AT&T Navigator GPS Service with Speech Recognition Shown
Tue Apr 01, 2008 9:27 am
AT&T today introduced its GPS-enabled navigation service, AT&T Navigator. Designed to provide users with audible and visual turn-by-turn driving directions, AT&T Navigator includes full-color moving maps, using GPS from a wireless phone.
"AT&T Navigator offers travelers a more convenient alternative than using printed maps or expensive stand-alone navigation devices by allowing them to use a device they always have with them - their wireless phone," said Mark Collins, vice president of Consumer Data for AT&T's wireless unit. "AT&T Navigator is an ideal tool for all of our customers, whether they are trying to get directions to a new restaurant uptown, an important business meeting downtown or the high school reunion out of town. It's truly an example of handset personalization and mobilization at its best."
AT&T Navigator provides integrated speech recognition for address entry and points of interest search. Users simply press a button on their phone and speak the name of the business or address they want to find. AT&T Navigator will provide voice and on-screen turn-by-turn directions to the destination. Integrated speech recognition is currently available on BlackBerry devices. AT&T plans to make this feature, along with other services, available on more handsets in 2008 and beyond.
Another AT&T Navigator feature is real-time traffic updates and route information. Consumers can get an estimated time of arrival for every route, plus constant updates as they go along so that they always know how long the trip will take. AT&T Navigator also provides both flow (average speed of traffic along your route) and incident information (auto accidents, freeway construction, etc.) along the route, so users have the ability to navigate around any issues and save time.
AT&T Navigator also steers drivers in the right direction by making it easy for them to:
- Compare gas prices and get directions to the nearest gas stations, which are sorted by lowest to highest price, with the Gas By Price feature
- Search along the route to find the nearest restaurants, ATMs, shopping malls, Wi-Fi hot spots, and much more by using YellowPages.com's database of millions of business locations
- Plan trips before getting into the car by entering an address online from a computer and then synching the address to the phone
AT&T Navigator is currently available on the new Motorola Z9 as well as the Samsung BlackJack II, Motorola Q, AT&T Tilt, and BlackBerry devices (8310, 8800 and 8820). AT&T Navigator will also come preloaded on GPS-enabled devices that will be part of the AT&T handset portfolio in the near future.
AT&T Navigator is currently available to AT&T customers with compatible handsets as a free 30-day trial. If they wish to continue the service after the trial period has ended, they can either pay a monthly subscription charge of $9.99 for unlimited routes or, for Motorola Z9 users, they can use the service with the $2.99 Day Pass option.
Cough cough *Nextel* cough cough, doesn't matter who did it, if it's a good feature, why shouldn't others copy it? Is it innovation if no one uses it but the company with the original idea? And before you say anything about Sprint buying Nextel, Nextel had GPS solutions long before the 'merge'.
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