Greg Kumparak
The new Google Maps for Android just started shipping late last night, but folks are already bein’ all grumpy about the sudden disappearance of one of Maps’ old features: offline map mode. In previous releases of Maps, users could save chunks of the map for later use (like when you’re traveling abroad on a roaming plan and downloading a few megabytes of data would cost you somewhere between seven and eight billion dollars.) In new Maps, you can’t.
Google says the feature just wasn’t totally ready for the new version yet. But wait! There’s an easter egg that kinda-sorta brings it back.
