Comments on: Opinion: 3G’s GPS/Google Maps Isn’t Half Bad – For What It Is

By: JoeT

JoeT — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 11:33:29 +0000

Vinkap is correct, I didn’t “extensively” test standalone GPS units for this piece, but I have a Sony NV-U83T at the moment, and have used Garmin and TomTom before. While some of the other units will indeed give you a list of POIs along your route, I haven’t encountered any that will show you a map to give you an idea of where each listing is like Google Maps will do. The question that always comes to my mind is: If the listed POI is 10.8 miles away (they usually show an address and distance away), is that 10 miles up the road and .8 miles off the highway, or .8 miles up the road and 10 miles off the highway? That obviously makes a difference.

The Sony can show you your position along the route, but you have to manually zoom in and out – it doesn’t seem to be terribly intelligent – and I have yet to see a GPS unit of any flavor that will automatically zoom out to an overview level when your next turn is, say, 100 miles away and begin zooming in as that turn approaches. That’s not to say that one doesn’t exist, I just haven’t encountered one.

Ghostshirt: You got me there. I didn’t steal the wife’s 2G iPhone to test it under 2.0 – but that’s good news! I’ll edit the story accordingly.

By: ghostshirt

ghostshirt — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 05:11:08 +0000

actually, the 2g version updates your location also. There is not a blue dot, but the old blue circle moves. I just made a trip from Illinois to Maryland and used my original with the 2.0 firmware. It gave a pretty good location most of the time and certainly kept updating itself. We wanted to find a white castle, and it led us there easily.

By: Brandon

Brandon — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:44:22 +0000

Hell I can’t even get the 3G GPS to work half the time. I think its trying too hard to get the Assisted part of the GPS instead of just asking the satellites to tell it where it is. I’ve noticed on 1-2 bars of signal GPS doesn’t work at all. Personally I think Apple can take the AT&T Assisted crap and shove it where the sun don’t shine. Let the GPS chip do its job and stop offloading the work. Its not like my battery life can suck any worse – so I might as well be able to use the tools in the phone.

By: vinkap

vinkap — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:16:02 +0000

I am curious to know which GPS unit do you have…..because other than your point about the traffic information, all the good GPS units have features that give you POIs that come along your route, one touch view to give your position along the route etc.

I personally have GPS units from TomTom and Garmin and both of them have the above mentioned features that you mentioned as lacking in GPS units. Doesn’t look like you have explored standalone GPS units extensively in the excitement of the iPhone 3G 😉

I have an iPhone as well and I use it to complement my GPS unit in terms of getting traffic info.