gali

GPS has always been a bit of an uncertain technology when it comes to mobile phones. Dedicated units for use in cars have always done a reasonably good job at working out where you are (and a variable job at working out how to get you somewhere), but the ability for a phone to pinpoint your location has generally felt like something of an immature technology. My trusty N95 I initially thought was faulty as it failed to work out my location when I first launched the original Nokia Maps application.

I learned soon after that I needed to be well and truly out in the open the first time I wanted to use GPS, and that I should stand still and let it work out where it was for several minutes. And, sure enough, after 5-10 minutes of standing around, my N95 worked out where I was quite accurately. It also seemed to be clever enough to retain something from this experience such that – as long as I hadn’t strayed too far from my original location – it could get a lock faster in the future.

Two and a half years later, the technology sadly doesn’t seem to have improved much when it comes to Nokia devices – at least, not out of the box.

Assisted GPS came along, which improved initially lock times by implementing the pretty simple idea of talking to a server online to get some clues as to where the GPS satellites were in the skies. My N96 and N97 both came with this included out of the box, and sure enough getting a lock did seem quicker than the original N95 experiences. However, the time needed was still often measured in minutes, which wasn’t that useful for a quick search when out and about to work out how to get from “here” to “there” (AAS offer a good news post with some advice and explanations regarding slow lock speeds).

Then I got myself an iPod touch. I heard that the iPhone had a reasonable GPS chip in it, but I was a little surprised about the presence of a Maps applications on my new shiny iPod, as I was under the (correct) impression there was no GPS. And then I was even more surprised when I launched Maps and it pinpointed where I was almost exactly, and almost instantly.

A little research demonstrated that the iPod touch (and iPhone) support a technology based on the positions of wireless networks, without actually connecting to them. Some clever people somewhere have worked out where different wireless networks are around the country, and built a network which allows their software to triangulate your position based on the SSIDs of wireless networks that are visible at any given time. They even included in the technology the ability for it to maintain itself, presumably by updating their database from networks visible to devices that have already reliably determined their location.

All is not lost for the world of Symbian however! The good people of Skyhook who put together the WPS network used by Apple’s devices have created an application called Maps Booster, which has been made available through the Ovi Store for a number of devices (including for my trusty N97). This brings the same technology to a number of Symbian devices. Unfortunately, it’s not free. Given how much it improves the positioning of the device, especially considering how the devices compare to competition without it, I would have liked to see Nokia subsidise the price at least a little. But a few quid is worth it for the improvement, especially if you live in a built up area where the service works well.

As icing on the cake, Maps Booster just works. Install it on your phone, and it integrates itself with the handset’s built in positioning so that its available to all software that might use it. When combined with an application like ARound (a great little ‘augmented reality’ technology demo for Symbian), it even helps give the Symbian platform some ‘wow’ features for showing off to your friends.