Yes, there’s a (Google) app for that:
In conjunction with the launch of the Android-powered Motorola Droid smartphone, Google on Wednesday announced the beta release of a turn-by-turn GPS navigation application with voice guidance for mobile users.
Google Maps Navigation is a free app that will essentially turn Android 2.0 phones into a GPS navigation device. Information is gathered from the Internet – specifically Google Maps – rather than satellite data used by most GPS devices.
On my first-gen, GPS-free iPhone, Google Maps could do a reasonable job of pinpointing my location by triangulating off of local cell phone towers. Out here in the boonies where towers are scarce, that didn’t work so well. But when trying to find my way back to the highway from downtown Denver, it worked great.
And I imagine that Google Maps uses a lot less battery juice than GPS does.
Lousy for hiking, but great for the city — not bad for free.
“Google Maps Navigation is a free app that will essentially turn Android 2.0 phones into a GPS navigation device. Information is gathered from the Internet – specifically Google Maps – rather than satellite data used by most GPS devices.”
This doesn’t make any sense, and I suspect whoever wrote the original author isn’t very technical. Google Maps isn’t magic — it doesn’t know where it is, until it, um, knows where it is. “Information gathered from the Internet” is meaningless. It can pull maps, but not locations.
If it’s doing turn-by-turn directions, I’m 99% sure it’s using a GPS chip. Which doesn’t make it any better than a GPS, because it IS a GPS.
Benjamin –
The way I read the story, Maps was using cell triangulation. But you’re right on two counts:
1. That’s probably not good enough for turn-by-turn, not even in conjunction with a magnetometer.
2. The author clearly has no idea what they’re talking about — that story really can be read either way.
Follow up:
I checked the specs on the Motorola Droid and, yep, it has a GPS chip.
The Google Maps software displays location and directions using the built-in GPS. This is no different than a ten-year-old handheld GPS receiver.
Nothing new here.
Stephen and Benjamin -
My iPhone 3Gs doesn’t have the voice capability but it uses the Google maps app with both traffic and text directions. All that’s left is to convert the text to voice and utilize either the iPhone’s GPS chip (if it has one and since the find my location function seems better than the 3G it seems it does) or cell tower triangulation to announce when one should turn. I’d expect the vocalized turn by turn iPhone GPS function is a OS upgrade away.
Joe -
Yeah, adding text to speech is ridiculously simple. It will probably be in the next iPhone release.
All of this is neat, but it’s all been done before. Sometimes I wonder if the cell phone development curve has leveled off. Kind of ridiculous when tech writers at PC Magazine get all excited over features that have existed for ten or fifteen years.
Benjamin –
The foundation is already their with the Voice control function to call numbers or play various songs. Though I was rather amused attempting to demonstrate the voice control function by attempting to play songs by “U2″ and not ever getting anything from Bono and the boys.
On your second point, I am hopeful we haven’t hit a plateau. Underestimating the tech savvy of tech writers are PC Magazine is not exactly a risky proposition. So their trumpeting of old technology and a diminution of cell phone innovation are not mutually exclusive. Still the hype starts with the cell phone makers sending press releases to tech writers and their editors. That designers feel the need to generate positive press over features that date back to the Clinton years is not encouraging.
Yes, that article is a piece of crap, but if you follow through to the original announcement from google, you ‘ll find the real details.
The new features, as best as I can tell, are that it includes a verbally driven search engine, live traffic, and live mapping. By “live”, I mean it get’s its data via the internet, instead of storing it locally.
The iPhone has had a GPS chip in it since the 3G. The original used a combination of triangulation off of the cell towers, and off of location-known wifi hotspots. If, for instance, you stood outside of an Apple store and were connected through their public hotspot, you’d get pegged within a few feet of the store. However, the triangulation off of cell towers was spotty at best.
The issue the author is attempting to decode from what is likely a fairly technical description is this: Unlike most navigation devices, which use maps drawn from navteq, et al, this uses google maps for the graphics.
The method for telling you where you are and where you’re going is the same– using GPS positioning.
As to battery life– probably not. What it saves on GPS radio power it’ll easily burn on cell radio power to download the map data. The advantage of DVD and hard drive based navigation is you carry all the maps with you. This is one of the issues that makes google maps on the iPhone, especially the first gen one, all but useless. It takes a painfully long time to download map data as you move over GSM.