Google Maps ‘my location’ does not need GPS

Google Maps for Mobile’s new feature called ‘my location’ just got announced today. It is a new feature that puts a blue dot on Google Maps showing where you are. The best part is that it does not require your mobile device to have GPS hardware. whether you do, that’s OK, Google Maps will use that data for your blue dot. But whether you don’t it will approximate where you are using the cell tower you are connected to at the duration - in which case you’ll get a light blue circle around your dot.

If you do have a GPS-enabled device, My Location can actually complement it. My Location kicks in faster than GPS in most

cases, so you can access your location even faster on the map. It additionally works reliably indoors (unlike GPS) and doesn’t drain your phone battery at the rate that GPS does.

Here are the currently supported phones:

  • Most Java-enabled (J2ME) mobile phones.
  • Palm devices with Palm OS 5 and above.
  • All color BlackBerry devices.
  • Windows Mobile devices with Windows Mobile 2003, 5.0 and above.
  • Symbian Series 60 3rd edition devices.

The new service is still in beta and may not be available everywhere. Check out the video:

Original post by Tim Robbins

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
Related Articles
  • Google Rolls Out Free Phone Location — No GPS
  • Google My Location
  • Sony Ericsson C905 with GPS nearly here
  • Google Maps simulate GPS on phones
  • Google Maps For Mobile Is More Accurate
  • No comments yet. Be the first.

    Leave a reply