Apple PND

If I get frustrated with Dash, can you imagine the abuse it would get from Steve Jobs? He must just throw the damn thing out the window, be it a Dash, TomTom or whatever.

Wouldn’t the iPhone make a perfect PND platform (if it had a GPS)? Roughly a good size, thin, onboard wifi and cell network. It gets it in the car, so more music playing / revenue for iTunes.

6 thoughts on “Apple PND

  1. harsha

    I don’t know the dash stuff.. but I have tried my hands on PND from MapmyIndia ..the UI is frustating…

    And now this idiot box N95 is not that simple..its dead slow..panning the map with the keypad.. and listen.. the routing app never works..and the voice flies for navigation are not available for my region :(.. Delhi the Capital of India..
    I am now intending to try Nokia Maps 2.0 Beta..hope that is good, having a Pedestrian navigation feature..

    Maps are getting popular, but if the interfaces are such frustrating they people adopt them or throw them in to their bins???

  2. mortenditlevsen

    Hi there!
    Rumor has it that the iPhone 2 has GPS.
    Until then:
    http://picasaweb.google.com/morten.bek/IPhoneGPS/photo#5208438814127511218

    Not a complete PND platform, but the device has real potential:

    GPS through it’s serial port, bluetooth headset for phone calls, lineout for car radio, built-in accelerometer for acceleration/break statistics.

    Now IF the new iPhone has the GPS built-in, the serial port is available for other stuff – like OBD-II connection to the car computer for live info from your car: gas consumption, rpm for the wheels, etc… That would be really cool… I borrowed an OBD-II to serial connector, but unfortunately it did not fit in our Citröen Berlingo.. 🙁

  3. dtbow

    Indeed, iPhone 3G has a GPS. By the way, I’m about to develop a GPS Trace application (just to start with) for the iPhone 3G that would directly produce the GPX format. However, to be able to distribute it I will have to apply for iPhone Dev Program that will cost me 99 € (I’m in Europe). As I’m not going to make money on you guys but still need to pay for developing, my idea is to offer the application for 0,99$ (the cheapest non-free app cost option offered by Apple). What do you think? Are there many openstreetmap enthusiasts who would in fact get an iPhone and use the application? The idea is of cause to move forward a complete native iPhone openstreetmap viewer/editor, but this will take time …

  4. mferrero

    dtbow,
    before you start developing a new GPS Trace application for the iPhone, why don’t you take a look at my project called bluemapia (www.bluemapia.com).

    It is a GPS chart navigator for outdoor activities that I use as a client for my web 2.0 site (www.bluemapia.com) where sailors can share their sailing experience and itineraries and document places they visit with pictures and text uploaded directly from their mobile phones.

    I support OpenStreetMap as well as other maps including raster self-calibrated maps.
    Bluemapia Mobile now works on Windows Mobile (PDA and Smartphone), but I want to port it to the iPhone very soon.

    IT IS FREE AND OPEN SOURCE!
    The source code is hosted by sourceforge (http//sourceforge.org/projects/bluemapia).

    Have Fun!
    Marcello
    marcello@bluemapia.com

  5. buzzzz

    I’d certainly be interested in such software for the iPhone 3G. I (and I’m sure many others) would also like to see it free for the general public. If dtbow is happy to start writing such software, I’m sure there will be enough people out there to cover his dev program costs and help out. I’m at gmail.com – feel free to email me about this – I’d love to get something started.

  6. dtbow

    Reposting, since the first comment is seemingly gone to nirvana…

    Getting positive replies on my post, I have started thinking and prototyping and also have created a blog dedicated to development of OSM applications for iPhone, see http://osm4iphone.blogspot.com Please visit and leave your comments, I would be very happy to know what is your most needed feature.

    BTW, I would be very thankful, if moderator could be so kind to make this announcement to a dedicated post. Thanks a lot!

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