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Google Navigation Tips & Tricks

Home Screen Navigation/Destination Shortcuts

Well, I'm sure to half the people this will be "obvious", and the other half this will be "I had no idea I could do that", because until a second ago I was in the 2nd camp. :-)

Coming from VZNavigator, it appeared that google navigation lacks any way to save a location. Seemed like a big oversight. It had something called "Starred Items" and I was going to look into that, but then it occurred to me that it's always been kinda wonky that I had to keep an entry for someone in the phone book, and another entry for them in VZNavigator.

So I looked in the phones regular phonebook. If you edit an entry, then under "Others" click "Add", there's a "Postal Address" option. You can put in their address from there.

When you want to navigate to there, you can view the contact and a "View Home address" link will show up (or "View Work address, etc". Click on it, it starts up Google Maps. Click on the Blue "Up" arrow that appears on the screen and it will navigate to that entries address.

It's still a little clunky (you have to wait for google maps to load before navigating), and if anyone has any other tips I'd love to hear them - but that's how it works! :-)
 
There has got to be a way to star a nav item. I will often navigate to a place that's not in my contacts like a hotel and I need to remember that address so when I go driving around the city, I can get back to the hotel
 
dswatson83 said:
There has got to be a way to star a nav item. I will often navigate to a place that's not in my contacts like a hotel and I need to remember that address so when I go driving around the city, I can get back to the hotel
Click to expand...

I agree completely. As much faith as I have in Google, if they have rolled out a prominent product like this without the basic functionality of their PC version, I'll be disappointed. I realize that phone nav hasn't gotten to the point of completely replacing a dedicated GPS receiver, but saving locations is elementary.
 
ITS FREE!!!!! How can you complain about a product you did not pay for and do not have to pay to get updates for. Tomtom wants $100 a year for up to date maps, google is asking NOTHING. Quit complaining and don't use it if you don't like it.
 
dswatson83 said:
There has got to be a way to star a nav item. I will often navigate to a place that's not in my contacts like a hotel and I need to remember that address so when I go driving around the city, I can get back to the hotel
Click to expand...

Um, click location in Maps, press star. Could be easier with mind control, but this is a close second.
 
jwm2 said:
General Tips:

1. Make sure to keep Google Maps up-to-date. Whenever an update is available its best to update your map as soon as possible to reflect any changes that may have occured.
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This is wrong. Maps pulls its data from Google's servers automatically, as needed. The maps are not stored on your phone. If Google changes the maps on its server, then your phone sees the changes the next time you view that area. No updating involved, required, or recommended.
 
Berner said:
Um, click location in Maps, press star. Could be easier with mind control, but this is a close second.
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Man, that star was difficult to find. Clicking the star couldn't get any easier, but finding a small dark gray star cutout on a black background in the far corner of the screen could have been easier. Thanks for the tip. Thats why I love these forms!
 
One thing I haven't found (which I miss from my Garmin Mobile XT on my Touch Pro) is the speed display in MPH. I assume it's just not there. Someone feel free to make me look stupid and say "it's right there!" :-)
 
You all probably know this already, but I just noticed it. When you're navigating and you press Menu to get out and do something else, Nav puts a little blue icon in the notification bar so you can pull that down and select it to quickly get back to where you were in Nav.


answerman said:
One thing I haven't found (which I miss from my Garmin Mobile XT on my Touch Pro) is the speed display in MPH. I assume it's just not there. Someone feel free to make me look stupid and say "it's right there!" :-)
Click to expand...
It's not there. I read a google question/answer forum where a google person said it was a good feature and they've added it to the list of things to do for some future update. I'd like a field that would rotate (via a tap) between ETA, distance remaining, time remaining, and speed.
 
Berner said:
This is wrong. Maps pulls its data from Google's servers automatically, as needed. The maps are not stored on your phone. If Google changes the maps on its server, then your phone sees the changes the next time you view that area. No updating involved, required, or recommended.
Click to expand...

I did not mean to keep the maps up-to-date. I meant keep the app Google Maps up-to-date. There has been a couple updated released in the past month alone. You usually get notification when an update is released. Its just common sense to keep your apps up to date. You are right map data is downloaded on the fly, but they are stored on your phone for use when gps is not available. Check around you'll find it in the data folder on your sd card ;)
 
jwm2 said:
I did not mean to keep the maps up-to-date. I meant keep the app Google Maps up-to-date. There has been a couple updated released in the past month alone. You usually get notification when an update is released. Its just common sense to keep your apps up to date. You are right map data is downloaded on the fly, but they are stored on your phone for use when gps is not available. Check around you'll find it in the data folder on your sd card ;)
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No they are not stored. They are cached. The difference is that they might be available in case you lose your data connection, but they are not protected. The system might flush the cached data at any time.

;)
 
jwm2 said:
5. Type in the address of the destination. You can also use GPS coordinates if you don't know the address.
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I have many job sites that do not have addresses. How do I find the GPS coordinates when in Google Maps? Also, what format do I input them when editing the Nav shortcut?

Thanks
 
I don't know the few times i've used it the place i was going to had the gps coordinates posted on their website. I'm sure theres gotta be an easy way to find it, i just don't know how personally. I did find a site that allows you to enter in an address and get the coordinates: Latitude and Longitude of a Point
 
Go into settings and choose "Labs" for some cool beta features like a layers and tape measure button right on the map.

It doesn't seem like GM uses the built in compass on the INC to augment location. The arrow sometimes gets wonky when you are stopped.
 
Thats because its using the gps sats to triangulate your direction, etc. Most gps's work that way. I know when in downtown chicago the gps in my wifes van tends to freak out and spin in circles.
 
If you miss a turn it will reroute you, but otherwise it will alert you shortly before the turn and then when you need to make the turn.
 
I realize its a work in progress and free but there are a few items on my wishlist that I'd like to see. I currently have a MIO gps, so I'm looking for some of the things I like about that.

1. show street name of every street, especially when you have alot of streets in one area. This is especially useful when I'm in a city downtown area.

2. "Smart" zoom. automatically switch to overhead route view when your next turn isnt for several miles/minutes. Switch to 3d behind view otherwise. This is useful because I don't need to see local streets if my next turn isnt for an hour. Its more useful to show a zoomed out overhead view to track how far I am on my trip.

3. "smart" zoom. automatically goto overhead and zoom in when approaching a turn. This is nice because I can more clearly see the intersection. Especially helpful when navigating confusing traffic circles.

4. VIA points. Ability to add a point along the way or add the next destination. This is also nice if I want to take a different route than what is displayed. Being able to drag the route like in google maps would be nice too.

5. Traffic reroute. Ability to give you a better route based on traffic would be nice. Or give you the option. I understand this is hard to do though since not every street has traffic so you may be rerouted to a even more busy street that just has no traffic data.
 
lmbgm said:
4. VIA points. Ability to add a point along the way or add the next destination. This is also nice if I want to take a different route than what is displayed. Being able to drag the route like in google maps would be nice too.
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That's my number one issue with the Google Nav.

lmbgm said:
5. Traffic reroute. Ability to give you a better route based on traffic would be nice. Or give you the option. I understand this is hard to do though since not every street has traffic so you may be rerouted to a even more busy street that just has no traffic data.
Click to expand...

And that would be REALLY cool.
 
If anyone didn't know.... Google updated the maps (go into the market place and search for google maps).....

After which.... reboot your phone and it will have a NATIVE navigation icon now.

You can add that to one of your screens... It allows for navigating easily to contacts...keeps a history...and lets you star specific places.

Now if they were to add in re-routing based on traffic.....and what i noticed here in the NY Metro area...it chooses the shortest route based on physical distance...not time. I have been testing this a lot and it usually tries to get me off the expressway WAY before I should because a main road is physically shorter than the expressway which is actually shorter by time.

It also doesn't seem to think the Upper Level to the Queensborough bridge even exists. From either the Queens side or the Manhattan side.
 
NYC Coyote said:
If anyone didn't know.... Google updated the maps (go into the market place and search for google maps).....

After which.... reboot your phone and it will have a NATIVE navigation icon now.

You can add that to one of your screens... It allows for navigating easily to contacts...keeps a history...and lets you star specific places.
Click to expand...

I just downloaded and installed the update and rebooted. I am unable to find the Native icon anywhere. Where is it?
 
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