In GPS, Google Is still a bit Lost

I believed I knew. From all outward appearances, I was at Pennsylvania Station in New York. But in line with Google's (GOOG) mapping and Car GPS Gadget application operating on my Motorola Droid telephone, I was on Cheapside, a street in London. The app helpfully located nearby Underground stations for me.

When Motorola (MOT), Verizon (VZ), and Google launched the Droid in November, investors drove down shares of TomTom and Garmin (GRMN), makers of devoted navigation systems. The purpose: The mapping application constructed into Google's android smart phone operating method presented spoken, turn-by-turn directions-for absolutely free. Now that Google has made the wraps off its Nexus One phone, it is clear navigation will only develop in strategic significance.

I plan to appear at how the app works around the recent Google handset quickly. Inside the meantime, I've been using the plan around the Droid within the New York-New Jersey metropolitan location for the last couple of weeks. And I've encountered adequate quirks-hello, London!-to conclude it's not pretty time to quit a standalone device.

Inside your car or truck, the best technique to make use of the droid for Auto GPS is using the optional $29.99 mounting bracket that attaches to the windshield or dashboard. The telephone senses when it's within the holder and automatically displays a restricted interface that consists of significant buttons for maps and navigation. On a handful of occasions, though, my telephone would slip back to its customary display setting, requiring me or my passenger to find and relaunch the program.

Google's app offers various ways to input your location, like by touch screen, the Droid's physical keyboard, and built-in voice search. I discovered the interface a little fussy, requiring several poke and prod. (Drivers should not poke this, or any other screen, when the car is in motion.)

I also had a problem with all the app's show. For a smart phone, the Droid's screen is actually a pleasure-very vibrant, with a higher resolution than that of an Apple (AAPL) iPhone. But its three.7-inch size, combined together with the Google app's mapping layout, makes it a lot harder to identify than the 4.3-inch display on the Garmin nüvi 855 technique I utilised for comparison.

When I was below way, driving guidelines have been delivered in a ringing voice that sounds a bit like VIKI, the malevolent computer system inside the movie I, Robot. The technique gave me an abundance of advance notice of coming turns, such as street names, and usually picked good routes. When I deliberately missed some turns, the droid took longer than the nüvi to recalculate. So I typically was unable to take what would have been a logical option route. Harder to forgive were the app's sporadic bouts of confusion, which includes the London episode.

Motorola refers queries about such hiccups in Google, which responds that they are hardware challenges. Whoever is usually to blame, it really is disconcerting to be directed to the incorrect way down an one-way street, a thing which has occurred probably twice in 5 years with the built-in navigation technique in my car-and occurred inside per week of utilizing the Google app.

Alternatively, when I arrived at my destination, not simply did the telephone announces it, however the view switched from a map to a Google street-view photograph. Very appealing for anyone who is prowling unfamiliar turf.

Google labels its nav app "Beta," a testing designation the organization usually maintains longer than its competitors do. I guess that's supposed to excuse the bugs in an otherwise superb app having a cost nobody can beat.

Oh, and to have to Penn Station from Cheapside, head toward the Thames, takes an idea, and...Preserve going.