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pcg

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 15, 2008
10
0
When will someone release a real GPS navigation app? Is there a technical difficulty that's preventing something so common from being available? :confused:
 

dZp

macrumors 6502a
Mar 29, 2006
987
55
Thank god someone finally brings up this subject... again.
:D
 

vandy1997

macrumors regular
Aug 15, 2007
160
0
Cut and paste in 2009, MMS in 2010, GPS Navi with Voice in 2011. Those are estimates!
 

pcg

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 15, 2008
10
0
Geez, thanks Vandy. And all the rest for the great (& helpful) info.
 

ntrigue

macrumors 68040
Jul 30, 2007
3,805
4
Here's the thing, we saw the application on the iPhone already. Apple is just being a b*tch and worrying about lawsuit concerns that can be solved by a simple splash screen when the app fires up. Additionally, this app would have to run in the background.
 

firewood

macrumors G3
Jul 29, 2003
8,141
1,384
Silicon Valley
I'm wondering if there's some sort of problem with Apple's GPS API being usable enough for accurate moving navigation.

It you look at any of the many GPS tracking apps in the App store, most of them have problems with the consistency of their speed and direction reporting accuracy, sometimes dead on (e.g. knows which side of the porch I'm standing on), but occasionally way off. It's only annoying if the blue dot occasionally jumps sideways across the street on google maps. But if voice navigation software occasionally gets inaccurate speed and sideways direction data, that really creates a problem in generating correct voice directions promptly enough.


.
 

admanimal

macrumors 68040
Apr 22, 2005
3,531
2
Apple is just being a b*tch and worrying about lawsuit concerns that can be solved by a simple splash screen when the app fires up.

This is almost certainly -not- the reason that the app hasn't appeared yet.
 

pcg

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 15, 2008
10
0
I suspect "firewood" is correct. The internal GPS sensor may be too insensitive to accurately provide directions.
 

bbplayer5

macrumors 68040
Apr 13, 2007
3,133
1,141
Anyone using the GPS knows its very basic, and not very accurate all the time. Riding the on the highway, it sometimes tells me im 200 yards off the road. The dot doesnt even move all the time and then plays catchup. Its good for cities etc when you are lost, but other than that, get a garmin or tomtom.
 

sammich

macrumors 601
Sep 26, 2006
4,305
268
Sarcasmville.
The iPhone's GPS antenna isn't big enough to handle/calculate direction/heading accurately. Heck, if it can't find your location to within 5 meters, i'm not so hopeful about a direction, which is vital for turn-by-turn navigation.
 

pcg

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 15, 2008
10
0
Yes, best "accuracy" I've had is 56 feet. And too often the lock fades or disappears, sometimes for minutes at a time. Then comes back--w/ an accuracy of +/- a couple hundred feet. Not a good sign for those of us who have been counting on a clean app to replace the Garmin.
 
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