If you are running Android 1.6 on your smartphone, then you are one of the lucky ones who got the update to be able to use Google Navigation Maps Beta. Unfortunately, if you live outside the United States, you might not be so lucky afterall. Even if you were able to hack your Android device.
As we all remember, the Google Navigation Maps Beta was only available at first for Android 2.0 devices in the US only. However, Google decided to give the update to Android 1.6 users too, but also available for US users only. It wasn’t long before someone got Google Navigation to work on devices outside the US, thanks to a “little hacking”.
Apparently, Google is now blocking this hack for all the Android smartphones that had access to the Google Maps Navigation beta outside of the US thanks to the hack. Maybe Google is doing it to cover their butt… errr, to cover themselves from any legal action. So, we must blame licensing restrictions, and not Google, from preventing the use of Google Navigation outside the US. Hopefully, Google is hard at work to get this working on all the Android devices of the world. I can only hope.
