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Google Maps Application Obviates the Need for GPS

Posted September 19, 2007 5:30 AM by Hadley Stern
Categories: Google 

I was one of the many people who complained about the lack of GPS in the iPhone. The phone I used to use was a Motorola Razr from Verizon. One of the very cool features on the Razr was the Verizon Navigator that essentially turned the phone into a GPS navigator (for a usage cost, of course). I used this feature a dozen times and each time it worked really well.

So when the iPhone was announced I, like many others, was astounded that GPS was not included. The iPhone has an accelerometer, something or other that detects when you move the iPhone to your ear, yet no GPS?

While I still think that GPS would be an incredible addition to the iPhone, allowing the device to compete with the ever-growing portable GMS market (aka, the Garmins, etc) Google Maps without GPS is still an amazing experience.

In the past when going somewhere new the drill was to go to the computer use Google Maps (or Mapquest in the days of old) and then print out the directions. Off to the car (hopefully remembered said piece of paper) and then reading the directions while driving.

Now with the iPhone it’s a matter of just doing this in the car. The list view is perfectly sized for easy reading in the car. No paper. No fuss, no muss. I have ended up using this feature much more than I expected to, and I have to say I don’t even miss the GPS enabled Razr-experience.

That said this doesn’t mean that a GPS-enabled iPhone wouldn’t kick some serious you-know-what. It would. Applying Apple’s incredible user-interface design it could easily become the portable GPS device of choice, regardless of the fact it includes an iPod, iPhone, etc. etc.

What have your experiences been with the Google Maps feature so far?

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Comments

  1. As obviate means “remove”, I disagree with the title of your post.

    In fact, the day after I bought an iPhone, I was driving my girlfriend to work, and she pulled up the Google Map on my iPhone and confusedly said “Umm, it’s broken, it doesn’t show where we are”.  When I explained that it didn’t have GPS or differential cell tower triangularization, she turned it off and described it as “Worthless”.

    I don’t quite believe that it’s worthless and it’s quite convenient to be able to search for the nearest “Restaurant X” while driving—but it’d be 10 times better if when I screwed up following directions it had already updated them for me.

    *Especially* the “with traffic information” stuff.  ‘cause it ought to be immediately obvious that if I’m checking the traffic conditions again I’m looking for a least time routing to get around something.

    So, it’s better than nothing and the implmentation is nice.  But I’d almost immediately buy an updated version of the phone that had real GPS.

    reinharden

    Posted by Reinharden on September 19, 2007 7:49 AM

  2. I have been using 1-800-GOOG-411 to get maps and really like it. Tell’em the city and business, say you want it via text message, and Google sends you a link to the map with the business location. Easier to do while drtiving than keying in search terms. The voice recognition is very good. I wish it were not Busines only.

    Posted by Clate Sanders on September 19, 2007 8:22 AM

  3. I’ve been using a native app called Navizon which positions you via cellphone and wifi triangulation. You can get it with appTapp. I havn’t done extensive testing, but it seems to do a pretty good job of locating you, and it integrates with google maps.

    Posted by Roger on September 20, 2007 10:59 AM

  4. Good article

    Thank you for the informations….........

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    Posted by kraloyun on May 24, 2008 11:12 AM

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