four arrows. I think these two feature would make this app a winner for me :D

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

Looks grate I`ll try it , is there any chance to have some offline support like , export the driving indications or somthing like that?

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

Having google maps is great. I was using maps on my hero earlier, just messing around, and i love how easy it is, tapping somewhere brings up 'search places' (it even lists my business :D) and street view etc. Any chance of these being implemented soon? Places especially would be great

Also, it's showing sao paulo. I have set position update every second but it's not even in my country let alone my road. Is there a reason for this?

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

Hi,

Great front-end, and some requests:

- Big cache for offline browsing :) I don't know if you could download all gmaps for later view?
- Search place. A simple search interface for zooming into particular place.
- World view. Again a simple button to zoom out the lowest level to see the world map. It takes so many rocker action to go to the top level.
- A quick "f" key-toggle to switch between fullscreen mode.

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

Maybe you can use/share the SQLlite storage being introduced now in Modrana for caching ? I think he also supports Google Map tiles now.
I don't know if the DB scheme supports Google Maps tiles in different forms though (Satellite, Hybrid, Road Maps and Terrain). And what to do with the Traffic layer ... ?

But anyway looking already very nice and big potential. No streetview in mind yet ? ... ;)

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

I'd rather it not cache too much. That's why I prefer not to use some of the other solutions. I'd rather not have a large directory/database full of map images taking up space.

There's already several apps that cache data, I like that this one is quick and easy and current. (No messing with zoom levels, auto downloading, data sources, etc)

If multiple programs are sharing the same map tiles, which one decides how much space to use? Which one decides which data to keep when purging data?

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

Searching places (using the google places api) depends on google giving me the green light. Sao Paulo... I had to start somewhere... It probably makes sense to have start on your last known position though... :)

I didn't set any limits for the cache...not sure if there are any ... will check later... I like the other ideas...

I don't actually deal with the "tiles" directly. It is all google. I tried to enable all the "cache" options on webkit so "google" can make the best use of it. I could read some of the information from modrana but "geeps" is pretty useless without internet. Maybe the POI database makes sense.

Actually, I don't need to do anything to implement street view... just allow "google maps" to show the button. :)


I have enabled all the "webkit" caching options I could find so it should probably work similar to google maps on any other browser... If we find out that the cache is growing too much (I doubt) we can set some limits (there may be some already by default that I may have to change).

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

Sharing a Map Tile Cache Daemon with a GUI plugin for options would be a good thing.

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

One more suggestion, is possible to make the Position Update preference persistent between sessions? So that the user doesn't have to turn it on at each start-up?

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

One other quick thought as this evolves...is it possible to get the estimated travel time to show with the directions.

This is quickly becoming my goto map tool, keep up the awesome work!

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

New Release - GeePS 0.0.4

Added functionality:

• Save settings
• Traffic and Bicycling Layers

New Shortcuts:

• F: full screen
• 0-9: zoom (0 is kind of funny because is the smallest zoom but it is on the right side of keyboard... on a next version will find a better meaning for it)

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

Awesome update!

Some quick observation:
- Although Traffic Layer status is saved between session, the layer isn't displayed automatically on restart. I have to turn it off and then on again to display the traffic layer. Same thing happens Auto position updates as well intermittently.
- For some reason the 0-9 zoom option aren't working for me at all. :confused: Has any one else been able to test that successfully?

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

I think I know why...will work on it.

Can't imagine what the problem is here. If anyone experience the same problem please report

Works for me... did you hold the blue button? :)

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

Aahh, that was the problem, my bad. I didn't keep holding the blue button while pressing the num keys. Works perfectly now. Thanks!

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

I'd suggest "F" key to toggle full and normal screen.

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

Changes:

• fix problem with "traffic and bicycling layers" not "restarting" when internet connection is "slow"
• option to show position accuracy on the map (menu)

Re: [Announce] Oh My G...PS! - geeps: native front-end for google maps
 

Very nice to see quick updates...

Is it possible to have a double-pixel option like Maep? Hate my aging eyes :(