Google Provide Free GPS Navigation for Android
October 29th, 2009 | 
Author: Google provides navigation applications based on GPS (global positioning system) is free for smartphones that use the Android platform. Application called Google Maps Navigation will be available first on Nokia Droid which will be released for Verizon in the U.S., November 6, 2009.
Compared to general navigation applications, Google Maps Navigation has a number of advantages. New applications that can work on Android operating system 2.0 is not only provides standard features like GPS navigation applications display three-dimensional maps and directions with voice guidance.
However, the application also provides other features such as voice search, traffic information, satellite map, “street view”, to photograph the object goals. In fact, with this application, users can find routes to a number of important locations such as gas stations or restaurants.
Google Maps Navigation presence is expected to be a major competitor navigation solutions are already widely available on the market. For example an application made by Garmin or TomTom. With that one application, Verizon Motorola called Droid as a challenger to Apple iPhone and BlackBerry-made Research In Motion.
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I’d considered a GPS many times but was put off by the absurd number of available units and manufacturers. I did not want to have to become an expert on GPS just to make an intelligent purchase. I envisioned getting something where I could just plug in a destination and it would guide me there and back. Pictures? Video? BLUETOOTH? What does any of this have to do with directions and maps? Ultimately I relied on Consumer Reports and went with their recommendation of the Garmin Nuvi 260W as a top pick for features and size. It has all the GPS features including turn by turn vocal instructions in American English and NONE of the junk that adds to cost. After the usual Amazon super-fast order processing, the box arrived. The “W” in 260W is for widescreen and it is. Great graphics, clear and bright screen. The manual was laughably short. At first I was actually annoyed that it ran all of six pages and most of that discussed how you shouldn’t soak it in water or throw it against a wall, etc… Turns out, Garmin was showing off. The user interface is so simple and easy to understand that a detailed manual is pointless. I know nothing about GPS units but still had this up and running in seconds. The on-off button is the only button on it. Everything else is touch screen. So how’s it do? Brilliantly! I have tried, HARD to mess it up. Blown through turns, gone the wrong way, left it on while the car was parked. None of this phased it in the least. It constantly tracks your position and gives ETA and MPH. If you continue past a turn, it takes about 2 seconds for it to recognize what happened and then the voice tells you “Recalculating”. In no more than another two seconds, it has mapped out an alternate route. (The speed of this thing is stunning.) Mind you I’m not talking about it saying “Turn around bone-head, you blew that last turn.” It literally maps out the next best way to your destination in a flash. Driving with it is very cool. It tells you to prepare for a turn and then tells you dead on the money to make the turn. By the way, it doesn’t say “Turn left in point two miles.” it says “In point two miles, turn left on Main Street”. Then when you get there it repeats it as “Turn left on Main Street.” This means that if there is more than one left turn coming up, you know exactly which one to take. It also monitors the road itself and advises of bends and twists. As an example, I was on a major highway that bent to the left with a single lane exit if you kept straight. As I approached this spot, it told me to keep left! This thing is nailed down. It is dead nuts simple to operate, does what it should in real time and seems to be without vices. Great device.
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