One of my favorite applications on my N82 - Google Maps - has just recieved a huge updated. You can now login to the maps application and see where your other Google buddies are on the map in real time. Great for meetups, parties, or checking on a loved one. This new service is called Google Latitude and brings a welcome competitor to Nokia's beta applications like FriendView and Chat.
Description of Google Latitude:
With Google Latitude, you can:
See where your friends are and what they are up to
Quickly contact them with SMS, IM, or a phone call
Maintain complete control over your privacy
Enjoy Google Latitude on your phone, PC, or both.
Latitude is a new feature of Google Maps for mobile, as well as an iGoogle gadget, that allows you to share your location with your friends and to see their approximate locations, if they choose to share them with you. You can use your Google account to sign in and easily invite friends to Latitude from your existing list of contacts or by entering their email addresses. Google Talk is integrated with Latitude, so you and your friends can update your status messages and profile photos on the go and see what everyone is up to. You can also call, SMS, IM, or email each other within the app.
Check out the video...
So far I'm really digging the "ease of use". If they would enable some sort of Gtalk instant messaging like Contacts on Ovi from Beta Labs has, we'd have some serious issues. Already this is huge because non S60 users can take advantage of this, unliked Friendview or Ovi Contacts which requires other people to have a S60 device.
For privacy issues, you can turn off this feature or preset your location:
Other than the new latitude feature, I haven't really noticed any other changes or enhancements from the previous Google Maps version.
Download: http://www.google.com/latitude
