For finding that holiday party, when you don’t know where you are going the Droid by Motorola from Verizon can give you turn-by-turn droid-voice navigation using GPS. It was an exclusive feature of Droid when it came out. As of yesterday, owners of Android smartphones that run Android 1.6 can also use Google Maps Navigation.
We had a chance to test out Google Maps Navigation on Saturday on the Droid that is getting rave reviews, after we picked some Diet Pepsi to bring to a party and all we had was an address on a paper napkin.
To acitviate “Navigation” from within Googgle maps, I pressed the search button on the bottom of the screen then tapped on the microphone (like the Droid arm does in the commercial) and said the numbers slowly, One-Nine-Six-Three-Two Elm Street, Crown City. Droid found the location immediately on the map.
However, Elm Street was very dark and I couldn’t see the numbers and the house was down a driveway shared by other houses. First Droid let us know that we had reached our destination, but we missed it. It showed us a photo of the location and then told us how to get back to address. The only thing it didn’t do was tell us where to park. The current “Droid Does” comerical shows an easier way to operate Google Maps Navigation. Tap the microphone search button in the upper right hand corner and the say, “Navigate to…..”
Our office is less than a mile from a Starbucks. Speaking "Navigate to
Starbucks," into the Droid microphone search resulted in the first
address as the nearest Starbucks and easy to find. Saying "Navigate to
Wells Fargo Bank" showed the mini-branch in the nearby supermarket and
the branch the usual bank branch.
"Navigate to Macy's" and "
Navigate to Target." did not show immediate results. I guess Droid
doesn't like to shop as much as drink coffee or go to the bank.
The
other Android phone from Verizon the well-reviewed
Droid Eris by HTC runs on Android 1.5 and currently can not use
Google Maps Navigation.
The other Android phone from Verizon the well-reviewed Droid Eris by HTC runs on Android 1.5 and currently can not use Google Maps Navigation. NOTE ON Droid Eris is expected to get an update to Android 2.1 from HTC.
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