Friday, February 5, 2010

Maps 3.4 update brings multi-touch to all Android users?

Google has just released an update to its popular Maps application in the Android Market to version 3.4. Normally, a minor version update to an application isn’t enough to warrant major news, but Maps 3.4 contains a long-awaited feature update Android users have been longing for: multitouch. With the supposed six-month agreement between Google and Apple prohibiting Google’s use of multitouch gestures expiring this week, Google has been hard at work incorporating the feature into all of it’s breat-and-butter applications.

What’s most surprising, however, is not the fact that multi-touch is finally making its way into Google Maps, but the fact that this update works on my now-nearly-obsolete MyTouch 3G. Granted, most MyTouch 3G owners I know (including myself) are currently running Éclair ROMs, so I’m not entirely sure the update brings multitouch to MyTouch users still on Android 1.6, but the fact that Google is finally allowing us to fully-utilize the functionalities our phones have is certainly an exciting development for all Android enthusiasts. Hopefully in the coming days we will see this functionality come to all Google Android applications.

Can any MyTouch users out there running 1.6 download the 3.4 Maps update and confirm whether multi-touch is working for them?

EDIT: 3:21 PM. Just got confirmation of multitouch working on a MyTouch running CyanogenMod 4.2.14.1. Looks like multitouch is in fact working for you MyTouch users running the latest CyanogenMod on Android 1.6! Go get it!