wildetudor
Member
This is my final set of questions - this time about Google Maps. To anyone reading: many thanks for your patience 
- Is there a way to change the artificial voice that is used for Navigation? I know you can't have a natural voice (i.e. bits of recordings put together) in Google Maps, as you do with Nokia Maps, however still, there are much better speech engines out there than that, and I'm surprised that the one Google went with is that horrible "1980s robot"-themed one.
- Once I save (star) a given location, it seems to always appear in the My Places list with its default name (either the place name or the address), with no renaming option available. Isn't there a way to rename all these places to something more meaningful, such as "Home" or "Work"?
- I was pleased with how the digital compass of the phone worked until a few days ago, when suddenly, the map stopped being correctly alligned with my orientation and is now always off by 90-or-so degrees. This also happens when using Street View in Compass Mode: rotating the phone does not rotate the view accordingly, instead the movement is jerky and uneven. I looked for an option to reset/calibrate the compass but did not find one. Has anyone else experienced this?
- I noticed that if you don't touch the screen long enough that it goes black, when you wake it up, the accuracy of your location drops dramatically (to something like 1400 m, whereas just before the screen going black it was 10 m), as if Maps has just been started and the localisation process needs to start afresh. Is this a problem, or does it simply show that the GPS is turned of when the screen goes black?
- I've noticed that the Settings contain a surprisingly low number of options that can be set. A few conspicuous ones are options for:
- language used for voice directions
- units of measure (miles or killometres)
- speed limit warning.
- preferred routes (e.g. main roads or smaller lanes)
I wonder if any of these options are likely to be implemented in future versions. In either case, I now understand why so many people think Nokia Maps is the better, more "stable" program, although of course Google Maps is much more "forward thinking" and up-to-date.
- I noticed that the screen always stays lit only in Navigation mode, whereas if you are just searching/browsing the Maps, the screen will turn off after a while, like it does in any other app. In Nokia Maps it was possible to make the screen never go black when the program was open; is there a (hidden) option for Google Maps to do the same?
- Coming from Nokia Maps, the most annoying thing about Google Maps is, of course, the fact that you are not given the choice of pre-downloading all map data for a given country, instead you need to download everyting on-the-go, via the network. I know there is a Lab add-on that allows precaching of map tiles, however you can only do that for small areas (squares of about 3x3 miles). I imagine there's no easy way to increase that area, but I was wondering what the limit is to this Lab feature - has anyone tried to precache many adjacent map tiles in a way that covers a whole region, perhaps even a small country? Personally, I use the GPS most often when abroad, and it just seems silly to have a navigation program that requires constant roaming traffic in order to do anything!
- Is there a way to stop the map mode automatically switching from Map to Satellite while navigating in Walking mode? I think this only happens either when you're very zoomed in or when you're in the final portion of the route, but it's still annoying, given that this implies a lot more data being transferred (plus, personally, I always prefer the Map view anyway).
Many thanks in advance for any help!
- Is there a way to change the artificial voice that is used for Navigation? I know you can't have a natural voice (i.e. bits of recordings put together) in Google Maps, as you do with Nokia Maps, however still, there are much better speech engines out there than that, and I'm surprised that the one Google went with is that horrible "1980s robot"-themed one.
- Once I save (star) a given location, it seems to always appear in the My Places list with its default name (either the place name or the address), with no renaming option available. Isn't there a way to rename all these places to something more meaningful, such as "Home" or "Work"?
- I was pleased with how the digital compass of the phone worked until a few days ago, when suddenly, the map stopped being correctly alligned with my orientation and is now always off by 90-or-so degrees. This also happens when using Street View in Compass Mode: rotating the phone does not rotate the view accordingly, instead the movement is jerky and uneven. I looked for an option to reset/calibrate the compass but did not find one. Has anyone else experienced this?
- I noticed that if you don't touch the screen long enough that it goes black, when you wake it up, the accuracy of your location drops dramatically (to something like 1400 m, whereas just before the screen going black it was 10 m), as if Maps has just been started and the localisation process needs to start afresh. Is this a problem, or does it simply show that the GPS is turned of when the screen goes black?
- I've noticed that the Settings contain a surprisingly low number of options that can be set. A few conspicuous ones are options for:
- language used for voice directions
- units of measure (miles or killometres)
- speed limit warning.
- preferred routes (e.g. main roads or smaller lanes)
I wonder if any of these options are likely to be implemented in future versions. In either case, I now understand why so many people think Nokia Maps is the better, more "stable" program, although of course Google Maps is much more "forward thinking" and up-to-date.
- I noticed that the screen always stays lit only in Navigation mode, whereas if you are just searching/browsing the Maps, the screen will turn off after a while, like it does in any other app. In Nokia Maps it was possible to make the screen never go black when the program was open; is there a (hidden) option for Google Maps to do the same?
- Coming from Nokia Maps, the most annoying thing about Google Maps is, of course, the fact that you are not given the choice of pre-downloading all map data for a given country, instead you need to download everyting on-the-go, via the network. I know there is a Lab add-on that allows precaching of map tiles, however you can only do that for small areas (squares of about 3x3 miles). I imagine there's no easy way to increase that area, but I was wondering what the limit is to this Lab feature - has anyone tried to precache many adjacent map tiles in a way that covers a whole region, perhaps even a small country? Personally, I use the GPS most often when abroad, and it just seems silly to have a navigation program that requires constant roaming traffic in order to do anything!
- Is there a way to stop the map mode automatically switching from Map to Satellite while navigating in Walking mode? I think this only happens either when you're very zoomed in or when you're in the final portion of the route, but it's still annoying, given that this implies a lot more data being transferred (plus, personally, I always prefer the Map view anyway).
Many thanks in advance for any help!
