Google adds free GPS to cellphones
via: IOL
Google Maps Navigation, which will only work on smartphones running Android 2.0, includes many of the features of a traditional GPS device such as 3D map views and turn-by-turn voice guidance.
Google’s Internet-connected system allows navigation using voice search in English, provides live traffic updates, includes satellite imagery from Google Maps and features “street view” – real ground-level pictures of destinations.
Google Maps Navigation also allows users to conduct a search along their route for gas stations or restaurants, for example.
Industry analysts said the free Google feature could pose a threat to the personal navigation devices for drivers made by companies such as Garmin of the United States and TomTom of the Netherlands.
“Global positioning devices were already on the road to becoming irrelevant and Google Maps Navigation for Android 2.0 may speed up the trip,” wrote Larry Dignan, editor-in-chief of technology blog ZDNet.
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