Google Maps now features GPS capabilities
The moment we have all been waiting for has arrived. Google Maps Mobile is now able to take advantage of GPS systems to provide real-time location based services including directions and traffic info. Google Maps has long been the most cost effective and free provider of mobile mapping and directions. The only problem had been its lack of support for internal or external GPS. Click the link to download the updated version and bask in all of the madness. We have tested and confirmed that it works with the internal GPS on a BlackBerry 8800, and Google claims compatibility with other devices, but as always, your mileage may vary.
I’ve been waiting for this for some time now, but it isn’t all I would of expected it to be. All you get is a blinking dot where you are, for driving directions you have to manually advance the next direction. It’s nothing that can compete with ANY of the other programs available for the BB in terms of GPS directions. Still, it’s a step in the right direction. I would love to see how Google Maps on a Helio phone works, since they’ve had Google Maps GPS service for some time now.
Sucks might be a bit strong.
I’ve been using this for a couple of days now (since Cingular doesn’t load BB maps on 8800) on my new 8800 and it is good, for the price (free).
TelNav is money and it looks much better than Google – but it is $10/month. For the price, this thing is pretty good.
I have found some problems downloading maps (stops loading) sometimes and sometimes problems with keeping the position accurate – can’t tell if it is the data network problem, the gps range at the time or some bug in Google maps software, but it is pretty cool.
James
You can download BB Maps by pointing your device to http://www.blackberry.com/maps
It works much better than Google
I don’t get this, I’ve had GPS support on my google maps ever since they released the non-java version for Windows Mobile. I’ve had this for months already, and before that, there was a little app someone wrote called map4pda, which connected to google maps and did the same thing. I’ve been able to watch the blue blip move over a satellite photo for almost a year now, and the novelty wore off pretty quickly.
How is this news?
Is it because Blackberry users are only now starting to have it available? Please, are we going to celebrate EVERY SINGLE TIME a blackberry gets a feature Windows Mobile users have had for years? This site is starting to feel like a joke.
I was able to install on my N95, but it will not open. I had installed over the previous version, I’ll try uninstalling and going in fresh.
A quote from one of my favorite movies just popped into my head, and I’d like to add it to my previous post.
There’s a line in the Incredibles, where Mr. Incredible is frustrated with living civilian life, and announces that “the world is finding new ways to celebrate mediocrity”.
That’s what I feel like this site is doing…
BREAKING NEWS! FOR ALL OF US WHO’VE BEEN WAITING! GOOGLE MAPS SUPPORT GPS (even tho real smartphone could do this for almost a year, so if you were really waiting, you could have done this by now), SYPE CALLS ON A BLACKBERRY (sort of, not really, you need to use skypeout to remotely call your phone and use your minutes… if you wanted real skype, get a real smartphone with third party app support).
See where I’m going with this?
New blackberry’s are news. Hardware is cool. But don’t make a big deal about features folks have been “waiting for”, especially if they’re already available, or don’t work the way you think.
BGR, slow news day or is this a joke ?
How many WinMo devices have built in GPS? Oh yeah, I don’t know any. The 8800 is the first built in GPS smartphone that Googlemaps has been configured to work with.
LOL, LDCMobile, you don’t know very many WinMo devices. The 8800 is NOT the first! Take a look at HTC’s high end devices… almost all of the current ones have GPS built in.
Me? I have an older one that I connect to a bluetooth GPS. Works fine by me, don’t need it built in all the time…
LDMobile & Mark you’ve got to be kidding me right?
The first Smartphone/PPC Phone device to have internal GPS was HP’s iPaq hw6500 series of which I owned. It’s been on the market for about a year & a half now! (www.hp.com) Where in God’s name have you guys been?
BTW, HP, not HTC, released it- though there is rumor that HTC could have designed it but others have said Inventec did. (www.inventec.com)
HP then released the hw6900 series which is an updated version of the 6500. The 6900 has internal GPS too & is still one of the few devices on the market with GPS inside. I currently own 6945 & can tell you with certainty that Google Maps has ALWAYS worked with my 6945’s internal GPS so this isn’t news by a long shot.
Kitty, why do I have to be kidding you? You’re just agreeing with me!
I know the HP has GPS. The newer HTC phones are more popular, however, and so I mentioned them instead.
Personally, I chose a BT GPS receiver because I’ve owned it for years already and can use it with various devices, not just my phone (stays in my glovebox until I need it), so I don’t feel the need to buy a device with GPS built in.
Either way, the bottom line is this hardly counts as news.
Ditto, what is news nowadays?
I have a bluetooth GPS unit and a number of mobile phones.
I have installed Google Maps on each of them and none of them can use the GPS. Other programs loaded on them all seem to find the GPS and use it without problems.
Looking at the support site, I see a number of people saying that bluetooth GPS USED to work, but no longer does.
Has bluetooth support been dropped and been replaced with internal GPS only?