Photo: liewcf / Flickr

The US-owned Global Positioning System satellite network was established back in 1973, in case you thought satellite navigation technology was new. It wasn’t until the late 90s when satnav devices became commonplace that the term GPS join most people’s lexicon, or that most consumers had direct access to satellite technology.

This technology was primarily used for navigation purposes, showing very little evolution since. But now, especially with the rise of contemporary smartphones, new life has been breathed into innovation around consumer GPS technology, and that goes beyond the turn-by-turn navigation made famous by companies like Garmin and TomTom.

Location-based services

The biggest trend in smartphone technology built atop GPS technology is location-based services, like Foursquare and Gowalla. Here we’re talking specifically about applications where people check-in to a place, and some sort of functionality is built around being somewhere – hence the name ‘location-based’.

While the game play aspects were promising before their lustre wore off, it’s widely believed that location-based services will become massive from a commerce perspective. Receiving discounts for frequent check-ins, being alerted to sales and promos dependent on your proximity to a store, and even flash sales are all expected to be revolutionized as this technology matures.

The fascinating stuff

For our money, though, the interesting innovations around GPS functionality go far beyond location-based services.

We recently wrote a story on a car insurance company that sends video footage to parents when their children drive wrecklessly – imagine GPS was added to that mix. Yeseterday we learnt that city of Boston, Massachusetts in the US was working on a smartphone application that relied on GPS technology and accelerometers to automatically report potholes to the council.

The point is we’re seeing something of a resurgence with regards to satnav devices and GPS solutions. For years, the industry has been mostly stagnant, with iterative improvements, as opposed to technological revolution, but it now seems as if we’re leaning towards the latter.

Photo: Alan Stanton / Flickr

It takes a lot for tech lovers like you and I to be blown away by what people can achieve with modern technology. However, this has to be exception to the norm, with Boston City’s management prototyping a smartphone application that will automatically report potholes to the council by leveraging GPS and accelerometer technology.

How does this work

Basically, what the pothole reporting application does is use your smartphone’s accelerometer to determine when there’s a dramatic change in the road’s surface – as is the case with a pothole – and then it logs that change, while tagging GPS co-ordinates to that position. Once that is complete, the phone uses your mobile data to send automatic reports to Boston authorities.

How to get it

The application, which is still in alpha testing stages, is currently freely available for Android devices. It allows citizens to help the city’s pothole reporting and maintenance without the schlep of email and phone calls to the council. Speaking to the Boston Globe [via Popular Science] Nigel Jacob, who works in Boston’s Urban Mechanics Office, says: ‘It’s a new kind of volunteerism. It’s not volunteering your sweat equity. It’s volunteering the devices that are in your pocket to help the city.’

This is tangential, but this reminds me of the PS3 Folding@Home project, which saw gamers dedicate their console’s computing capabilities to cancer research.

The evolution of GPS usage shown to GPS companies

In many ways this smartphone app shows why the stand-alone GPS will soon fall to the wayside, or be forced to adapt. Where GPS devices have been solely focused on using the satnav technology to provide direction, savvy smartphone developers and scientists have found ways to manipulate that data for other purposes.

Now the Garmin’s and TomToms of the world have long had the technological sophistication to pursue similar initiatives, but were well happy to just carry on as they had been. If these satnav tech manufacturers can develop compelling technology with similar mind-blowing functionality, perhaps smartphones won’t replace them as rapidly as is expected. What matters most though is this pothole reporting app shows off the amazing capabilities of a contemporary smartphone, coupled with GPS and genius software engineering.

Photo: Stock.Xchng

The EU’s worldwide Galileo satellite navigation system, is on course to launch in 2014, according to reports. Once launched it will accompany EGNOS, the already-launched GPS system that improves GPS accuracy across Europe.

Satisfactory

A recently released report has found that the EU is satisfied with the progress that they have made with these satellite navigation programmes, with support and commitment to see the project through remaining.

The economy needs this

This satellite navigation system has been in the making for over a decade now, due to economic and strategic reasons directly related to these systems. Present day estimates say that some €800bn of Europe’s GDP is directly dependent on satnav systems, while as an industry in and of itself, satnav products and servicses are expected to be worth €240bn come 2020.

Why build this?

What most consumers don’t understand is that satnav systems – or rather the actual satellites that power this technology – are owned by certain nations. Presently, the only players are the US with their GPS system, and Russia with their Glonass system. Students of the Cold War and the race to space will immediately understand why it is these two nations who own the technology.

The European Union felt it irresponsible to be beholden unto these two nations, and as such began financing their own satnav initiatives. These initiatives resulted in the aforementioned EGNOS and the incoming Galileo satellite system, which the EU owns for its own commercial and security needs.

Goes beyond GPS devices

While consumer familiarity with satellite navigation systems is limited mostly to GPS devices and smartphones with GPS connectivity, various enterprise-level solutions and entire industries are hugely dependent on this technology. Farming and forestry, climatology, traffic regulation and ecology are some of the more obvious examples, with military uses and scientific uses expanding beyond that.

The major takeaway for the average consumer with regards to the Galileo satellite system is that you will have more accurate and reliable results when you use your satnav devices and GPS products in future.

Photo: bigdigo / Flickr

2010 was the breakout year for mobile applications on smartphones. The market grew manifold in terms of the number of apps available, as did the money generated by platform holders and developers alike.

But there needs to be more

The applications themselves improved manifold, adding layers of utility and functionality, sometimes transforming our smartphones from being just devices we communicate with to much more. The thing is, lots more needs to be done still, especially if applications are to ultimately give the level of inter-operability and compatibility that websites do.

Better cross-app integration

The first thing we hope to see in mobile applications in 2011 is better inter-app integration. At this point, there is no reason a location-based service cannot communicate directly with, say, Google Maps on Android for example, as well as a service like Open Table to make a booking at a specific restaurant.

We’re already seeing this with the likes of music apps Shazam and Spotify integrating with each other, but that’s just one sub-genre of a sprawling app marketplace.

Data standards

Speaking about app integration, what we desperately need is data standards for certain new functions mobile applications have. Perhaps this is a personal rant, but given that running apps RunKeeper, Nike+ GPS and others are all built atop the Google Maps API, why can we still not export data from one app to the next?

Sure, long-term use locks a user in, but financial applications on desktops, for example, know there is no benefit to forcing users to stay on your platform by not allowing SCV exporting, so too should apps in similar categories. It’s crazy to us that Nike+ GPS cannot integrate with DailyBurn, or even iFitness for example, to share calorie shedding and the like. Yes, it requires someone build it, but in computing, we’ve found ways to adopt open standards before; surely we can do it again.

More device replacing applications

This last request is actually inevitable, and it’s occurring as is, but there’s no limit to how many real world devices mobile applications can – and should – replace altogether. With GPS apps, there’s no longer a need to carry that device. So too with credit card processing applications or fitness applications and so on. If it can replace a device altogether, do it with immediacy.

Not ranting

While this may sound a bit like a rant, it isn’t. We’re extremely excited about the future of smartphones and how mobile applications are shaping this future, but a move towards pre-determined standards and integration will only increase utility, and value.

Photo: ayustety / Flickr

What’s that? You have the money but you still haven’t bought a smartphone? You think they’re overhyped, overpriced, and that you don’t actually need or want one? As bizarre as those questions sound to frequent readers of this blog, there are many people who love technology and have the means to buy smartphones but are still sitting on the fence about getting one. For those wondering why buy a smartphone, below are a few reasons.

The internet keeps no location

Mobile internet on contemporary smartphones is light years ahead of what the desktop browsers were just a few years ago, and even further ahead than the capability of feature phone’s browsers. Are you still wondering why buy a smartphone?

Those applications sure are useful

Smartphones, especially the iPhone, changed our expectations of what applications should be capable of and what they should cost. For as little as $0.99, you can purchase an application that changes what your handset does. Want an inexpensive GPS device that can also browse the internet and receive calls? Yep, a modern mobile with the right app can do just that. Do you need more reasons to buy a smartphone?

It sure helps to be motivated to get fit

We, too, were fence sitters about the true value of compelling smartphone apps. Sure, the games are nice and the productivity apps are cool, but are they worth dropping big bucks for? Then RunKeeper Pro, Nike+ GPS and iFitness came along, putting the fun back into the boredom of working out. Why buy a smartphone? Oh, because you want to look good, that’s why.

They will replace many PC functions

Probably the biggest reason to purchase a smartphone is the inevitable fact that they will fundamentally change how we use our PCs. More specifically, smartphones will augment our PC experience, while replacing many functions previously reserved for the PC. In many ways we first saw signs of this years ago when  the BlackBerry first arrived on the scene and fundamentally altered the way people read email. With modern smartphones, this will only further expand to other parts of the PC.

There are a bunch of reasons to buy a smartphone, but these are some of the most obvious and most easily understood. Once you have your own, it’s likely you’ll find a host more reasons you can’t do without one.

Photo: bigweasel / Flickr

Dutch firm TomTom, one of the two big GPS companies, is ramping up its staff compliment due to an expectated increase in the deals with car producers.

14 per cent staff swell

Chief Executive Harold Goddjin told De Financieele Telegraaf (via Reuters), a Dutch daily newspaper, that the companies staff compliment will increase by 14% next year. This means TomTom’s workforce will increase from its current 3,500 employees to 4000 employees in 2011, as the company pursues more deals with car producers.
Asian aspirations

A big contributor to increasing staff count so significantly is TomTom’s aspirations to expand into three of the fastest developing nations in the world – India, Brazil and China – as well as expansion throughout Eastern Europe. In fact, of the 500 additional employments at the satnav devices company, TomTom India is hiring a full 150 of them. The plan in the fast-developing, billion people plus nation, is to rollout a business model identical to the GPS devices manufacturer’s US and European model.

Investors rewarding new strategy

TomTom’s share price has almost doubled since its 2010 low back in August 31, and this is due to investors being more optimistic with the strategy to work closer with car producers, as opposed to being exclusively consumer-facing.

The reason for this optimism with car producers is that the opportunity to ship large volumes of satnav devices at once is significantly increased, also boding well for savings at an operational level. Looking at it from a pessimistic angle, the reason investors are pleased to see the company walk away from consumers who are adopting smartphones as replacements for their GPS devices.

For GPS devices, in general, how long this strategy proves effective will be interesting for all on-lookers alike.

Photo: DeathByBokeh / Flickr

When we began researching this topic, by both looking at what we had said in the past, and what others were saying as well, we happened across a brilliant Cnet analysis on the same question. The best part of the whole piece was the conclusion, which read: ‘In any case, much as the iPod Touch transcended simple music playback, PNDs must move beyond their original purpose of simply providing directions to the unfamiliar or lost. The image of those glory days is rapidly shrinking in the rear-view mirror.’

A GPS is just a one-trick tablet

While Cnet suggests the future of satnav devices is in them evolving beyond merely providing directions, much like the iPhone did music, they miss the point about someone already beating the satnav device manufacturers to that – the same people who make the iPod Touch. Satnav devices are, if you think about it, tablet devices that can only run one application. This is especially true for touchscreen GPS devices.

Think of this concept for a second. While TomTom and Garmin have essentially been selling a tablet OS that boots into one piece of software, marketing that software as the proprietary offering, others like Apple and Android have sold the tablet OS as the commercial offering, while encouraging developers to run amock with applications for it. Said developers obliged, with many replacing the need for GPS devices through sophisticated software solutions that run on somebody else’s proprietary hardware. It’s genius.

Paul Graham has the answers

Paul Graham, founder of the famous Y Combinator startup incubator, and widely considered one of Silicon Valley’s smartest minds, articulated the point we’re making more succinctly than anywhere else we’ve seen.

In his brilliant essay, simply entitled Tablets, Graham writes: ‘If the iPad had come first, we wouldn’t think of the iPhone as a phone; we’d think of it as a tablet small enough to hold up to your ear.’ He continued, writing ‘The iPhone isn’t so much a phone as a replacement for a phone. That’s an important distinction, because it’s an early instance of what will become a common pattern. Many if not most of the special-purpose objects around us are going to be replaced by apps running on tablets.’

And it’s hard to argue with the point he makes. The stand-alone GPS device has no future insofar as its manufacturers tether the concept to the device. Garmin, TomTom and the other big players need to start making tablets – easier said than done, we know – with their proprietary GPS application being a major selling point. Outside of that, the company’s will see the customer based for satnav devices continue to erode. It’s inevitable.

So, in short, there is no long-term future for the concept ‘GPS devices’. They will either fall to the wayside, or evolve into tablet devices with GPS applications as a major selling point.

Photo: Microsoft

As is the case with any modern mobile OS, a software update is an inevitability, as the platform holders try to keep things fresh. Microsoft may be on a particularly aggressive product update curve if word that Windows Phone 7’s first major update is scheduled to come as early as January, and with it come some big features, as well as features that were surprisingly missing at launch.

Jailbreakers drop the news

PC World reports that Chris Walshie, who helped create the first Windows Phone 7 jailbreaking kit, spilt the news update the massive update Microsoft has planned. According to him, Microsoft has been working on this particularly build prior to Windows Phone 7 even shipping, and that it is so significant an update it calling it ‘Windows Phone 8’ would not be a stretch.

So, what’s in the box, tweetie bird?

Copy and paste is an obvious candidate for making an appearance. Besides that support for multi-tasking in third-party apps might arrive, as well as custom ringtone support. The rumoured feature that struck out the most to us, since you know we love nothing more than the smartphones vs. GPS debate, was the addition of turn-by-turn navigation using Bing. At this stage, let’s be clear, these are mostly unsubstantiated rumours, so take with a pinch of salt.

Exciting times

We’ve been bullish on Windows Phone 7 since we first saw it back in February at Mobile World Congress. Microsoft’s mobile OS platform was well-received at launch, even though many critics felt it got to market too late and was, therefore, doomed. However, if a recent GfK survey that shows smartphone loyalty is actually low proves true, then Microsoft shouldn’t be ruled out just yet.

Or do you think it really is curtains for the new mobile OS platform already?

Photo: mroachv / Flickr

CEOs of the world’s top satnav devices manufacturers aren’t sleeping well at all. GPS smartphones are proliferating at an alarming rate and are eating away at Garmin, TomTom, and most everybody else’s market share. What’s particularly disconcerting about this is that GPS on a smartphone is just a feature manufacturers can tick off on the back of a box, whereas it is a dedicated GPS device’s lifeblood.

The long distance test

Even then, we were curious which category of device – GPS smartphone or dedicated satnav device – would hold up better on a long distance trip. Convenienly, I had to go on two six-hour long distance drives (there and back, so 24 hours in total), so that proved a perfect environment to test which device category is better suited for this function.

On the first trip, I used the iPhone 4 with the TomTom app installed heading towards my destination, while on the return leg I used the TomTom Go 1000 Live (review here). On the second trip, I used a Droid phone with Google’s turn-by-turn navigation, while on the return leg I pulled out the Garmin Nuvi 1490t (review here).

Test conditions

Since this wasn’t a completely scientific test – and it ultimately boiled down to personal preference – we came up with informal test conditions to measure which device was superior.

Battery life was a serious consideration, since travelling that far, the last thing anyone wants is your handset dying on you.

A second critical condition was ease of use. And this boiled down to two things – firstly, how simple it is to actually interact with the device, and how easy it was to read off instructions from the display, remembering that you’re on the road, and what to get your eyes back to where you’re actually driving as soon as possible.

Verdict

And dedicated satnav device purists will hardly be surprised by our conclusion. While we’re looking forward to a time when our smartphones can replace most of the devices we currently have, for long distance trips, it makes significantly more sense to use dedicated satnav devices. Not only do the slightly more generous screens – particularly the 5-inch behemoth that is the Garmin Nuvi 1490t – makes for a more pleasant viewing experience, smartphone battery life will be an issue unless you have a dedicated car charger (which admittedly few people actually have).

And, as things currently stand, the software on the dedicated device is that little bit more sophisticated than on the smartphone apps – especially at the top end. This gap will close rapidly, and I suspect within the next 12 months alone, the tables will have turned. I do think smartphone displays are more receptive

So, in short, a GPS smartphone coupled with the right app is highly functional for shorter trips but is unsuitable for long distance travel. Long distance trips put a strain on your battery, and a strain on your eyes, too, as you no doubt become frustrated with the small screen when compared to the generous displays on some contemporary dedicated satnav devices.

So, if you travel long distances with any level of frequency, you’d be better served buying a dedicated GPS device than using a GPS smartphone for navigation. A satnav device like the Garmin Nuvi 1490t or the TomTom Go 1000 Live just does better mapping then smartphones currently do, but this won’t be the case for long.

Photo: Wayan Vota / Flickr

A new Facebook application is now available to all Blackberry users, and it allows the user to ‘check in’ at any location and submit the update through their news feed for all to see. The new application, called ‘Facebook Places’, is now available for Blackberry’s Facebook 1.9 and is a geo-location tool and lets you keep track of other friends who have also checked in using Facebook Places.

Make use of GPS

A location application is a massive draw for advertisers, who can use the data retrieved from Facebook Places and send the user adverts and coupons based on the most recently visited places. The Places feature will require GPS to be turned on, and Blackberry users will also need Blackberry Device Software 4.5 or better.

Facebook Places makes use of the GPS technology on your Blackberry as well as cell tower triangulation to help you find places of interest around any location. The software can also help you in finding directions for different Facebook Places, as clicking on a map will launch the Blackberry Maps.

Easy to use

To begin using Facebook Places, simply click on the Places application in the navigation bar on your smartphone, and check in to Facebook Places within a two kilometre radius of your current location. You can check in by either selecting a nearby place, or simply add a new place if your current location isn’t listed. Creating a new place will make that location public, so any other Facebook user will be able to see the newly created place.

The application still retains the previous Facebook attributes, such as the ability to find friends, tag them in a specific location and even ‘like’ their current location. Finding mutual friends and viewing other profiles is as easy as before, and the navigation bar has been redesigned to let users search Facebook, view their own profiles and send messages.