Tuesday, April 8, 2008 -- 10 a.m. -- on my couch

I was reminded last nigiht why I believe the iPhone needs to have GPS.

Keep in mind, this is from a guy who not only has never used GPS and who no longer drives all that often, but from a guy who worked at AAA, knows maps as well as I know the iPhone and loves to get lost.

So why am I so enamored about GPS?

Last night we took a cab from Midway Airport to our apartment and the first thing I noticed on the cab's dashboard -- besides the rapidly increasing fare -- was the first taxi GPS I've ever seen.

I told the guy where we were going and in just a few keystrokes, his GPS was programmed and we were headed north toward Interstate 55.

SIDE NOTE: This was actually kind of funny ... when we got close, he asked me which exit to take. Turns out, he was just being polite and offering the passenger a chance to pick the route, which I believe cabbies are supposed to do. But his GPS was spot on and I told him to trust the machine.

But wouldn't it rock if instead of that boring female GPS voice if Steve Jobs -- a 3D version of Steve Jobs handled the iPhone directions?

There could be a great holder that keeps the iPhone ready for directions, calls, etc. while you are driving and when you need directions, the 3D -- almost holographic Steve Jobs just appears and calls out directions.

But instead of "turn right onto Interstate 55 northbound toward Chicago," the cabbie would make the right and Steve would exclaim "Boom. There you go. I-55."

That would be a cooler, more Apple-like way to approach GPS.

No, the sunburn isn't getting to me. I totally thought of this right away.

What do you think?

Thanks for calling.

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Would love to see it; more and more phones are offering it all the time. Welcome back.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Thanks. Good to be back. Steve has to have a plan as far as this is concerned, especially because it's so darn popular.

Cool! Never cared for the iPhone before (because I can't use it here on this Greek island) but I want one now!

SCOTT'S REPLY: Do you live in Greece? Which island, Luc?

I assume that it had been a long flight with plenty of turbulence and you hit your head on the overhead bin.

Seatbelts are there for a reason.

:^D

Seriously, directions and maps are relatively boring. I'd expect Apple to come up with a far more interesting use for GPS than just directions and maps.

SCOTT'S REPLY: You don't think that a virtual holographic Steve Jobs is interesting? :-D

Seriously, it was probably the calmest and smoothest flight I've ever had.

This blog post made my eyes weep.

Having a GPS would be nice on the iPhone, but you could always use Google Maps to do the route planning yourself, and then play the game of "how awful is the tower triangulation?" on the route back.

Who knows - perhaps in a year or so, when the SDK actually allows people and companies to make third party apps for the iPhone (after what, a year of waiting?), someone will do a TeleNav clone or Tomtom with the voices of your buddy, Steve Jobs.

SCOTT'S REPLY: True. True. I think it's more than voices, though. I think it's something unique and most importantly, simple. Apple corners the market on simple. It knows that people just want what they have to work, whether it's a simple docking procedure for their iPod/iPhone or a simple firewire transfer from old computer to new ... instruction manuals be dammed.

i think that would be fun...i'd use it,better then the Garmin i use now and one less device i have to travel with.

SCOTT'S REPLY: One less device is the name of the game, Evan.

Dude
Don't you know that GPS is evil? In 20 years we will have raised a whole generation that can't use maps and couldn't navigate their way out of a paper bag without turn-by-run directions. And when the GPS satelites fail half of them will starve to death trying to find the grocer's.

Seriously though as bad as the cell tower navigation is, the wi-fi positioning system (WPS) in the iPhone is excellent. In urban and suburban areas with a high density of wi-fi networks WPS works almost as well as GPS -- mostly within 20-30 feet. So who needs GPS? Check out skyhookwireless.com for details.

SCOTT'S REPLY: I think WPS is cool, but not really functional. It's not as accurate as it needs to be to be an alternative to GPS.

As someone who used to work at AAA in the early 90s and teach people how to read maps, I agree that map reading is a skill that no one uses/needs/wants to know because of GPS. But the same can be said for libraries -- who uses a book now with the Internets? Things change and that's the kind of stuff that changes.

And down the road (pardon the pun), a whole generation will never have to learn how to parallel park because our cars will use sensors to park themselves. And as someone who hates parallel parking, I like that idea, however it's a good thing to know how to do.

I look at it this way, if I'm at a party and someone asks me where Interstate 75 starts and ends, I can say Miami to Ste. St. Marie, Mich., without using GPS or WPS and be proud that there are some things that I'll always know.

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