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Exploring the Applications
My favorite iPhone application is Google Maps. It's a fun app on the desktop as well, but on the iPhone it's so much more usable and useful. When I first heard the iPhone announcement I assumed it had a GPS in it, so I was disappointed recently to learn that it did not. I thought that might be a showstopper, but I am pleased to report that it is not. It's a mild inconvenience, but not a big deal at all. I suppose if you were totally lost and didn't know where you were a GPS would be more helpful, but that's a rare situation. Usually you can tell where you are -- you just don't know how to get where you want to go.

With Google Maps you just need to tell it where you are. It doesn't even have to be exact, unless you need more precise navigation instructions. For instance, you can just put in the zip code of where you are -- that's usually faster than typing in city/state or city/country. For a large city like New York or L.A. you might need to put in more of an address so Google has a better idea of where you are, but I was pleased to find that's not usually necessary. I bookmarked several common locations in my area so I can quickly bring them up.

Once Google is focused on an area -- a particular city, state, or country, as precise as you'd like -- you can type in search terms for Google to find. For instance, restaurants or stores, or the type of product you are looking for, and Google will quickly drop red pins onto the make to show you the location of each place. Touching a pin displays the name of the business along with an arrow inside a blue circle for more information.

Touching the arrow displays a standard contact window: name, phone numbers, website, emails, street address, and more. You can touch a phone number to dial it, or go to the website or start an email by taping the email address or website. A tap on the street address goes to that location on the map.

But the cool thing is the "Get directions to here" button, which will generate a list of turn-by-turn directions as well as a visual guide on the map. This is similar to the directions feature of Google, except instead of being stuck on your desktop computer, it's right there in the palm of your hand.

It's not quite as convenient as a car GPS navigation unit that will guide you with voice prompts, can tell when you've made a wrong turn, and give you precise distances to target, but it's Good Enough for most people. My directionally challenged mom used to print out Google directions before she went places and had been contemplating getting a GPS, but after seeing how good the iPhone mapping works, she's decided that's all she needs.

Another advantage of the iPhone approach is that it doesn't require satellite access, only a cellular or WiFi network. This means it'll work downtown when you're surrounded by skyscrapers or inside buildings, two things my portable car GPS struggles with. The iPhone's data is also more current, since it's retrieving info immediately off the Internet instead of relying on a built-in database that only gets updated once a year or so. (Several times I've used my GPS to drive me to a restaurant only to find it was no longer in business.)

The traffic feature of Google Maps is also handy. A button press in map view turns major highways green or red to indicate good or bad traffic flow. I could add traffic to my GPS but it would cost me an annual fee. In either case, only limited roads have traffic data, so it's not always useful (and not worth a fee for the limited amount of freeway driving I do).

But when you're traveling main roads and the traffic feature applies, it's great. The other day when I was meeting people for dinner I had to choose my route. One way is longer but usually faster since you're on the freeway more, except when there's a traffic jam. I decided to check the freeway traffic using my iPhone. It showed I-5 in red near Wilsonville, so we took the alternate route. The people we were meeting were coming from another direction and had to take the freeway. They told us they hit traffic. "Was that at Wilsonville?" I asked.

"Yeah, the traffic was terrible until we got past that area."

I was impressed. The iPhone's traffic data is actually accurate!

Google Maps is also one of the coolest "wow" apps to demonstrate to people. I've bookmarked my house and it's neat to show someone a satellite view of my place. Most people immediately grab my iPhone and punch in their own address so they can see their own homes!

I don't know why it's so much more impressive to see an overhead view of the Golden Gate Bridge on a palm-sized device instead on a large computer monitor, but it is. People are amazed. Perhaps it's the interface, for everyone seems to love touching the screen, pinching to zoom in, and dragging a finger to pan around.

Next: In Part 6, Marc uses Safari on the iPhone.

macopinion@designwrite.com

iPhone: First Impressions - Part 1 of 10
Buying the iPhone

iPhone: First Impressions - Part 2 Of 10
Activation and Syncing

iPhone: First Impressions - Part 3 of 10
Using the iPhone

iPhone: First Impressions - Part 4 of 10
Customization

iPhone: First Impressions - Part 5 of 10
Exploring the Applications

iPhone: First Impressions - Part 6 of 10
Exploring the Internet

iPhone: First Impressions Part 7 of 10
Exploring Photography on the iPhone

iPhone: First Impressions - Part 8 of 10
Working With eMail

iPhone: First Impressions - Part 9 of 10
Using the iPhone as a Phone

iPhone: First Impressions - Part 10 of 10
iPod on the iPhone