This space-age sputnik technology, originally developed by the U.S army for on the dime missile strikes, has so much more to give than in-car navigation tips. So, let’s take a look at a few of its handy spin-off uses away from the dashboard…
Location-based multiplayer gaming
Sure, Nokia upped the multiplayer mobile gaming stakes with N-Gage, with its download store now officially open for business, thumbs are a twitching. But this is just the beginning for N-Gage, as NokNok exclusively revealed the Finnish outfit have big plans for the future of gaming, including a box seat for GPS and location-based gaming. The idea of actually moving through the physical world to control your character on your GPS-loaded Nokia device or interact with your surrounding isn’t so far fetch. Nokia’s couldn’t be more specific, but watch this space as gaming goes location-based loco.
Pin-point weather updates
If you’re standing by the Arc De Triomphe in Paris and it bucketing down, you probably don’t need the weather forecast. But should you need it for the rest of the week, your phone’s built-in GPS chip can lock onto your location, and providing you have a whiz bang meteorological app onboard, can let you know whether to strip down to trunks or don the waterproofs. HandyWeather is such an app that integrates GPS into it offering to pre-empt the weather’s mood swings where you are.
Geotag your memories
Geotagging basically spikes your camera phone snaps with geographical co-ordinates so you can view them by location on a map. It’s primed to play a major part in Nokia’s wider location-based vision but right now its presence is down to a handful of software apps for your GPS-toting Nokia smartphone. Nokia’s own Location Tagger and Psiloc Photo Tagger both do a simple tagging job on your pictures and let you find its locations on Nokia Maps, while ADnota goes one better by integrating its talents into the camera interface so you don’t have to fire up a separate app to get tagged. Geotagging technology is in its infancy on phones but once Nokia’s full-on location experience is up and running its talent will become more realised.
Nokia Location Tagger (Beta) review
Getting fit GPS style
It’s very well pounding the pavement and improving your fitness but it wouldn’t be good to know how far you run, if you’ve beaten your PB, how fast you’re travelling and if you’ve managed to shed that cheeky burger you scoffed at lunchtime? GPS-enabled pedometers aren’t anything new but Nokia’s free Sports Tracker beta software is currently the most comprehensive for mobile. It’s an evolution of the features that first appeared on the Nokia 5500 Sport handset and not only turns your GPS-carrying blower into a personal trainer but allows you to plan, record and share jogging routes with other P.E. fanatics online. Not only that but if you need to take a breather, you can take photos on route, geo tag them and show them as part of your track.