Romancing GPS: GPS devices and phones in India getting up to speed

Travel with a GPS-powered mobile phone or handheld, reach faster, easier.

It was well past 10 at night when I stepped out of Akhihabara electronic city and set out for Hotel Intercontinental in Tokyo.

Most city streets were empty by nightfall. I couldn’t converse in Japanese, and none of the taxies could figure out where Hotel ANA Intercontinental was, and drivers politely shrugged they didn’t know the way. It was dark and cold, and there I was almost looking forward to a night on the pavement in an alien land, with the possibility that I could be picked up by a police car passing by. Finally, one brave driver, who himself didn’t know where the hotel was, asked me to hop on. On the way, he kept asking me, in Japanese, on directions, but my English was of no help. Finally I fished out a cash bill at the hotel restaurant from my pocket and flashed it to him, hoping he will be able to figure out something, although the bill was in English. He glanced through it, pointed to a phone number and asked me something in Japanese, from which I could figure out “Phone Number?” Yes! I said it WAS the phone number. Was he going to call the reception to find out where it was? No, he simply tapped something into the onboard GPS screen, and lo and behold! There was the route to Hotel ANA Intercontinental, and very soon, we were on our way. I thanked the God of GPS in my mind, and became a devotee of GPS car navigation that very second.

So, a couple of years later when I thought of upgrading my BlackBerry smartphone, I  decided to go for one which has a GPS receiver on board. So, I went in for a BlackBerry 8820, which comes with a GPS chip. The BlackBerry 8820 comes with AT&T Navigator and BlackBerry Maps for US and Canada, but these were useless for me, since I’m in India. In India, there are a couple of companies which market maps for the GPS device. Two of the prominent ones are SatNav and MapMyIndia.

After an initial research on the web and a couple of emails to SatNav and MapMyIndia, I abandoned my plan to purchase maps from either of these vendors. Reason: I found both of them too expensive. I felt that if a Blackberry buyer in the US or Europe can get free GPS maps from BlackBerry or any other independent map-maker, it should be available in India too freely. Of course, I would perhaps still have purchased a GPS navigation map from SatNav or MapMyIndia if the price was low. Finally, I decided against buying either of it. What was left for me then?

Google Maps, by the grace of the God of GPS. Google Maps is a service by Google, which enables you to use Maps on your GPS-powered mobile phone or handheld GPS device with internet access. Unlike SatNav maps and MapMyIndia maps, these are not downloaded and installed into your GPS phone or handheld. On the other hand, Google Maps downloads the map data from Google servers on the go, so that only the map data you need at a time is saved to the mobile phone. This saves space on the BlackBerry (or other GPS-enabled handsets like Apple iPhone 3G or HTC
or the new Nokias) since downloaded maps from SatNav, MapMyIndia and others occupy space on the memory card or onboard memory of the mobile phone or GPS device.

I downloaded the Google Maps application from maps.google.com, and with a lot of embarrassment, I must say that my travelling life changed forever. Apart from the cool quotient of global positioning system, Google Maps on BlackBerry 8820 instantly became my must-take gadget whenever I step out of my home. I tried out GPS maps and car navigation on my BlackBerry on my first trip out of town, which was to a place called Kankavli, near the Maharashtra-Goa border. When we started out in the morning, I checked the distance from New Bombay to Kankavli. Google Maps also shows the approximate time taken to reach the destination, but this is not always a reliable measurement. Our traffic, weather and road conditions being what they are, we can never be sure that Google Maps’
estimate of the duration matches the actual time taken. We reached Kankavli with ample assistance from GPS and Google Maps, and never once on the way did we have to stop and ask for directions. The travel to Kankavli (and onwards to Tarkarli and Goa) underlined my growing faith in satellite navigation and GPS technology.

Apart from the distance and the time, Google Maps GPS service also shows you turn-by-turn directions. This means that if you set the start point and the end point, Google Maps draws a violet line connecting the two points in the shortest route, with an arrow pointing in the direction you must take. As the car moves, the arrow and the map move, so that you just need to stay on the arrow and the violet line as you drive.

What about intersection and traffic circles? As you travel, Google Maps shows the approaching roads and railway crossings, and shows you which way to take, so that by the time you reach the intersection or a Y on the road, you already know which way to go.

The longest road trip I ever did with GPS satellite navigation assistance on mobile phone was from Mumbai to Kochi, via Pune, Kolhapur, Dharwad, Bangalore, Hosur, Coimbatore and Palghat. We started on a Sunday morning and reached Kochi on Tuesday afternoon, staying over at hotels in Davengere and Palghat on the way. The GPS service performed superbly well, showing all the routes, directions and intersections. I realized that having a GPS device and satellite navigation maps at your disposal gives you enough confidence to set out on roads you have never taken before, across state borders, where you may be linguistically challenged. In the 1,500-km Kerala road trip, me and my co-driver Jiby discovered that GPS-assisted driving is a blessing especially if you’re driving in the dark, in the rain and in heavy traffic. The only time where we lost was on the outskirts of Bangalore, where large-scale road-reconstruction meant that all routes were redirected by the traffic police. Even there, Google Maps and GPS furiously dished out alternate routes, though it was of little help then, since roads normally open for traffic were shut and often dug up.

Yet, it was in Goa that GPS and satellite car navigation came to the most help for me. We were driving from Mangalore to Goa, and we were supposed to reach Paradise Village resort in Calangute by midnight. However, the  journey took longer than expected, and we reached Calangute only by 1.30 AM. Finding the hotel where we were to stay was a pain, since neither the hotel receptionist nor pedestrians could help us find the way to Paradise Resort. Checking my GPS device for directions to a specific point like hotel had not dawned on me. Around this time, my brother who had tele-booked the hotel reservation for us called to inform that Paradise Village was pinned on Google Maps. In
no time, we had fished out the GPS phone. Enter destination, search, find, go, Bingo! We reached gates of Paradise Village around 145 AM, ably assisted by the dots, arrows and violet lines of Google Maps and  BlackBerry GPS.

The next time I used GPS navigation to aid effortless driving was during a trip from Delhi to Kasai, Fagu, Shimla and Hatu in Himachal and back. We started from Delhi early in the morning, and dashed for the Grant Trunk road, which would take us to National Highway 1. Since my co-drivers already had physical maps, BlackBerry and GPS were not put to use until we hit NH1, from where Kasauli lay about 7 hours away. Google Maps was actively in use, with GPS signal working beautifully on the way. We passed Pinjore, Parwanoo, and finally took the turn to the hill station of Kasauli, which was high up in the hills. From there, there was little use for GPS, and we inched our way up the hillside, relying on roadside traffic signs and pedestrians for directions.

Why? The reason is that Google Maps did not have Kasauli in their data base. So, from Dharampur where we took a turn from the Chandigarh-Shimla highway towards the climb to the hills, Google Maps showed our car as a moving dot, but there was no map to help us figure out where we were.

Everything in life doesn’t come for free, and using Google Maps on Blackberry or iPhones underlines that. Surely Google Maps for GPS will have some drawbacks? Yes, they do have. For one, unlike a professional car navigation device which gives voice directions, Google Maps doesnt. This means that you have to keep checking the mobile phone’s screen to figure out which way to take. This is not a problem if you have a co-driver or co-passenger who can check the routes and guide, but otherwise, this is a hassle.

Second, Google Maps is not downloaded on your mobile phone. As you move, map data is constantly downloaded from the Google servers. This means two things: One, if you are in area which doesnt have cellular connectivity, Google Maps on your Blackberry or iPhone with GPS as good as dud. Because, without fast GPRS internet connectivity, the device cannot show you any maps. Second, if you’re a regular GPS user, this also means that you get a heftier mobile phone than  normal. This is because map data downloading and direction-finding are data-intensive operations.

Third, Google Maps is not made specifically for cities and towns, which SatNav and MapMyIndia do. So, if you want to find out a particular restaurant or an ATM with your GPS device or mobile phone, it can work better with city-specific maps purchased from vendors like MapMyIndia or SatNav. However, if you’re bitten by the travel bug and want to journey around in all parts of the country and abroad, nothing suits you better than Google Maps. Though Indian vendors do sell all-India maps, these are not as detailed as I’d like them to be.

Here are some of the mobile phones available in India with GPS receivers. Some may come with maps pre-installed. Check with the seller before buying.

Nokia:
Nokia E75, Nokia E72, Nokia E71, Nokia E66, Nokia 6700 Classic, Nokia 6220 Classic, Nokia 6210 Navigator, Nokia 5800 Xpress Music, Nokia
5730 XPress Music.

Apple iPhone:
iPhone 3G, iPhone 3G S

HTC:
HTC Magic, HTC Touch Diamond2, HTC Touch HD, HTC Touch 3G

BlackBerry:
BlackBerry 8800 series, BlackBerry Curve 8310, BlackBerry Curve 8330, BlackBerry Curve 8350i, BlackBerry Storm, BlackBerry Tour (upcoming),
BlackBerry Bold, BlackBerry Pearl 8110, BlackBerry Pearl 8130, BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220