Well actually, there is ease of use if you are in the US, but if you are not then there is a lot of functionality lost. Google Maps is all but useless in English in China (where I'm located) and from an ease of use perspective I don't really see any improvement from interfaces built into HTC or dopod devices.
The actual only big thing about it is that it is an iPhone and it looks cool both physically and on-screen. Other than that it is just another phone, the same way an iPod is just another MP3 player.
Li Po
· 1 year ago
In that sense, a Ferrari is just a car, and Li Po is just a poet.
Stefan Richter
· 1 year ago
yes useful for sure, for all of the 10 minutes that you will get out of it before the battery runs dry. We'll see once the baby is out. I'll have to have one, but won't hold my breath on the GPS/battery front.
jason
· 1 year ago
eh, i don't really want people i don't know being able to track me in real time without my knowledge. as for my friends knowing if i'm close, they are my friends, if i want to hang out with them i would have already made plans for them to be where i am. i don't need stalkers.
i can see the use of gps for recommendations on bars, restaurants, attractions and the like. but the social element (in realtime) i'm not seeing as likely to take off.
john
· 1 year ago
I said the same thing about myspace. I already have email if I want to talk to my friends I'll email them. Why do I want to post a bunch of crap I like to the whole world and have people say "whats up" "hows it going" on my page just send me a GD email if you want.
obvi I was completely wrong
Jonathan
· 1 year ago
I conducted a large user research project for Vodafone in the UK and Italy in which one of the things we were probing for was attitudes to a "friends positioning" system presented (in a mock-up) as an extension to the phone's address book. This showed an indication next to each person that was within a certain range.
The near universal reaction was negative. This was primarily due to privacy concerns, but even when it was explained that they would elect to make their proximity information available, most said they weren't interested. One person described it like this:
"It would be like getting on a train and seeing somebody sitting there staring at you with a huge grin - would you sit down next to them? No. The same is true of this: if I saw one of my friends had made themselves 'available' I would immediately suspect something was up."
Svein
· 1 year ago
And if you in the early 19th century had asked about any modern appliances, say the car, most would be negative then too. Somebody did ask about car, and with it being smelly, noisy, using gas and breaking down, people WERE negative.
Even ten years ago nobody would even think about wanting to put their personal details, nevermind personal pictures, up on a website for the whole world to view. Now everyone does it...
In product development it is a well known fact that asking someone for comments on a revolutionary item which does this and that will almost always garner a negative response. Surveys are good for finding improvements to existing and commonly used technology, but completely useless for brand new stuff without an existing everyday product to compare it with.
Ian Kemmish
· 1 year ago
The picture you paint - nested hierarchies of hundreds of icons to tell me how strangers I don't know rated restaurants (presumably on some risible five-start system) in a city I shan't visit again until the US stops fingerprinting visitors - is hardly going to make me buy a piece of kit I don't need..
With CSR's latest generation of chips, it's basically free to add GPS to any Bluetooth phone. Other phone manufacturers will be coming up with their own support, hopefully design to run well on phones rather than on small computers. I'll withhold judgement on which is best until AFTER they appear....
Viktor
· 1 year ago
I don't believe that GPS will be of much use for social networking app. It doesn't work indoor and outdoor you have to hold your device for some time until it gets synchronized with satellites (~1min). It is annoying. I think triangulation or wifi works much better.
Richard
· 1 year ago
Victor... won't the nature of the A-GPS help in this respect. You may be able to get a fix indoors more easily bacuse of the A-GPS and its ability to use the cell networks to "help" get a fix.
Terry Heaton
· 1 year ago
Parents keeping track of their kids. The government keeping track of you. Advertisers nailing you with (more) unwanted messages.
No thanks. The risk is too great.
Lane
· 1 year ago
So I can keep track of my girlfriends everymove!? SWEEEEEEEEEET!!!!! =p Apps like loopt will bring a whole new mean to stalker
Jason
· 1 year ago
Don't forget about Brightkite. Enabling GPS on the iPhone enables a whole new development path for that social networking beauty.
techritic
· 1 year ago
LOL ITS A PHONE.. ... WITH A GPS!!!11!!1!1oneoneoN!on1oNO!nneleevlen!1
There are a lot more phones with a GPS. And an SDK. And it's called a fucking BlackBerry.
iPhone != revolutionary.
techritic
· 1 year ago
LOL, ITS A PHONE.. ... WITH A GPS!!!11!!1!1oneoneoN!on1oNO!nneleevlen!1
There are a lot more phones with a GPS. And an SDK. And it's called a fucking BlackBerry.
iPhone != revolutionary.
n00b
· 1 year ago
Hilarious backlash to this article in the comments. Mashable should've published this Monday when all the fanboys were still in a tizzy and willing to applaud anything. Now the Kool-Aid supply has run out, people woke up and saw how disappointing the iPhone 3G announcement really was, and voila -- this is the only positive iPhone article that remains on TechMeme. :D
Manny
· 1 year ago
I don't want anybody to be able to track me unless I dial 911. I think that is really why most people are not so willing to be so connected with their phones to GPS. Most people that I talk to are worried about being tracked without their knowledge. I for one get phones where I have control over its traceability. If I dial 911, then fine. But other than that, I want to make it as hard as possible to be found. Not all things can be good. There is always a dark side of trading your privacy for these kind of "cool" phone features.
collector
· 1 year ago
Everyone who uses a mobile phone can be easily tracked. Surely it is not as precise as GPS, but close to it.
The new iPhone is going to make the sun shine brighter and food taster better. It is going to help me make more money and women are going to flock in my direction simply by seeing me with it. I am going to talk and talk, and talk some more in super duper style. And the best part is that it's only going to cost me $1100 a year with a two year commitment. SWEET!
Andrex
· 1 year ago
Android had this since last November's preview. In fact, it even has a special "MapView" class in its Java dialect. Expect more Location based services on Android than iPhone.
collector
· 1 year ago
Android phone is not yet available for purchase. Am i missing something?
jrb
· 1 year ago
meh. gps. meh. what will drive more people to iPhone this time round are the things it didn't have before, not just meme upgrades to existing functionality which exists in other older, cheaper phones.
the thing that will win more support for iphone this time round is the active sync, and exchange support, and perhaps we'll finally see some enterprise lovin'
collector
· 1 year ago
Did you see a phone with GPS support, big touch screen for about $200? I doubt.
Another great product from Apple.
Eric Moritz
· 1 year ago
What everyone seems to forget when comparing the iphone with another phone like an HTC or an Nseries. There's aren't 6 million people walking around with N95s.
David Jaeger
· 1 year ago
Yippideedoo. And I've had GPS on my phone since... umm 2005?
karl
· 1 year ago
Geolocation is required in Japan by law on handsets for emergencies services since last year. Then all handsets have GPS. That was one of the reasons why iPhone could not access Japanese market.
Geolocation apps in Japan are very *common* for walking navigation for example.
All Comments
The actual only big thing about it is that it is an iPhone and it looks cool both physically and on-screen. Other than that it is just another phone, the same way an iPod is just another MP3 player.
i can see the use of gps for recommendations on bars, restaurants, attractions and the like. but the social element (in realtime) i'm not seeing as likely to take off.
obvi I was completely wrong
The near universal reaction was negative. This was primarily due to privacy concerns, but even when it was explained that they would elect to make their proximity information available, most said they weren't interested. One person described it like this:
"It would be like getting on a train and seeing somebody sitting there staring at you with a huge grin - would you sit down next to them? No. The same is true of this: if I saw one of my friends had made themselves 'available' I would immediately suspect something was up."
Even ten years ago nobody would even think about wanting to put their personal details, nevermind personal pictures, up on a website for the whole world to view. Now everyone does it...
In product development it is a well known fact that asking someone for comments on a revolutionary item which does this and that will almost always garner a negative response. Surveys are good for finding improvements to existing and commonly used technology, but completely useless for brand new stuff without an existing everyday product to compare it with.
With CSR's latest generation of chips, it's basically free to add GPS to any Bluetooth phone. Other phone manufacturers will be coming up with their own support, hopefully design to run well on phones rather than on small computers. I'll withhold judgement on which is best until AFTER they appear....
It doesn't work indoor and outdoor you have to hold your device for some time until it gets synchronized with satellites (~1min). It is annoying.
I think triangulation or wifi works much better.
No thanks. The risk is too great.
Enabling GPS on the iPhone enables a whole new development path for that social networking beauty.
... WITH A GPS!!!11!!1!1oneoneoN!on1oNO!nneleevlen!1
There are a lot more phones with a GPS. And an SDK. And it's called a fucking BlackBerry.
iPhone != revolutionary.
... WITH A GPS!!!11!!1!1oneoneoN!on1oNO!nneleevlen!1
There are a lot more phones with a GPS. And an SDK. And it's called a fucking BlackBerry.
iPhone != revolutionary.
LOL that´s true.
http://tinyurl.com/3fhnec
what will drive more people to iPhone this time round are the things it didn't have before, not just meme upgrades to existing functionality which exists in other older, cheaper phones.
the thing that will win more support for iphone this time round is the active sync, and exchange support, and perhaps we'll finally see some enterprise lovin'
Another great product from Apple.
Geolocation apps in Japan are very *common* for walking navigation for example.
Sociallite
Brightkite
Dopplr
Lightpole
My Loki
Metosphere
Outalot
Plazes
Pownce
ZKOUT
I could choose one and all my friends choose different applications. It could do with a clear winner, but I guess it's early days...