The GPS Navigation will receive a major facelift

Aug 28, 2015 03:30 GMT  ·  By

We wrote numerous articles related to the GPS Navigation app available for Canonical's Ubuntu Touch mobile operating system, but the next release promises to bring even more features, as well as a major facelift.

Earlier today, Marcos Costales teased us with a screenshot (click the image to the right to see it) of the next GPS Navigation release, which we have to admit looks quite fantastic on his black Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition smartphone.

Right now, the developer did not reveal many details about what's coming in the 0.23 release of GPS Navigation, except for the fact that it has been ported to QML (Qt Modeling Language) and MapBox.

"The next GPS Navigation release (maybe this weekend) for Ubuntu phone will be amazing! With a migration to QML (by Joerg Berroth) and a migration to MapBox. The app will look really nice," says Marcos Costales, the developer of the GPS Navigation app.

What this means is that the app will get a facelift and promises to provide users with beautiful maps. A .click package of GPS Navigation 0.23 has been made available for download, so we've immediately installed it on our BQ Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition device to see what it looks like.

Requires Ubuntu Touch OTA-6 or later

Unfortunately, the app does not look so beautiful on our 4.5-inch BQ Aquaris phone when compared to the big 5-inch screen of the Meizu MX4. However, it works very well, but you need to be outside or closer to a window, like a few centimeters away from the opened window. The app won't get a signal inside a building.

Anyway, we will write another article with the new features included in GPS Navigation 0.23, as soon as Marcos Costales officially makes a release on the Ubuntu Store, which should happen this weekend. In the meantime, you can install the app yourself and take it for a test drive. Oh, and don't forget to report any issues you might find.