Google Maps is about to get much more useful.
I'm Bridget Carey.
This is your Cnet update.
You do not need internet connection to use Google Maps.
The smartphone app can now give turn by turn directions and search results even if ;you have no reception whatsoever.
It also can show details about places like hours of operation, contact info about a store, even ratings.
The magic happens when you download an area ahead of time so search for the city or county you live in and tap download to save that part of the map to your phone.
This is handy if you're underground in a. Subway.
Or if you're traveling to another country, and you don't want to always be using your data.
Or if you're in airplane mode google preview the feature back in May, but it's really not in nano google maps on android and soon also to the iPhone app.
and the world of Apple is finding its way into Android phones.
The Apple Music app is now available to download from the Google Play app store.
The streaming music service is the same as on Apple devices.
You get a free 3 month trial to play what ever song you want on demand and you can listen live to Beats 1 radio broadcast.
And after the trial it's $10 a month.
Facebook is rolling out a new feature that sounds a bit creepy because well it's Facebook and they can't help but give off creepy vibes.
Inside the messenger app there's going to be a feature coming out called Photo Magic.
It searches through all your phone's photos.
And, if it detects the face of one of your Facebook friends, you're gonna get a notification that you should send that picture to them.
It's Facebook way of standing out in a crowded market for messaging apps.
But you can turn off getting those notifications.
Also, if you don't want Facebook to suggest to people that you're in a photo, you can go into your settings.
And turn off facial recognition suggestions.
This is also used when Facebook suggests you to tag someone in a photo.
This photo magic feature is available this week to Facebook users in Australia, and plans are to take it to the US soon.
Now, Pinterest can also detect objects in photos.
If you see something in a pinned photo that you want to find more about, you just tap the search tool in the corner, select that object, and it'll show you more things that look just like it.
The feature is both on the web and in the app.
Photo recognition may be the future, but today we say goodbye to a part of tech's past.
Sony just announced that it's killing the Betamax tape.
Yes.
The end has finally come for Betamax 40 years after it came out.
You may be saying, hey.
Didn't it lose the video tape format war to VHS long ago?
But Sony never did give up.
It's still been making Betamax tapes in Japan, and it's gonna stop next year.
So, yeah, somehow Betamax outlasted the HD dvd, and Blu Ray wars.
Fair well Betamax, long live VHS.
That's it for this tech news update, and there's more at cnet.com from our studios in New York, I'm Bridget Carey.
