Turning Your Mobile Phone into a GPS Navigator

A global positioning system (GPS) navigator in your car can help you get where you’re going in the most fuel- and time-efficient manner. The GPS mapping programs bundled with mobile phones (such as T-Mobile’s G1 or Apple’s iPhone) don’t typically offer spoken turn-by-turn directions or some of the other features found on dedicated navigators like the ones used in cars. They do offer scalable color maps and point-to-point directions. Of course, you can always add turn-by-turn voice directions to your mobile phone — for a price — by buying or subscribing to, then installing, GPS navigator programs on your mobile phone or PDA. If your mobile phone doesn’t have built-in GPS, you can still run these programs by purchasing an optional (and external) Bluetooth GPS receiver.

Mobile GPS navigator applications that like to be seen and heard include:

amAze:

This free GPS navigation program has turn-by-turn voice directions, for a variety of GPS-equipped smartphones and PDAs, including Blackberry, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, and Windows Mobile. Visit http://amazegps.com.

ALK CoPilot Live 7:

Provides natural voice directions in 20 languages on a number of Pocket PC or Windows Mobile smartphones. Check out http://alk.com.

MapQuest Mobile Navigator: Voice-guided GPS navigation service is offered by several of the major wireless carriers for about $50 per year. (For more information, go to http//:wireless.mapquest.com/mapquest-navigator or contact your mobile service provider.)

TeleNav GPS Navigator:

This one is available from all major mobile carriers for around $10 per month for unlimited service. TeleNav (go to http://telenav.com) provides turn-by-turn driving directions, both onscreen and by voice, on a number of popular GPS-equipped mobile phones, including Blackberry, HTC, Motorola, Palm, and other models. By adding GPS navigation to your phone instead of buying a dedicated device, you can not only save money, but also do more with the device you already have, which is always the green way to go.

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