Offline turn-by-turn directions coming to Google Maps app

Google Maps and turn-by-turn directions will soon be available offline to work where there is no 3G coverage(Reuters)

Google will soon let Android users save maps and turn-by-turn directions offline, so they can be accessed in areas with poor or no data coverage.

Included with a number of announcements about improving Android's speed and efficiency in countries with poor mobile coverage, the search giant said driving and walking directions will soon be saved offline. The routes must be saved in advance, and there will presumably be a limit to how much can be saved at a time.

No matter what these limitations will be, this is still a huge benefit for smartphone users who live in an area with poor mobile coverage, or who are taking a road trip to an unfamiliar area with patchy 3G coverage.

Since GPS doesn't rely on the mobile networks, your phone will work just as it does when connected to 3G or 4G. With no signal, the app will continue to deliver spoken directions and visual maps, and calculate your time of arrival.

Shift Key 'Fix', iMessage Improvements, and Other Changes That iOS 9 Is Tipped to Bring

Noted Apple tipster Mark Gurman is at it again, revealing more details about the upcoming iOS 9 update that is expected to be previewed at Apple's developers conference WWDC in June. Here are the top changes that iOS 9 will bring, according to Gurman's latest   reports:

1. The Apple Watch has it, so it's only logical that the next iPhone will have it as well. We are talking, of course, about the Force Touch technology. According to Gurman, the iPhone 6S will come with a Force Touch display with haptic feedback.
2. Force Touch will change the way iOS 9 users interact with the system, replacing some long-presses across the UI. It "will be integrated into Maps to drop new pins, into media players for pressure-sensitive scrolling, into the Calendar for adding new events, and across the system for quickly looking up word definitions."
3. Force Touch has already made its debut on Mac computers and it's likely that next-generation iPad tablets will also incorporate this technology.
4. Apple is also said to be working on an updated keyboard that will finally fix the annoying shift key problem that's plagued the operating system since iOS 7. This alone might make the iOS 9 upgrade worthwhile for some!
5. Apple is said to be testing multiple new layouts for the keyboard as well, and it also plans to make QuickType autocomplete feature more accessible.
6. Apple is also reportedly getting ready to launch Apple Pay in Canada. iTunes Radio and Apple Music (revamp of the Beats music streaming service) are also expected to launch internationally this year.

1. iMessage is likely to add read receipts for group chat threads, as well as read receipts on a contact-by-contact basis. This way you can let your wife know her message has been read, but leave the annoyingly persistent people guessing.
2. Apple Maps are tipped to add support for transit directions, though the feature will be restricted to a handful of cities at launch: San Francisco, New York, Toronto, London, Paris, and Berlin. Apple is also reportedly working with its partner AutoNavi to source transit data for China.
3. Earlier reports have indicated that iOS 9 will largely focus on bug fixes and stability improvements.
4. iOS 9 is still likely to have new features, like split-screen multi-tasking support on the iPad.

Apple is expected to provide developers first glimpse of iOS 9 at WWDC starting June 8. It is likely to be available to consumers around September this year, when the new iPhone models are expected to ship.

Google, Huawei Latest to Offer OSes for IoT

Google is expected to announce "Brillo" at its I/O event, a week after Huawei unveiled its own LiteOS as part of a larger IoT push.

Google and Huawei Technologies are the latest technology vendors to push an operating system for the rapidly growing Internet of things.

At the Huawei Network Congress 2015 event last week, Huawei officials unveiled LiteOS, a lightweight operating system that was introduced as part of the company's larger Agile Internet of Things (IoT) Solution which also includes an IoT gateway and controller.

Google officials reportedly will talk about the search giant's upcoming IoT OS—dubbed "Brillo"—during theGoogle I/O 2015 conference, which starts May 28 in San Francisco. According to reports in The Information and Fortune, Brillo—with as few as 32 or 64 megabytes of memory—will be able to run in smaller, low-power devices that will make up much of the IoT.

Google and Huawei will join a growing list of tech companies that are rolling out lightweight operating systems for the Internet of things. For example, chip designer ARM last year unveiled its mbed OS for the IoT, and Microsoft is developing a version of its upcoming Windows 10 for the IoT that officials in March said will offer a single Windows platform for everything from IoT gateways to devices like ATMs and industrial robots.