Over the past week I've had a very interesting experience using my G1 as a navigation device during my Outer Banks vacation.
Outer Banks is a narrow strip of islands just off North Carolina shore. It's a wonderful place to have a vacation at. Unfortunately a smartphone can't appreciate all the natural wonders of the place. In fact I could imagine that it is scared of the place as some of its senses are blocked most of the time. Network connectivity is spotty (that's not 3G vs Edge, rather that's yes vs no). Data connection is even spottier. GPS connectivity tends to hold up but is not perfect.
All the above provides for a challenging navigation environment... for the device. It's sort of odd for a human being to see it struggle as there's pretty much one major road out there.
Poor man's navigation system on G1 is the built-in GPS unit backed by Google Maps. Anyone who has tried such a navigation system for a little while is familiar with the hearty pale-blue circle symbolizing GPS surrender to the network-based location. You'll see it occasionally at Outer Banks.
A new experience is the view of the blue GPS dot on a virgin Google-branded screen. That's what happens when your trusty GPS is on duty but the network is not available. Outer Banks boasts plenty of such locations.
As odd as it might sound, Outer Banks is one of those places where navigating by G1 will more likely get you lost than "navigating" by looking around.
For an Android-based phone to be of practical use as a navigation device it has to possess a number of qualities it currently lacks:
- On-device maps to eliminate the dependency on the network for map data
- Turn-by-turn voice-enabled navigation software that uses such maps. TeleNav for T-Mobile G1 in its current incarnation is not a viable option as it requires data connection
- A dashboard mounting cradle to allow for a view of the map with the peripheral vision
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