Filed under Even though many internet-enabled mobile phones have had integrated GPS systems for years now, Apple claims to have the most user-friendly and advanced mapping feature on any mobile phone in the market.
To begin with, Apple partnered with Google to offer their mapping information on every iPhone sold, even including a shortcut button on the Home Screen so that users can quickly and easily access the maps on their iPhone.
Partnering with Google Maps also meant that the infinite amount of businesses within the various local areas could be displayed on the maps, allowing iPhone users to search for business within an area and have them displayed on a Google Map. Alternatively, users can find the address of a business and then use the mapping feature to find out how to get there.
While the original iPhone never featured a GPS chip to utilise satellite navigation, the iPhone 3G did. Not only does the 3G include an inbuilt GPS chip, but it also calculates an approximate position using information from Wi-Fi networks and mobile phone towers to speed up the process and determine a location even when there is no GPS signal. The original iPhone can use information from cell towers to triangulate an approximate position for the user on a map.
The current iPhone 3G model doesn’t offer turn-by-turn navigation like a TomTom or any other sat nav, although the future is expected to bring this sort of improvement to the iPhone. In any case, the greatest thing about GPS and maps on the iPhone isn’t always about knowing where you are, but rather the experience of browsing the maps. Like all of the iPhone features, maps only requires you to use your fingers to drag the map around and a two-fingered pinch to zoom out or a two-fingered flick to zoom in. This kind of intuitive functionality is the greatest offering of the iPhone.
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