Google Maps Mobile Adds Location Tracking

Posted By: Tim Carroll Wednesday, November 28, 2007 4:23:53 PM

One of the best mobile applications just got a little better. The recently-released version 2.0 of Google Maps Mobile has added a new location-tracking feature - creatively titled "My Location" - that works without GPS, triangulating your position based on the feedback from nearby cell towers. According to Google, this works faster than GPS and has the added bonus of working indoors, where sat-nav gps does not. By hitting 0 on a compatible handset, Google Maps will display a blue dot to indicate your location.

Google Maps TreoAccuracy and coverage varies wildly, according to initial user feedback, but Google claims that it will get better as more people start using the service:

"Google takes geo-contextual information [from anonymous GPS-readings, etc] and associates this information with the cell at that location to develop a database of cell locations. Based on this information, Google uses various algorithms to approximate your location relative to the cells nearest you. The accuracy of this information depends on how big an individual cell is. Thus, areas with a denser concentration of mobile towers allow for a more accurate My Location reading. Additionally, as our database of cell locations continues to improve, so too does the accuracy and coverage of the My Location feature."

The service - like so very many of Google's offerings - is still in beta and thus not yet available for all models of handset (including Palm OS Treos), but Treo 750 and 500v owners can give it a whirl by visiting this link on their browser: http://www.google.com/gmm. The Treo 700w/x is not currently supported.

Hopefully, Palm OS support is not too far off; while the download page for Palm OS states the latest version is 2.0, the supplied link is still serving up version 1.2.0.9.

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Other commentary on Google Maps for Mobile

SeldomVisitor @ 11/28/2007 7:42:28 PM # Q
-- http://gigaom.com/2007/11/28/google-my-location/

Didn't work with my relatively nonsmart (not dumb, just not real smart...) Sony Ericsson. Can do Google Maps for Mobile just fine, but no location awareness yet.

RE: Other commentary on Google Maps for Mobile
markoh @ 11/29/2007 1:29:47 AM # Q
I couldn't get it to work on my treo680 either.

RE: Other commentary on Google Maps for Mobile
freakout @ 11/29/2007 2:37:58 AM # Q
it's not enabled on the Palm OS version yet. But the download page does say 'latest version 2.0', so hopefully that's a hint it's coming soon.
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What Palm couldn't get done

linds @ 11/29/2007 10:24:20 AM # Q
I hope they don't decide to cut us Palm people out of this great innovation.

What Palm could never do, (adding built in GPS support) Google is doing with software. Amazing simply amazing.

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Misleading Story!

deesugar @ 11/29/2007 1:06:56 PM # Q
That is a stupid story to put on Palm Infocenter since there is no version for Palm. It's false reporting when a lot of people are going to now think that they can install Google Maps with "My Location" and in fact that is not true.

RE: Misleading Story!
chuckwjk1 @ 11/29/2007 1:16:08 PM # Q
As long as you have the JVM for the palm, then Google maps will work. Just ignore the "not supported yet" warning. It does work for me, and I have the Treo680, but the location feature does not work yet.

Palms owned: IIIe-> M125-> T|T-> T|3-> Tx-> Treo608 (unlocked)
RE: Misleading Story!
Ryan @ 11/29/2007 1:54:39 PM # Q
The last line in the article clearly states that Palm OS support is not available yet, but it looks like its coming soon. Users of some Windows Mobile Treo's can make use of it now.
RE: Misleading Story!
hkklife @ 11/29/2007 3:26:01 PM # Q
Disregarding the GPS/location support feature not being present in POS versions for the moment:

Has anyone actually downloaded the native Palm OS version of GMM 2.0 yet? I keep trying to do it on my 700p and it just keeps installing 1.2.0.9 with no apparent changes whatsoever.

I'd be content to just see an optimized or feature-optimized 2.0 version for POS for now and wait for a while on the location tracking feature to be implemented.



Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P

RE: Misleading Story!
BaalthazaaR @ 11/29/2007 5:10:07 PM # Q
The last line in the article clearly states that Palm OS support is not available yet, but it looks like its coming soon.

They don't even have support for a Bluetooth GPS device on the Palm version. I'm not going to hold my breath that they will have any updates for it.

RE: Misleading Story!
hkklife @ 11/29/2007 9:42:05 PM # Q
The Palm-Pessimist in me doubts that we'll ever see a further update to the POS version of GMM. Since I figure there to be ONE final Palm OS Garnet device in the pipeline (GSM Centro), you're going to see any serious development for the platform absolutely grinding to a halt in '08.



Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P

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Interesting application

henit @ 9/4/2008 1:54:49 PM # Q
Hi everyone.

A few days ago, I was surfing the web and I found out a project that works over most mobile phones which lets you know where your friends are in real time and update your status in twitter. Itīs called Dimdix.

On their website they say you donīt need a GPS system to detect your location. Does anyone know how this works?

Iīm using a Motorola L7 and amazingly it detected my location.

I cannot stop thinking of all the things I could do with it.

If anyone wants to take a look you can go http://www.dimdix.com

Thanks,

Regards,

Juan


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