It’s basically a ritual now: Fresh feature debuts on new Android phone; hack-happy G1 owners see new feature, develop seething jealousy; said owners work tirelessly to steal new feature. Last week, Google Maps Navigation hit the Droid. Today, the G1.

Google Maps Navigation will be part of Android 2.0, and Android 2.0 is expected to come to most—if not all—Android handsets on the market eventually, so given how complicated this hack is (fairly!), and that it requires a rooted phone, it’d be prudent for most folks to just wait this out. That said, there’s no saying how long it’ll be until Eclair seeds out to older handsets, and there’s no guarantee that the G1—and old fart in its little corner of the universe—will ever get it. Anyhow, here’s what you need to do, from XDA:

Download here

Make sure you have CyanogenMod 4.2.3.1, by the way.

1) Unzip zip to desktop
2) Run Part 1.bat
3) When prompted to press any key, do so; the phone will reboot
4) When your phone is running again, run Part 2.bat
5) When prompted to press any key, the installation process is done.
6) Make sure GPS is enabled
7) Open Maps and press OK
Press Menu
9) Press Directions
10) Enter an end point
11) Click Go
12) Just under “Show on map”, click Navigate.
13) When prompted to install the voice codec, do so.

And there you have it: Free, not terrible turn-by-turn navigation for your G1, without Android 2.0. Early reports say it runs well; let us know how it goes for you in the comments.

Read the headline? It’s not just the “Moto Droid thing” only – the good ol’ G1 can also be used for turn-by-turn navigation provided by Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Maps, thanks to the ever active XDA development community. Of course, we’re not talking about the official ROM update, but something that requires a little effort, yet delivers great benefits.

We’re hearing once the process of upgrading/hacking the G1 is completed, Google Maps Navigation runs smoothly giving us hope if HTC does nothing about it, Google will. Are you reading this folks? Please make sure your old customers aren’t forgotten.

[Via: Engadget Mobile]

Now we all use and love Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Maps, but turn by turn navigation has been missing. Within the Motorola Droid announcement today there was a mention of a new application: Google Maps Navigation, and it finally adds navigation capabilities to Google Maps, albeit with some limitations. It only works on Android 2.0 devices, and so far there is only one: Droid. And It only works in the USA, so Europeans and Asians are out of luck. Those small issues aside, you do get some nifty new features. The new voice API is used to enable hands free searching, and if you have a handset that supports a dock then you get “dock mode” so you can keep both hands on the wheel. Check out the videos below to get an idea of what Navigation is all about:

6 minutes 50 seconds: Intro to Google Maps Navigation:

 
1 minute: Google Maps Navigation Voice Search

 
35 seconds: Google Maps Navigation Car Dock