PETALING JAYA: Everyone knows how directionally challenged I am. Years ago, I would often have to allocate an hour to my travelling time when driving to an unfamiliar location, or a place that I hadn’t been to regularly over the past two weeks.

I’d spend that hour wandering about in circles, trying to get my bearings or spot a landmark that would lead me to my destination.

My sense of direction is so bad that I have even gotten lost within a few kilometres of my own home in Kedah when I was growing up. My parents can attest to this sad, but true fact.

These days I carry a GPS (Global Positioning System) unit around with me whenever I drive and since then I’ve never needed to spend time — and petrol — wandering about looking for my destination.

Also, almost every smartphone on the market today, be it the Apple iPhone, a Nokia or a Sony Ericsson, comes integrated with a GPS chipset, so every directionally challenged person like me is saved from making impromptu “crop circles” in the landscape.

A bit of history

In case you don’t already know, the GPS was originally developed by the US Navy for navigation at sea but was opened up for civilian use in 1983.

The technology itself is free to use and once you have purchased the GPS hardware, locating your position on the globe is theoretically free of charge.

But major GPS hardware makers like Garmin, Magellan and others have since built a business around bundling maps together with the GPS hardware, which require a subscription or a fee for updates.

These maps overlay stuff that we understand, such as roads, terrain and other useful information, over the basic latitude and longitude information.

Being the core of their business, it’s no surprise that maps made by one company cannot work with software from another, so Garmin maps won’t work with MapKing software, and vice versa.

In essence, proper turn-by-turn navigation as we know it today requires these maps, which turns your GPS hardware from a device that tells you where you are, to one that tells you how to get from here to there.

GPS in phones

The one problem with most modern phones is that most do not come with the appropriate software and maps to really be able to take advantage of the built-in GPS hardware.

Of course, if you have an iPhone 3G or 3GS, you’ll already have both the hardware and the Google maps software that you can use for some basic turn-by-turn instructions (but without spoken-word directions).

The iPhone’s built-in mapping software is very basic but gets the job done when you need it the most.

Most GPS-enabled smartphones can actually install the very same service and it’s a free downloadable service from Google — just point your mobile phone’s browser to m.google.com/maps and follow the instructions to download the Java version of Google Maps to your mobile.

The main advantage of Google Maps for mobile is that the maps are extensive and pretty accurate, and getting better every day.

But what if you don’t have GPS hardware built in to your really basic handphone?

Well, believe it or not, even without GPS hardware, your mobile phone can install Google Maps for mobile, and the application can pinpoint your location using information gained from the cell tower that your phone is currently connected to.

Of course, using cell tower location isn’t as accurate as using real GPS, and Google Maps will only be able to pinpoint your location to within about a kilometre or so.

This isn’t good enough for those of you who need true turn-by-turn get-to-your-location directions but it’ll get you out of a bind when you have no idea where you are or if you’re headed in the right direction.

I have used my basic non-GPS mobile with Google Maps and its cell-tower location technology to find my way to a friend’s house.

The main advantage of Google Maps is that it gives you turn-by-turn directions, works on a variety of devices, and is free except for your data charges.

More advanced applications

If you have a Windows Mobile or a Nokia Series 60 smartphone with GPS, you can spend some money and opt for a more robust software package that gives you true spoken-word turn-by-turn driving directions.

Nokia smartphones with built-in GPS hardware already come pre-installed with a basic mapping and navigation application called Nokia Maps, although getting voice navigation and updated maps requires you to pay a subscription fee.

There are quite a number of third-party software makers producing GPS navigation applicatons, but only one or two actually have local maps updated enough for use in this country.

For Windows Mobile smartphones, you essentially have a choice of two — Garmin Mobile XT or MapKing.

Both do the job and can be found at a number of local retailers specialising in GPS units, although for our money, we’d opt for Garmin’s solution simply because it’s a little easier to use.

Nokia S60 users basically only have one choice other than the one built into their phones, and that’s Garmin Mobile XT for Series60.

Using any of these navigation devices, you get spoken word turn-by-turn directions and access to sites like malfreemaps.com, which offer free, frequently updated, community-run maps for the Garmin.

MapKing users can get their map updates from malsingmaps.com which — apart from producing Garmin maps — also have MapKing versions for users using the software.

Funnily enough, iPhone users are at a distinct disadvantage here because navigation software for the product is not currently available in this country.

For example, the popular TomTom Navigator and CoPilot are not sold in the Malaysian Apps Store and even if they were, there’s still the question of getting a Malaysian map.

Here’s hoping that Garmin realises this and decides to make Mobile XT for the iPhone.

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m.google.com/maps

malfreemaps.com

malsingmaps.com

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