Apps
Google Maps turns 15 this year
A new icon to match
Today marks the 15th birthday of Google Maps. It’s the company’s widely-used mapping service. Google Maps’ 15th birthday also marks a pivotal moment as it introduces new features for users.
New icon for users
For its 15th birthday, Google updated the logo of Google Maps to better reflect the iconic pin that defined its brand. Gone is the old logo with “G” embedded on a map with a large pin. Now, Google Maps sports a simplified logo featuring a large pin that reflects Google’s brand of colors.
Easier navigation on the go
It is also getting an update on both Android and iOS app. Users will see five tabs on the bottom of the app now: Explore, Commute, Saved, Contribute, and Updates. From now on, these tabs will serve as the primary method of navigating through the app, as the latest update removes the iconic hamburger menu on the search bar.
Explore tab will help users find information and reviews for landmarks all over the world. Commute tab, on the other hand, will help users navigate to a place in the most efficient route.
Meanwhile, the three remaining tabs — Saved, Contribute, and Updates — will help users discover a place and make mapping an engaging activity. Saved places are consolidated in a new tab for easier access. Contributing a place is easier with the Contribute tab. Lastly, the latest news and posts about a place find home in the Updates tab.
Useful insights
Google Maps is also leveraging machine learning to give useful insights to commuters on the go. Aside from predicting how crowded public transportation is based on riders’ patterns, commuters will get insights such as temperature, accessibility and security information. Women commuters may also find the women’s section insight useful — allowing them to check whether a public transportation option gives priority to women.
These useful insights will roll out globally this March 2020.
Live View
Live View will also expand to more regions and gain new capabilities. Users will surely appreciate its new capability which lets them quickly see how far away and in which direction a place is.
Mapping the future
Google Maps’ growth has been phenomenal. In just a span of 15 years, it became the world’s favorite mapping app. Over the years, it gained useful additions, from Street Maker to Live View, which helped users navigate to their favorite places anytime, anywhere.
Google Maps is already looking ahead by expanding its open-source digital address initiative — the Plus Codes. With Plus Codes, users don’t have to look up the long, physical address of a landmark since they simply have to remember some codes.
For years to come, Google Maps will be busy innovating and adding new features for its users. Surely, the next few years will define the mapping service from Google as it faces new competitors and challenges ahead.
Apps
Honor, Xiaomi are working on their own Privacy Displays
Samsung’s Privacy Display is apparently very popular.
Normally, a smartphone brand’s blatant copying of another brand’s feature is not a good practice. Today, however, there is a new feature that we wish other brands would copy: Samsung’s Privacy Display. Thankfully, some brands, like Honor, have finally gotten the message and are working on version of the feature.
As reported by Digital Chat Station on Weibo, Honor is reportedly working on a privacy screen for its smartphones. Likewise, Xiaomi is working on the same thing, potentially launching the feature for the Xiaomi 18 Pro.
For the uninitiated, the Samsung Privacy Display is a built-in feature that blocks visibility of the screen at certain angles. If you’re not looking at the screen from the front, all you’ll see is a black void. It’s a built-in version of those protective screens that you can buy separately. Besides adding a nice layer of protection against scratches, it’s also meant to prevent snooping from your shoulder.
Samsung’s take was widely acclaimed for being insanely useful. When it arrives, this feature will be a godsend to more brands. Even better, users will no longer need to rely on third-party screen just to enjoy the privacy.
That said, there’s still no indication as to when these features will arrive on either Honor or Xiaomi.
SEE ALSO: LE SSERAFIM Chaewon flexes Galaxy S26 Ultra Privacy Display
Meta does not have the most stellar of reputations. Despite offering the world’s most popular social media platforms, the company, through its various experiments throughout the years, continuously proves that it has other priorities than just providing the best for its users. Today, another reported experiment wants to take Meta to a new market that its users might fall into: the prediction market.
If you haven’t heard of the prediction market, consider yourself lucky. These apps, such as Kalshi, are basically just gambling platforms without the glitz of playing cards or the rigor of the stock market. Users gamble on mundane circumstances like the weather and more serious ones like war.
Today, as reported by The New York Times, Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly asking Meta to develop a prediction app of its own. Interestingly, the experimental app, supposedly called Arena, will use virtual points, rather than real money. However, Meta has not ruled out real money — and hence, real gambling — in the future.
Meta is entering the industry at an extremely volatile time. The world is starting to crack down on prediction markets. Some users, for example, have been accused of using insider information to get easy wins on these platforms. Some markets have also accused these platforms of subverting anti-gambling laws.
SEE ALSO: Meta adds subscriptions for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp
Apps
foodpanda relaunches cult-favorite roast chicken brand after 8 years of persistent search queries
Heritage chain Andok’s returns to the platform, driven entirely by long-term user analytics.
In the world of e-commerce and food delivery, platform algorithms usually dictate what consumers see. But occasionally, consumer behavior is so relentless that it shapes the platform’s strategy.
In a move driven entirely by long-term user analytics, foodpanda has officially relaunched Andok’s, one of the Philippines’ most iconic heritage rotisserie chains, back onto its platform after an eight-year absence.
The search bar as a digital wishlist
The decision to ink the partnership wasn’t just a marketing play. It was a response to an ongoing data anomaly. Despite being offline from the foodpanda platform for eight years, Andok’s consistently ranked as one of the most-searched merchants on the app.
Year after year, users treated the empty search results page as an unofficial wishlist. This persistent search intent gave foodpanda a clear, data-backed signal of pent-up demand.
Prior to the official digital rollout, teaser campaigns on social media validated this demand, generating thousands of organic interactions from users anticipating the return.
Bridging heritage flavor with digital infrastructure
For foodpanda, onboarding a merchant with this level of built-in demand fits its broader strategy of marketplace optimization and hyper-local network expansion, turning a heritage brand into another data point for how legacy retail plugs into delivery infrastructure.
For Andok’s, the integration works as a fast track to digital scale. A legacy quick-service chain skips years of independent app development and reaches customers already using foodpanda’s existing logistics network, on a platform they already check daily.
Andok’s built its following on charcoal spit-roasted chicken, a slow-cooked technique that’s stayed largely unchanged since the brand’s early days, alongside seasoned grilled pork belly.
More recently, the Dokito line extended that following into crispy fried chicken and chicken burgers, broadening the brand’s appeal beyond its original rotisserie format and giving foodpanda a menu with both heritage pull and everyday fast-food convenience.
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