Phone-a-map loses direction

By PETER GRIFFIN

It's an experience I'm sure isn't unique to me. You pull over in a back street of some strange suburb to feel around under the passenger seat of your car for the map book that will lead you to the road you seek.

But as you search, you realise the mapbook is on the kitchen bench at home.

There's a good chance you'll hop into your car and drive off without your map book, but you are less likely to leave your mobile phone behind. Is there a business opportunity there?

GeoSmart, one of the country's biggest suppliers of mapping data, thinks there is.

It's using its goldmine of mapping information as the basis for SmartFIND, a new service being offered to 021 mobile customers with Vodafone Live handsets.

Enter the name of a business or a street address into SmartFIND and the service will direct you to your destination, providing a map to guide the way.

A great use of technology for busy and absentminded people, right?

Well, it has the potential to be, but SmartFIND is a flawed beast.

The first problem is the medium - a mobile phone connecting over a low-speed data network and trying to display detailed maps on a small, low-resolution screen.

The SmartFIND maps turn into a pixelated mess when taken to a high level of detail. Higher resolution phones are now on the market and are able to better deal with graphics, but many don't support Vodafone Live and have to be configured with separate browsers.

The service can also be frustratingly slow, especially when you must flick through several screens.

The other issue is that SmartFIND will only ever be as good as the data underpinning it, and that data is patchy.

Searching for businesses turns up more misses than hits.

Some restaurants, retail stores and organisations will be listed and other equally important ones will be left out.

The Dominion Rd restaurant Tusk was a no-show as was Pod in Wellington.

Retail chain Placemakers didn't even register, neither did Auckland Hospital.

We already know where the big landmarks around town are.

It's all the businesses and landmarks in between that we need to be able to find.

The street information is sound - searches usually find the desired location, anywhere in the country.

But the directions issued by SmartFIND to get to your street of choice are bizarre.

For instance, the service will give directions from Albert St in Auckland to Lambton Quay, Wellington and say it is a 653.3km trip.

But the directions SmartFIND serves up for the trip involve the most convoluted route to Wellington imaginable.

I'm told that the business listings will be improved greatly in the next couple of months.

And a similar service will be soon be available through the internet, so computer users should have a better experience.

The rest of Vodafone Live is improving, but there's precious little in this mobile portal that would keep me coming back.


The experience is tedious, and sometimes you are not rewarded for your hard work.

Trying to view an image of the surf at Gisborne at 12.20pm yesterday I was greeted with this: "An image for today is not yet available. Please check back later."

The same for the traffic cam, which is supposed to show the traffic flows on key roads, such as Auckland's Spaghetti Junction. Instead, this:

"AA Traffic Cam is not available at this time. Please try again later."

Sometimes the maps within SmartFIND don't appear but are replaced instead by a question mark and a series of digits - not very helpful.

Roll on 3G, I say. Maybe with all that money Vodafone is spending on its speedy new mobile network, Vodafone Live will get a decent revamp and we'll get the handsets to view it in quick time.

Price: 50c a day or $2 a week. Vodafone's data charges also apply - 1c a kilobyte for casual use. A one week free trial is offered.

SmartFIND

* Pros

Gives directions on the move

* Cons Maps are hard to see on many mobile phone screens, business information is lacking and map routing is patchy.

* Herald Rating: 5/10