I am using GoogleMaps on my blackberry curve. I don't have a GPS, however, I find the tower based location pretty usefull. Now I am in Paris, and for kicks I tried to use the future here. Well, to my surprise, Google Maps correctly found me in the middle of Paris with accuracy of 1700 meters. That's pretty damn close. This app rocks!!! If you still don't have it, get it at http://maps.google.com/mobile/
I just took a 60 mile trip and was checking My Location on the Google Maps for Mobile. To my surprise, it was pretty accurate during the whole trip. The map would place me on the highway or within a 50 yards of the highway along the route.
Another interesting detail, I didn't have to request the location all the time, the position would adjust as the car was moving - very much like the it does on the GPS.
That brought an interesting thought - Now Google has not only the locations where their devices are being used, but the movement patterns as well. That's a lot of information that can be used for both good and not ...
Today, Google made a new Google Maps for Mobile available on their site. The new beta version includes a My Location functionality that places your location on the map based on the information received from the cell phone towers.
I've installed the app on my Blackberry Curve. The My Location function is great, even though it is not as good as a GPS. While in my office, Google Maps placed my location within around 100m of my real location. That was great. The neat trick is that positioning works even when you are inside a building, something that GPS can not do.
However, near my house, it around 1 mile off (1.5 Km). Still good, considering makes it easier to request directions since its a lot easier to select the source point on the map.
I am sure they will be improving the app as time goes on as well.
Get the application from http://www.google.com/gmm
I've been using Google calendar for some time, and I was always complaining that Create Event popup did not provide the ability to enter event details such as time and location. It only provided one line "What" entry field.
Well... I learned something new today. The "What" field is extremely powerful. It has ability to parse out time and location details from the entered string. For example, entering "Dinner at My Place 6PM to 8PM" will create an appointment from 6:00PM to 8:00PM. The "What" will be "Dinner at My Place" and location will be "My Place". There is ability to set duration like "Dinner at 6PM for 2hr", do recurring meetings, etc...
Full help and available shortcuts are here: http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=36604
How do you get from New York to Moscow? Google will show you the way.
Google will give you complete turn by turn directions including "Swim Across Atlantic Ocean". Check it out, it might be an interesting trip if you want to save on airfare.
Links:
Google Suggests You Swim Across The Atlantic Ocean
Screw air travel: Google suggests you get out and swim
Finally, The new and very much improved Blogger is out of beta. I had my blog hosted on blogger since the beginging and used the beta since well....beta. The main issue was API changes and there fore clients had to adjust whenever google made a backend change. Now that its out, hopefully, client support will improve as well.
Now if only Windows Live Writer can support all the blogger functionality and get to the RTM stage.
Recently I started to use two new beta pieces of software for blogging. A few days back, I started to use Windows Live Writer The tool rocks. It did exactly what I need it to do, had a simple and clean interface, connected to blogger, and worked both in the corporate network and at home. Two days ago, I switched my blogger account to the new Blogger Beta - the second beta software. This experience was much less pleasing. I was planing to take a look at the new features. However, to use most of them, you'd have to switch your layout, and therefore loose the customizations that I had previously. The more serious issue that I've encountered was that my Windows Live Writer no longer worked! Apparently it is a known issue, Windows Live Writer is not compatible with Blogger Beta. I think its just an example of google not wanting to play nice with others. Too bad.
