Turn-by-turn GPS and copy/paste technically possible on iPhone 3G
Posted July 14th, 2008 by GenghisPhlip
With all of the misinformation about the iPhone 3G circulating the web when it comes to turn-by-turn GPS and other greatly anticipated applications like copy/paste it is understandable that some would be confused. New York Times technology columnist David Pogue baffled everyone with his comment that the device’s GPS antenna is “too small” to support turn-by-turn directions.
Even Apple’s own iPod and iPhone marketing head Greg Joswiak tried to clear up the confusion when he met with AppScout. During the discussion, he said that Apple uses an internal priority list of features for the iPhone. The company hit as many points list as they could with the iPhone 3G and because copy/paste was not in a higher priority it just didn’t make it onto the new device. So there really was no real issue that kept copy/paste out of the newest release, it just was not seen as a greatly needed function. With “complicated issues” preventing turn-by-turn directions Josiwak tells us that he still expects that we will be amazed by the applications that developers will soon send our way. The “complicated issues” that he refers to are not actually technical issues but legal ones that will need to be hammered out before developers can proceede in that direction.
European GPS maker TomTom announced earlier that they had a working nav app in the labs and ready for the iPhone but that it was quashed by the SDK’s legal agreement. Hopefully, what Josiwak refers to as an evolution of applications will soon evolve into a public release of TomTom’s software. Getting back to the copy/paste subject, Joswiak said that he’s “not aware of any technical reasons an office suite isn’t already in the App Store”. This statement makes it clear that it is yet again legal limitations imposed by the SDK agreement impeding development of such an app.
[...] We reported earlier that one major GPS company has already been working on getting it’s software ported to the iPhone, and now accorcing to a story at MSNBC. TomTom has gone on the record saying that its iPhone software “looks good and works well”. [...]