So, you've got GPS on your smart phone and can tackle the trip to Uncle Charlie's new house in the suburbs with a fresh sense of confidence.
But are you ready for a trip down the Amazon?
“Interesting, I'd love to do that test,” laughs Christ Peralta, head of social location services for Nokia.
“That's a real interesting use case. I wouldn't advise it,” says a slightly more definitive Ken Kershner, vice-president of software at Research in Motion's subsidiary Dash.
OK, it was just a thought. And perhaps smart phone GPS isn't ready for the jungles of Brazil, but both men suggest it's perfectly designed for the more urban jungle most cellphone users must deal with every day.
GPS stands for Global Positioning System. It's a worldwide navigation tool, supplied courtesy of the U.S. military, that relies on 24 satellites that transmit their location and the current time.
Nokia's Ovi Maps are shown on a cell phone during a news conference in Berlin, January 21, 2010.
Signals arrive at GPS receivers at slightly different times based on how far away each satellite is from the receiver. With at least four satellite signals, a receiver can then calculate its position. Hand-held GPS receivers are usually accurate to within 10 to 20 metres.
It's old hat now and in use for commercial navigation, helps hunters find their way in the woods and leads fishermen unerringly back to that hotspot they found last year. It continues to grow in popularity as the cost of receivers comes down.
Cellphones have had GPS locators in them since 2005 because the United States decided it wanted to be able to track cellphone location for emergency purposes after Sept. 11, 2001.
While initially the feature just sat there, cellphone manufacturers were quick to make good use of the application. Besides finding out where you are, or where you're going, you can also keep track of your children, post your location to Facebook or find a lost phone.
Manufacturers are always on the lookout for new ways for customers to use their cellphones and there seem to be few limits on the applications. Smart phones already make the old `communicator' that once seemed so slick on “Star Trek” look like a kid's toy.
“I think the key is to find out what consumers want,” says Peralta. “The second step is to make it easy out of the box.”
He says that's what Nokia is trying to do with its latest offering for its smart phones: the preloaded Ovi mapping system that makes them into more effective GPS units.
Onboard maps in a GPS-enabled smart phone mean it can function as an independent GPS unit, without connection to a cellphone network.
That's a key feature for anyone who wants to use their GPS-enabled phone while travelling and doesn't want to incur hefty roaming or long-distance charges.
“It can be a travel companion when you travel abroad . . . or can help you rediscover your city,” says Peralta. “There are features that require online connections. . . but the consumer has the choice.”
All of the new Ovi-loaded Nokia GPS smart phones can function without connection to a cellular network, he says.
Just how popular is the GPS feature in cellphones? A recent Angus Reid survey for Nokia found that 38 per cent of Canadians use some form of GPS device, but most use a traditional portable unit. So far, only eight per cent use it on their cellphone.
But that's already twice as many as use an installed in-car device. The survey of 1,000 people is considered accurate to within plus or minus 3.1 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
There have been suggestions that cellphone GPS might some day replace stand-alone devices. Kershner says it can replace the stand-alone units, “in some uses.”
