There's something to be said for instant gratification, and if you're the sort who wants to know where you are without pausing to open a map app, one of the handful of changes to Google Maps for Android (version 4.1) has your name on it.

To turn your wallpaper into a live, real-time map that tracks your location, press and hold the home screen, choose Wallpaper, then pick Maps from the Live Wallpaper folder. Before setting the wallpaper, you'll be able to choose satellite, terrain, or line map mode and whether you want to show traffic. While a little clunky and distracting depending on how cluttered your screen is, it's neat that you can still manage to zoom in and out. The live wallpaper works for Android phones running 2.1 of the operating system and up.

Also of note is the redesigned search results page, which replaces the tabs of yesteryear with buttons you can tap to view the location on a map, call up directions, dial, or engage Street View. When you open the profile page for a search result, you're now able to swipe right and left to see full-page profiles for the preceding and following results. In addition, there's a new home screen widget for Google Latitude, which lets you see your nearby Latitude-enabled friends plotted on a map.

Our favorite new feature is also the least flashy--the ability to switch among your Google accounts in the maps app. This means you can also get to all the little personalization extras you've come to rely on, like your starred items and saved My Maps, for more than just the Android phone's default account.

Android users can update the Maps app from the phone's Android Market.

Originally posted at Android Atlas

iPhones can be great driving companions--unless you routinely tweet, text, or otherwise fiddle with the device while behind the wheel. That's a surefire way to get yourself--and possibly others--killed.

Aha Radio for iPhone helps you keep your eyes on the road. The app provides a dashboard-friendly, oversize interface for everything from podcasts and local traffic to Facebook and iPod playlists.

That interface consists of four giant icons per page, the idea being to make them more at-a-glance accessible to drivers. You can customize the arrangement of these icons to your liking and choose exactly what content Aha Radio should provide.

For example, there's Nearby Traffic, which taps your current location and then reads aloud the traffic conditions and construction delays for roads in the area. Tap the microphone icon to "shout" a recording about any traffic you've encountered; it'll get shared with other Aha Radio users. Neat.

The Facebook station can read friends' updates, though in my tests it inexplicably skipped some of them. The cooler feature: tap the microphone and record an update that instantly gets posted to your Facebook status (as an audio clip, not transcribed text).

Aha's other station options include Coffee and Hungry, which will direct you to nearby coffee shops and restaurants, respectively--though configuring these stations can be confusing.

The app also provides one-tap access to a couple dozen popular podcasts, including Car Talk, Fresh Air, and Slate Magazine. What you can't get, ironically, is actual radio. Seems like integration with some kind of streaming-radio service would be a no-brainer, but for the moment you're limited to podcasts and your own media.

That's just one of several forehead-smacking deficiencies. Another is Twitter: You can listen to a handful of preselected feeds (Glee, anyone? Top Celebs?), but not your own. Seriously?

Meanwhile, the My Media station connects you to your own audio library--but lacks a shuffle-play option. It does have a 30-second replay button, which is nice for audiobooks, but no shuffle?! Come on, guys.

These are, to be fair, minor complaints. Aha Radio is a decidedly handy tool for drivers, one that makes quick (and safe) work of checking the local traffic or queuing up a favorite podcast. It just needs a few interface improvements--and some actual radio stations for those who want them.

Speaking of cool apps for the car:

• Tales2Go: Get on-demand audiobooks for children
• SparkRadio for iPhone offers 10,000 stations
• Viper's new iPhone app replaces your keychain

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas

First came the Kindle electronic book reader device itself. Then the applications for the iPhone, BlackBerry, and for Windows. Now Amazon has brought the e-reader software to Mac OS X.

The Kindle for Mac beta version, as with the other apps and devices, lets people read electronic books they've purchased through Amazon's Kindle Store, the U.S. version of which currently has 450,000 books for sale.

The free software lets people purchase new books, read books they've already bought, view notes and highlights but not make new ones, and synchronize bookmarks and the last page read across other Kindle technology.

A future version of the software will add full-text search and the ability to make notes, Amazon said. The software requires Mac OS X 10.5 or later.

Amazon also is working on a version of Kindle for Apple's iPad, a device that already comes with Apple's own electronic book technology.

Originally posted at Deep Tech