Good news: Kindle reader is now available for Android phones.
I had a couple of free but boring Kindle books already downloaded, so I splurged at bought a $0.99 book by Don Brown (NOT Dan Brown) called Treason.
My friend Peter, who reads lots of books on his iPod, has been educating me about Don's books and similar other thillers which are put out by Christian publishing companies.
They are actually usually light on the Christianity parts, embedded here and there, and have a LOT of violence. But no sex.
And they are often very inexpensive and sometimes even free.
According to Peter (I haven't checked myself :-)), some of these same authors also have books from other publishers and in those, sex is definitely allowed.
Bodice rippers are also common free items on Kindle and now iBooks. I downloaded one and am amazed that I really did read these things as a teenager. I also used to love s'mores.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Photo Geotagging
I haven't been taking as many pictures the last few years and so I had taken my eye off one of the nicest developing features: Geotagging.
Very simply, this is a way to use GPS information to identify where a picture was taken. It can be done manually, using applications like Picasa to add the information, or - hurray - it can be added automatically.
The Android platform cameras add the geotag if you set that to be your preference (it is the default, I believe). iPhone will also do this.
There does seem to be a hitch in that you need to make sure your device can be located first. I notice that about 2/3 of my pictures aren't tagged.
There are also SD card that have both wifi and geotagging built right onto the card. I have ordered one from Eye-Fi to use in my Canon camera.
I'll report on that later!
Meanwhile, using Picasa to group pictures and use the map panel to locate a spot works fairly well for manual adding. Then when you share the album or pictures, the geotag panel shows up when you click on that photograph. Not bad.
Very simply, this is a way to use GPS information to identify where a picture was taken. It can be done manually, using applications like Picasa to add the information, or - hurray - it can be added automatically.
The Android platform cameras add the geotag if you set that to be your preference (it is the default, I believe). iPhone will also do this.
There does seem to be a hitch in that you need to make sure your device can be located first. I notice that about 2/3 of my pictures aren't tagged.
There are also SD card that have both wifi and geotagging built right onto the card. I have ordered one from Eye-Fi to use in my Canon camera.
I'll report on that later!
Meanwhile, using Picasa to group pictures and use the map panel to locate a spot works fairly well for manual adding. Then when you share the album or pictures, the geotag panel shows up when you click on that photograph. Not bad.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Have PMS Will Travel
Ah - time to plan a summer trip to Vermont.
I'm just itching to dig into the TV and internet issues, but first I have to get there.
Getting there means usually flying to Boston and then renting a car. I hope no one is surprised that renting a car for 2.5 weeks in the summer out of Boston costs about twice as much as the plane ticket.
First: plane
At the end of April I flew to Boston from SFO on JetBlue.
I actually prefer to fly red eyes because I cannot stand to lose a day sitting in the air, even though I love looking out the windows. When you fly the red eye, everyone settles in and sleeps. Bathroom trips are minimal for one and all. Even the children chill out for a few hours.
The best deal for that trip required flying first to Long Beach, CA from SFO, and from there to Boston.
The flight from SFO was packed, of course, and the entire crew seemed to be suffering from a sort of PMS I really hadn't quite experienced even in these days of enhanced security and tension.
We were told multiple times during the boarding process that our bags MUST fit under the seat in front of us. AND if our bags didn't fit, we would be TOLD to make them fit - or else. This was repeated multiple times.
The rest of the blessedly short flight went along these lines. We were reminded NOT to get up and go to the bathrooms no matter how badly we needed to if the seat belt light was on. Then when I had the nerve to ask for orange juice during drink service, I was informed that we had all been told - multiple times! - that the options were: Pepsi, Diet-Pepsi, Sprite, and Water. Period! After waving my hands a bit, a small water was tossed into my lap.
Long Beach turns out to be a tiny airport and the boarding area was tiny with about 8 flights waiting for boarding in a space about 1,500 square feet.
However, the trip to Boston from there and back to SFO was flawless. We were not harangued beyond the normal admonitions and the passengers - except for a few elicit bathroom trips - seemed to be resigned to compliance without additional reminers.
And now I am once again booking with JetBlue. Happily they have renewed non-stops to Boston from San Jose so we can give Long Beach a miss this time around.
As a clarification: why to Boston if I'm going to Vermont?
1. Lots of family in Boston, where I was born.
2. Only 3.5 hours drive to our place
3. Longer and more expensive to fly into Manchester, NH or Burlington (probably cheaper cars) which are still at least 90 minutes from Greensboro.
I used to prefer to fly into Montreal until I almost got left behind due to overbooking on the way back to California. Realizing that there were no more CA flights until the next day and tired of explaining why - as a US citizen - I was headed the wrong way over the border with a Canadian rental car, I re-opted for Boston.
And cars. Cars usually cost 2x the price of the air ticket.
Last summer, I chose the cheapest possible option: Dollar.
Taking the Dollar van from the terminal, we rolled by all the other rental cars lots and then turned down an alley way, crowded with weeds and an abandoned car leaning on the left side.
The rental counter was staffed by young people in flip flops, shorts and a variety of Dollar t-shirts. The carpet was stained and an aroma filled the air.
Right across the street, I could see Hertz. I felt like an illegal immigrant on the Mexican boarder, looking at paradise a few feet away.
My designated car had so many dents and dings that we gave up on noting them all. Half way to New Hampshire, I realized that the cover for the fuses next to my left knee was missing.
To be fair, the car gave me no trouble although the tobacco smell drove me a bit nuts.
This year, I'm renting from Hertz.
I'm just itching to dig into the TV and internet issues, but first I have to get there.
Getting there means usually flying to Boston and then renting a car. I hope no one is surprised that renting a car for 2.5 weeks in the summer out of Boston costs about twice as much as the plane ticket.
First: plane
At the end of April I flew to Boston from SFO on JetBlue.
I actually prefer to fly red eyes because I cannot stand to lose a day sitting in the air, even though I love looking out the windows. When you fly the red eye, everyone settles in and sleeps. Bathroom trips are minimal for one and all. Even the children chill out for a few hours.
The best deal for that trip required flying first to Long Beach, CA from SFO, and from there to Boston.
The flight from SFO was packed, of course, and the entire crew seemed to be suffering from a sort of PMS I really hadn't quite experienced even in these days of enhanced security and tension.
We were told multiple times during the boarding process that our bags MUST fit under the seat in front of us. AND if our bags didn't fit, we would be TOLD to make them fit - or else. This was repeated multiple times.
The rest of the blessedly short flight went along these lines. We were reminded NOT to get up and go to the bathrooms no matter how badly we needed to if the seat belt light was on. Then when I had the nerve to ask for orange juice during drink service, I was informed that we had all been told - multiple times! - that the options were: Pepsi, Diet-Pepsi, Sprite, and Water. Period! After waving my hands a bit, a small water was tossed into my lap.
Long Beach turns out to be a tiny airport and the boarding area was tiny with about 8 flights waiting for boarding in a space about 1,500 square feet.
However, the trip to Boston from there and back to SFO was flawless. We were not harangued beyond the normal admonitions and the passengers - except for a few elicit bathroom trips - seemed to be resigned to compliance without additional reminers.
And now I am once again booking with JetBlue. Happily they have renewed non-stops to Boston from San Jose so we can give Long Beach a miss this time around.
As a clarification: why to Boston if I'm going to Vermont?
1. Lots of family in Boston, where I was born.
2. Only 3.5 hours drive to our place
3. Longer and more expensive to fly into Manchester, NH or Burlington (probably cheaper cars) which are still at least 90 minutes from Greensboro.
I used to prefer to fly into Montreal until I almost got left behind due to overbooking on the way back to California. Realizing that there were no more CA flights until the next day and tired of explaining why - as a US citizen - I was headed the wrong way over the border with a Canadian rental car, I re-opted for Boston.
And cars. Cars usually cost 2x the price of the air ticket.
Last summer, I chose the cheapest possible option: Dollar.
Taking the Dollar van from the terminal, we rolled by all the other rental cars lots and then turned down an alley way, crowded with weeds and an abandoned car leaning on the left side.
The rental counter was staffed by young people in flip flops, shorts and a variety of Dollar t-shirts. The carpet was stained and an aroma filled the air.
Right across the street, I could see Hertz. I felt like an illegal immigrant on the Mexican boarder, looking at paradise a few feet away.
My designated car had so many dents and dings that we gave up on noting them all. Half way to New Hampshire, I realized that the cover for the fuses next to my left knee was missing.
To be fair, the car gave me no trouble although the tobacco smell drove me a bit nuts.
This year, I'm renting from Hertz.
Monday, May 17, 2010
NYC vs Vermont: Which Is More Primitive?
Just back from a half work / half vacation trip to the East Coast - a couple of days in the Boston area, then 5 days in Vermont, followed by about 2.5 days in NYC.
Boston traffic drives me nuts. I'm appalled that I might have to live there some day in the future but given that this is where most of my living relatives reside, it might happen.
And when I say traffic, I don't mean the drivers, which is the usual complaint. It actually seems that lately Boston drivers are not quite as crazy. Fortunately, I learned my city driving in NYC where I spent most of my adult life. New York City driving is aggressive and assertive but generally not nutty. This made dealing with Boston driving a little less horrific.
But these days, it's all about delays and traffic and weird routing. I turned on MyTracks as we left my sister's house in Marblehead. From there we drove 30 miles total, first to pick up my Dad and his girlfriend in Cambridge and then to my cousin's house in Jamaica Plain.
That trip took 90 minutes. 30 miles, 90 minutes on a Saturday afternoon. MyTracks confirmed that we spent 30 of those minutes "stopped".
That's Boston.
In Vermont, there is still no cell phone coverage because no one wants ugly towers on the beautiful hills. However, I did notice a very visible wind power unit.
Then New York. Very sophisticated. Very primitive. Back when I moved to California, I couldn't get cable in my Brooklyn neighborhood because we had "bluestone" sidewalks and the neighbors didn't want their sidewalks ripped up. During the first Gulf War, I really couldn't quite get what the "Mother of all..." referred to because I only got basic VHS and VHF cannels. TV life was pretty much like Vermont in that regard.
On the other hand, I did get to stand about 6 feet away from George HW Bush and General Schwarzkopf as they rode down Broadway for the victory ticker tape parade.
Sun's offices were on Broadway at that time. A couple of years later the offices moved to the World Trade Center. Everyone made it out of those offices on 9/11 thanks in large part to a conscientious Xerox contractor.
When I go to New York, I usually stay with my friend, Pauline, and her family in their loft on Murray Street, in the what used to be covered by the shadow of the WTC, a block away. I really can't do their 9/11 stories justice so I'll leave it at that. There are many more tourists in that part of town now.
Getting around NYC is significantly better than Boston. Pauline and I made it from the Lexington Avenue stop closest to the Metropolitan Museum to the Brooklyn Bridge stop closest to her house in about 15 minutes.
But for those who have never lived in NY or spent a long time there, it is hard to describe just how constrained and primitive life can be there. Basically, to live with the equivalent suburban conveniences requires unimaginable wealth.
- Storage: most places have tiny closets or none. I really felt I'd arrived when my last place in Brooklyn allotted me a 5x10 space in the basement for extra storage.
- Parking: assuming you have a car, you will almost never be able to park it outside your residence.
- If you are lucky, you will have an elevator.
- Doorman? Please!
This is how I would get ready for a car trip:
1. Go find car, usually 2-10 blocks away.
2. Drive back. Double park in front of building.
3. Lock car. Climb stairs. Unlock front door. Lock front door.
4. Climb to 4th floor. Bring down all items (2-5 trips).
5. Lock apartment with each load (this might not be necessary if you have good neighbors).
6. Unlock front door. Put first load on stoop.
7. Lock front door.
8. Take load to car. Unlock car. Put stuff in car.
9. Lock car.
10. Unlock front door. Go in.
11. Lock front door? Is someone climbing the stairs behind you?
12. Unlock front door, but next load on stoop.
13. Repeat until done.
14. Repeat in reverse when you come home.
Michael and Pauline would like to get rid some some stuff they have accumulated in their loft.
Naively, I suggested freecycle. Michael laughed when I described leaving stuff tucked behind my chimney for people to pick up. The whole issue is getting things to the street. Once there, it will take care of itself.
Ah, I am now so spoiled. I can even drive to the supermarket, park, and roll a shopping cart out to my car.
All that being said, I do miss New York.
Now back to technology!
Boston traffic drives me nuts. I'm appalled that I might have to live there some day in the future but given that this is where most of my living relatives reside, it might happen.
And when I say traffic, I don't mean the drivers, which is the usual complaint. It actually seems that lately Boston drivers are not quite as crazy. Fortunately, I learned my city driving in NYC where I spent most of my adult life. New York City driving is aggressive and assertive but generally not nutty. This made dealing with Boston driving a little less horrific.
But these days, it's all about delays and traffic and weird routing. I turned on MyTracks as we left my sister's house in Marblehead. From there we drove 30 miles total, first to pick up my Dad and his girlfriend in Cambridge and then to my cousin's house in Jamaica Plain.
That trip took 90 minutes. 30 miles, 90 minutes on a Saturday afternoon. MyTracks confirmed that we spent 30 of those minutes "stopped".
That's Boston.
In Vermont, there is still no cell phone coverage because no one wants ugly towers on the beautiful hills. However, I did notice a very visible wind power unit.
Then New York. Very sophisticated. Very primitive. Back when I moved to California, I couldn't get cable in my Brooklyn neighborhood because we had "bluestone" sidewalks and the neighbors didn't want their sidewalks ripped up. During the first Gulf War, I really couldn't quite get what the "Mother of all..." referred to because I only got basic VHS and VHF cannels. TV life was pretty much like Vermont in that regard.
On the other hand, I did get to stand about 6 feet away from George HW Bush and General Schwarzkopf as they rode down Broadway for the victory ticker tape parade.
Sun's offices were on Broadway at that time. A couple of years later the offices moved to the World Trade Center. Everyone made it out of those offices on 9/11 thanks in large part to a conscientious Xerox contractor.
When I go to New York, I usually stay with my friend, Pauline, and her family in their loft on Murray Street, in the what used to be covered by the shadow of the WTC, a block away. I really can't do their 9/11 stories justice so I'll leave it at that. There are many more tourists in that part of town now.
Getting around NYC is significantly better than Boston. Pauline and I made it from the Lexington Avenue stop closest to the Metropolitan Museum to the Brooklyn Bridge stop closest to her house in about 15 minutes.
But for those who have never lived in NY or spent a long time there, it is hard to describe just how constrained and primitive life can be there. Basically, to live with the equivalent suburban conveniences requires unimaginable wealth.
- Storage: most places have tiny closets or none. I really felt I'd arrived when my last place in Brooklyn allotted me a 5x10 space in the basement for extra storage.
- Parking: assuming you have a car, you will almost never be able to park it outside your residence.
- If you are lucky, you will have an elevator.
- Doorman? Please!
This is how I would get ready for a car trip:
1. Go find car, usually 2-10 blocks away.
2. Drive back. Double park in front of building.
3. Lock car. Climb stairs. Unlock front door. Lock front door.
4. Climb to 4th floor. Bring down all items (2-5 trips).
5. Lock apartment with each load (this might not be necessary if you have good neighbors).
6. Unlock front door. Put first load on stoop.
7. Lock front door.
8. Take load to car. Unlock car. Put stuff in car.
9. Lock car.
10. Unlock front door. Go in.
11. Lock front door? Is someone climbing the stairs behind you?
12. Unlock front door, but next load on stoop.
13. Repeat until done.
14. Repeat in reverse when you come home.
Michael and Pauline would like to get rid some some stuff they have accumulated in their loft.
Naively, I suggested freecycle. Michael laughed when I described leaving stuff tucked behind my chimney for people to pick up. The whole issue is getting things to the street. Once there, it will take care of itself.
Ah, I am now so spoiled. I can even drive to the supermarket, park, and roll a shopping cart out to my car.
All that being said, I do miss New York.
Now back to technology!
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Thank you Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton for Geocaching
Whatever you might think of Ronald Reagan fan, we owe him a big thank you for making GPS available for civilian use and thereby enabling Geocaching, one of my favorite GPS activities.
In 1983, Korean Airlines flight 007 (sad coincidence) was shot down by the Soviets when it inadvertently flew over Sakhalin Island airspace. As a result of that incident, President Reagan mandated that GPS be liberated from restrictions limiting it to military use and be made available for civilians. By 1994, this process was complete, although the accuracy for civilian use was limited to about 1000 feet. Bill Clinton fixed this during his last year in office and accuracy was improved to about 65 feet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Positioning_System#Precise_monitoring
Within a few days, the geocache had been set up and found.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocaching
So thank you Ron and Bill!
Geocaching is a contemporary, GPS-based remake of traditions like Letterboxing, which have a long history of adult hide and seek.
Very simply, the idea is to place an object someplace hidden and then post the GPS coordinates to a site such as geocaching.com. There are a variety of different types of caches as well as difficulty ratings.
The most simple caches will leave a small log and pen or pencil for visitors to note their visit. Sometimes, the idea is to take something from the cache and leave something in return. There are other variations such as finding one clue that leads to another location and so forth. Difficulty of finding the cache and difficulty terrain are also rated and there is usually some sort of encrypted clue.
For example, several years ago a couple here in Mountain View placed geocaches at each stop on the Light Rail line terminating in Mountain View. Each cache provided a certain clue and for the person who assembled all the clues, this would tell them where to find the last cache which held a free Light Rail ticket.
I have done geocaching here, England, and Paris and about 6 or 7 years ago bought a handheld Megellan GPS. No longer needed!
Strictly speaking, you don't really need a GPS. Since there is always a question of inaccuracy in either determining the coordinates to begin with or finding them later, often you can do just as well by getting close and then using your best observational skills (or the clue) to do the rest.
It can be very frustrating to have the GPS say you should be standing right on top of the cache and then moments later have it tell you that you are 20 feet away. And then sometimes caches get "muggled" - discovered by people who stumble on them completely by accident.
In addition to the GPS for navigation, there are a number of other GPS apps as well as some made specifically for geocaching and other letterboxing-type activities. The one I know the best is GeoBeagle.
And if you don't have a GPS, you can still look up the coordinates on basic mapping like Google Maps.
I have to admit that I have yet to put out a geocache of my own. I have an idea to create a sort of non-linear story, linking a collection of caches together but so far I am strictly a consumer.
In 1983, Korean Airlines flight 007 (sad coincidence) was shot down by the Soviets when it inadvertently flew over Sakhalin Island airspace. As a result of that incident, President Reagan mandated that GPS be liberated from restrictions limiting it to military use and be made available for civilians. By 1994, this process was complete, although the accuracy for civilian use was limited to about 1000 feet. Bill Clinton fixed this during his last year in office and accuracy was improved to about 65 feet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Positioning_System#Precise_monitoring
Within a few days, the geocache had been set up and found.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocaching
So thank you Ron and Bill!
Geocaching is a contemporary, GPS-based remake of traditions like Letterboxing, which have a long history of adult hide and seek.
Very simply, the idea is to place an object someplace hidden and then post the GPS coordinates to a site such as geocaching.com. There are a variety of different types of caches as well as difficulty ratings.
The most simple caches will leave a small log and pen or pencil for visitors to note their visit. Sometimes, the idea is to take something from the cache and leave something in return. There are other variations such as finding one clue that leads to another location and so forth. Difficulty of finding the cache and difficulty terrain are also rated and there is usually some sort of encrypted clue.
For example, several years ago a couple here in Mountain View placed geocaches at each stop on the Light Rail line terminating in Mountain View. Each cache provided a certain clue and for the person who assembled all the clues, this would tell them where to find the last cache which held a free Light Rail ticket.
I have done geocaching here, England, and Paris and about 6 or 7 years ago bought a handheld Megellan GPS. No longer needed!
Strictly speaking, you don't really need a GPS. Since there is always a question of inaccuracy in either determining the coordinates to begin with or finding them later, often you can do just as well by getting close and then using your best observational skills (or the clue) to do the rest.
It can be very frustrating to have the GPS say you should be standing right on top of the cache and then moments later have it tell you that you are 20 feet away. And then sometimes caches get "muggled" - discovered by people who stumble on them completely by accident.
In addition to the GPS for navigation, there are a number of other GPS apps as well as some made specifically for geocaching and other letterboxing-type activities. The one I know the best is GeoBeagle.
And if you don't have a GPS, you can still look up the coordinates on basic mapping like Google Maps.
I have to admit that I have yet to put out a geocache of my own. I have an idea to create a sort of non-linear story, linking a collection of caches together but so far I am strictly a consumer.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Leaving Tracks
There are so many map and GPS-based apps that it would be impractical to catalog them all or even rank them, particularly with the list growing every day.
Following are some discussions of few that I like or appreciate. I find I particularly like the ones that are meant to be used on a device like the iPhone (not the iPod) or the DROID. Fortunately, many of these apps are available on both devices.
My Tracks has to be very high on my list. After determining your position, you can click to turn on position recording as you drive, walk, bike, or otherwise move around. I use it out both curiousity and practicality to figure out how far my morning walk truly is, or a round trip biking to the farmers' market. I then save the ones I like the best and upload them to my personal Google map.
I find that Google Earth isn't quite as compelling on the small form factor of the DROID but the Sky Map, broken out separately is fascinating and beautiful although I find it a bit disorienting to use, as I only recognize a few commonly known features learned way back in Girl Scouts.
There are many apps that are great in combining maps and positioning with finding out what services or restaurants are in the vicinity (I like Urbanspoon and Yelp but there are others). I'm also rather fond of Glympse (recommended by my friend Janis, who works with the developers), which has the ability to send your current position to another user. Very handy for letting people where my office is or meeting up.
Next Up: Geocaching
Following are some discussions of few that I like or appreciate. I find I particularly like the ones that are meant to be used on a device like the iPhone (not the iPod) or the DROID. Fortunately, many of these apps are available on both devices.
My Tracks has to be very high on my list. After determining your position, you can click to turn on position recording as you drive, walk, bike, or otherwise move around. I use it out both curiousity and practicality to figure out how far my morning walk truly is, or a round trip biking to the farmers' market. I then save the ones I like the best and upload them to my personal Google map.
I find that Google Earth isn't quite as compelling on the small form factor of the DROID but the Sky Map, broken out separately is fascinating and beautiful although I find it a bit disorienting to use, as I only recognize a few commonly known features learned way back in Girl Scouts.
There are many apps that are great in combining maps and positioning with finding out what services or restaurants are in the vicinity (I like Urbanspoon and Yelp but there are others). I'm also rather fond of Glympse (recommended by my friend Janis, who works with the developers), which has the ability to send your current position to another user. Very handy for letting people where my office is or meeting up.
Next Up: Geocaching
Friday, April 2, 2010
So: What is "GPS"?
My friend Peter reminds me that I haven't posted this week.
It was busy! Two big dances for the annual Playford English Country Dance Ball which included house guests, a seder, another normal English dance, a trip to SF to see the terrific art work of a fellow alum from Kirkland College, and Easter looming as well.
But part of the problem was: how to talk about this rather complicated and overloaded term "GPS".
Coincidentally, as I was riding in the elevator back to our car in the SF garage, I overheard a conversation that captures what I mean.
"So we're going to go to Helen's now, right? What is Helen's address? Do you have it?"
"Yes, I'll give it to you. Oh, but do you have GPS?"
"Yeah."
"OK, I'll put it into your GPS."
They meant a navigation system that uses GPS, of course, but it's worth spending a little time to tease apart some of the underpinnings.
GPS means Global Position System, which is a space-based navigation system offered by the US government. Using a set of satellites in space, control and monitoring sites on Earth, a GPS receiver is capable of determining your position on the planet, including elevation.
This information can then be used in a wide variety of ways, some of the most useful include combining data with maps for applications such as driving navigation, tracking, letter boxing, and more, more, more.
The iPhone and the DROID both have genuine GPS chips in them, similar to what are found in GPS navigation systems for cars. Different chips sets have varying quality and reliability characteristics.
The iPod Touch does not have true GPS. It is possible to perform a quick and less accurate substitute GPS using the wireless network address. This is sufficient to enable a number of interesting and useful apps, but you will find that there are a number that iTunes will not let you install.
Probably the most common GPS app for most people is car / travel navigation. This combines the now-familiar ability to calculate a travel route from point to point (e.g. using Google Maps on your computer) with turn-by-turn directions with voice prompting, tracking your progress along the route. These are now common integrated add-ons in car purchases and they can be also bought separately and perched on dashboards, powered by the standard old "cigarette lighter" port on the dash.
Both the iPhone and the Droid have the advantage of portability. Navigation no longer has to be restricted to the car.
A huge benefit for the Droid (and general Android platform, I believe), is that a full-featured GPS navigation system, complete with voice prompting, is included for free. I am told that on the day that the Droid was announced, the stock price of GPS navigators such as Tom Tom dropped by a significant percent.
GPS naviation apps for the iPhone are not free (as of this moment) and accessing the system and specific features (such as voice prompting) also require additional yearly fees.
For me this makes the Droid quite compelling, but from a feature comparison perspective, the two are very comparable.
Next Up: Other fun and useful location based services
It was busy! Two big dances for the annual Playford English Country Dance Ball which included house guests, a seder, another normal English dance, a trip to SF to see the terrific art work of a fellow alum from Kirkland College, and Easter looming as well.
But part of the problem was: how to talk about this rather complicated and overloaded term "GPS".
Coincidentally, as I was riding in the elevator back to our car in the SF garage, I overheard a conversation that captures what I mean.
"So we're going to go to Helen's now, right? What is Helen's address? Do you have it?"
"Yes, I'll give it to you. Oh, but do you have GPS?"
"Yeah."
"OK, I'll put it into your GPS."
They meant a navigation system that uses GPS, of course, but it's worth spending a little time to tease apart some of the underpinnings.
GPS means Global Position System, which is a space-based navigation system offered by the US government. Using a set of satellites in space, control and monitoring sites on Earth, a GPS receiver is capable of determining your position on the planet, including elevation.
This information can then be used in a wide variety of ways, some of the most useful include combining data with maps for applications such as driving navigation, tracking, letter boxing, and more, more, more.
The iPhone and the DROID both have genuine GPS chips in them, similar to what are found in GPS navigation systems for cars. Different chips sets have varying quality and reliability characteristics.
The iPod Touch does not have true GPS. It is possible to perform a quick and less accurate substitute GPS using the wireless network address. This is sufficient to enable a number of interesting and useful apps, but you will find that there are a number that iTunes will not let you install.
Probably the most common GPS app for most people is car / travel navigation. This combines the now-familiar ability to calculate a travel route from point to point (e.g. using Google Maps on your computer) with turn-by-turn directions with voice prompting, tracking your progress along the route. These are now common integrated add-ons in car purchases and they can be also bought separately and perched on dashboards, powered by the standard old "cigarette lighter" port on the dash.
Both the iPhone and the Droid have the advantage of portability. Navigation no longer has to be restricted to the car.
A huge benefit for the Droid (and general Android platform, I believe), is that a full-featured GPS navigation system, complete with voice prompting, is included for free. I am told that on the day that the Droid was announced, the stock price of GPS navigators such as Tom Tom dropped by a significant percent.
GPS naviation apps for the iPhone are not free (as of this moment) and accessing the system and specific features (such as voice prompting) also require additional yearly fees.
For me this makes the Droid quite compelling, but from a feature comparison perspective, the two are very comparable.
Next Up: Other fun and useful location based services
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