The New York Times
October 9, 2008
Phone Smart
Exactly Where Are You? New Devices Make the Answer Easier
By BOB TEDESCHI
GPS units were a big hit last year among those giving holiday gifts to the chronically lost. This year, a new cellphone could be a better idea.
Mobile GPS services are steadily improving, and now that many new phones are GPS-enabled, they are easily within the reach of consumers. But that is not to say everyone should grab one. If you are thinking about taking the plunge, it is worth getting an unlimited data plan and taking these services on a test spin before deciding whether to pay the $10 monthly fee most charge.
The federal government has given mobile GPS vendors a huge lift over the past decade, by directing the wireless industry to use GPS technology to improve the odds of locating someone who calls 911 from a mobile phone. Now about half of the phones in the United States have GPS, according to Berg Insight, a research firm.
The newer phones have grown more sophisticated, using cell towers - not just satellites - to get a fix on their locations. That is a step up from conventional GPS units, which typically rely only on satellites for orientation, and therefore take longer to get a "first fix," as it is known in industry parlance.
The other big advantage of having GPS in your phone is what you can do with that location data.
Because your phone can get data feeds from your carrier, it can retrieve a trove of useful information. When these services behave the way they should, they will tell you how to avoid a huge traffic jam, then direct you to specific movies, coffee houses, Wi-Fi spots and the cheapest gas stations so you can make good use of the time you have saved.
Networks in Motion, which provides the technology behind Verizon's VZ Navigator service, also lists local events and movies, while TeleNav, which provides the technology behind the Sprint Navigation GPS service, will find restaurants and reviews. AT&T offers both TeleNav (branded as AT&T Navigator) and Networks in Motion (branded as AAA Mobile Navigator), along with a newcomer, MapQuest Navigator (from TelMap), all for $10 monthly.
T-Mobile users can choose between MapQuest and TeleNav, but currently only two handsets are compatible (the SonyEricsson TM506 and the BlackBerry 8820 from Research in Motion). In about two weeks, the G1 handset with Google's new mobile operating system will also feature navigation.
Caveat navigator: The mobile GPS experience may fall short of your expectations, depending on where you live, your phone and your carrier. Over the course of about a month spent playing with different GPS phones, I found myself too often stuck in highway traffic, looking at a cellphone screen suggesting I should be doing 50 miles an hour.
Strangely, such a glitch is par for the course, said Steve Andler, the vice president for marketing at Networks in Motion. Asked to rate the quality of the traffic feeds on his company's service, Mr. Andler said: "Eh. It's not great."
If that statement provided a public relations opportunity for TeleNav, Sal Dhanani, a TeleNav founder, was not biting. Mr. Andler's remark "is a pretty fair characterization" of the industry in general, Mr. Dhanani said.
Still, if you are lucky enough to live in a region with good traffic data, the alerts can be a great help. And the traffic data is a bonus anyway: as merely a turn-buy-turn directional device, these services rival traditional navigation devices from Garmin, Tom Tom and others if you have the right handset.
Most handsets force you to type in the name of a business or an address, so if you are a bad thumb-typer this can be a chore. But if you have a BlackBerry Curve, which has a decent keypad, or an LG Dare, the process is easy. And if you have a Sprint Instinct or a BlackBerry Pearl on AT&T's network, among others, you can speak the address into the phone and get directions.
Not that AT&T will always be your best bet if you do not have a new phone.
The company announced last month that new handsets would have advanced GPS technology meant to help locate you more quickly. Only the initiated will understand the intricacies of the changes, but put it this way: I leaned a phone from each of the major carriers against a window screen, and while AT&T and T-Mobile failed to locate me, Sprint and Verizon found me almost immediately.
Had I been using the newest devices from AT&T, Mr. Andler said, I would have been fine. Or, had I held my older AT&T BlackBerry outside in a place within direct sight of satellites, it would have worked quickly. But when that was not the case - even on the road - the experience was sluggish at times. Until T-Mobile introduces more advanced GPS technology the experience will not change, he said.
And even though these applications are obviously meant for on-the-road use, you will often want to use them indoors. For instance, you can home in on the closest coffee place and, from the phone, send a note with the cafe's location to a friend, along with an invitation to meet.
To save money on these services, do a little shopping around. Sprint includes GPS (Sprint Navigation) in a $70 unlimited data plan, which is far cheaper than the $130 it will take to get the same deal through Verizon.
You can do even better if you are willing to try MapQuest Navigator, a new service available on many BlackBerrys, and recent smartphones like the Samsung Blackjack and the HTC Mogul. (You can get a list of compatible devices at MapQuest's site at tinyurl.com/6nu96s; Verizon users cannot get the service.)
MapQuest offers a one-year subscription for $50, which is a significant saving over plans you would buy from carriers. You can try the service for seven days, but if you use that time wisely, it will be enough to expose the service's strengths and flaws.
Quick Calls
¶Now that the masses have caught onto SMS messaging, it is time to teach them some etiquette. Airwide Solutions, a mobile messaging network, this week posted the seven deadly sins of SMS on its blog (mobilemessaging2.com). Among them: do not break up with someone via SMS; never send repeated texts with the same question, and unless the recipient is a texting veteran, take it easy on the LOLs, CUSOONs and GTGs.
¶Worldmate Live released a new version of its free travel-planning software, which lets you e-mail to your phone information about flights, hotels and business meetings. The application creates an itinerary complete with hyperlinks, so you can click and check flight status or call the hotel.
¶Can't connect? Wilson Electronics has released the Signalboost Mobile Professional, which can double the strength of an existing cell signal in homes and cars. The cost of the extra bars: around $280. Some assembly is required.
E-mail: phonesmart@nytimes.com
