Using the iPhone As a Pointing Device For the Real World 111
Zrop writes "With a combination of GPS, Wi-FI-positioning, compass, and accelerometers, the iPhone is turbocharged for location-based services. Combine this with the new 3.0 iPhone OS and interesting things are certainly going to happen. Steve Jobs said that the iPhone will change the world when he presented it back in 2007, and that is exactly what it will do." The bulk of the article is about using the phone as a super real world pointer, which could be really cool if it could be accurate enough to be useful, although not particularly ergonomic. (Are you pointing the screen at something? The camera? The headphone jack?)
Cool stuff... (Score:5, Informative)
...but this isn't exactly new, even [technologyreview.com] on [intomobile.com] phones. [intomobile.com]
Re:that's why (Score:1, Informative)
Roger Penske bought the Saturn name and the dealership network. He will import cars with the Saturn name.
Saturn will outlast Government Motors.
Re:ultimate real world pointer (Score:3, Informative)
*Disclaimer: I used to teach mapping in the Marine Corps. YMMV. If you have trouble counting or following bold straight lines on a map, this may be extremely difficult.
Re:The new iPhone can also be used as a paperweigh (Score:3, Informative)
no other device can you paint with as well as the iPhone/iPod Touch
You should've conditioned that statement with something like "at that price point" or "of that size". As it is, I can simply say: a Tablet PC has better resolution, accuracy, software, and likely will not destroy your eyes when you use it to paint on the fly.
Android Sky Map (Score:3, Informative)
One of the best apps I've seen that uses the combination of GPS, 3D Accelerometer and Incline-corrected Compass is the "Google Sky Map" available for download. Once started, your phone becomes a window into a 360-degree x 180-degree planetarium dome (a full sphere). Hold the phone straight ahead, and see the virtual horizon line. As you rotate, see the N E S W markers slide into view appropriately in real time. Hold the phone overhead to see the "Zenith" marker, or look through the floor for the "Nadir" marker. Everywhere else on the virtual dome, you see the major stars and constellation lines, planets and other astronomical items. Want to find Jupiter? Select that goal from a menu, and the phone will guide your hand until you're looking in the direction of the current position for Jupiter, even if it's below your feet or behind the sun.
Oh yeah, and it's on the Android phone. For free.
Re:Use them for what they are good for (Score:3, Informative)
My GPS and Phone are accurate to a house. GPS can get you down to a meter or less so now the problem is with the maps.
I would trust a GPS to get me to within a meter of a know reference point.
Of course I wonder if there is any reason except for cost that they couldn't add a high resolution time source to each cell tower and use them for a land based GPS system. It should work in buildings and should be more accurate than a GPS since the transmitters would be fixed and you wouldn't have to deal with the ionosphere.
Of course you would have to have all the carriers agree on a standard and allow everyone to use the signal... So I just don't see it happening.