“An Italian website is offering suggestions for using the iPhone with car-based GPS units, specifically TomTom’s x10 series,” MacNN reports.
“The iPhone has no internal navigation support; when connected to a device like the TomTom 910, the most that can be done is a live reading of directions. The best use of a TomTom may therefore be calling functions, since by pairing with an iPhone via Bluetooth, it can then sync with Address Book contacts. This allows the unit to quickly make calls through a readily-available list. To turn a GPS unit into a speakerphone, meanwhile, users can select the appropriate audio output on the iPhone,” MacNN reports.
More info and links in the full article here.
@ Brian
“GPS provides this information of course, but the iPhone would use it to pull up maps and show you where you are.. So, if you’re in Iowa, and you do a search for Starbucks, you don’t have to first search on the city and state.”
My point is, almost all of the time, I KNOW where I am. Granted, there have been times when I have woken up in another state, wearing only sweat pants a gripping a traffic cone and a 5th of Dewar’s… but in those instances I’m not likely to have my phone with me.
I joke. But what I’m saying is that NOT having GPS is totally not an issue for 99% of my life. Those touting phones that have it are, perhaps, overstating how great a feature it is, just a tad.
@ ThinkFirst
When you can think of more than two words at a time let me know!
“It would be hard to explain to the police officer or the judge ‘but my GPS Navigation system in my car said I could turn right…’ when you could plainly see the street directional signs.”
Actually, most modern GPS systems are pretty good about stuff like that. The problem is that they don’t anticipate the unexpected and there are people who slavishly “drive the GPS” and don’t stop and use common sense.
I read a story awhile back about people driving into flooded areas because the GPS navigation system said that was the route to take. My roomate used to drive big-rig trucks and her partner had a laptop with GPS navigation system which told him to take a certain freeway which couldn’t handle big-rig trucks. He was oblivious to all the signs saying “TRUCKS MUST EXIT” and the like until my roomate pointed them out to him and yelled at him to take the truck route. They almost missed the truck exit because by the time it dawned on him, he was in the wrong lane.
By the way, in regard to draining batteries, I’m not all that convinced. First, GPS is a receiver, not a transmitter. The latest GPS chipsets draw about the same amount of power as is used to transmit to a bluetooth headset.
GPS units in cars are transmitters. In short, a signal from any GPS equipment sends out a signal to the satelites, and based on triangulation, ascertains your position on the globe. Street maps are overlayed, not to dissimilar or akin to a geographic information system. The problem is that the streets datasets are not updated in real time (that is the reason why you have to update your discs in disc based systems).
“I was just pointing out that, for most people, it will probably get used a lot less than you think.”
But, in some ways, that’s the point.
Take my laptop example. Imagine if Mac OS X had an API for developers to get location information. Figure it has a “Get Latitude and Longitude”, “Get City”, “Get County”, “Get State”, and “Get Country.”
(For future expansion, it will also have a “Get Planet”, “Get Solar System”, “Get Galaxy”, “Get Universe”
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So, no, I don’t use the GPS capabilities. But the operating system keeps this information up to date. Applications can take advantage of this information so I can say, “How’s traffic?” and the computer will show me traffic information for the city that I’m in. I can say I want to do currency conversion and the most conveniently accessed currencies will be where I am. Heck, when I enter Hanoi, it will automatically download the latest conversion information for me.
The point is that it all ends up hidden. The computer knows where it is. It can tell applications which will take advantage of it. So you’re using GPS information without really even knowing it.
…. cars are transmitters AND RECEIVERS.
Once a positional value is sent back to you (in the car nav or your handheld unit) It compares your lat and long with the geo-referenced street datasets and then produces a map viewed on your screen. Again, the street datasets are key to a very good GPS Nav System that being said it is only accurate the day it was created.
@ChrissyOne I tend to agree with you I was in Myrtle Beach last weekend and was unsure of my hotel room location. We were on King Highway at a gas station. Noting the locals penchant for giving directions. I whipped out the I phone and punched in the address of my location and the location of the hotel and got a course while my friend went inside and asked for directions while buying cigarettes. Later in the trip on the way back I used the same function to plot a course from the hotel to RDU airport. The iphone plotted a course I had never used before and we left the hotel at 11:30 pm for a 6:05 am flight. The course plotter was supposed to take us 3 hours and 40 minutes. At 2:50 Am we found ourselves at a gas station 1 mile outside the airport refilling the rental car. I love my damn Iphone but it would be nice to use it with a blue tooth based gps antenna I used on my Motorola Q.
I love maps. I collect antique maps. I hate GPS. I never get lost!
@Gil- GPS receivers are receivers only, hence the name. They do not transmit diddly-squat to any satellites. They do not need to. Position is calculated by measuring differences in the time signals received from 3 or more satellites. Some calculations are done by the CPU, and presto you have your position. It’s not a whole lot different then using a sextant and taking sun and star sights. Akk you are doing is finding the unique spot on the planet where all the observed (or received) points meet. Since I am a professionally trained navigator, I know whereof I speak, but am willing to be enlightened. If you are adamant that they transmit, please cite your source.
Macaholic is right. GPS Receivers do just that–they receive a signal from a satellite. They do not transmit. Think of how small a GPS receiver is–you really think it can transmit 19,000 miles to a GPS satellite.
I’ll oversimplify. A GPS satellite is basically an atomic clock in orbit that transmits what satellite it is and what time it sent the signal. A GPS receiver also knows what time it is. It picks up the signal and determines which satellite sent it and how long the trip took. The GPS receiver can calculate the position of the satellite (I don’t believe they are geostationary, but it’s a pretty simple calculation if I start out knowing that a certain satellite was at such-and-such position on this day and time.) Since it knows where the satellite is and how long the transmission took, it can narrow down the area. Add two more satellites and you can get it down to a fairly small sphere.
If you’re still confused, here‘s a simple explanation in 2D space.
So the tricky part about GPS is actually having clocks that are accurate enough to measure how long it takes a signal to travel 19,000-some-odd miles.
As an aside, cellphone networks sort of do what you are talking about. However, this is not done at the cellphone but inside the network. AT&T’s E911 service uses this to let the 911 operator know where you are. The official reasons for this are (a) it works with any cellphone–no special software needed on the phone and (b) it’s not a simple calculation. Personally, I add in reason (c) AT&T may be able to charge you 10 cents whenever you ask “Where am I?”
“So the tricky part about GPS is actually having clocks that are accurate enough to measure how long it takes a signal to travel 19,000-some-odd miles.”
GPS units are receive only.
Actually one tricky part of the system is you don’t need accurate clocks in the receiver, only the satellites (which is a good thing given the size, weight and cost of atomic clocks).
Furthermore, Google Maps in a iPhone or any other phone is just like carrying an electronic map book, nothing more or less.
A turn by turn GPS based navigation system is a whole technological leap past that.