Google Navigation App - For Free! - will it come to the iPhone?

[highpriest]

iClarified - Apple News - Google Launches Its Own Free Navigation App

Currently in beta and only for the Android platform but please let there be an iPhone version

Cheers
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[UEF]

Nice idea, it's a dead duck if it relies on mobile loading of apps though. You need a cache for most trips around the UK.

[Autopilot]

Originally Posted by UEF

Nice idea, it's a dead duck if it relies on mobile loading of apps though. You need a cache for most trips around the UK.

From the report i read this morning, the plan is to cache map data. Not sure how it will work though, i.e. if you can pre download areas of the country (ala Nokia Maps) or if it will just be on a journey by journey basis. But hey this is Google, you know they will get it right. The idea of using street view is very interesting too.

The likes of TomTom must be worried (although TomTom own's Tele Atles maps which Google uses, so it wont lose out completely).

[jerryq7777]

Both TomTom and Garmin shares have dropped 20% since this news broke.

[paulm34]

The problem with this in the uk is your internet connection while on route as not all parts of the uk have 3g to download the maps quicky enough while driving, what happens then? Dont get me wrong i love the idea and its free lets just hope an iphone app is out very soon and it all works fantastic

[hutch]

Loving the idea of this especially for free! Street View when you get near your destination is a great feature

Not a fan of the maps not being stored locally though, this is going to hammer the data connection and for those of us not on an unlimited plan it could be very painful....

[UEF]

Originally Posted by paulm34

The problem with this in the uk is your internet connection while on route as not all parts of the uk have 3g to download the maps quicky enough while driving, what happens then? Dont get me wrong i love the idea and its free lets just hope an iphone app is out very soon and it all works fantastic

To be fair, map data itself is very light, assuming you just want roads rather than aerial photography. Using a compressed, lightweight format you could probably use it in most places. But I like the fact that my 6 year old TomTom Navigator has pretty much every road loaded on.

[Autopilot]

Originally Posted by UEF

To be fair, map data itself is very light, assuming you just want roads rather than aerial photography. Using a compressed, lightweight format you could probably use it in most places. But I like the fact that my 6 year old TomTom Navigator has pretty much every road loaded on.

Very true, even over GPRS basic map data for the area you are in should be perfectly do-able. Loads of pics, info and videos on Engadget now. It's going to preload map data for your entire route before you set off, so it can cope with signal black spots. You will just need a connection for the initial routing/planning stage. There are already sat nav apps that do this pretty well. At least you know you have the very latest map data. That said, i would also welcome the extra piece of mind that knowing all your maps are there already. But with all this live cloud computing business, people in rural/remote area's might have problems, we will just have to wait. As for satellite and street view, well they have no choice but to download on a demand basis, pre-loading significant amounts of that would takes a huge amount of storage, gig's and gig's.

One good thing about Google maps is that they use both TeleAtlas and Navtaq maps, so it will be interesting if that means better over all map and route performance.

It was obvious Google were going to do this at some stage, lets hope it does come to the iPhone and soon. But it could be exclusive to Android for a while, as Google want to push the OS and it will certainly help with that. And Android 2.0 looks **** hot. I love my iPhone, but more and more i can see me jumping over to Android at some point.

[alchemistkevin]

Shouldn't this post be in the Android section since the iPhone version is only 'wishful thinking' at the moment?

[hutch]

I think we can all safely say that this is going to come to the iPhone sooner rather than later

[alchemistkevin]

Originally Posted by hutch

I think we can all safely say that this is going to come to the iPhone sooner rather than later

I won't argue with that, my only point is we're discussing a piece of s/w available on android while keeping it in the apple app section


Doesn't make sense to me!

[hutch]

Point taken, thread title edited accordingly

[Autopilot]

Originally Posted by hutch

I think we can all safely say that this is going to come to the iPhone sooner rather than later

Why so sure? Not saying you are wrong, it may well do and i hope it does, but other features have been held back from Apple to make the competing Google Android more attractive, it would make perfect sense (and a good business move) to try keep it on Android for a while too. Android partners like HTC will certainly be happy to have it exclusive to Android too. Might be wrong.

[highpriest]

Originally Posted by Autopilot

As for satellite and street view, well they have no choice but to download on a demand basis, pre-loading significant amounts of that would takes a huge amount of storage, gig's and gig's.

True but unless O2 pull their finger out and actually do something about their ridiculously poor data coverage, I think it's safe to assume that on-demand downloads of map, satellite or street view information is never going to work all that well.

One good thing about Google maps is that they use both TeleAtlas and Navtaq maps, so it will be interesting if that means better over all map and route performance.

I read somewhere that Google have managed to map vast areas of the US themselves and are increasingly relying less and less on TeleAtlas and Navteq maps. Search for major US cities, for example, you will only see "Map Data (c) 2009 Google" at the bottom.

It was obvious Google were going to do this at some stage, lets hope it does come to the iPhone and soon. But it could be exclusive to Android for a while, as Google want to push the OS and it will certainly help with that. And Android 2.0 looks **** hot. I love my iPhone, but more and more i can see me jumping over to Android at some point.

Does Google actually earn anything (apart from advertising of course) from each phone that is sold with Android?

I wanted to go with Android but it was the hardware that held me back. I hate HTC hardware with a passion The Moto Droid looks nice though.

Cheers
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[akki007]

Google working with Apple to bring its Navigation services to the iPhone | iPhone Help !