iPod touch Gps?

[HitchHykr]

Even with GPS, the maps app is still worthless without wifi as you wouldn't have access to maps or satellite images. They're downloaded off the internet when you're using the app, and GPS doesn't supply maps. All it does it pinpoint your latitude and longitude.

So unless you just want to see your exact coordinates, relative to nothing, GPS in this case is useless.

You do realize that there are other digital maps available other than Google maps, right? I know it's hard to believe but there were digital map data before Google and you can actually have maps covering the entire US, Europe, etc. locally on your device without download them from the internet as you go. It takes 1.5 - 2GB for the US so you could even use in a 8GB touch.

 

[aethelbert]

You do realize that there are other digital maps available other than Google maps, right? I know it's hard to believe but there were digital map data before Google and you can actually have maps covering the entire US, Europe, etc. locally on your device without download them from the internet as you go. It takes 1.5 - 2GB for the US so you could even use in a 8GB touch.

Yes, something that a third party would have to program, likely charging more than $100. It's pretty low to put something extra in your hardware and say "for only $xxx, it will work." It's like the airline industry these days in America, and they certainly aren't getting respected too much for additional fees.

And if you will actually dig deeper into my previous post, you'll see that the quote that I used was from someone suggesting that GPS be added to make the maps app better. And I said that it wouldn't work, which it wouldn't. Stop condescending on me before you actually understand what I'm saying.

 

[4DThinker]

I needed a phone, and since AT&T has no 3G and poor coverage in my town, I bought the Sprint Instinct yesterday. The Instinct will not steal any iPhone sales for those who have access to AT&T 3g, but for me it came with more "other" features that made it worth having a look at.

This is a GPS thread, so I'll only share what I know relative to GPS usefulness on a pocket device. The Instinct has 'live search'. Type in or say the name of a business like "Pizza" and it quickly locates the closest Pizza places. GPS knows where you are, and it knows where those business are. With that it can list them and their disance from you. It can plot a route for you. It can show you that route or a map of all the businesses and their relative location to you. Planning a trip? It will give you turn-by-turn instructions toward getting there. In a new city, perhaps for a conference? It can give you a walking route if you just want to find a starbucks within walking distance. GPS also locates you. The potential moves into being able to Tag your photos, videos, and emails with your current location. For that matter any content you create using your device could benefit from location-of-creation data.

Does the Touch need GPS? Not if you have GPS already on something else IMO. Since the Touch has no camera, and no easy way to get photos from a camera directly into it, the geotagging isn't needed. The Touch has a great screen though, and already has Google maps. If they could allow saving your local maps to the Touch, then you have all the pieces of a portable GPS device. If you need one, it might as well be part of that great media player you're already carrying around.

 

[Grentz]

Even with GPS, the maps app is still worthless without wifi as you wouldn't have access to maps or satellite images. They're downloaded off the internet when you're using the app, and GPS doesn't supply maps. All it does it pinpoint your latitude and longitude.

So unless you just want to see your exact coordinates, relative to nothing, GPS in this case is useless.

They could easily add offline maps though. Most map sets for other GPS units are around 1gb depending on what you include and which map provider you use. Apple could easily make a deal with one of the mappers and include it in the price of the iPod for not too much more. Remember that there are GPS units on the market with all of NA maps for $199 and even less in some cases. On the OEM and ODM market the licensing is not that expensive.

With 8gb being the smallest, the iPod Touch units have plenty of storage to hold maps and POIs.


I think a lot of you forget just how hot GPS units are right now, they are one of the hotest Consumer Electronics right now in the marketplace, it really could add some driving force to the sales of the iPod touch considering GPS Only units people buy range from $199 to $799+.

 

[aethelbert]

They could easily add offline maps though. Most map sets for other GPS units are around 1gb depending on what you include and which map provider you use. Apple could easily make a deal with one of the mappers and include it in the price of the iPod for not too much more. Remember that there are GPS units on the market with all of NA maps for $199 and even less in some cases. On the OEM and ODM market the licensing is not that expensive.

With 8gb being the smallest, the iPod Touch units have plenty of storage to hold maps and POIs.


I think a lot of you forget just how hot GPS units are right now, they are one of the hotest Consumer Electronics right now in the marketplace, it really could add some driving force to the sales of the iPod touch considering GPS Only units people buy range from $199 to $799+.

Sure you can get maps in at 1GB, but their quality will be horrible. I've used GPS software add ons for other devices, and even coming in at 2GB, the map quality is pretty bad. Also, the GPS devices that come in at $199 aren't exactly your best bet... Even with storage starting at 8GB, not many people will want to bloat their devices up with something that few would use. And what do they preload, seeing as this is sold internationally? Do we have a different model for every country with different maps? That's a mess waiting to happen. Face it, people wouldn't buy this to be their main GPS device when other brands would exceed the quality of navigation/GPS at the same price point. They buy it to be a PMP and in more limited cases, a PDA. Now some people think that it needs a 5+ MP camera (with optical zoom of course...) and GPS all in a thinner profile, which is just pushing it.

Lets look at other companies who have tried to put every possible piece of crap into a device. It simply doesn't work. Let's not forget that the only real new feature of the new iPhone is GPS (3g isn't a feature as much as a speed bump). It's pretty unlikely that the iPod would get basically everything (that applies) that the iPhone got and more (seeing as people expect more than GPS in the 2G...).

Without cell tower location, it would be slow as hell, too. The iPhone got it because other phones have it. But I don't see any media players with it. Most people (remember, this forum doesn't represent most people) wouldn't use it, which is exactly against Apple's philosophy. Add things that most will use, leave out things that only a limited number would use. They'd also be running two different systems: one with maps stored on the device (your suggested iPod), one with them streaming from the internet (current iPhone). That's just a mess when it comes to updates and whatnot.

Even the iPhone isn't designed for cross-country navigation, more so for finding directions across town to the local pizzeria. If the intent was to compete with standalone GPS devices, we would be seeing similar traits in terms of turn by turn, probably landscape mode, etc.

GPS is wanted, not needed. And for that, it probably won't be added for a few more years until the competition has/has announced it.

 

[HitchHykr]

Sure you can get maps in at 1GB, but their quality will be horrible. I've used GPS software add ons for other devices, and even coming in at 2GB, the map quality is pretty bad.

I don't know what you have used in the past but I have TomTom installed on an HP iPaq with maps for the entire US and the quality is perfectly fine. So this point is simply BS.

Also, the GPS devices that come in at $199 aren't exactly your best bet... Even with storage starting at 8GB, not many people will want to bloat their devices up with something that few would use. And what do they preload, seeing as this is sold internationally? Do we have a different model for every country with different maps? That's a mess waiting to happen.

I'm not asking Apple to provide it for us, I'm capable of purchasing and installing my own software, I know I'm buying an Apple product but I don't need to be babysat by Apple. I just wish that Apple would allow third parties to provide this functionality. I just want to have the choice, choice is good.

Without cell tower location, it would be slow as hell, too.

This simply isn't true. Anyone that has used a standalone GPS device or has software like TomTom installed in their PDA would know this.

Even the iPhone isn't designed for cross-country navigation, more so for finding directions across town to the local pizzeria. If the intent was to compete with standalone GPS devices, we would be seeing similar traits in terms of turn by turn, probably landscape mode, etc.

You are arguing what it is, not what it could be. No one is denying that the poor-mans GPS navigation provided by the current iPhone is lacking.

GPS is wanted, not needed. And for that, it probably won't be added for a few more years until the competition has/has announced it.

No one needs a portable multimedia player, no one needs an iPhone. All that we really need is food, water and shelter. To argue about needs vs. wants is a bit silly. Companies provide products and features based on what people want and what they are willing to pay for it.

 

[aethelbert]

I don't know what you have used in the past but I have TomTom installed on an HP iPaq with maps for the entire US and the quality is perfectly fine. So this point is simply BS.

Compared to what is available in the current maps app, the quality is terrible. And to download that quality of maps to the device would take up way too much space.

I'm not asking Apple to provide it for us, I'm capable of purchasing and installing my own software, I know I'm buying an Apple product but I don't need to be babysat by Apple. I just wish that Apple would allow third parties to provide this functionality. I just want to have the choice, choice is good.

The problem here is that they'd essentially be putting hardware in the device and sending the message of "maybe someone will develop something to make this work, maybe not. If so, you can fork out your own money for it." It's a cost that they would have to pay and if it's not used by the majority, it becomes a financial and technological waste.

This simply isn't true. Anyone that has used a standalone GPS device or has software like TomTom installed in their PDA would know this.

Compared to A-GPS, it is much much slower. Having the cell towers give a general vicinity for the satellites to work with significantly speeds up the process.

You are arguing what it is, not what it could be. No one is denying that the poor-mans GPS navigation provided by the current iPhone is lacking.

Yeah yeah, I know. The iPod touch shouldn't be just an iPod, but a do-it-all super computer/camera in your pocket 🙄

What it could be isn't the point. What it can realistically be is the matter, and that includes what it can realistically be in the business sphere as well with regards to revenue and profit.

No one needs a portable multimedia player, no one needs an iPhone. All that we really need is food, water and shelter. To argue about needs vs. wants is a bit silly. Companies provide products and features based on what people want and what they are willing to pay for it.

I'm not arguing needs and wants of the person, I'm arguing needs and wants of a product for it to stay competitive... Last time I checked, your iPod doesn't need water to hold market-share. Believe it or not, companies primarially act in their own interests with regard to how much they can profit, not in the interests of their customers. Sometimes these lines cross, though. Point is that the iPod line isn't in need of cameras, GPS, or missile launchers as they don't exist in the competition.

Look at the iPod lines in the past years. Apple has typically lagged behind in terms of specs but they've always kept the pricing high with huge profit margins. It makes no historical sense for them to lower profit margins and add something entirely new into the media player market.

Sure you can add the chip, but if it's just gonna be sitting idle for most people who don't want to spend €xxx on software to utilize GPS, it's a complete waste in production efforts and costs, not to mention the valuable space inside of that casing.

The internal parts of the device are also packed very densely in the casing. There isn't really any room to add another chip without making the device bigger, which is against their general direction of progress.

As it was said a while ago, the iPod touch is a like a set of training wheels to get people used to the iPhone. It's just a nice afterthought and as you can tell by watching some of Apple's presentations, it gets little attention. Now with the iPhone being launched in so many nations, they're going to be pushing the iPhone. The iPod touch isn't really in their lineup to be a flagship device, but it's more likely there to increase the desire in users for an iPhone. And that can't happen if the iPod is literally an iPhone-sans-phone.

 

[Hawkeye411]

Wait! They made the iPhone to do GPS navigation?????
Didn't thy make the iPod to play music so why does the iPhone play music then?

I know some people would want to confiscate my Apple products once I say this, but I'll take my chances.

I use my iPod touch as a....PDA!!!!

Oh noooooooo......Steve is pissed!

My iPod Touch is a PDA that, like most PDA's, plays music and videos. This is really nothing new. I had a Sony Clei UX40 that also played music and videos and had wifi, email, web browsing, and a camera (both pics and video) about 2 years ago. It cost me close to $1000! GPS would be a great addition to the Touch.
🙂

 

[Grentz]

Compared to what is available in the current maps app, the quality is terrible. And to download that quality of maps to the device would take up way too much space.


The problem here is that they'd essentially be putting hardware in the device and sending the message of "maybe someone will develop something to make this work, maybe not. If so, you can fork out your own money for it." It's a cost that they would have to pay and if it's not used by the majority, it becomes a financial and technological waste.


Compared to A-GPS, it is much much slower. Having the cell towers give a general vicinity for the satellites to work with significantly speeds up the process.


Yeah yeah, I know. The iPod touch shouldn't be just an iPod, but a do-it-all super computer/camera in your pocket 🙄

What it could be isn't the point. What it can realistically be is the matter, and that includes what it can realistically be in the business sphere as well with regards to revenue and profit.


I'm not arguing needs and wants of the person, I'm arguing needs and wants of a product for it to stay competitive... Last time I checked, your iPod doesn't need water to hold market-share. Believe it or not, companies primarially act in their own interests with regard to how much they can profit, not in the interests of their customers. Sometimes these lines cross, though. Point is that the iPod line isn't in need of cameras, GPS, or missile launchers as they don't exist in the competition.

Look at the iPod lines in the past years. Apple has typically lagged behind in terms of specs but they've always kept the pricing high with huge profit margins. It makes no historical sense for them to lower profit margins and add something entirely new into the media player market.

Sure you can add the chip, but if it's just gonna be sitting idle for most people who don't want to spend €xxx on software to utilize GPS, it's a complete waste in production efforts and costs, not to mention the valuable space inside of that casing.

The internal parts of the device are also packed very densely in the casing. There isn't really any room to add another chip without making the device bigger, which is against their general direction of progress.

As it was said a while ago, the iPod touch is a like a set of training wheels to get people used to the iPhone. It's just a nice afterthought and as you can tell by watching some of Apple's presentations, it gets little attention. Now with the iPhone being launched in so many nations, they're going to be pushing the iPhone. The iPod touch isn't really in their lineup to be a flagship device, but it's more likely there to increase the desire in users for an iPhone. And that can't happen if the iPod is literally an iPhone-sans-phone.

I dont want to dive any further with you cause you are talking about things you dont know about. It is clear by what you are saying.

I was a GPS beta tester for years for a few major mobile GPS providers along with selling GPS units and working with many different Consumer electronic companies, and the ideas you are spitting as facts are just plain wrong (hint, lookup what A-GPS is and also look in the lower right corner on Google Maps 😉 ).

Its all opinion, in the end Apple comes up with what they do and how they do it. Your ideas speak strongly against apple ever bringing some of the iPhone apps to the iPod Touch, and yet thats what they did in January?