How to use offline Google maps on android phone in India.

Recently Google launched offline google maps for android phones in India. This new feature allows you to store map of some area on your phone for later use. Say you are going to some new or remote area and not sure if GPS is available there or not, or your network provider provides network there or not, or say you don't use internet on your phone always and you need map under such circumstances then it's better to download map of required area in advance.

No doubt this feature is of great use. This service was available in US and many European countries and now it's made available in India too.

Below are simple steps to get offline google map on your android phone.

1. Have Proper version of Google maps app :

First of all you need to upgrade your google map app if it's older one. Now latest version available is 6.14.1 minimum, minimum  because this is what I upgraded to in 2012 october. You can check if you need to upgrade or not by Google map » Options » more » make offline available, if this option is available then you don't need to upgrade otherwise you need to. And important point to note - this feature is available on android version 2.2+, thank god I am just on edge. 

To upgrade this app goto google play store on your phone search for google map and upgrade if you need.

 
2.Make map available offline :

Once proper version of google map is available, open google maps application search for area whose map you want to be available offline on your android.

by using  options » search.

Once proper area's map is loaded select

options » more options » make available offline.

 
3.  Select Proper Area :

Now it will show rectangular area over the map to chose the area of the map to  download. screen should be showing size of the map of area you have selected in mb along with "select" button which would be disabled. Now pinch in and out over rectangular selection area to select area to download. Keep an eye on select button and size of the map. You can download a map only when select button is enabled. Generally minimum area of the map that you can download is  near about 67mb. keep trying to select size of rectangle so that select button is enabled. try keeping size of the map across 60 to 100 mb.

 4. Download map :
 
Once select button is available, click it and  your map will start downloading. 

wait till map is downloaded. Once it`s downloaded you are ready to use the map offline.

5.  Use offline Google map :

To use offline map, goto options » my places » OFFLINE tab there your offline map will be available. Select it and there you go with your offline map.

don't you worry about phone memory consumption this map doesn't get downloaded completely to your phone memory. I am not sure where exactly this offline map gets downloaded  on phone  but it doesn't  consume your phone memory. I am sure about this because my phone never has that much free phone memory. So cheers. 




6. Enjoy offline maps on your android.

Google launches free SMS service on Gmail in India.

       Google has now extended free SMS service on Gmail to India. Google had first made this feature available to its users in some African countries in 2011. This service is started for Indian users from Oct 10 2012.

       By using this service users can send free SMSs through Google chat. Responses to these SMSs will be received to Gmail and also will be stored in Gmail chat history just like other chat messages. Yes, this is free service, every user is availed at the beginning with the credit of 50 SMSs and that is maximum credit any user can have. On sending one SMS credit is deduced by one. The maximum limit is kept to avoid misuse of the service for marketing or spamming.

       When you get reply to your SMS sent from this service, your SMS credit is increased by 5 and again max credit is 50. So you can get SMS credit by sending message to yourself and replying to it. Or you can chat with your friend using this service, so that you will never run out of the credit. Also when you run out of credit your account will be credited be 1 after 24 hours, giving you a chance to restart using this service.

      This service is available with almost all major mobile operators in India. This service is available only on Gmail website but not yet on the standalone Google Talk app.

        In order to send an SMS to a contact, hold mouse on your contact from contact list at chat panel at the bottom left corner. Which will popup contact’s detail. This popup has downward arrow for more actions at bottom right corner. Click on that arrow and it shows ‘send SMS’ option. Click on ‘send SMS’, this asks user’s mobile number, enter it and you are ready to send him free SMS from Gmail. Once mobile number is added chat panel shows mobile icon for that contact if he is offline. Then click on contact and type in message in chat window for sending SMS. And if contact for whom you have added mobile number is online and still you want to send SMS, click on More option in chat window and select ‘send text(SMS)’.

     If Gmail Chat SMS recipients in India do not wish to receive any messages on SMS from any Gmail user, they can stop the service from sending them messages by texting 'STOP' to +918082801060. To reactivate the service they can SMS 'START' to the same number.

     Enjoy texting.

Microsoft reveals a new logo. A change or a new beginning after 25 years.

Microsoft revealed it's new logo on 23th August 2012. The technology giant has changed it's logo after 1987, after long 25 years. This new logo appeals changes to it's new range of products form Windows 8 to Windows Phone 8 to Microsoft Office 2013. It's more like Windows new Metro UI, UI with tiles; So the logo has four colored tiles.

Microsoft has got colored logo first time and first time it has got some picture in it. Otherwise it was always been black text and only text 'Microsoft'.

The logo has changed for 5th time, you can see the changes in the logo over the years in the image down here.The new logo is in the font 'Segoe'. Note the characters 'f' and 't', they are left attached like last in logo.

       Microsoft's Jeff hansen revealed this new logo saying

"signal the heritage but also signal the future - a newness and freshness."  

Well said man.

     This logo is more influenced by  Windows 8's Metro UI. Windows 8's logo also has four tilted tiles, remember ? This new UI is gonna change completely how world has been using PC. Though this UI is designed optimally for tablets, it looks and feels great on PC and mobiles too.  Company's new products and even their many sites are now following this kind of UI, and keep in mind this is gonna be the future.

      This logo is already out on company's site www.micosoft.com, it's official facebook and twitter pages as well as many of it's offices.

      Watch following video about launch of this new logo.