(Pic: Nokia 6110 Navigator, courtesy unwiredview)
It is the latest acronym to invade the mobile world. And after a rickety start, it seems to be making itself right at home in India too! We are talking of the Global Positioning System, or GPS as it is popularly known as. Basically a tool that helps users find their way by plotting their locations using satellites, GPS has of late become a standard feature of high-end phones and could be making its way to the mid-segment too.
Why GPS rocks
For the uninitiated, GPS is a technology that pinpoints the location of a person on a map. What one needs for this is a GPS-enabled device that can communicate directly with satellites , which do the actual pinpointing and then show the result on the device. So if you are using a GPS-enabled phone (say), you will be able to see yourself as a dot marked on a map of your present location.
And if you happen to have the right kind of software loaded on to your device, you could look up the most convenient way of travelling from one place to another-and even watch yourself doing so on the map! Add to that features like turn-by-turn instructions (in voice and text), information about traffic congestions as well as alternate routes, the ability to search for landmarks, and you can understand why GPS was considered invaluable for travellers who loved technology.
