It looks like the next salvo in the generic computer / smartphone
vs. dedicated GPS battle has been fired. Google just announced their
turn-by-turn navigation system for their upcoming Android 2.0 release.
The highlights that their videos mentioned are:
* Voice input instructions to GPS
* Voice output instructions from GPS
* Street View for turns and destinations
(see the street photographed from a car, not just overhead imagery
from a satellite or plane.)
* Smart display of potential stops
(eg. show all burgers joints near my route).
* Real-time traffic display
* Rerouting around traffic
* caching of maps and data
(a full time Internet connection via the cell phone doesn't seem
to be needed)
* car dock with software sensing
(causing phone to switch from normal phone mode to primarily
navigation mode.)
This application comes with Google Android 2.0 which isn't out yet and
doesn't seem to have a release date announced. It seems like it might
be linked with the Verizon Android phone being released.
The current Android 1.6 Google Maps application is pretty
car-unfriendly. One needs to recenter the map and recalculate routes by
going through a ton of menus. I'm hoping that they tried hard to make
this new app more like a dedicated GPS with an eye towards minimizing
the number of button (or on-screen virtual button) presses.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/28/g...ui-to-android/
-wolfgang
--
Wolfgang S. Rupprecht
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