Google has just launched Google Maps 5.0 for the Android Market for your downloading pleasure. It’s an awesome update, which brings 3D mapping, vector-based mapping, offline rerouting and navigating, as well as offline map storage.
The new Google Maps 5.0 allows users to view buildings in 3D, to get traffic reports and a latitude feature, which allows them to find the exact location of their friends. Before it was tile-based, but now it’s all done with vectors
Instead of tiles and multi touch gestures, Google will use scalable & lighter weighing Vector graphics to dynamically draw the map and to get rid of grey squares getting filled in to the device and allowing to interact in new ways: A two finger swipe can “tilting” the map and now you will get a 3D view of the landscape and then you can rotate around them to gain a new perspective from any direction. If you tap the compass mode button, the map will flip into 3D mode and start rotating to match your perspective.
Google is also rolling out offline rerouting support when you use Google Maps Navigation beta, using low-bandwidth vector maps. Users can cache the data for viewing it in offline mode, specifically their most frequently visited locations. Yah, It can cache a lot of the map online. Zooming is now ultra-smooth, not point-by-point. Google Maps Navigation (Beta) automatically reroutes you, even if you lose your connection after starting a route.
Download: You can download the Google Maps 5.0 for free from Android Market or from here from your phone(this link is not working at present). Note that these maps will work on only Android 1.6+ devices only. But you want to view 3D maps & offline navigations, you need Android 2.0+ handsets.
Watch out the promo video of Google to check the new features of Google Maps 5.0 at below.