I have used google maps on many bb's in the past and I really miss it! I got it installed on the 8830 ( This is my second one, and the first had the same issues). I get a lot of uncaught exception errors and google maps does not usually recognize the GPS puck... the lights say it's connected to the gps, but google maps doesn't know where I am.
When I use the lookup feature to find a business, I can't dial from google maps, I get the screen asking me if it is okay to connect to the phone, then it freezes.
I can't answer your questions but I have been seeing some issues as well.
Google Maps can connect via BT to my Navibe puck and it will display my location but it never tracks my movement. If I switch apps and then go back into Google Maps, my location will update.
And more times than not when I try and close Google Maps I get an AppError and have to pull the battery. Anyone else?
Oh and the call from Google Maps issue mentioned above has started happening (i think with the latest version of Google Maps) becuase it used to work just fine...