All Articles Tagged gps

As we reported earlier today (before the Apple event, even), the iPhone 3.0 update will allow real, turn-by-turn directions on the iPhone. It looks like Apple isn’t bothering with enmeshing themselves in the confusing licensing issues surrounding turn-by-turn and is instead simply lifting the SDK Ban on turn-by-turn directions. The first app may very well come from Sygic (that’s what they’re claiming, anyway), which we had the chance get some eyes-on time with during Mobile World Congress.

Apple is simply allowing 3rd party apps to extend their access to CoreLocation (the iPhone’s built-in location service that includes GPS, cell tower-based, and WiFi-based location) to include turn-by-turn. Of note: Apple says that developers need to “BYOM” (Bring Your Own Maps). What that implies is that the licensing issues referenced above prevents Apple from allowing developers to use another new iPhone 3.0 feature: embeddable maps. iPhone 3.0 allows (almost) any app to include embedded Google maps, complete with pinch, zoom, and the like, within the app itself. Using that embedded map for turn by turn directions, however, is verboten. Instead developers will either have to require a large download of maps and/or provide them over-the-air as TeleNav does.

It’s also possible that developers will be able to use the new in-app purchasing feature of iPhone 3.0 to allows users to purchase maps as well. It’s unclear who else besides Sygic is getting a turn-by-turn directions app ready, but you can probably rest assured we’ll see such apps from the big players in short order once 3.0 is released this summer.

Update: TeleNav is still staying quiet about their plans.

Dieter gave us our first eyes-on look at Sygic’s Turn-by-Turn GPS solution for the iPhone 3G, but we wondered if Apple — whose iPhone SDK specifically forbid providing such navigation — would ever allow it.

Seems Sygic thinks they will:

Sygic is entering the AppStore to be the first on the market that offers full turn-by-turn navigation for Apple users. “We believe Apple users will benefit soon from Sygic Mobile 2009 turn-by-turn navigation worldwide – the same as all of our customers on different platforms” said Michal Stencl, CEO and founder of Sygic.

Could this be part of a new Premium App Store launch later today? Our tipper, antonioj, seems to think it will…

Only 2 hours left, so be sure to join us for our live meta-blog coverage and hopefully we’ll find out together!

• Our podcast feed
• Download Directly
• Subscribe via iTunes

Read the rest of this entry »

There you see it, folks, a real live native iPhone app that provides turn-by-turn GPS directions with voice prompts, points of interest, support for multiple countries, maps stored in-memory instead of streamed from the internet, the whole nine yards.

Working off a tip/reminder from antonioj (thanks!), I scurried off to the TeleAtlas booth at the close day here at MWC to visit Sygic, a company that makes (you guessed it) downloadable GPS apps for smartphones and PDAs. They had promised a demo of their iPhone app at MWC09 and, well, they delivered.

Read on for more!

Read the rest of this entry »

Our sibling site, Android Central, has posted up a story about TeleNav making a turn-by-turn GPS navigation app for Google’s Android G1:

The TeleNav software will include full color 3D graphics, speech recognition, one-click rerouting, traffic alerts, weather updates, gas prices, and restaurant reviews.

Sure, it’s not all roses. After a 30-day free trial, you need to fork over $9.99 a month, $99 a year, or $249 for four years to keep the service, but at least they have the option.

So what’s happening with the iPhone app? We asked, and this was what we got in response:

We have to stay mum at this point on an iPhone app other than to say that we’re working on it. Please stay tuned!

If it’s hard to stay mum, imagine how hard it is to “stay tuned” after months and month (and months) of waiting.

Dieter mentions that Apple, flush with success battering around the music industry and Google, may not know how to zip their lip and make nice with the map licensors. Could that be the hold up?

We won’t ask if you want turn-by-turn GPS navigation — we know you do — so we’ll just tell Apple and TeleNav to suck it up and get this done (before more people jailbreak just for xGPS), and we’ll leave the comments open for you to do likewise…

Have you ever experienced the frustration of parking your car in a massive parking lot or parking garage and then almost panicked when you couldn’t find it? If you haven’t, well, good for you. Your pink Hummer with curb feelers and fuzzy dice must make things REAL easy for you. Me, on the other hand, not so lucky. Let me tell you how your iPhone 3G can be your best friend for finding where you parked! After the break, of course.

Read the rest of this entry »

So you’ve been on the fence about Jailbreaking recently, maybe this is enough to sway you? Once again, a 3rd party developer has come through for all of us and has delivered a working turn-by-turn GPS solution!

xGPS uses Google Maps and add it’s own real-time navigation readout and a voice. Seriously, how hard could this have been for Google or Apple to add for us? Another nice feature is the ability to download maps ahead of time. So that means even first generation iPhone users can get in on some turn-by-turn action.

So how many of you are going to Jailbreak now? Let us know!

*UPDATE: The newest version with vocalization is expected to be available within the next week. Be sure to check out the xGPS Blog.

[Via Gizmodo via ModMyi]

Sibling site WMExperts, which — while Dieter doffs his WinMo cap and rounds his robin reviewing the iPhone — brings us Phil Nickinson’s exception to iPhone OS 2.2’s Podcast Download feature.

Okay, it’s not cut and paste, lack of MMS, no unified inbox, no Flash, etc. etc. In all fairness, it’s an interesting look at some of the things we here at TiPb complain about as well, pointedly the 10MB cap for podcast downloads over the 3G network (you have to switch to WiFi for anything larger, same as the App Store has enforced since iPhone OS 2.0):

It’s this kind of manipulation from Apple that keeps a good many of us from wanting to deal with the company (and frustrates many who do). It’s not that the hardware’s not sexy. It’s not that the software is lacking. It’s that lines are being blurred, or destroyed. Apple makes the hardware, and AT&T provides the service. There’s too much collusion going on. If AT&T wants to set a 5-gigabyte cap on my data, fine. But don’t tell me how to use those gigs. And don’t use Apple as a proxy to do so.

The only problem with the argument? The inclusion of Apple.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Our podcast feed
• Download Directly
• Subscribe via iTunes

iPhone OS 2.2, Turn-by-Turn GPS Navigation, Google hearts the iPhone, and more. Listen in!

Read the rest of this entry »

Did you think we forgot all of you on 1st generation iPhones? Well we here at TiPb have not forgotten any of you! If you have been craving true GPS for you iPhone well here is your chance to grab it while you can.

OrangeGadgets is on the brink of releasing an add on GPS module for the iPhone, the iGPS360. This is excellent news for all of you with 1st generation iPhones… what’s the catch you ask? I’m glad you asked… you have to jailbreak your device for it to work. The reason for this is that Apple has not allowed any 3rd party access to the operating system via the dock connector. So jailbreaking is the only way.

The iGPS360 is now available to order for $75.00. For that price you will also receive a 6ft USB-A to micro USB-B cable for on-the-go or at home charging. According to their website the module begins shipping today. Keep in mind, they are only producing 1000 of these units so if you want GPS, act fast!

[Via Buymeaniphone.com]