Originally Posted by Tony BOD

I got this working with my BT GPS (iBlue 737) - I didn't have any problems - just turned on the GPS and told Google I wanted to track location - it put a blue dot EXACTLY where I was on the satellite map - pretty cool.

On the commute this morning I tried it out and found that while the app is really neat, it is completely unsuitable for navigation while driving:

-It uses huge amounts of data to constantly download maps to show you where you are while driving. At highway speeds I found it dowloaded about 1MB/minute.

-Even with EVDO speed getting map data, if you drive over about 60mph the app has trouble keeping up downloading and panning the maps to show you where you are - you just drive right off the map! You can zoom out, but then its really hard to see exactly where you are.

-There is no way to orient the map to the direction you are driving - the map is always oriented North.

-When I fire up my usual navigation software (iGuidance 3.0), Google Maps only updates its maps sporadically (every few minutes). iGuidance also seems unhappy - while it does a good job of keeping up with my position on the map, the voice commands for navigation get REALLY SLOW, making them useless.

The GPS funtionality of Google Maps is cool, and if you use it while stopped to see where you are and what's around you it is very helpful (to augment the POI you have on your normal navigation software). The software is VERY accurate in showing where you are (at work it practically showed me what parking space I was in!). I like it, but not for navigation.