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Navigation by Cell Phone

It’s Thanksgiving in the United States. I’m thankful we have GPS.

I always travel with my sister and her husband to my brother’s house for Thanksgiving. Although my sister’s husband is a retired commercial jet pilot, we always seem to get lost.

Last year my sister bought him a GPS navigation device for the car. You’d think that would help. But my brother keeps moving into new developments, and we got stuck again last year. Maybe what we need is a cellphone navigation system.

There are many alternatives to stand-alone navigation devices.

Google Maps for Mobile as well as Yahoo Mobile Maps and Microsoft Live Mobile Maps will soon include GPS support for points of interest. The Nokia N95, E90 and 6110 Navigator as well as some Windows Mobile phones have built-in GPS, with features similar to standalone GPS units for Nokia Maps.

Nokia’s N-810 web tablet, which hit store shelves this week (at $479), has built-in GPS along with two full-sized SD card slots, a pop-out, rotating webcam, WiFi and an FM Radio tuner.

Some are not impressed by the Wayfinder navigation software, however. The earlier N-800 is now available for $228 on Amazon — but you’ll have to buy a compatible, external GPS unit because the earlier N-800 doesn’t have GPS built-in.

Smart2go (FAQ), also to be called Nokia Maps, is a free service from Nokia that allows for mapping and routing for over 150 countries, with turn-by-turn satellite navigation in over 30 countries. Users can also view their location as well as search for points of interest near their locations.

Nokia says it will preinstall the application on all future NSeries devices. Phones without GPS capabilities would be able to use Nokia Maps by adding a special adapter to their phones. Voice-enabled data are expected to be the building blocks for a new generation of services and applications from mapping leaders Tele Atlas and Navteq.

Dash Navigation makes mashups with GPS navigation. GeoRSS and KML allows Dash users to bring great web map mashups into the car. The device collects data about traffic conditions from all other Dash drivers, and estimates how long alternative routes will take on any given day. Feeds from sites like Platial can create custom Google Maps that can be linked it to Zillow with real estate data on houses as you are driving by.

Rental bikes might feature GPS-activated narration. Here’s a little inspiration called The Slog, a promotional vehicle for Horizon Airlines made by Wong Doody in Seattle.

Google Navigator ($59) works on a Pocket PC or Palm, says Pocket Gear. Google maps are transfered to your device and saved permanently until you want to delete them. Maps can be rotated in 3D like Google Earth on a PC.

Open Street Map, is a community map-building project, but Google now lets users fine-tune maps. Starting this week, Google is letting users edit the errors found in its online mapping product. Here’s how to Edit Google Maps

“Sometimes a location can be a little off on a map and your friends can’t find you,” the Mountain View company explained in a video posted on YouTube. “Now you can fix that.”

The major cell companies have their own navigation services. They may be easier to access but they aren’t free — cell companies usually charge about $3/day or $10/month for their navigation services.

AT&T’s wireless navigation system features 3D maps and “fuzzy search”. AT&T has a traffic information service through TeleNav Traffic. TeleNav GPS Navigator is available on a subscription basis at $5.99 for 10 trips and $9.99 for unlimited trips. An AT&T wireless data plan also is required. TeleNav and Sprint also have Sprint Navigation with GPS navigation on a phone. Unlimited use of Sprint Navigation will be included in the new Sprint Power Vision Navigation Pack, along with two other existing data packs. Sprint Navigation costs $2.99 per day. Verizon Wireless has VZ Navigator which also costs $2.99 Per Day or $9.99/month.

Family tracking is enabled by California-based WaveMarket which is used in Sprint’s Family Locator and by Alltel’s Axcess Family Finder. It costs $9.99 a month per child. Competitor AutoDesk, has a locator service currently being deployed by Verizon’s Chaperone.

Most Java-enabled cellphones use 3rd party software such as Mobile GMaps (left). Navteq and Tele Atlas are the big two road mapping companies.

Traffic maps on cell phones are available through Yahoo! Traffic Maps, Google Mobile Maps, Windows Live as well as Rand McNally.

Dial Directions (www.dialdirections.com) expanded its free, voice-activated ‘directions’ phone service and is now available nationwide to all cities in the continental U.S.

On any cell phone, users can dial “DIR-ECT-IONS” (347-328-4667), speak their starting location and destination (address / intersection, store or event), and the service instantly sends driving directions by text message.

Real Time Flight Tracking enables you to check current aircraft positions in real-time. To search for flight, select an airline and enter a flight number. That service is available though Aeroseek, Flytecomm, Flight Explorer, Flight Aware and Flight View, while Flight Stats tracks flight status, flight departures, flight arrivals, airport delays and other flight and airport information in real time.

Google’s traffic maps (above) show current traffic congestion. Google Maps now lets you know how long a drive might take in rush-hour traffic, for a limited set of metropolitan areas.

Traffic congestion maps that produce a graphical, realtime or near-realtime representation of traffic flow are the way to go. Data is typically collected via loop sensors embedded in the roadways, then processed by computer at a central facility and distributed as a map view to users.

Traffic.com, a NAVTEQ company, is a leading provider of personalized traffic information launched JamCast for real-time traffic video in 30 metropolitan areas across the U.S.. JamCast features patented Jam Factor roadway traffic measurements that allow commuters to easily understand the relative congestion level with a number on a scale from 1 to 10.

Traffic.com also offers service to mobile phones and PDAs. Traffic.com also offers text alerts — go to mobi.traffic.com on your mobile web browser, then text your city code. Here’s I-35W - Northbound, an RSS Feed, and their My Yahoo version. You can also build yourself a custom drive report.

Tele Atlas, a Boston-based company that provides digital maps and navigational content, has integrated street congestion into its maps so that drivers can see congestion maps at any hour, says Technology Review. The software was developed by Inrix, a startup based in Kirkland, WA, that provides real-time and predictive traffic information.

Google launched Streetside View using ImmersiveMedia to create a 360 degree view (above). Microsoft’s Virtual Earth (below) shows the scene in 3D although you must download Microsoft’s graphic software extensions to view it in 3D.

Microsoft bought Vexcel, and their multi-spectral camera, the UltraCam D used for aerial photography. It then applies an algorithm to extract 3D information, more or less automatically. Microsoft has been able to create exact replicas of more than 50 cities and announced 3-D cityscapes.

Google provides online transit guides for more than a dozen U.S. cities, including the biggest — New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Google is working with the agency to give users one place to go for maps, schedules and trip planners

ABI Research says annual sales of GPS-enabled devices will climb from $15 billion annually to $22 billion by 2008. U.S. companies spent about $922 million last year to place ads alongside local searches and maps, according to Kelsey Group Inc., a market research firm in Princeton, New Jersey. That will almost triple to $2.61 billion by 2011, the researcher says. They forecast global local search and online classified advertising revenues will grow from $15.7 billion in 2005 to $31.1 billion in 2010. The local search segment will grow from $3.4 billion in 2005 to $13 billion in 2010, with online classifieds growing from $12.3 billion to $18.1 billion during the same period.