Navigation application on smartphone device

When I think back on preparing for road trips when I first started driving, I think about how I'd open the bottom drawer of my family’s desk unit, pull out the proper map, determine a route, and write down the instructions on how to get to my intended destination. Then, in the late 90’s there was a website called Mapquest became popular. With Mapquest, you entered your starting point and destination, pushed a button and in a few seconds you had a complete set of instructions and route map that you could print out and take with you. The software did all the work.

Technology continued to evolve and as the population strived to become paperless, so did our navigation aids. The global positioning system (GPS) of earth-orbitting satellites evolved over the course of decades from a military asset created by the Department of Defense until it was eventually made available for civilian use. A series of moderately-priced GPS pocket-sized devices that communicated with this satellite system hit the market and the GPS revolution was born. And it is still evolving today which is why I, for my final technology influence I have settled on...

Technology Influence #10: GPS and Navigation Applications

As dedicated GPS devices became more popular a common complaint about new technology was repeated: I love my <insert favorite technology device here>, but its yet another device I have to carry." Personally, my first GPS device was a dedicated TomTom unit and my complaint was less about carrying the device and more about not having enough charging outlets in my car. I’d often want to charge my iPod and GPS and cell phone while I was in the car - three devices, two outlets. What’s a techie to do?

In the late 2000s Apple solved this problem for me by adding GPS capability to the iPhone 3G. A phone, iPod and GPS unit all in one device. At first Apple did not allow turn-by-turn navigation applications to be included on the iPhone but eventually this changed and I purchased a highly-rated navigation application named Navigon. To be honest though, I really couldn’t abandon my dedicated GPS unit until I bought my iPhone 4. The iPhone 3G was really not powerful enough to handle the processing demands of the Navigon navigation app.

Today my iPhone has 4 separate navigation applications in its library. In addition to Navigon I also have three free navigation apps, Waze, Google Maps, and Apple’s Maps. I mostly use a combination of Navigon and Waze, although I am starting to move to Waze more and more. Waze contains the capability to analyze traffic notices and set optimal routes based on delays in traffic in real time. Navigon has a similar feature but it’s a paid add-on. Like Navigon, Waze gets it feed from online traffic sources but unlike Navigon Waze supplements its traffic data with crowdsourced information. Crowdsourcing is “the practice of obtaining… services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people, and especially from an online community.” While I’m using Waze if I am in heavy traffic or see a broken-down car or a police trap, I can report it with the push of a button, letting other Waze users know what I’ve seen. Conversely, if I’m traveling down the highway Waze may tell me that other Wazers have reported a police car hidden off the road in the next 1/2 mile. As Waze becomes more popular so does its wealth of crowd-sourced data making it increasingly more useful over time.

Other popular navigation application features include reporting the location of traffic cameras, integration with your personal contact list for addresses and integration with other online services such as dining sites and social networks.

I love having navigation capabilities with me always. Nothing is ever “too hard to get to” and any wrong turn is immediately corrected. GPS is one of those military technologies that eventually went on to change the lives of all people for the better.

The End of the Series

OK folks, this is it. The final segment of my 10 part series of technologies that have an influence on my daily life in 2013. I’ve enjoyed detailing each of these and hope you have equally enjoyed reading about them. One thing I’ve learned from doing this list is that Top 10 lists are OK if they are contained within a single article or maybe separated out across a couple articles but 10 articles is too long. My site statistics show me that people are generally not interested in a list like this going on over the course of a month. There will be more Top N lists in the future, but I doubt I will handle them over so many different posts. To those of you who have followed along, I thank you and hope you have enjoyed this series.

Here is a final list of this top 10.