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Google Maps GPS Simulator
garbletext writes "A new version of Google Maps introduced this week includes a beta feature dubbed My Location that was designed to simulate the GPS experience on mobile phones and handheld devices that do not include GPS hardware, like Apple's iPhone. Essentially, the My Location feature takes information broadcast from mobile towers near non-GPS equipped mobile phones to approximate the device's current location on the map down to about 10 city blocks. "It's not GPS, but it comes pretty close (approximately 1000m close, on average)," the Mountain View, Calif.-based search giant explained on its website. "We're still in beta, but we're excited to launch this feature and are constantly working to improve our coverage and accuracy." The My Location feature is currently available for most web-enabled mobile phones, including Java, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Nokia/Symbian devices."
Except this doesn't actually work on iPhone.
I believe MapPoint Location Server had these same features based on GPRS/GSM available back in 2004. For a price of course :)
I've used the service on my Blackberry 8800 in downtown toronto, and in my experience I was able to narrow my location down to within 10 meters or so on any given downtown street.
It even points in the direction you're moving
Pretty neet to have it using the satelite view as well. Very quick and responsive, and you can always just press '0' to go to 'my location'
Works well using directions too... you just tell it to use 'my location' as a starting or destination point.
Tho it doesn't work indoors... at all.
ymmv =)
This is not the greatest
I downloaded it on my phone (samsung m500 on sprint) and while it's definitely the new version (double checked in the help/about) it says My Location isn't supported on this device. Also they changed the buttons around, it seems to only use 0-9 and the 4way directional, rather than using the button in the middle of the 4way and the * and # keys.
That article was lame and not very informative. Better link: http://www.google.com/mobile/gmm/mylocation/index.html
Incorrect. According to the summary, it's within 1000m (1km, 3280 feet, 7143 linguine, 108 double decker buses, or more than 7 brontosaurii) of where you are - significantly more than 1000 feet, and much less useful.
Free unit conversion tool
google Navizon
OK
my review -
GOOD
My Location actually WORKS !
My Location works outside of the USA (at least in the UK)
well put together app not a resource hog on my symbian Nokia Series 60 v2 phone (e50)
BAD
you cant do ANYTHING with "My Location" except watch a pretty blue point on the map
No My Location for route finding
No traffic outside USA
Route does not work for a found location it adds a ")" at the end for some reason.
Nice but you need to actaully finish it or it's just a plaything
I am curious what Database of cell locations is google using do you gut think ?
(the phone companies often lie about locations in there headers so you have to build your own (wiggle) or use OFCOM in the uk)
regards
John Jones
http://www.johnjones.me.uk/
Stupid I know, but until slash starts cradling us with some form of protection, I wrote the following
javascript:(function(){
var i,x,l,h;
for(i=0;x=document.links[i];++i){
l=x.href.toLowerCase();
if(l.indexOf('google')>=0 && l.indexOf('btni')>=0) {
x.href = x.href.replace(/btni/gi, "btnG");
h=document.createTextNode("[I'm Feeling unlucky]");
x.parentNode.insertBefore(h, x.nextSibling);
}
} })()
incorporate into greasemonkey or your own standard method and forget about feeling lucky.
Is this a google vulnerability though or just creative thinking?
If google actually checked the link and rejected commands if invalid parameter data is present then we would land on a harmless search page no matter what.
(incidentally, will some regex wiz work their magic on the initial link test)
liqbase
I think it's pretty cool. I tried through WiFi (as my packet data connection is awful AND pricy), and I wasn't within the limit it drew, but about 800 meters off. That, in a minor town in Brasil.
That is not revolutionary, but it's clearly very useful.
And I really like that it can use my phone's GPS (which was off for the test) - Google Maps is absurdly better than Nokia Maps, as far as directions and map data goes.
A few other very interesting features were released this week for Google Maps... and I'm sorry that this story is all we got on /. so far. Here's a copy from the site in my sig.
Google Maps Adds Terrain
Google Lat Lon Blog announces the addition of terrain to their free Google Maps site. In addition to adding the Terrain button, they've removed the Hybrid button. They explain, "You may notice in this screenshot that the handy "Hybrid" button, which shows satellite images overlaid with labels and roads, seems to have gone missing. Don't worry -- this view can now be accessed by clicking the "Satellite" button and checking the "Show labels" check box that will appear under the "Satellite" button."
New Google Maps Features Launched Including Collaborative Mapping
In addition to the important new terrain layer announced yesterday, Google Maps received a few significant updates, first, Google Maps searches are now providing a thumbnail of the related street view photo, second, the My Maps feature somehow becomes Our Maps, allowing to collaborate directly on someone else's My Maps, this has a lot of potential of getting big, and last, you can more easily share KML and KMZ files and GeoRSS feeds through My Maps. From the Our Maps announcement: "Just click the "Collaborate" link and enter the email addresses of the people you want to invite. They'll receive an email invitation with a link to the map. Once they open the map, they should be able to edit it, as long as they are signed into a Google Account that's associated with that email address. You can also open your map to the world so anyone can edit it by selecting the "Allow anyone to edit this map" checkbox."
Animoog.org
I killed the old version I had (1.7-something), downloaded 2.0, fired it up. Nothing. "Your location is currently unavailable." Rebooted the phone, now it works great. It's showing the blue dot about half a block from my actual location. I'm well within the grey circle around the dot. Pretty awesome for not using GPS.
http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=81873&topic=12595
How accurate is My Location (beta)?
Mobile towers are placed by operators throughout an area to provide coverage for their users. Each of these towers has its own individual coverage area, usually split into three non-overlapping sections known as "cells." These cells come with identification numbers, but no location information. 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.
Didn't work on my N95 either.. there's an app and it shows a map position but it's at the other end of the country and pressing '0' just comes up with an error.