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- digjam, on 07/14/2008, -3/+64No auto re routing is the biggest drawback. Its no different than taking a print out of directions and travelling, you really dont know what to do when you miss a turn!
- sjclovesjc, on 07/14/2008, -6/+61The lack of turn by turn was the deal breaker for me.
- waydee, on 07/15/2008, -1/+31If you're after a GPS enabled phone thats actually useful, the Nokia N95, N96 and N82 offer turn-by-turn A-GPS and the option to run tomtom software if you so desire.
Not sure about the SE C905's capabilities yet but would expect similar. - SteveMax, on 07/14/2008, -3/+28You know, phones have had GPS for a long, long time now. The iPhone is the one that is "cloning" this feature, not the other way around.
I know that, for S60, some (paid, unfortunately) software that allows auto-rerouting do exist. The Google Maps client works basically exactly like the iPhone's, with approximate location for those phones without GPS and real positioning for phones with a GPS chip; and has worked like that for quite a long time.
We can't deny the improvements in UI that Apple has made, but don't give them merit for an "innovation" they didn't create. Let's not get too revisionist and end up with people believing that "Apple invented GPS" (like some believe they invented the portable MP3 player, or that Microsoft invented the OS). - WiZZLa, on 07/15/2008, -7/+31Jesus phone can't properly guide me to heaven...or the nearest Starbucks if there's a detour?
- DreadPirate, on 07/14/2008, -13/+28Just because the iPhone doesn't have features like auto re-routing right now doesn't mean it won't in the future. The amount of software available for it is going to be expanding as time goes on. It's entirely possible that one of the major GPS manufacturers could release software for it at some point going forward.
- V3RT1G0LMI, on 07/15/2008, -15/+30the iphone wasnt meant to be a replacement for your in car gps, its just mean to be location aware. As for turn by turn, apple said they would allow the making of turn by turn applications.
- cbeach, on 07/15/2008, -4/+18***** "the jump"
Buried for this useless expression. - vastrightwing, on 07/15/2008, -3/+15Just like a Swiss army knife, the multitude of tools "work", just not very well.
- SteveMax, on 07/15/2008, -2/+13This triangulation is what Google Maps does when a phone doesn't have a true GPS chip. Other phones, such as the Noka N95, N82, E51, E71, E90, 6110, 6220 and a lot more, have a full GPS chip (those last two, both nicknamed "Navigator", even have the GPS as their main feature and selling point). At least among Nokias, they don't call a phone that can only do a basic triangulation (which all of them can, nowadays) as "GPS".
- Niz1, on 07/15/2008, -3/+11don't understand the digg downs some of you people need to accept this fact, the iPhone is not yet a Sat Nav its yet to come, just accept you cant do it at the moment.
- DontEatTheFish, on 07/14/2008, -5/+12http://www.modmyifone.com/forums/news/229201-turn- ...
also the tom-tom one should still be coming in the future. - Murdats, on 07/15/2008, -0/+7I have a non-phone pda that has a GPS attachment, I have a friend who has a bluetooth attachement for his phone, I have a few friends who have true gps in their phones, my previous phone from ~5 years ago had true gps, my next phone will have true gps.
none of those mentioned above are iPhones, but they have gps and existed before the iPhone did, unless whenever anything apple does, everyone else just copied what they were going to do in 7 years. - nogahide, on 07/15/2008, -0/+6windows live does have turn by turn, so does TOM TOM for WM6.1 and it links to RT traffice through the cell phone.
Its all in the software. Google maps cant compete with turn by turn software. Also, if you loose your connection you loose your maps...you need maps on board. - dn11, on 07/15/2008, -1/+7except they are marketing it for it's GPS capabilities, but not telling the whole story. considering that the iPhone is more powerful and complex than the average GPS device, and considering fully functional GPS units aren't very expensive and have less horsepower and technology in them than the iPhone already has, your comparison isn't valid. to me it sounds like a pretty crappy GPS device - which is yet another reason not to buy it or upgrade. if the cellular triangulation on the original iPhone works well enough for basic location based functions, the GPS doesn't seem to improve things much
- cdigioia, on 07/15/2008, -5/+101. Maps saved directly to the phone without having to rely on internet connectivity
2. Turn-by-turn navigation
3. Voice prompts
4. Automatic re-routing.
So basically...it's like a piece of paper - only, if I'm out of a range for the data connectivity, my piece of paper disappears?
Brilliant. I love Apple. - pinchduck, on 07/15/2008, -0/+5I think it is really stupid to not include this basic functionality in a phone/gps these days. $200 is a lot to spend on an item that "might" have a feature in the future. I still haven't found anything that replaces my Garmin iQue M5, which is a great PDA/GPS. I was hoping that the iPhone could do it, but apparently not. Perhaps the instinct or one of the other iClones will do the trick. I really appreciate that Apple has raised the bar with their fantastic designs and innovative features, but I am amazed that they miss the boat on some basic functionality like auto routing or route correction.
- ligius, on 07/15/2008, -0/+5Even better, Garmin Mobile XT for Symbian based phones (it also works for Sony-Ericsson). This not limited to N95 or other phones with built-in GPS. I bought a bluetooth GPS receiver (priced at about 30 dollars) which has aprox 24h battery life and the navigation software is running smoothly. Even better, I can stick the receiver anywhere in the car I want and don't need to stick the phone into the non-heat-repellent windshield area.
- LethalAmbition, on 07/15/2008, -1/+6That's besides the point.
- Moose_Head, on 07/15/2008, -0/+5Like cut and paste?
- mgill3, on 07/15/2008, -3/+8They either need to allow TomTom to make a proper GPS app for navigation w/ turn-by-turn, etc. Or, they need to add the following to the existing app:
1. Maps saved directly to the phone without having to rely on internet connectivity
2. Turn-by-turn navigation
3. Voice prompts
4. Automatic re-routing.
As-is, it's not bad, it works just fine as long as i don't miss a turn (and even then it's not too difficult to figure it out on your own) But it sure would be nice to be able to throw the phone into a windshield mount and push "GO" and let it do the rest for me. - inactive, on 07/14/2008, -5/+10***** yeah! I love GTA ! ;)
- mgill3, on 07/15/2008, -3/+7Only problem with that is Apple said they're not allowed. (Basically)
But hopefully they'll either change their mind, or just improve upon the existing Maps application.
I'm betting on the latter. - waydee, on 07/15/2008, -2/+6Well said steve, tired of the iPhone being labelled as some sort of revolutionary device with features never seen before and everything else being a "clone".
- GliTCH82, on 07/15/2008, -1/+5It's widely reported that even Jesus himself was struggling with iTunes activation last week.
- lrdntwnd, on 07/15/2008, -0/+4Right. If they had an app that had all the maps pre-loaded and did the calculations on the iPhone itself, then it might be able to do real-time tracking and rerouting. But using Google Maps to do that just isn't an efficient use of resources.
- p3ngwin, on 07/15/2008, -6/+10turn-by-turn. or "live tracking", will not feature on ANY software for the iphone/itouch for the foreseeable future.
why?
because Apple says "***** you is why"
it's in their SDK for the device that says no apps can use it:
http://www.everythingicafe.com/forum/iphone-3g/app ... - Rotzooi, on 07/15/2008, -0/+4Actually, the upcoming models will have this functionality. Stick your sim card in there and a TomTom will be able to function as handsfree phone.
Btw, at least in Europe, most current models do have phone capabilities, but are currently limited to phoning emergency services. - ThatsUnpossible, on 07/15/2008, -0/+3Someone should tell Telenav:
http://gizmodo.com/5024018/telenav-confirms-iphone ... - Ragzouken, on 07/15/2008, -0/+3Normal people call it 'read more'.
- Kral, on 07/15/2008, -1/+4I can't believe after reading his description of the trip he then refers to it as having been "half-impressed". I would have been furious and spent the entire page ranting.
- mal1964, on 07/15/2008, -2/+5"iPhone 3G does not offer real-time, turn-by-turn directions"
Why have GPS?, I'm not a negative person but that's dumb. - Frost9999, on 07/15/2008, -8/+11Next up - the iPhone versus the MacBook Pro. Is the iPhone capable of properly editing and rendering hours of video footage and replacing your sturdy aluminium clad work-horse? Make the jump to find out. Also, next week we're putting the iPhone to test against an XBox360 - which machine will prove itself a contender in the gaming arena?
- mattlohkamp, on 07/15/2008, -1/+4exactly - it's not a gps, or a phone. It's a computer. I'm not sure why it's such a tough concept for some people to grasp.
- airj1012, on 07/15/2008, -0/+3Well yes, if you wanted a GPS then you should have bought a Garmin. However if you were in the market for a PHONE then you should have bought the iPhone. If you bought the iPhone strictly to be a GPS unit then you really didn't choose you're product wisely.
- extrema, on 07/15/2008, -0/+2I have been using the map feature on the iPod Touch for quite a while now, and now with the iPhone 3G. Is it just me, or the directions given by the app are always the one with the shortest distance, not the fastest way to get to the destination (as you get when you use maps.google.com) ?
- chromerium, on 07/15/2008, -5/+7why digg him down? He's right.
- firstpost, on 07/15/2008, -1/+3Wasn't TomTom Navigator already running on iPhone in labs?
I think it's entirely possible for Apple to have an agreement with TomTom to only allow them to create a navigation application. This would be good for TomTom because it would stop competition on the iPhone platform. - adammharvey, on 07/15/2008, -3/+5honestly you get what you pay for.
- mal1964, on 07/15/2008, -0/+2I know but wouldn't you like the GPS on the iphone to have turn by turn?
- colincornaby, on 07/15/2008, -0/+2Of course the iPhone will let your GPS location veer off a road. It's not meant to try to keep it on a road. Turn by turn GPS solutions know that your GPS location might get messed up a bit in a city with large buildings, so they purposely do some rounding and try to match your location to a road.
There's nothing wrong with the GPS chip on the iPhone. It just doesn't do any masking to try to make up for tall buildings in a city bouncing your signal around. - SteveMax, on 07/15/2008, -1/+3Actually, only the part up to the "after the jump" in the homepage. Then, you have to click a link (= "make the jump" to the actual article's page) to go to the full article, where you can read it all.
- GliTCH82, on 07/15/2008, -1/+3I call it an ad banner.
- GliTCH82, on 07/15/2008, -0/+2I've had both Garmin and TomTom devices, and Garmin definitely sucks compared to TomTom.
- Rotzooi, on 07/15/2008, -0/+2BLOGSPAM
- mal1964, on 07/15/2008, -0/+2LOL, Yes but my phone has turn by turn, That's why i bought a phone with gps, or I'd just use google maps.
- cleverboy, on 07/15/2008, -3/+5@mgill, that's not really true. Apple doesn't want its basic cadre of developers to think that they can develop turn-by-turn software and not immediately have liability problems. Telenav and TomTom have already weighed in on this, and Apple's Joswiac has come on record to clarify.
He says, "Rather, there are some murky 'complicated issues' preventing driving directions apps at the moment. 'It will evolve. I think our developers will amaze us,' he said."
It's not a matter of "changing their mind". They need to RESOLVE some legality and liability issues before allowing anyone to provide such a feature.
For instance, Google maps cannot be used for turn-by-turn, and the part of the SDK that sites Apple's restriction reads exactly like the part of the SDK that Google says the same thing. Moreover, there is different licensing for turn-by-turn usage of the mapping data, which is provided by TeleNav (as they've said).
@jerrycurley, Yeah, that's about the shape of it. iPhone celebrates its 1 year anniversay by introducing its 1st 3rd party apps, moving its developers out of a limited BETA, and you want to jump into the deep end with the new GPS feature? No... they still need to fix crashing issues. - Tinendo, on 07/15/2008, -0/+2http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/14/apple-says-turn ...
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