Google Maps Street View (homebrew)

At webOS Nation we are big fans of the homebrew Google Maps app. It brings many needed features that were absent from the official old-and-defunct Google Maps or the new Bing Maps in an easy to use interface that is still getting regular updates. One of the features that often requested, but never made its way into the original Google Maps app, is the ability to access Google's Street View. While the Bing Maps app has its Birds Eye View, it's not exactly the same thing. Lucky for us, developer Jan Herman (72ka) has incorporated Google's Street View into his Google Maps app.

To access Street View, navigate the map until the location you want to view is in the dead center of the map. If you want your current location, just tap  to enter follow-mode. But if you want a different location, the easiest way to do this is to double-tap the exact spot on the map and it will zoom and center to that spot. Then, tap the  icon on the bottom of the screen and select "Street View". If the street view is available, it will appear full screen within the app where can pan around the view or tap the zoom in/out buttons. You can also tap on the white overlay arrows on the picture to move your location, just as you would on the desktop version of Google Maps.  Once you are finished, either swipe back or tap the back arrow on the bottom of the screen to return to the map. Unfortunately, even if you are in Follow Mode, Street View will not update as you move. It will remain at the location where you originally entered Street View.

There are a few quirks with the Street View as it currently works. First, make sure that you have centered the map on a road and not on the location you searched for. If you are centered on a building, the app may not recognize that street view exists for that location. Or, you may just be in an area without street view. There is no indicator within the map itself to let you know where street view is available. 

In addition, when you search for a location a pin gets dropped on that spot and you get a pop-up that you can tap for more options. One of those options is for Street View. Unfortunately, this currently just does the same thing as above and gives you the street view (if available) for the center of the map and not the location of the pin. Hopefully this will be fixed in a future update of the app, but is just a minor annoyance that we can easily overlook!

Google Maps is available in the webOS Nation homebrew feed in Preware and is compatible with all webOS devices running webOS 1.4.5 or higher

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