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Remember how Google blocked Navigation on phones in Europe and pretty much everywhere else besides the United States? We wondered how long it would take for service to be restored thanks to a clever developer who hacked through a solution. Guess what? It’s heeeeeeeere!
Brut.all from XDA-Devs posted updated APKs that solve the problem and users from the UK, France, Poland, Spain, Japan and elsewhere are reporting that, with his work, they can now get Google Navigation working on their G1 and other devices in places, well… they’re not supposed to!
There are a few bugs that seem to occur but hopefully the dev will be able to address them. First of all, although the Nav reads the road names properly out loud, they are displayed on the screen as “Unnamed Road”. As a reference, where you see “Octavia Road” it would say “Unnamed Street” in this work-around:
Not only that but the turn commands come a little bit late which… might force you to miss a turn. Better than nothing though for sure! Props the guys at XDA and a big thanks to Carl for hitting me up with the info!
PS: This is available to both ROOT and NON-ROOT android users but make sure you install the right one!
Umm… there is something that confuses me. If you come out and yell out to the whole world that the Google app has been successfuly hacked aren’t you just letting Google know that they need to keep working on blocking functionalities?
Can’t you guys be hush – hush about it and enjoy the features without bringing too much attention to the matter?
Arno beleive me when i say this it’s XDA Goole already knows before even coming here to find out
Haha whats the point of a sat nav that tells you to turn after the turning.
i couldn’t install the apk. i am using htc hero on t-mobile. not rooted device. i am unable to un-install the default google map.
Does the late instruction thing happen all the time on the hacked version? Using the official US version of navigation I’ve had turns announced late on one or two occasions — pretty rare on the whole, but unless it’s happening way more often on the hacked version, it doesn’t seem to be this dev’s fault.
Damn doesnt work on my hero…Guess this is because its 1.5 :'(
I know I’m asking to be flamed but perhaps the reason it’s not available in certain areas is because of licensing issues or Google doesn’t have the most accurate mapping info for those areas? I’m all for hacking but seriously, it isn’t that serious that I’d hack my phone to use something that’s not fully baked.
don’t know what your taking bout late instuction.had no issues with google nav taking a trip from charles town, wv to malone, ny to thomaston, ct and then reversing it. even have to cell service for about 200 mile total and still worked like a champ in the dead zones.
@ rigamrts – good point, mate… good point.
Will be sweet on my Milestone ;-)
There are two things that pretend me from buying the droid/milestone.
– deactivated navigation in europe
– no cisco-vpn accessibility (most common at german universitys)
Number 1 seems to be striked out soon =)
looking forward to more good news !