Are we there yet?
Are we there yet?
Are we there yet?
…may I ask you something… Are we there yet?
or how about “Honney, are we lost?”
MGMAPS or Mobile Google Maps is a Java J2ME application that displays Street Maps and satellite images from Google Maps, Yahoo maps, MSN Virtual earth, Ask.com and others. It works very well with my N73. If you have a Bluetooth GPS receiver you can have a simple car navigation tool.
For whom is this review?
- You need car navigation tool and have only 100 EUR
- Speedometer on your car is broken
- When you go somewhere TYPE_NAME_HERE call you every hour to ask you where you are
- You always wanted a co-driver like the guys from the WRC
- Your girlfriend can’t read maps or she always asks if you have gotten lost and “Why don’t you ask someone?”
- Once you got lost in the woods looking for grandma’s house
Mobile Google Maps (Please differ from Google Maps Mobile) - It is not a navigation software so it does not tell you where to turn but on a longer trips it can be very helpful to see the shortcuts and knowing what the next 3 road curves look like in advance, so you can adjust your speed. Even if you are lost in a big city and your landmark is a park or something you know what it looks like, it gives you the birds eye to inspect the area. If you like taking long walks in the woods, you can easily spot a nice rest area or wont pass by the nice waterfalls without noticing them. If bitten by the snake, you can see the nearest house or a road… The best of all, the application is free,
There is also official Google maps for mobile phones called Google Maps Mobile - http://www.google.com/gmm/index.html but I find it less usefull than the unofficial version I am reviewing here. Google have not had time to draw the map of Serbia and Republic of Srpska so I prefer the ones who prefer me (MSN map for example which can be automatically loaded with Mobile Google maps).
The similar software is Nokia Maps (just roads, vector format=lower internet usage, able to preload maps before the trip. it is available only for Nokia phones, and only works with Nokia GPS receivers) which I will revew soon if not even today.
Other features
The nice feature is that the MGMaps can update your position on the web in real time, or intervals you specify to minimize internet usage. You can see where I currently am at http://www.gmap-track.com/public.php typing “Milos” in the search…
The maps are a bandwidth hungry, so be aware of it if you pay GPRS per KB of trafic, but if you use it just so your friends can track you, and set update interval of 30seconds, you can travel the whole day long without spending a dime.
It supports Google maps, MSN Virtual earth, Ask.com, Open street map, Yahoo! maps…
You can download MGMaps on www.mgmaps.com