New Google GPS for non GPS mobile phones

[Elite]

The new GPS for mobile phones was launched by Google today. Below are a couple quick quotes from the Beta launch page:





"New! Google Maps with My Location (Beta)
See your location on the map, with or without GPS."

"The My Location feature is available for most web-enabled mobile phones, including Java, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and Nokia/Symbian devices."

http://www.google.com/mobile/gmm/mylocation/index.html

 

[jond]

This is AWESOME!!!!!
I was going to buy a bluetooth GPS unit because my blackberry 8830 from verizon has its GPS disabled(because verizon is lame). This is amazing. Google out does themselves once again!!!

 

[jond]

I just installed it. It works!!! I'm feel like such a geek, but this is awesome.

 

[mickeylex]

Pretty cool. I would assume that you would pay for the web data transfer fees (like when you download web content such as weather, stock quotes, etc) to get the content onto your phone as opposed to a traditional GPS reciever where the GPS service is free?

 

[robr]

Pretty cool. I would assume that you would pay for the web data transfer fees (like when you download web content such as weather, stock quotes, etc) to get the content onto your phone as opposed to a real GPS where the GPS service is free?

Yes, you would need a data plan. An "unlimited" plan would be recommended. I pay $19.99/mo for my unlimited plan for my PDA with Cingular. Note that I take advantage of a loophole, Cingular normally charges $39.99 for unlimited PDA data but you can switch plans online to the $19.99 phone plan and it works fine on a PDA (unless you need to connect to a VPN somewhere from your phone).

 

[KooLaid]

That sucker eats up data FAST! Beware! lol

 

[FuryNSX]

Nice.

I noticed pressing the "0" button on my Blackberry gets me my location. Does anyone know of a way to toggle this feature off (other than selecting the option in the HELP section) to save bandwidth and speed up the refresh?

 

[jagtiger]

Thanks for sharing. This thing is awesome!!:biggrin:

 

[da3dalus]

I put it on my phone yesterday... this thing is the tits!

 

[ShiftyBob]

Downloaded it for my Treo 755p... didn't work! I already had Google maps on my phone, and it isn't doing anything different. Maybe I will try uninstalling and reinstalling...

 

[RSO 34]

I downloaded in on my Motorola Q and also am not seeing any of the features touted by Google. For example, if I hit "0" it keeps coming up that my "current location is temporarily unavailable".

 

[NSXnBRLA]

I downloaded in on my Motorola Q and also am not seeing any of the features touted by Google. For example, if I hit "0" it keeps coming up that my "current location is temporarily unavailable".

Ditto except I use a Samsung Blackjack.... tried all day but keep getting 'location unavailable'

 

[SWIFTVISION]

Scares me :-/

 

[ShiftyBob]

I downloaded in on my Motorola Q and also am not seeing any of the features touted by Google. For example, if I hit "0" it keeps coming up that my "current location is temporarily unavailable".

Ditto except I use a Samsung Blackjack.... tried all day but keep getting 'location unavailable'

At least you are getting something... mine just stares back at me.

 

[Elite]

I was told, it's still "Beta" so there will be some glitches until they are fixed.

But after all it's FREE, and should get better as they work on it.

 

[robr]

I was told, it's still "Beta" so there will be some glitches until they are fixed.

But after all it's FREE, and should get better as they work on it.

Hell, Gmail has been in "beta" now for what, 2+ years?

 

[MJK]

Downloaded it for my Treo 755p... didn't work! I already had Google maps on my phone, and it isn't doing anything different. Maybe I will try uninstalling and reinstalling...

same story here on a 700p.

 

[Elite]

Hell, Gmail has been in "beta" now for what, 2+ years?

Do you have issues with Gmail?

 

[robr]

Do you have issues with Gmail?

Absolutely none (well, not from a bug standpoint anyway, I have minor UI issues but that's another story). I've used gmail for two years for personal use and recently moved a domain over to them where I previously had my own email server. It had been running on an NT3.51 machine since 1996 and the email software was just as old and it had crappy methods of stopping spammers from using it to send out spam. I moved it to gmail (but under its own domain name) and everything has been great.

It's just humorous that something that's used by millions for so long is still called BETA.

 

[KooLaid]

iPHONE won't allow it to be downloaded.

 

[BioBanker]

for iphone, go to www.jailbreakme.com and install its installer. In the applications, you will find Navizon, which will work like this google product is described.

You void your iphone warranty though afaik. Other great apps in there too!

 

[ShiftyBob]

iPHONE won't allow it to be downloaded.

There's a BIG SHOCKER!!!

 

[Arshad]

There's a BIG SHOCKER!!!

Hehe. The issue here is that most mobile phone apps are written in J2ME, which requires a license from Sun. Apple is not interested in the license, and has their own much more robust infrastructure for writing native code on the phone which they will release in Feb 08. Once that's out, you'll see google and others release third party apps for the iPhone.

BTW, this program works on cell tower ID's and Google's ability to map their locations. In North America, each tower has a unique CellTowerID. They do not broadcast latitude/longitude information. The location of towers is proprietary and is not shared with the general public for competitive reasons. There are large databases with towerID's and locations, including ones from the FCC, private survey firms, and places like Yahoo's zonetag DB. Some of these are public, others require forking over big bucks to get access to the data -- but in all cases, none of them are 100% complete (including the FCC's).

Note sure how google is building up their DB, but I suspect they may have purchased a commercial DB to kick it off and have been adding to it with their own surveying. This is the reason that this program may or may not work for you depending on where you are and whether those towers have been mapped by Google.