My First Complaint: No "My Location" Google Maps Feature

[lilnyc]

As an iPhone owner since iDay (America, June 29), I have not voiced petty complaints, and have been very happy with my iPhone. No 3G, okay I bought an OQO with Verizon Broadband. No Flash, okay I'll wait. However, now almost everyone with a cell phone EXCEPT iPhone owners gets to take advantage of Google maps' 'My Location' feature with GPS-like functionality. I was JUST lost and had to ask a clerk for the zip code to find it.

http://www.appleinsider.com/article...ps_feature_could_simulate_gps_on_iphones.html

I'm a pedestrian in NYC. Sometimes I hop into a cab with a driver without a clue, or maybe the traffic's bad where I am going so I end up spending too much and would have benefitted from taking a cab. Google maps on the iPhone does not show NYC street traffic -- just highway. I also get lost on un-numbered streets in New York City, and I don't venture to Brooklyn or Queens for fear of getting totally lost. Why again is the iPhone behind the ball on this major update with Google maps that benefits everyone else BUT us?

 

[72930]

If you Jailbreak the phone, you can install Navizon which does this

 

[Drumjim85]

Or you can wait a few more months ....

 

[DotComCTO]

I'm running it on my Blackberry. I live north of NYC. I'm not overly impressed with the feature. It's not that accurate for me. Best I get at my house is accuracy to 1700 meters. Not sure what I'd get in NYC, but it better be tons better than 1700 meters! Otherwise it would be pretty useless.

--DotComCTO

...from my iPhone

 

[hexonxonx]

If you Jailbreak the phone, you can install Navizon which does this

Some people don't want to void their warrantys. Also, Navizon seems pretty worthless, I installed it, registered, all I get is password and username not recognized. Ok nice work there Navizon. I'll just use my Garmin GPS, thanks for nothing. Oh and when I did get Navizon working, my location was off by nearly a mile.

 

[Nicolasdec]

I hope the next software update brings google maps V2.

 

[rogersmj]

Some people don't want to void their warrantys.

Oh. My. GOD.

I'm just going to keep this in a sticky note so I can keep copying and pasting it:

Jailbreaking the iPhone does NOT void your warranty. It is undone as simply as clicking "Restore" in iTunes and Apple will never know that it was jailbroken. You're just installing some software, you're not modifying the device in any way!

I'm sick of people spreading this crap.

As far as complaining about why Google Maps has no "My Location" feature...uh, because the iPhone doesn't have GPS and getting your location from cell towers is sketchy at best. You really think Apple would put a feature on their flagship device that doesn't really work? I'd love to have my location too, but until they figure out how to shoehorn a GPS module into this thing without draining the battery in an hour, we have it the way it is. You sound like you need an actual GPS device if you need to know precisely where you are...the iPhone was never, ever billed as a GPS device.

 

[speakerwizard]

my location is only in beta, apple will not deploy a 3rd party service in beta on their current 'hot product' for consumers, when it is out of beta i expect a software update.

 

[hexonxonx]

Oh. My. GOD.

I'm just going to keep this in a sticky note so I can keep copying and pasting it:

Jailbreaking the iPhone does NOT void your warranty. It is undone as simply as clicking "Restore" in iTunes and Apple will never know that it was jailbroken. You're just installing some software, you're not modifying the device in any way!

I'm sick of people spreading this crap.

But if you can't reformat it before you have to send it to Apple, then YES your warranty is void. Now stop spreading this crap that the warranty will not be void. OK?

 

[rogersmj]

But if you can't reformat it before you have to send it to Apple, then YES your warranty is void. Now stop spreading this crap that the warranty will not be void. OK?

Voiding the warranty implies that you've terminated the warranty completely. That's not true in this case...since you can just click restore and the iPhone is warranty-serviceable again. If the thing is so dead that you can't even restore it, then they're not going to be able to tell that you jailbroke it either. If you can't enter recovery mode and restore, then neither can they connect to it and check out the software. So NO, it does not void the warranty.

 

[kdarling]

But if you can't reformat it before you have to send it to Apple, then YES your warranty is void. Now stop spreading this crap that the warranty will not be void. OK?

Read it before talking about it. The warranty is FOR HARDWARE ONLY.

Apple does not warrant any software. Not even their own. Not the OS, not the apps, not the updates, not anything software related.

That is why Apple NEVER says, "your warranty is void, if you mod". Instead they state the very clever, true but meaningless phrase, "software modifications are not covered by the warranty". Well, duh, that's because it doesn't even cover their own modifications . But it's scary sounding. Boo.

So, no, software mods don't void the hardware warranty. But the effect is the same because Apple has decided to not honor it (a very different concept.. possibly illegal) if you mod.

Note that not all stores go with that rule. There are reports that some stores help out people who have simply mod'd their phone and get stuck. After all, you really don't want to tick off hundreds of thousands of customers if you don't have to.