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There are only few things left which you cant do with your mobile phones, no need to mention those . Our techi brothers are day by day adding something to make every thing possible to do with it. Anyways .. here I am not talking about other geek stuff but Google map which made my life easier and it has been a life saver for me several times. Here I would like to take the opportunity to highlight few important features of Google map which I used in different situations specially during travel. There is no limit to use it creatively at different circumstances, I will be glad to know more stories.

Here I am taking Nokia 5800 as an example phone. Its a good touch screen s60 phone and value for money too. Google map is available for almost all Branded Smart phones e.g. Nokia, Samsung, iphone, LG, HTC etc.  You need to check whether your phone has satellite GPS or tower based Assisted GPS. The Difference

is that Satellite GPS are more accurate but needs to be in open sky and Assisted GPS are less accurate but works wherever signal available. Some mobile phone support both for the best result.

You can download Google map on your phone by typing URL http://m.google.com/maps on your mobile browser and proceed. To use Google map GPRS services should be activated on your phone. Now  a days GPRS plans are available in nominal prices, contact your service provider for the same.

1. Search: The beauty of Google search is that it gives good results even though your query is not very accurate and in proper format. Using proper keyword or address format gives refined results. Look at the images below in sequence. So search Restaurant, hotel, movie halls, crockery, car, bike, Nike, shopping, ice-cream and every possible damn thing, I hope you will be delighted with the response. Results are prioritized by your proximity and importance of result item.

2. Other useful information & user comments, reviews about the place: What else you want to know about your place of interest.  Location, Direction, Rout-map, Distance, Phone no and quick link to call, website to check details and not the least but user rating with reviews and that’s all free of cost . I will say this is called pampering, which actually Google does.

3. Getting Direction to drive: Get the shortest possible root. You can find out live traffic conditions and accordingly you choose alternatives routes.

4: Google “Latitude” to Keep a track of your co-travelers/friends: Its very useful if you are traveling with your friends and don’t want to get lost. Condition is all of you should have Smart phones and that is not rare for small friend group. You can switch if off if you find something interesting enough to get disappeared ;D. Google assumes that you are not in too hurry to tap to change privacy settings.

I used it in several other time too to guide my friends to find my house when i shifted to new one.

5: Real Street view: Just play with the Street view maps below. Similar experience is available in mobile phone for driving directions but if your bandwidth is thick enough and mapping is available for the your place.
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PS: Don’t forget to take your car mobile charger along with you in case you want to use map, because during travel mobile consumes battery power voraciously. If somehow you forget it then don’t use your map continuously but only to check in a road deviations.

Advantage of Mobile phone over GPS navigator is to handle multiple task with one device. The only other condition is the network should always be available to use it. Mobile camera is the other most used one feature in daily life. But if you are planning to travel in some isolated remote places then definitely you should go for GPS.

- Ab