The Players
Having a GPS chip on the phone isn't enough to start navigating. Though it is possible to download Google Maps onto a smartphone, and get location information, this does not provide turn-by-turn navigation with voice prompts. Nokia phones come with Nokia Maps and Navigation, which is free to use for three months. After this, you have to pay approximately Rs.600 a month to continue the service. If this seems too expensive, you can also download Amaze GPS. This is a free software available across a range of smartphone platforms.
The Blackberry doesn't have a native application, since Blackberry Maps does not work in India, so we used both Amaze as well as MapMyIndia's iNav Connect application. iNav Connect is derived from Wayfinder, and it's based on a subscription model. It costs Rs. 1,190 (US$24), and comes with a six month subscription. Once this expires, a monthly subscription costs Rs. 250. You need an active GPRS connection to run this. However, MapMyIndia has another product, iNav Loaded (and WF), that can be copied and run directly off the SD card on the phone. Support for this is limited to phones that use Symbian S60 or UIQ (iNav Loaded WF), and Windows Mobile 6 (iNav Loaded). This costs Rs. 3,490 for maps that cover the whole of India.
SatGuide sent us their entry-level standalone device, the C230, while MapMyIndia sent us a more advanced device, the 430 Classic. Both these devices came preloaded with maps for the whole of India.
Playing it by ear
To test the four devices, I chose the same address on all four, and blindly followed directions. The address was inside a small colony in the older part of Bangalore. This was chosen due to the possibility of multiple paths to the address, and the possibility of the devices getting confused by the multiple small alleys around the address.
Starting off with the C230 from SatGuide, I made the mistake of choosing "Shortest Route", instead of "Quickest Route". This meant that device mapped a route that was as straight as possible, through some of the narrowest roads in Bangalore. A car would never have been able to navigate these routes, but a motorbike managed. To be fair to the device, the default setting is 'Quickest Route', and a route mapped with that does keep you to the major roads. However, this little mistake made it clear that major cities in India are very thoroughly mapped. No matter which tiny lane I was in, the device knew where it was, and gave crisp instructions for the next turn.
Route recalculation was pretty snappy as well. The battery life isn't very good, however. Though charged fully before leaving, the battery was down to 10 percent by the time I returned, forty-five minutes later. This means that the device is mostly unusable without the included car charger. The touch screen isn't the most accurate, and there's some amount of random stabbing at the screen that comes into play. At Rs. 16,000, this is a pretty cheap device though, and the maps are quite accurate, so the hardware issues aren't a deal-breaker. This price includes two free updates for the maps, subsequent to which you can buy four more updates for Rs. 2,180. SatGuide say they update the maps every three to four months.
After this, I mapped a route with the iNav Connect application on the Blackberry Bold. The route that it followed was quite straightforward, and the verbal instructions were quite prompt. However, the software interface is slightly confusing--there's no "Start Navigation" button, for example. I had some trouble figuring out exactly how to start the route. It's not very intuitive, and the documentation does not have a comprehensive step-by-step guide. It says, "When both a start and destination have been set, a route will be calculated and you are ready to start navigating!" In practice though, after the route had been calculated, the voice navigation would not start immediately.
Also, I noticed that the software did not seem to automatically recalculate a route, despite having that option enabled in the settings. Software issues aside, the map was accurate with proper points of information. It constantly downloads data, so an unlimited data plan is a good idea if you don't want to see your phone bills increasing manifold. The advantage of this method is that the maps are always updated, since it gets the latest data from the Internet.
Next up, was the MapMyIndia 430 Classic. This device has a large, 4.3 inch screen, and the graphical interface has been updated. The maps on this look a lot better than on the C230, but you have to balance that with the fact that, at Rs. 23,000, it's a lot more expensive as well. The updates for this have been free so far, but the company may charge for these updates in the future. MapMyIndia updates maps every six months. The 430 Classic mapped an optimal route to the destination, and I got there pretty quickly. The interface to this device is quite intuitive, and it has some nice features like route tracking. Unfortunately, it does not save these tracks in the standard GPX format, but it does save them to .KML (Google Earth's format), which you can then convert to GPX using free tools like GPS Babel. The verbal prompts were very clear, and the device makes sure you take the right turn by announcing it at least three times before the turn comes up.
Nokia's Maps and Navigation tool was a little disappointing. The interface is easy to use, but the routes that it plans are a little curious. It seems to favor the broadest roads possible, even if there are perfectly good routes on slightly smaller roads that are a whole lot shorter. It does get you to your destination, but the standalone devices, and even iNav Connect, planned better routes. It's also quite expensive, since you need to pay around Rs. 600 a month for the subscription. When compared to the much more reasonable Rs. 250 that iNav Connect charges, it's difficult to recommend this program.
The free AmazeGPS just about held its own against the commercial products. It's a little clunky to use, and searching for addresses is an exercise in frustration, but if you do manage to get the correct address, it plans a decent route. It didn't go such a great job in Bangalore, but I had occasion to use this in Delhi and it did a much better job there. The maps are not are comprehensive as the commercial ones, but if you're only occasionally using the GPS features on your phone, this isn't a bad program to have installed. I wouldn't recommend this for serious usage, though.
Phone or GPS?
The real-world test of these devices exposed some interesting details. The smartphones were consistently a lot faster at getting GPS lock. This is because they use Assisted-GPS, which gets basic location information from the cellular network, and then uses that to get a precise fix. Both the standalone devices took as long as seven minutes on occasion to get a fix. The phones never took longer than a minute. The phones are more versatile as well, since you can install different kinds of software that can use the GPS capabilities in new and interesting ways, as we explore below.
For pure navigation though, the standalone devices are better.
They were faster at the initial calculation of the route, and recalculating was a lot quicker too. Route recalculation did not take more than three to four seconds on the standalone devices, but the phones took up to thirty seconds. The dependence upon a constant Internet connection can be a problem when travelling long distances.
If you already have a phone with GPS capabilities and you want to check out how it works, it's worth buying a subscription to iNav Connect and using it for a while. If you do a lot of driving around though, it's better to buy a standalone device and keep it in the car at all times.
After Navigation, what next?
So now you have a GPS device. You can navigate around the town like a pro, and new cities just don't faze you. It's all very boring. What more can you do?Plenty, as it turns out. Knowing exactly where you are and where you're headed opens up a world of possibilities. And with GPS increasingly becoming a standard feature on mobile phones, there's a lot of software that can do interesting things.
Route Mapping and Sharing
Mapping a route needn't necessarily mean that you have to sign-up for the Paris-Dakar Rally. Something as simple as taking a walk around the neighborhood can be mapped and shared with your friends. You can use this to keep track of the amount you've walked (ideal for weight watchers), or if you like to hike outdoors, you can save a favorite trail and pass it around. Take a look at figure 1 to see how this works. I took a small trip around Bangalore and mapped the journey with a phone GPS. Later, I plugged the phone into my computer, and copied over a small .GPX file that contained all the track information. This can then be converted into a track on Google Maps, and I was even able to see average speeds, total distance travelled, and the change in elevation.
To do all this, I used TrekBuddy. This useful little software installs on Blackberries, Windows Mobile, and Symbian S60 phones, so pretty much any current generation phone can be used. The best part? The software is completely free. Download it from wiki.trekbuddy.net/index.php/Main_Page. It's not enough to just download the software though. You also need to load up some maps on the device. This can be a little complex and confusing the first time around, but there are various tools that make this a lot easier. TrekBuddy Atlas Creator is one of the easier ones to use. Get it from tinyurl.com/7vrlwz. You can load maps from different sources onto your mobile device, and use it even when you hike out of range of a cellular signal.
GPSed available at www.gpsed.com is another great tool for route mapping. After signing up here (for free), you can download the client application onto your cellphone. This has the added advantage of taking care of the mapping for you. If you have an active GPRS connection, it uploads the track file directly to the GPSed website, and creates the track there. This track can be made public, for others to see and follow, or private, so that only you know where you'd gone.
Keep track of those Calories
If you are an exercise enthusiast, a regular walker, or even just beginning to get alarmed at that spreading waistline, exercising with GPS can be a good way to gather data. There are dedicated GPS watches that even include heart rate monitors, but these are sometimes a little difficult to find in India. However, if you have a cellphone that has a GPS receiver, you can keep track of the distance you've travelled, the calories burnt, the speed, and even the elevation information. Of course, the last is only useful if you're into rock climbing, but the rest of the stats are handy, especially if you keep logs over time.
To do this, you need a GPS device such as your cell phone, free software (TrekBuddy), and a website that can track these stats. Motion Based (www.motionbased.com), and Trimble Outdoors (www.trimbleoutdoors.com) are two such sites. Signing up is free, though at Motion Based a paid subscription enables a few more features. Trimble Outdoors is completely free. Once you have these bits in place, just go out jogging, with your phone in your pocket and TrekBuddy running. After you get back and catch your breath, the .GPX file created by TrekBuddy can be uploaded to these websites. Trimble Outdoors even allows you to add pictures and videos along the trip, so if you go for a longish hike or drive, you can supplement the raw data with some memorable pictures.
If you find the idea of jogging with your cellphone repugnant, you can buy a watch that has a GPS receiver. Suunto watches are available in India through A&S Systems (www.ascreations.in). It costs a small fortune (Rs. 31,000), so it's only worth it if you're extremely serious about your outdoor activities.
Geotag your Photos
Geotagging adds a new dimension to your photographic journeys. It can mean the difference between a directory full of assorted pictures, or a map that records your journey in your own photos. It also lets you click on a place and get information about that place... in pictures. Geotagging used to be the domain of GPS geeks a while back, but new tools have made it easier than ever to geotag photos.
The easiest way is to get a camera that has GPS built-in. Then, every photo you take (outdoors), will have GPS information as part of the meta-data, and they will automatically get placed correctly when uploaded to Flickr or other online sites that support geotagging. However, such cameras haven't yet made it into the mainstream, or even in the prosumer space. There are some attachments for professional cameras like the Nikon D series, but these are overkill for the casual user.
A GPS phone or standalone GPS device can be used for geotagging, with the help of some software. To do this, simply save the track information using TrekBuddy. This GPX file can then be loaded into GeoSetter, a free program available from www.geosetter.de/#Download. The site is in German, but the program is in English. Once downloaded and installed, you need to point Geosetter to the location of the photos on your hard drive, and load the .GPX file into it. It then proceeds to automatically geotag the photos, based on the time stamp in the photo. Basically, it looks at a photo and checks at what time it was taken (this data is automatically added by the camera), then compares that with the .GPX file, and pulls the location coordinates for that moment in time and adds it to the photo. Don't worry, it sounds a lot more complex than it is. In practice, it's a quick, easy process.