Google Maps for Mobile Knows Your Location
Posted on Wednesday, November 28th, 2007
I am a big fan of the mobile web, having just upgraded to Opera Mini 4 and been recently quoted in a Read/Write Web article on mobile web apps praising Google Maps for Mobile (yeah, that Phil is me, shame they didn’t send me any link love!).
I am actually a big user of both Google’s Gmail for Mobile as well as Maps for Mobile and was delighted to hear on the official Google blog that there has been not only an update to Maps for Mobile, but a new Google Mobile Blog. While I have subscribed to the mobile blog to keep up with updates to the two programs I mention above, as well as Android, the new version of Maps had me most excited.
GPS Without GPS
The newest feature of Maps, besides seemingly working quicker and with a nicer interface, is the My Location feature, a way to tell approximately where you are using mobile tower identification. It’s not quite GPS, but for anyone without it, it adds a whole lot more to your phone, without costing you anything extra. If you want to find out more about My Location, read the post and watch the video on the Google Mobile Blog.
The One Problem With My Location…
…is that my phone, a Sony Ericsson K800i, doesn’t support it. (It actually doesn’t specifically say on that page that my model doesn’t support it, but I pressed 0 a whole load of times and then checked the help in the program and it said “myl: N/A,” which really disappointed me.)
I should be getting a new phone soon, so hopefully I will be able to use this feature in the future, but until then, if anyone else uses My Location on Google Maps for Mobile, drop me a comment to tell me what I’m missing out on!
The Mobile Web Rocks!
Opera Mini lets me browse like I’m on a fully fledged desktop browser, Gmail gives me my mail, Maps gets me from place to place (I’ve lived in London a year and I still don’t have a clue). Do you use the mobile web at all? Any particular favourite programs or sites? I would love to hear of any experiences you have had with the mobile web, and if you haven’t tried it, have a go and let me know what you think.
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November 29th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
1November 30th, 2007 at 9:57 pm
Laura Says:I can see the advantage to receiving things through the mobile web. Do you ever use it to send messages out? It seems to me that after a few words it would become awkward. Of course, I’m speaking as a non-user here.
2December 1st, 2007 at 12:01 pm
Phil Says:Hi Laura,
I have used Gmail to email people from my phone, though it is only really useful for short messages as you have to use the number pad SMS-style. I like the ability to email and use the web as normal so much that I am always keeping my eye out for keyboards that I can use with my phone though. I quite like the idea of being able to respond to email or even write a blog post wherever I am.
3February 1st, 2008 at 4:04 pm
billy Says:there are applications that allow you to now do voice to email, so you dont have to use the small phone keyboard or a normal keyboard to write email from mob.