Tim Howell’s Weblog

Last week, Google announced an update to its mobile mapping software which, in addition to providing maps, also provided the user’s location – without the need for GPS.

Enthusiastically, I installed the software on my iMate JasJam and showed colleagues our location, even though it was working to a range of +/- 1700 metres. Fantastic.

Next day: It couldn’t locate me. And I’ve not been able to get it going since.

There’s a bunch of speculation as to how this service works, all of which essentially require the cellular network to provide some data. There was talk of Google having arrangements with networks to make this data available, but there’s been no confirmation if that’s the case, especially here in New Zealand.

To me, it appears that Vodafone was allowing this data to be transmitted/received and then turned it off – for whatever reason.

Has anyone else used the latest Google Map application on their mobile device, and have you been able to get location information? Any other thoughts as to how this works?

UPDATE: This service still works, although it’s variable.