Author—Mary Beth Lowell - Communications Manager

In the same week that Tom Tom released a study showing that GPS devices can make for safer, more alert drivers, an ABC News article published a piece questioning whether or not GPS will "make us dumb."

The ABC News article states that once we have GPS, we rely heavily on it. Ok, why is this bad you ask? I rely on my computer, I rely on my coffee maker, I rely on my cell phone, I rely on my car, etc.

According to one scientist in the article, as we use GPS more and more, "people’s ability to read maps will decay." Hmmm…

Obviously we’re biased here at TeleNav to the benefits of GPS. I can name more than one situation where having TeleNav GPS Navigator helped me find my way when I would have otherwise been truly lost. Even besides navigation, GPS has also saved lives of people lost in the woods, found kids who had wandered away or been abducted, and helped keep track of many criminals out on the street.

While I understand the argument that evolution in technology may result in using different parts of our brain (my children will no doubt never learn how to use a slide rule), I’m still not convinced this is a bad thing.

Call me dumb but … I’m not interested in using an abacus to balance my checkbook, using a typewriter to get my work done, or using a map while driving.

What do you think?

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Author - Mary Beth Lowell - Communications Manager

I’ve seen quite a bit of discussion in other blogs and on customer forums about the difference between mapping services (like Google Maps) and navigation services like TeleNav GPS Navigator. Understandably, many folks are confused about why they should pay for one (TeleNav GPS Navigator) when they can get the other for free (Google Maps).

We’ve created a page on our Web site to try and help clear up this confusion and demonstrate the differences between the two. This page can be accessed here: http://www.telenav.com/about/maps-vs-navigation/ but I’ve pasted below the section on the site which directly compares the two.

Essentially, TeleNav GPS Navigator is just like a standalone navigation device (Garmin, Tom Tom, etc.) whereas mapping services are static text directions with an overview map. Using mapping services is basically like printing out directions from Mapquest. Other than the obvious difference in features, mapping services may be good for walking directions but could certainly be hard (and dangerous) to follow if you are driving.

What do you think? Does this help explain the difference between the two for you? We’d love to hear your feedback.

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