The AT&T Navigator app for iPhone got an update recently, and adds an interesting new feature. From any menu screen, simply shake the iPhone to make the app route you to a predefined “home” address. No need to work through the menus: simply shake your phone. That sounds like a convenient feature. More inside.
GPS
by Scott Merrill on February 10, 2010
by Scott Merrill on December 21, 2009
I’ve been using the AT&T Navigator app for iPhone for a couple of months now. This is a free app, but it requires a $10/month subscription from AT&T (or $70 for an annual subscription). I’m not going to belabor the GPS functions too much in this review: it’s almost the year 2010, and the global positioning system has been used to provide turn-by-turn directions for long enough now that any GPS device or application being reviewed should do that basic job. Instead, I’m going to examine how useful a GPS function is on your mobile phone, talk about some of what’s nice (and not-so-nice) about the AT&T Navigator, and look at the value proposition of a $10/month subscription in light of Google’s free turn-by-turn driving directions on the Verizon Droid.
by Doug Aamoth on October 29, 2009
Bad news, you guys. If you were thinking of dropping $120 on TomTom’s iPhone car kit and then another $100 on TomTom’s navigation app for use with your first-generation iPhone or second-generation iPod touch, it now looks like you’d to run into some compatibility issues.
AppleInsider is reporting “that although the Car Kit dock is compatible with all iPhone models, the TomTom application will only work with the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G – even with the dock connected to a first-generation iPhone or iPod touch.”
by Doug Aamoth on October 26, 2009
TomTom’s iPhone car dock is now available from the U.S. Apple Store for $120 with a shipping time of 2 to 3 weeks. You’ll recall that the actual TomTom iPhone app runs for $100 on top of that.
by Doug Aamoth on July 24, 2009
Do you remember where you were back on January 30th of 2008? CrunchGear was at a Garmin event in New York City watching the GPS company announce its very own smartphone. Fast forward to today, and the device is finally about to ship. Two devices, actually — the Linux-based nuvifone G60 and the nuvifone M20, which runs Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional.
by Adam Marks on May 22, 2009
The GPS Navigation system has become a utility that is essential to travel, whether it be daily commute or cross country excursion. Once seen a luxury, this now-necessity has been a sweeping success all around the globe, allowing the world’s atlases right at your fingertip with near surgical precision in tracking and guidance. TeleNav, established veteran of the GPS marketplace, has really taken the time to make a fully functioning turn-by-turn system for the Android platform. Availability is currently limited to the G1, though we assume they’ll branch out to other devices as Android grows.
by Matt Burns on April 15, 2009
Sorry school-skipping teenagers and spouse-cheating losers, AT&T has launched FamilyMap, which will track a phone’s location either by GPS or cell-phone tower triangulation on a Microsoft Live Map. Other providers have offered similar services for a while, but now AT&T has gotten into the big brother spy game.
by Greg Kumparak on February 12, 2009
Were you disappointed by this mornings news that the other nuvifone wouldn’t be sportin’ the droid? So were we. Then we realized it wasn’t so much because we cared for the new nuvifone, but because we just wanted turn-by-turn navigation on an Android phone. Turns out, we don’t have much longer to wait.
According to their new product page, we should be using Telenav’s GPS Navigator for Android to find the nearest Starbucks by February 24th. You’ll get 30 days free, after which point it’ll set you back $10 bucks a month. So what does a monthly Hamilton get you?
by Greg Kumparak on September 16, 2008
You know that big blue circle that hangs out around your icon in any Google-powered maps application? That whole area is where you might be, be it that Google didn’t quite nail your actual location. That margin of error is a must in tower-based GPS, as peaks and valleys in the signal can really tweak the results. It’s not as big of a problem in big cities; the more towers you’re near, the more accurate the positioning will be.
Google made some changes this week to allow any Google maps powered mobile application to recognize that. If you’re in a big city and surrounded by dozens of towers, the circle surrounding you will be smaller. Out in the middle of the countryside, barely catching any signal at all? The circle will be huge. It doesn’t necessarily change the accuracy, but better represents the margin of error associated.
The really nifty part? All of these changes were made server-side at Google HQ, so no patching or downloading required. Any Google powered geolocation application should already be good to go.
by John Kullman on September 7, 2007
Berg Insight, a company that provides analytical services and business intelligence to the telecom industry, predicts growth in mobile navigation services. These services are to be driven by GPS-technology in smartphone handsets and the bundling of navigation and map content with mobile devices and service plans. Revenue from subscriptions and advertisement is expected to grow at nearly 40% over the next ten years.
The number of mobile subscribers accessing maps and downloading routs using their mobile handsets in Europe and the U.S.A. is around 4 million. Over the next ten years the number of map subscribers is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 61% to reach 43 million users in 2012.
Big names in the mobile industry are gearing up for mobile phone navigation. Nokia launched its GPS-enabled N95 for the European market this year. The U.S. has evolved further with GPS being a standard in all CDMA-handsets. Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless have attracted millions of subscribers to navigation services. Google and Yahoo! are extending their existing search and map propositions with Mobile Web 2.0 applications.
Andre Malm, telecom analyst, Berg Insight says, “Record shipments of PND devices in Europe and the US have introduced the benefits of GPS for motorists. Now the major players in the mobile industry are in hot pursuit of delivering the same experience for pedestrians, commuters and travelers on the handset display.”
Berg Insight predicts that ad-funded services will account for an increasing share of the mobile navigation market. Local search applications can open the door to new ways for businesses to target consumers. MobileCrunch reported last month that more Americans are taking their mobile devices along on vacation to access map technology. See: Unexpected Surge in Google Mobile this Summer. Advertisements for restaurants or other attractions could be sent to users who access a local map area.
Having access to GPS service or other map applications is appealing. If you ever get lost or need the quickest rout somewhere while on foot, you can find your way with the press of a few keys.
by Peter Suciu on August 7, 2007
Tianjin MIE Productivity Center (MPIC) and Ke An Vehicle Satellite Location Network Technology Corporation (Ke An) announced that they have selected Visto to bring push e-mail to China’s mobile workforce. The Visto Mobile will bring push e-mail to more than 30,000 mobile professionals in China, where MIPC will now offer real-time access from the GPS application implemented by Ken An.
“Our partnership with Visto and Ke An enables us to offer the most advanced GPS service to customers ranging from the Tianjin Transportation Authority to local taxis,” said Professor Peter Yang from MIPC. “With the service, companies have mobile access to key location-based information, enabling them to use their phones to receive status updates, make queries and take action in real time.”
The Visto-enable service will let staff members receive information about the status of individual vehicles, and use this information with routing and schedules, so any disturbances can be addressed thus helping limiting delays and other problems.
Visto
by Nick Gonzalez on May 16, 2007
uLocate announced an $11 million investment from GrandBanks Capital and Kodiak Venture Partners across the business wire this morning. GrandBanks Capital and Kodiak Venture Partners. Venrock’s General Partner, Mike Tyrrell, also joined uLocate’s Board of Directors.
uLocate’s products serve as an interface to mobile carrier’s various GPS location systems, enabling developers to create location based applications. They have some live examples for people location (Mapquest, Trackem), place search (kmaps), and photo geotagging(GeoSnapper, Where).
Readers interested in location based mobile applications should also check out Loopt, which powers Boost mobile’s friend finding service.
by Peter Suciu on May 4, 2007
Need to find local weather, driving directions or a ski report? Where do you look? How about on your cellphone with WHERE GPS widgets? Developed by uLocate Communications and currently available for handsets on the Sprint/Nextel network, WHERE GPS widgets can be managed from a drag-and-drop Web interface. Subscription to the widgets costs around $3 a month, and range from weather information providers to locators for bars and restaurants.
Currently available widgets include those for directions, ski report, finders for earthquakes, golf courses and winerys with more on the way. You can also use the WHERE widget location notes to write about places you’ve been.
by Russell Shaw on March 14, 2007
Publishing your location-based wireless applications to your handset just got a whole lot easier.
That’s because of location-enabled mobile applications developer uLocate Communications’ new mobile GPS widget platform, WHERE.
Now available on several Sprint phones as of today, WHERE works with GPS location technology to enable WHERE Widgets to be placed on these handsets.
The process is easy: users add WHERE Widgets to their WHERE handset application in one of two ways: by selecting from menus that live on the handset, or by dragging and dropping them from the Where.com directly to the phone.
Developers wishing to write WHERE Widgets would use the PHP and Ruby-complaint.WHERE mark-up language and scripting utilities- which makes it possible to create WHERE apps on J2ME and BREW handsets.
by Blake Robinson on September 13, 2006
Boost Mobile, the hip-hop-themed pre-paid service from Sprint Nextel, has the tagline “Where you at?” This grammatically frightening phrase now has meaning, as Boost has partnered with Loopt to launch a mobile friend finder.
Just download the little Java app to your phone, set permissions, add your like-Boosted friends who’ve done the same and you’ll all be able to find each other on an on-screen map in real time. Scroll through locations and send messages, all using Nextel’s built-in GPS functionality.
You can then mingle together into a menacing, tough-looking gang of K-Fed look-alikes and “holla” things such as “whaddup?” and “you trippin’, dawg” and look foolish doing so.
Loopt, which works as it’s own app, will be free for current Boost members.
Boost/Loopt sing-up [loopt.com]
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