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Windows Mobile 6 and GPS already here

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The new upcoming iPhone 2.0 has GPS with Google maps support only. Should I get excited now?  I guess so but just so you know certain Windows Mobile phones have had built-in GPS support for sometime now.  You can search for a list here at pdadb.net which has a nice list of Windows Mobile phones with a GPS icon.

 

I knew my XV6900 phone had built-in A-GPS support when I bought it. I decided to try it out ahead of time with an unreleased version of Windows Mobile 6.1 ROM and upcoming GPS and RevA support. Wow. The RevA EVDO speeds (about 3x faster bandwidth then current EVDO) really make streaming video/TV (from Orb or Slingbox) and web browsing an awesome experience. 

 

Here is an example of what you can do with a 3rd party application called Live Media GPS from Inca Mobile, Built-in GPS, Windows Mobile and Virtual Earth. 

 

 

I streamed this video from my car as I drove up the mountains here.  It is a very very slick use of our technologies and I can only think of the possibilities for use cases here like police, fire, forestry, etc. I may even try this on a hike to see what it does.

 

Another useful feature is using the built-in GPS with Live Search Mobile.  An awesome experience. It has turn by turn directions and it scrolls the Virtual Earth map as you drive down the road. It is pretty awesome seeing a satellite aerial view of where you are on your phone which is something you can't get from in-car or car based GPS systems yet. Type www.live.com on your Windows Mobile and download Live Search.

 

 

       Live Search Mobile                          Turn by Turn directions

 

 

          GPSViewer free tool              Virtual Earth Zoom capability

 

Mobile Live Search also has the ability to search for cheapest gas and you can speak what you are searching for. I use that all the time when I am visiting a school.  I say "Sushi, Tuscon, Arizona" for example and it will list all the sushi in the area with ratings. Then I can lock into that address and get directions to that location using "Current GPS location" and I am all set with turn by turn directions. It even works walking down the street. Very nice example of our Software + Services strategy.

 

I can lock in to GPS sats within about 30 seconds with a free tool called GPSviewer and I often get about 15 sats lock on my location.  All and all there are some very cool things coming to your Windows Mobile phone very soon.  You can already buy GPS software like TomTom, Garmin, etc. which can get you voice directions, and can work in remote areas where you do not have data services. 

 

Windows Mobile 6.1 is awesome as it is much faster, has threaded SMS, zoom IE browser, better calendar, better GUI, better battery life, etc. Check out the new Windows Mobile 6.1 features here.

 

If you are in the market for a new Windows Mobile phone, I recommend you make sure it has built-in GPS since the integration with our cloud services is going to be incredible in the coming years.