New Google Maps for iOS gains Contacts and Search Categories

There's a new Google Maps app for iOS (and no, we'll no longer joke about Apple's iOS maps - which aren't that bad by now, though there's still lots of room for improvement, particularly in the points of interests database). Speaking of which, finding nearby points of interests is now faster and easier on Google Maps, thanks to the new category search, where you can search by restaurants, stores, etc.

If you're not to keen on having miles/km forced on you, you can now choose the units you prefer (or leave it as automatic).

But the most important new feature is probably the google contacts search. Provided you've logged in into your Google account, you'll be able to search for your friends by name, and get their addresses (if you've filled them in in Google Contacts).

It's still sad that, although you get to do this with Google's contacts, you can't do it with the contacts you have stored on your own iPhone (if you have them synced with Google, that shouldn't be a problem - but for those that, like me, want to keep things separate, it's still annoying).