Gizmodo Australia » directions

Hungry Google Street View Driver Directs You To Local KFC

Jack Loftus — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 15:00:00 +0000

Google Street View see the Almighty, fights crime, and even does self-portraits. It’s a busy, relentless lifestyle. I guess what I’m getting at is… dude gets hungry once in a while, and you’re coming along for the ride.

Wait. What happened to West Pacheco? And how did Google Street View know I loved the Colonel’s delicious fried chicken?!

And now the Street View driver is helping me park, all while continuing to screw with my directions by saying I’m still cruising peacefully down West Pachero.

Well, we’re parked and ready for some finger lickin’ goodness (and still “on” Pachero). Let’s just hope no one actually uses Street View for, you know, legitimate directions—it’s no wonder that people are “directed” of a cliff every now and again. [Google Street View - Thanks, Eric]

Nearest Tube IPhone App Adds Digital Directions To Your Surroundings

Dan Nosowitz — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0000

WhereIs Tells You To Where To Go Using Landmarks

Nick Broughall — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 05:41:50 +0000

WhereIs.com has been working with Melbourne University to add landmarks to their online database, so instead of being told to turn right at the roundabout, you can be instructed to turn right at the Post Office. This has the potential to get me excited by mapping again!

Think about it – how many times have you been driving along listening to your satnav telling you to turn right in 20 metres, only to find that you’ve passed the street already. Either that, or your eyes are glued to passing street signs, hoping for some indication of where to turn.

Getting navigation based on easily identifiable landmarks would make navigation so much easier. When you verbally give somebody directions, you don’t tell them how many metres to turn, you point out what they should look for when they need to turn. This development on WhereIs would offer the same thing…

The problem is that at the moment it’s only for turn by turn directions from WhereIs.com. So no voice directions, just pre-planned routes mapped out online. There are about 170,000 landmarks at the moment, but that will grow as time goes on.

There’s a whole heap of science behind the change, with something about spatial cognitive recognition being used to make directions easier to understand. But regardless, I can’t wait for WhereIs to jump on this in their GPS mapping software. I’d pay for it.

[WhereIs.com]

BlackBerry Gets Turn-By-Turn Directions Tomorrow

Jason Chen — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:30:00 +0000

BlackBerry users can get loss slightly less frequently starting tomorrow as its first turn-by-turn GPS navigation app for their app store hits for an unspecified amount of dollars.

Check back tomorrow for more details.

Dial Directions 411 Phone Service Automatically Beams Routes to Your Dash GPS

John Mahoney — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:00:00 +0000

Call up “DIR-ECT-IONS” (clever) on your way to the car and tell the friendly robot who answers where you want to go, and you can have a route beamed to your Dash GPS over the web instantly. Dial Directions already works with a few other online and mobile services, but this Dash integration is a pretty great trick. Just pair your mobile number with your Dash to get started, and start entering routes without having to stoop over and tap in your directions. [Dial Directions - Thanks, Dave!]

Google Maps Already Promoting Google Ocean?

Nick Broughall — Tue, 27 May 2008 00:56:07 +0000

Remember Google’s decision to launch ocean mapping? Well, now we know why. It appears that Google Maps is recommending people Kayak their way from Canada to Australia.

I know that Google Maps doesn’t always offer the best directions to get from A to B, but the mere fact that the Kayak was included as a valid mode of transportation is hilarious. I mean, don’t you think that if you’re at an airport to start with (even if it’s in Canada), the best way for international travel would be to fly?

Or maybe they were just inspired by these guys.

[Google Maps - Thanks Gianpaolo]