http-equiv="Content-Type">
style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:15.1pt;
background:white"> style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family:
Arial;color:#333333">Are you headed for a vacation to an offbeat
place or a
camping trip away from the city? Well, a map could come handy
for you, yeah!
But then, chances are that you won't have proper data
connectivity in those
locations, so you can't use the map application installed on
your phone or
tablet. This would have been the case until now, but with Google
announcing the
offline maps for Android devices, the game has just changed.
background:white"> style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family:
Arial;color:#333333">You don't need to download additional
offline map
applications for your Android device. No more dependency on data
connectivity.
Your very own Google Maps app now works offline. This will also
cut down your
data usage expenses when you are traveling abroad.
style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;
color:#222222">
background:white"> style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family:
Arial;color:#333333">You can now class="apple-converted-space"> style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;
color:#444444">select and save a region of a map from more than
150 countries
for offline usage. Google Maps for Android can save up to six
large metro areas
on the app. style="font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:#333333">
background:white"> style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;
color:#222222">Setting it up
background:white"> style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family:
Arial;color:#444444">To use this feature in your mobile or
tablet, you just
have to follow a few easy steps. Open the Google Maps app on
your Android phone
or tablet, then enter the name of the place or select the
city/location. Next
up, tap the Menu button and select 'Make available offline' from
the menu and
select the area that you would like to save. Now wait for a
while as it
download the map in your device, you will be able to view the
estimated file
size of the map. So you will know how much storage space it will
consume. Now check
'My Places' tab where you will find your downloaded map. That's
it! Now you are
ready to move offline with your Google map. What's more, with
the GPS activated
on your device, you can also navigate real-time on the
downloaded map, without
any data connectivity. How cool is that!
background:white"> style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;
color:#222222">How does it fare for Indian locations?
style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:
EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">
We downloaded offline maps for metropolitan cities of India
(Delhi, Mumbai,
Kolkata, etc). Additionally, we also downloaded offline maps for
some remote
locations in Uttaranchal (Nainital, Kasauni, etc). While the map
in itself is
downloaded in all the details that you can see when you are
connected to the
Internet, what we really liked was the fact that we could navigate
real-time by
enabling the GPS feature, and this, while the data connectivity
was switched
off. We did a stretch from Jharsa Village in Gurgaon to India Gate
in New
Delhi. The navigation happened as it would if the device was
connected to the Internet.
style="mso-special-character:line-break">
style="mso-special-character:line-break">