Google updates maps for selected European, African and Asian countries, now with more detail than ever

Your Android device, coupled with Google Maps -- in particular the new, offline features -- is a pretty powerful way of finding your way around when you visit another country. Google never settles for 'good enough' though, and today has announced a slew of more detailed maps across selected European, African and Asian countries. 

The affected nations are; Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lesotho, Macau, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore and Vatican City. 

The added details cover a pretty broad spectrum too, from coastlines and bodies of water, to more accurate names and locations for points of interest, and several places in between. One example given is that now, when you look down on St Marks Square in Venice on Google Maps, you'll see accurately aligned canals, 3D buildings and a whole heap of labels on different points of interest. 

Ferry routes also get a mention, as for many places Google has gone and tidied these up and added better, and more clearly labelled ferry routes. Local roads are now more accurately distinguished from the main highways, and multi-lingual names are available for larger number of roads in these countries. 

For the full rundown, hit up the source link below. As for me, I'm going off to explore Venice some more -- albeit only from a Nexus 7. 

Source: Google Lat Long

O2 UK reveals new European roaming plans

Following the recent EU ruling on European roaming rates, O2 UK has announced its new "O2 Travel" service, which will launch from July. The service offers reduced European roaming charges compared to the networks' current price plans, which it'll have to abolish after the July deadline imposed by the EU. Instead of paying up to £40 for up to 50MB of Euro roaming data per month, O2 Travel will now offer 25MB each day, for a daily fee of £1.99. And voice calls are becoming cheaper too, with a one-off charge of 50p per call, with minutes being deducted from the customer's allowance for that month.

Interestingly, the new O2 Travel deals will also be available to O2 Pay As You Go customers -- traditionally PAYG users have been left in the lurch when trying to use mobile data aboard. Data costs the same as it does for contract customers, but there's a slightly different price plan for voice calls -- a 29p charge per call, then 8p per minute for the call's duration.

So good news for anyone roaming in Europe on O2, and we'd expect the other major British networks to reveal new roaming plans as the July deadline approaches.

First software update now rolling out for European HTC One X

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

The first official new software update is now rolling out for unbranded HTC One X retail units in Europe, bringing HTC's new flagship phone up to version 1.28.401.9. The 30MB update is being delivered over-the-air, so head to 'Settings > About > Software Updates' to grab the new version. Note that if your One X is network-branded, you'll likely have to wait a little longer for your carrier to approve this update before it's pushed out. And for what it's worth, the new software version is still based on Android 4.0.3 rather than the slightly newer 4.0.4 that's running on some Nexus devices.

So far we're only seeing a few minor changes on our One X -- the phone no longer incorrectly displays the on-screen menu key in certain Google apps, like YouTube, and automatic brightness levels seem to have been pared back somewhat, too. This version is also supposed to fix the battery life issues many One X owners have been reporting in the two weeks since the phone's launch. In addition, we're hearing that the bug which occasionally resulted in garbled text and icons in the notification bar has also been squished.

One X owners, be sure to shout out in the comments if you've noticed any other changes or fixes.

A number of European developers left waiting for Google Play payouts

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Admittedly we're not all that versed on the ins and outs of how Google pays developers for apps purchased from the Android Market Google Play. But one thing we do know is an angry mob (editors are particularly good at spotting them), and one appears to be growing in the Google Checkout Merchant forums. In a nearly week-old thread with more that 100 posts, it seems a growing number of European devs have yet to receive payment for February. Almost worse is that they apparently aren't getting much in the way of explanation.

Developers are the lifeblood of any platform. (Perhaps you've heard.) Let's hope this gets straightened out soonest.

Source: Google Product Forums