Turn By Turn -- Engadget Mobile

turn-by-turn posts

Google developing free navigation app?

by Nilay Patel posted Oct 27th 2009 @ 4:24PM

We already know plenty of people who've eschewed traditional turn-by-turn GPS systems in favor of plotting it out for free on Google Maps, and now there's whispers that Mountain View is coming after the rest of the market with a free nav app. That's at least what nav services providers are saying to Forbes, who think El Goog is gearing up to release a free ad-supported navigation app after making moves to use its own US maps instead licensing data from Tele Atlas and putting ads on the iPhone Maps app. Obviously that would shake things up a ton -- and make Android devices a huge bargain -- but we'll see where this all leads over the next few months.

[Via Fierce Mobile Content; thanks Elad]

TomTom navigation for iPhone 3G and 3GS arrives (update: video!)

by Thomas Ricker posted Aug 17th 2009 @ 1:34AM

True, it's not the first app offering turn-by-turn driving instructions for the iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS -- but it is from TomTom, an industry heavy-weight that is finally delivering on years of rumor and speculation. After starting with New Zealand a few hours ago, the iTunes App Store is now populated with region specific TomTom apps for NZ ($95), Australia ($80), US and Canada ($100), and Western Europe ($140). If that sounds expensive... it is; dedicated TomTom navigators start at $120. In other words, this isn't one of those knee-jerk 99 cent App Store purchases. Naturally, that price does not include the announced TomTom iPhone car kit (rumored to cost £113.85 (about $194) with bundled mapping software) that mounts and charges your iPhone 3G or 3GS while enhancing its GPS performance, speaker, and microphone. Our advice: wait for the reviews before dedicating your non multi-tasking iPhone to the dashboard for navigation duties.

Update: Recombu took the software for a spin and seem duly impressed by their ability to navigate streets with an iPhone taped to the dash (not a joke). They say that when a call comes in, the TomTom app "turns off but restarts as soon as you finish the call." See the video overview after the break.

Gallery: TomTom for iPhone 3G and 3GS hits the App Store

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Read [Warning: iTunes link]

Continue reading TomTom navigation for iPhone 3G and 3GS arrives (update: video!)

Magnetometer finding its way into next iPhone?

by Ross Miller posted May 7th 2009 @ 7:44PM

Add "compass" to that list of rumored features -- again -- for the next, still-unconfirmed iPhone revision, alongside video production capabilities, a slide-out keyboard, OLED display, LTE / Verizon support, and EV-DO rev. B (okay, not really that last one). Boy Genius Report has obtained two screens allegedly from an unreleased iPhone OS build that suggest a magnetometer'll be part of the new hardware. Given turn-by-turn navigation is now an option for developers, we'd say having directional support is almost a necessity. Why there's also an option for Kitchen Sink in the image we haven't the foggiest, but we're gonna go ahead and add "holographic plumbing assistant" to that wishlist.

AndNav2 brings turn-by-turn navigation to the European Android jet set

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Dec 19th 2008 @ 2:23PM

Although G1 users have that sweet compass-based Street View implementation, we haven't heard much about turn-by-turn nav on Android until now -- AndNav2 is a new alpha app that uses OpenStreetMap data to get you where you're going. It's currently supported in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, France, Denmark, Spain, Switzerland, and Italy -- apparently the folks at AndNav don't have server enough for a Stateside implementation, although they hope to have this remedied in the future. In the meantime, it looks like Americans hoping to get from one place to another will have to either continue to rely on their superior sense of direction or, more likely, their Knight Rider GPS.

[Via Googleandblog]

Continue reading AndNav2 brings turn-by-turn navigation to the European Android jet set

Apple says turn-by-turn GPS coming to iPhone, copy / paste not a high priority

by Nilay Patel posted Jul 14th 2008 @ 7:33PM

There's been a lot of random misinformation about the iPhone 3G floating around out there, like David Pogue's baffling comment that the device's GPS antenna is "too small" to support turn-by-turn directions, and Apple's iPod and iPhone marketing head Greg Joswiak recently sat down with AppScout to clear up some of the confusion. Greg says that Apple has an internal priority list of features for the iPhone, and that the company went as far down the list with the 3G as it could -- and that copy / paste support simply didn't make the cut. Similarly, there are no technical issues preventing turn-by-turn directions, just other "complicated issues" (read: legal agreements) that need to be sorted out, and Josiwak expects developers to "amaze us." as things "evolve." Hopefully that means that nav app TomTom's got in the labs will evolve its way into the wild sometime soon. Finally, Joswiak said that he's not aware of any technical reasons an office suite isn't already in the App Store, but that the lack of a cross-application file structure could impede development. Yeah, and maybe the lack of copy / paste, you think?