Dummies, Wireless

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Part IV: Using a Wireless Network
Networking your navigation system
In-car GPS navigation systems are one of the hottest areas in the consumer
electronics business. Car manufacturers charge premiums of $1,000 or $2,000
(or more!) for fancy integrated navigation systems that pick up your current
location (and other things such as which direction you’re heading and your
speed) and use a DVD database to map your location and provide you with
point-to-point driving directions, local points of interest (POI), and more.
Even more GPS navigation systems are sold as aftermarket add-ins to
the car, with manufacturers such as TomTom (www.tomtom.com), Garmin
(www.garmin.com), and Magellan (www.magellangps.com) each selling
millions of portable GPS systems every year.
Most navigation systems are not networked in a meaningful way — yes, they
pick up incoming radio signals from the GPS satellites, but they don’t have
real-time communications with a network to enhance their functionality. The
one exception here is the small (but growing) number of navigation systems
that can pick up real-time traffic information from sources such as XM Radio
(discussed earlier in the chapter).
Networking navigation systems makes a lot of sense because things change.
Perhaps the new shortcut road that wasn’t built when you bought your nav
system has been completed (this would save you a ton of time, if only your
nav system knew this and could route you accordingly), or a bridge is
closed for a six-month repair period (you wouldn’t have to turn around
and backtrack if only your nav system knew this), or you’re looking for a
Japanese restaurant, and you’d have to drive only 3 miles instead of 12
(if only your nav system knew about the new Bento Box joint that opened
up last summer). You get the picture — up-to-date information can make
a navigation system much more useful.
Manufacturers are adding some networking capabilities to their nav systems
in an offline way. Most portable nav systems can be plugged into your PC (via
a USB cable) to receive updated maps and POI listings on a periodic basis.
The folks at TomTom have taken this concept one step further in two ways:
� By creating an online community called TomTom Map Share: Map Share
lets you feed your real world experiences (like that bridge that’s closed)
back into the user community. TomTom gathers this information and
provides updated map information that can be downloaded to your nav
system whenever you sync it with your PC.
� By integrating with Google Maps (maps.google.com): You can search
Google Maps on your PC, and with a simple button-click send that
location to your TomTom navigation system. The next time you sync
your nav system, the destination will be there.