Gadgetory

hey everyone welcome to the inside scoop I'm cnet's Cara tsuboi joined by senior rider seth rosenblatt and Seth today we are talking all about the newly updated google mapping app for android and soon iOS absolutely so it comes out today for Android users is that correct yes android users who have jelly bean 4.1 will be able to begin getting the app from the Google Play Store what would you say is the biggest most noticeable difference between this version and previous oh boy there's a lot of differences there's a new look that they announced at Google i/o there's also some new features that they also announced back in May most interestingly the app is sort of going after foursquare and Yelp with some of these new features interesting how's that going to work like the yelp part for example the old part is really cool you tap on a restaurant or bar and the Zagat review shows up you get that you can see the Zagat score you can see the Zagat review other readers reviews and then you can add your own score and row and review directly from Google Maps it's quite cool and what about the Foursquare portion how does that work that's also very interesting there's a new explore feature in google maps so when you tap on a location you can go through restaurants bars hotels points of interest it's really kind of neat and you can do it all without having to type anything into your phone you can just tap and go now what about for those of us users who just want a good mapping app that doesn't steer me in the wrong direction does this beef up those features or you know give me better traffic data things like that absolutely although Google just bought ways which is known for its crowd-sourced maps none of those features have filtered into this version yet but what we do have in this version is a real-time traffic rerouting option so if you're if it detects a traffic jam up ahead it'll notify you that there's a jam and then offer an automatic re-route you tap the phone once it gives you a new way to go I like that that sounds very useful it's interesting that's great yeah we're where do you think Google is really going with this obviously you know mapping is a huge face right now just trying to take more of a claim against team Apple's own proprietary maps everyone else in this me you know I don't know especially with the with the by of ways I don't know that Google is really feeling any pressure from any competition certainly they want to stay on top of the heap and some of the features that they've included such as a new feature where you can shake the phone and it will automatically pop up the feedback option where you can let Google Maps know that there's a bad photo that there's an inaccurate placement of something or an error in even a transportation schedule that makes it you know one of the more unique mapping apps out there I would definitely use that feature no kiddin I hate it when I find a one-way street that's going the other way sure when they get the muni times wrong san Francisco's the worst absolutely all right so starting today Android users can update their app and in iOS users rolling out soon they don't know when exactly but it should be I'd be surprised if it was less than if they didn't have it within a few weeks great senior writer Seth Rosenblatt I'm Kara Tsuboi thanks for watching the inside scoop