With Google's My Location, Who Needs a GPS? | Hacker News Reader

With Google's My Location, Who Needs a GPS?

gigaom.com

8 pointsyubrew7 comments

When the iPhone came out I had a great idea to actually implement this... unfortunately there were too many road blocks, the main one being that the carriers don't tell you where the cell towers are. http://tlrobinson.net/blog/?p=24

A company called Navizon ( http://www.navizon.com/ ) has such a product, and they rely on users to wardrive for WiFi and cell towers.

So it is a database lookup system based on some kind of tower id?

I was just wondering about that. It would really make sense if the GSM/CDMA standards had the tower pass their position to the cellphones, but I guess that was not something the people designing the systems had in mind back in the days.

Really nice! Seems that they have also made a Symbian S60 version of the app, used to be Java only (J2ME).

Finds my position in Finland with ~1 km accuracy, and it is actually quite fun to see where the tower you are connected to is. For me that changes when I change my position in my kitchen...

Anyone know how to try this on an iphone?

What phone and plan do I buy to get this? I'm confused.

Just google for it? I think this answers your question:

http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=39...

Which phones does Google Maps support?

Google Maps works with the following devices:

    * Most Java-enabled (J2ME) mobile phones.
    * Palm devices with Palm OS 5 and above.
    * All color BlackBerry devices.
    * Windows Mobile devices with Windows Mobile 2003, 5.0 and above.
    * Symbian Series 60 3rd edition devices.

If your device is supported and you have a data plan, visit www.google.com/gmm from a mobile web browser to download Google Maps. If you're not sure if Google Maps will work on your device, visit www.google.com/gmm and we'll perform a quick check to see if your phone is supported.

Note: Google Maps doesn't work with BREW-enabled devices. Some mobile services providers may restrict data usage by applications. We recommend contacting your mobile provider to confirm the details of your data plan.

Right, I saw that but what exactly is a data plan, and what phone plans have it? I didn't see it on Verizon, Tmobile or ATT's sites. Maybe I'm just confused.

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