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Inside iPhone 3G S: Seeing your direction on iPhone 3G S maps

One of the highly touted features of the new iPhone is the ability to have the map display your direction of travel. A great idea, long overdue. As people were walking out of the Apple Store today it was one of the first things some people wanted to try. They brought up the Google Map app, and then started spinning around. But these whirling dervishes weren't getting anywhere.

Since I was the real smart TUAW dude, I told them I could get it going. Nope. Nada. Zero.

After a bit of a search at the Apple web site when I returned home, I found it. You have one more tap to do on the map. When you tap the location icon at the lower left of the map screen a second time, it changes to a new, previously unseen icon. It looks like a little wedge in a circle. When you activate it, you're good to go. Or spin.

I think if I were designing this I would have made it an option on the map to default to direction of travel, or North at the top. Oh well, nobody asked me. Not the most obvious GUI design, but I guess once you know it, you know it. Now you know it too.

One of the highly touted features of the new iPhone is the ability to have the map display your direction of travel. A great idea, long...
 

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now4real954

OMFG...leave the guy alone...if someone that works in an Apple blog missed that little tidbit then whom else could have missed it

I do remember reading a few people thanking him for the tip...

you do have to remember that this is a blog that goes to millions of people and a lot of them are not apple geeks like some of you...that probably watched the darn keynote 17 times cuz you have no life or reason to live

give him a break...there was like almost 20 blog posts for this day...and maybe it isn't the rocket science you want from him but damn...ur annoying when you just constantly want to berate the people that write these articles...and that is why we lose great, fun and authentic writers on this blog because you guys are such dicks to them

@Mel...I think you have been doing a great job...and it seems from looking to the right side where it states the blogs for the last 30 days it seems that you are doing a lot of writing for this blog and it's seems you deserve a little more appreciation these days

my 2 cents

June 20 2009 at 2:57 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
3 replies to now4real954's comment
icepod

"Since I was the real smart TUAW dude, I told them I could get it going. Nope. Nada. Zero."

Haha

I would have known that, since I watched Apple's video tutorial about the new features of the 3G S!

June 20 2009 at 12:07 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Aloysius Snuffleupagus

You guys are children. Grow up. Perhaps -- and I know this may be hard for you to imagine -- he has other things in his life to do besides watch the keynote. Perhaps he thought other people might as well and could benefit from the tip. I'm a big Apple fan and TUAW reader, but I have a career and a wife and a baby on the way and many, many other things in my life that are not about Apple. If you didn't need Mel's help, you certainly didn't need to read the article. And if you felt the article was redundant and you found that you had the time and the energy to make obnoxious comments about it, maybe you need to find more things to do in life. Look out the window. It's a big world.

June 19 2009 at 11:39 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Rafe H.

I'm a TUAW blogger, and if I was designing this I'd try and include a few more Windows features that I miss so much.

June 19 2009 at 11:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Elias

Wow dude, I think TUAW just jumped the shark. Do you not read your own blog? I swear it's been posted at least twice on this blog that you push the locate button a second time. Plus it was in the Keynote. And the guided tour. And on every other review, walk-through, blog, etc.

June 19 2009 at 9:51 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Elias's comment
mark

LOL.

Also, TUAW wrote:

"I think if I was [sic] designing this I would have made it an option on the map to default to direction of travel, or North at the top."

And, with all due respect, guess what that would be? Interface clutter. And redundant. :-) There's no need for a feature like that to take up space in the UI. Since the GPS button was already there and (previously) served only one purpose, the current solution is far more elegant. And that's why we love Apple!

June 19 2009 at 10:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ted

Didn't even watch the guided tour? Fail.

June 19 2009 at 9:45 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Alan

North up and track up are options that have been available in aircraft gps and nav systems for years, it would be nice to see such features on iPhone!

June 19 2009 at 7:04 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
James

It's not an unreasonable thing to overlook, stop giving Mel such a hard time, what's the point in it?

June 19 2009 at 6:51 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tariq

Didn't you guys go to the keynote, or at least liveblog it? This was clearly pointed out. As well as being on Apple's site in their guided tour and in the manual. Excellent reporting...

June 19 2009 at 6:38 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jeffofla

Opps. I should have read the posts above. Yikes.

June 19 2009 at 6:35 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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