Google's Cell Phone Navigation Application


I've now gotten a chance to play with Google's cell phone navigation
application driving around town. All I can say is wow. This thing sure
beats using my Garmin GPSMAP 60csx. The first difference is the screen
is nicely decluttered with the important information presented in bold
type in the margins of the mapping area. The voice synthesis is loud
and clear with no robot-like qualities. The verbal instructions are
plentiful with enough extra information given to give one a warm fuzzy
that one is on the right track. For example, at 2 miles from the
highway exit the GPS mentioned the exit number and street name and
direction I would be turning. Surface street intersections that had
islands and right turn red-light bypasses were marked as such on the
map. As I approached the destination the 3D map-view switched to street
view and I could compare the view in front of me with the streetview
data I should be seeing.

The downsides were there was no way to set a waypoint or take tracklogs
(that I could tell). The cell phone when used in the always on mode
with the GPS power nailed up as it was drained a significant percentage
of the batteries charge for the 1hr jaunt. I'd estimate 2-3 hours
runtime tops on the builtin 1100 mah battery. One really needs to run
this app with a usb power adaptor. The search database for local
merchants wasn't very good. It found neither the REI or Home Depot on
Warm Springs in Fremont, CA. I ended up setting the destination by hand
from the overhead imagery.

Routing to the destination was good. It selected better routes than the
60csx would have. The app also provided a way to ask for the next few
runner up routing suggestions. The number of keystrokes to enter a
destination seemed high though. This may just be my lack of experience
with the app, but it sure seemed like way too many of the choices while
entering a destination would take one to the old static routing
subsection, not the new realtime routing. I'm sure these were just
loose ends that they forgot to clean up.

All in all, this is not a bad little app. It was certainly worth what I
paid for it (nothing). The companies like Garmin that live by nickel
and diming you to death for map database updates need to wake up and
smell the coffee. The game just changed.

-wolfgang
--
Wolfgang S. Rupprecht
If the airwaves belong to the public why does the public only get 3
non-overlapping WIFI channels?
.

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