Feeling left out of the hot GPS action? Google Maps Mobile 2.0 might help
It looks like Google Maps for Windows Mobile isn’t the only thing getting updated. We’re a little late on this news, but we wanted to actually test it out before trying to explain it. The biggest new feature of Google Maps Mobile 2.0 is called "My Location," and if used on a GPS enabled phone, it provides location mapping giving you a nice free alternative to the pay GPS mapping services. The real meat of this new feature, however, is what happens when you don’t have a phone with GPS, or even a clear GPS signal. Google Maps will now attempt to triangulate your position based off of nearby cell phone towers. Check out the review tested on one our Blackberry 8300s — no, not a BlackBerry 8310 — after the jump!
When just running off of the cell phone tower My Location will provide you with a basic zone where your location is. On testing, this has typically been somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,200 to 2,700 meters. The location was generally accurate, only once in our two days of testing did it show a location that I was not in, however not off by much. It seemed that the longer Google Maps stayed up the more accurate the location became. Eventually getting to within a block after a couple of minutes up.
This type of accuracy does not make for great turn by turn directions, or exact location support. So don’t expect this to replace GPS any time soon, although Google is working on improving the accuracy of this positioning. The real joy with this comes with the built in search, which like your normal GPS service, will provide you with nearby locations for what you are searching for. This proves handy for when you’re in an unfamiliar city and needing to get your Starbucks fix.
Currently this update is only being released for most modern smart phones. But it does work on various S60 devices, BlackBerrys, and the like. Windows Mobile currently is not supported It looks like some Windows Mobile devices are working. To check out the new build, simply point your mobile browser over to www.google.com/gmm
On Dec 1, 2007 @ 10:23 pm, glenn Said:
looks smooth but the my location feature isn’t working with my sprint mogul.
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On Dec 1, 2007 @ 10:25 pm, themobilerabbi Said:
for your information… it works on my windows mobile att 8525… please update your post…
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On Dec 1, 2007 @ 11:34 pm, Brandon Said:
Horribly inaccurate on my BB 8310…
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On Dec 1, 2007 @ 11:43 pm, Keith Said:
Used it today for directions and I have to say that it is very adequate. The the my location feature wasn’t dead on but it helped a lot.
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On Dec 2, 2007 @ 12:35 am, Steve Said:
Is it really triangulating or is it just telling us the location of the nearest tower?
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On Dec 2, 2007 @ 1:54 am, pixar Said:
I’m with Steve I think it only picks the nearest cell tower
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On Dec 2, 2007 @ 1:59 am, Jon Said:
Corrections on the information.
1. It is supported on by windows mobile - I have it on 2 and 3 friends have it on 3 different ones. it works well on the tilt.
2. its not triangulating. Just picking the closest tower. After testing thats what it appears its doing however im not exactly 100&% but close
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On Dec 2, 2007 @ 2:21 am, Jeff B. Said:
Steve, Steve Jobs and my BB. Psh, I don’t use that crappy iPhone you kidding?
Besides my ill-humor, it triangulates your location off 3 cell towers and then gives you an approximate location within 10 city blocks. So yea, it’s not really accurate…at all.
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On Dec 2, 2007 @ 7:51 am, BobL Said:
Playing with it the other day on my BB 8100, it nailed the intersections I was at, but did give me a 1700 meter window.
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On Dec 2, 2007 @ 8:24 am, PC Said:
If it’s not triangulating then how does it know where the closest tower is? Do some research on early stories and you will see that all GSM towers now produce a form of synchronous ping. Each phone does select the best tower but I expect it also knows the neighbouring list of surrounding towers that it will use for the next hand-off. The devices will look at these neighbouring pings and measure the difference in the arrival times - exactly the same way the GPS receivers triangulate satellites.
Now if you are inside a building or downtown amongst the buildings, then Doppler errors will occur.
Keep the faith folks - and remember this is another great Google product and they always go public with early leading edge releases.
BTW: on my BB Curve inside buildings, I have consistently found accuracy to be within 1200 metres.
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On Dec 2, 2007 @ 9:42 am, james Said:
I’ve used it with my windows mobile phone and my wife’s blackberry. Most of the time, it hits our location within a couple of blocks. Once or twice it has been pretty far off.
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On Dec 2, 2007 @ 9:53 am, Brandon Said:
this is quite awesome since i get lost quite frequently!
my only wish is that Live Search would do something similar (I’m a Google-head and love everything Google related) but on a windows mobile phone it helps when everything works with each other.
but hey since this is free and gives me a good idea of where I am, I’m not complaining…hey you get what you paid for…
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On Dec 2, 2007 @ 10:14 am, M. Ronson Said:
Works very well on my BB, has me within about 5 city blocks all the time!
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On Dec 2, 2007 @ 10:36 am, Randy Said:
I’m NJ, and My location doesn’t work for me anywhere. I’m going to assume that this will only work in the major cities like NYC? Every demo I’ve seem of this feature was done there.
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On Dec 2, 2007 @ 11:16 am, Brandon Said:
Anyone know where to get the older build back? It worked way better with my GPS than 2.0…
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On Dec 2, 2007 @ 11:32 am, Jeff M Said:
Some day Sidekicks will be supported…
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On Dec 2, 2007 @ 11:45 am, mark Said:
its doing some sort of triangulation, as I know there isn’t a cell tower in the middle of a lake near my house..
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On Dec 2, 2007 @ 12:09 pm, David Said:
It does not work on my Sprint HTC Mogul WinMo 6. It says “temporarily unavailable.”
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On Dec 2, 2007 @ 12:29 pm, blah Said:
kinda usless for a nav app to be only acurate to 1200 meters… my advice, dump your non-GPS handset and go for a device with GPS
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On Dec 2, 2007 @ 2:03 pm, marc Said:
it works on my htc touch in belgium!
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On Dec 2, 2007 @ 8:27 pm, Cannon Said:
Works perfectly on my Tilt and my fiancée’s VZW BB 8830. For her it’s her best bet with VZW crippling the GPS.
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On Dec 2, 2007 @ 10:32 pm, David Said:
Has anyone got My Location to work on the Sprint Mogul? I just tried it on my Curve and got location within 500 metres. But when I tried it on my Mogul from the same location, I get the following error message: “Your current location is temporarily unavailable.”
And that is the same error message I get every time I try My Location on the Mogul.
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On Dec 3, 2007 @ 12:03 am, xman Said:
I tried with my BB Pearl from T-Mobile and it works for the most part. I think it was only off by 1 block once and about 5 the second time so that works out to far less than the 1700 meters it told me.
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On Dec 3, 2007 @ 12:08 am, Chris Said:
this app is amazing… im on my family vacation at disney and have been using gmm on my tilt to get around everywhere…parks, mall, restaurants, occasional lost when i dont read the damn signs hehe :)… i also use live search but tends to lock up and cause problems so i just go for the good ol reliable gmm… cant imagine ever being w/o gps after this trip… life and time saver
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On Dec 3, 2007 @ 8:49 am, Terence Said:
Works ok on my tilt. Takes a longggg time to locate satellites but once it does it’s fairly accurate. It doesn’t really know which direction you’re facing though so yeah, it wouldn’t make turn by turn directions too great.
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