Candid conversations about using GPS and wireless technology for work and fun.
Posts tagged Google
T-Mobile myTouch 3G Contest Continues
Aug 6th
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TeleNav GPS Navigator v5.5 on the T-Mobile myTouch 3G
We’re keeping the giveaways running here on the TeleNav blog in support of our recent launch of TeleNav GPS Navigator v5.5 for the new T-Mobile myTouch 3G which is in stores now. This is a great looking Android-based device and as you can see from the video included in Mary Beth’s post from Monday, TeleNav GPS Navigator looks great running on the phone. A free 30-day trial of TeleNav GPS Navigator for the T-Mobile myTouch 3G is available now on our online store. The trial provides you with turn-by-turn onscreen and spoken directions, voice destination entry, access to more than 10 million business listings, gas by price search and real-time traffic information with one-button rerouting. If you’re satisfied with the trial, after the 30-day period you can purchase the application for just $9.99/mo.
Here’s today’s contest question. The first person to comment on this post with the correct answer to the following question will win the prize. Previous winners from this week’s contest are not eligible for a second prize.
- In the video demo included with Mary Beth’s post from Monday, what type of search do I conduct?
- Restaurant listings
- Hotel listings
- Gas by Price listings
- Wi-Fi Hotspot listings
Good Luck!
TeleNav CTIA Recap
Apr 10th
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TeleNav and Sprint Win First Place for TeleNav Vehicle Manager in the CTIA E-Tech Awards
Phew! We are still recuperating from all the activity last week at the CTIA Wireless conference in Las Vegas. It was an extremely busy week with a lot of great news. We’re pretty proud of our accomplishments from the event. Not only did we launch TeleNav GPS Navigator on the BlackBerry App World but we also won two awards at the show:
- Well-known wireless analyst Andy Seybold named our TeleNav Shotgun as the Most Innovative Mobile Device to launch in 2008. What a great honor – we were up against some tough competition. Mr. Seybold said that TeleNav Shotgun is a ‘must have’ for business travelers.
- Sprint and TeleNav won First Place for TeleNav Vehicle Manager in the CTIA E-Tech awards. The category was Enterprise and Vertical – General Business Solution. We’re really excited about our collaborative effort with Sprint on this product.
Besides the awards, our CEO, HP Jin, also spoke on the conference’s location-based services (LBS) panel along with executives from companies like Google and Virgin Mobile. The topic was “Commercializing LBS.” Here’s one reporter’s summary of the key discussion points.
If you went to the show and we didn’t see you, let us know. We hope to see you at the next one!
Survey Says … People Still Use Online Maps
Jan 11th
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Author—H.P. Jin- President, CEO and Co-Founder
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Yesterday, Hitwise published a very interesting study on American usage of online mapping services like MapQuest and Google.
The study found that in the U.S. visits to mapping Web sites increased 10% in the last year or so. This is contrary to the researcher’s prediction that usage would go down due to increased popularity of GPS navigation services. Additionally, the study found that MapQuest remains the most popular mapping Web site but that Google Maps is catching up.
It’s very interesting to see that despite the fact that 1) more people are buying GPS navigation devices than ever before and 2) usage of GPS navigation services on cell phones is also increasing, people still like to login from their computers to view maps.
Our theory is that people are using both GPS devices as well as online maps – which is why we continue to add more features to our TeleNav Maps service (our free online mapping service) and have also tightly integrated it in with “My TeleNav” which allows TeleNav GPS Navigator users to preplan online. We’ve also launched a browser plug-in so you can type in addresses easily from any browser and preplan that way.
What do you think? Do you think our theory is correct? Do you use both and, if so, why?
Using GPS to Track Santa
Dec 21st
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Author-Mary Beth Lowell – Communications Manager
This is one for the kid in each of us… Looking for the best site to track Santa using GPS next week? I did a bit of research (read: a Google search) and found what seems to be the most qualified resource: www.noradsanta.org. Of course he hasn’t ventured out yet, but keep the site bookmarked for Christmas Eve and you can track his journey to your house. Google will even let you add this to your Google home page via this link so you are sure not to miss him: http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.labpixies.com/gadgads/norad/norad_new.xml&source=snta. Now, if we can just make sure he’s using TeleNav GPS Navigator so he doesn’t get lost…
Dispelling Big Brother Myths
Dec 7th
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Author—H.P. Jin- President, CEO and Co-Founder
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You may have seen the recent news from Google on the new “My Location” feature which allows users to use triangulation from nearby cell phone towers to determine their approximate location.
While this may open up some potential advertising opportunities for Google, most users realize that the location provided through tower triangulation can be off by as much as a mile or more. This means that it is not a substitute for GPS technology and cannot effectively be used for applications like driving navigation.
However, what I found more interesting was speculation that My Location may create privacy issues for cell phone users. In this article in CIO Magazine, the director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center said that it creates an “unnecessary privacy risk” and that standalone GPS devices are safer in this regard.
I respectfully disagree with this director and it concerns me that assumptions such as this may only feed the Big Brother myths related to GPS and other location-based services on cell phones. I don’t understand this expert’s argument and see no reason why My Location would open up privacy issues. If Google’s response in the article was truthful (and I have no reason to believe it wasn’t), the company has built-in the same anonymous privacy controls as has TeleNav and most other application providers. Even if they had not, it is still not clear to me how My Location could be a risk to privacy since 1) it relies on the mobile phone user to proactively access their own location and 2) this information is not shared or distributed to other mobile users or online.
I recently wrote an article for Wireless Week in which I attempted to dispel some of the common misconceptions surrounding cell phone location technology. I believe it is up to the content providers and wireless carriers to ensure that we are communicating clearly with consumers and educating them on how the technology works so that we can alleviate unnecessary concerns.
We have already seen great advancements in location-based services and will continue to see them next year and beyond. Applications such as GPS navigation can truly help consumers and businesses on a daily basis and I hate to see customers shy away from using them because of unfounded claims.
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