New favorite Treo app
This, too, is vaguely relatd to my other entries this morning, but I thought it deserved an entry of its own.
Google Maps is now available as a standalone app for the Treo.
It is totally cool.
You don't even have to do the usual download-then-sync process; you can download it directly to the Treo (if you have 500k of space) by using the Treo's web browser to go to www.google.com/gmm.
It has almost the full capabilities of Google Maps, including realtime dragging and satellite view (but not including hybrid satellite/map view). It's fast and pretty and it can give you driving directions and apparently live traffic-speed updates. When you do a local search for businesses, you can tap to call a business's phone number. And it's all right there on the Treo.
This makes me happy.
You may need a special calling plan to be able to use this, or at least to use it without your phone service provider charging you extra. I have Sprint's Vision something-or-other plan, which gives me web access and email and stuff, so I'm not sure whether Maps works on a Treo without such a plan.
I should note that Google Maps Mobile has been available for a while for some other cell phones, but I think until now you needed to download some kind of extra Java support before it would work on the Treo. The new version doesn't require anything extra.
You're not supposed to use this while driving, but I will definitely be asking passengers to use it to navigate for me.
Okay, gotta skedaddle off to work.
