New Maps Navigation hack
For all the people that don't live in the US but want Navigation on their Android device...
Brut.all did it again ;-) and he has my respect for this, if you want to buy him a beer like I did just click here
As you may have discovered, Google has changed the way to get Navigation data on the server side, this means that the prior hack with the Navigation Flag isn't working anymore because they implemented now server side security (instead of just security by obscurity on the client side).
The new hack doesn't work the same way, instead it is the original proxy idea but done inside the app so no need for a special proxy.
How do you install the new Maps?
Thats very easy, just download the version you want to install
For root users: http://ul.to/ol9h9t
For normal users: http://ul.to/368xcu
Normal users will have two maps applications like with the old hack.
Normal users can now just install this apk with some apk installer (like Astaro or Linda) or adb and are ready to Navigate.
Root users have first to delete the old Maps version (and it's dexed parts)
adb remount adb shell find /system /data -name \*google\*maps.apk\* -o -name Maps.apk -delete adb uninstall com.google.android.apps.maps
If you get an error on uninstalling maps (in the second command), your first command did not work or did not delete all artifacts.
Next is to install the new maps apk that you downloaded before
adb install -r maps3.3.1-by-directions-root-3.apk
And the final step, rebooting your device to clean up
adb shell reboot
With this steps you should be able to use Navigation again with some limitations/downsides:
The road name doesn't display in the top bar, it just says "unnamed road".
Btw. my NavStarter application also works with this hacked maps version => http://www.2030.tk/link/navstarter
Had to make some changes to roote instructions to get it to work
The instructions above had a few errors / ambiguities - at least with respect to my rooted HTC Magic running Wes Garner's Build 10:
1. The command "adb shell find /system /data -name \*google\*maps.apk\* -o -name Maps.apk -delete" didn't work for me until I changed "\*google\*maps.apk\*" to be "\*google\*Maps.apk\*". Note the change in the capitalisation of the word "maps".
2. The name of the hacked v3.3.1 Maps file you download from the first link above may not be exactly the same as in the instructions. It wasn't for me. When you execute the "adb -r install " command, either use the name of the file you actually downloaded or rename it to match the instructions - whatever.
3. The other thing not explicit - and you may not know - is that for adb to be able to push the file to the phone, you need to put the downloaded hacked maps v3.3.1 file in the android SDK's \tools folder. This is the same folder the "adb" command lives in. If you're going to push the file (any file!) to the phone as in the instructions, you need to have it in the same folder as the adb command when you execute it from the command prompt.
1. Yes, there can be
1. Yes, there can be difference in the file names between different builds...
Always first check what you execute... ;-)
2. it doesn't mater what the name of the file is... just change the command to match the name of the downloaded file
3. Thats not completely true, if you installed the SDK correctly, you will have the tools folder in your PATH environment and can access adb from anywhere or you have to use full paths.
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