Comments on: New Version of Google Maps for Palm OS Released

On the flipside, it's wonderfully easy to switch carriers here when better plans become available. I've switched from Virgin to Optus to Vodafone and then back to Optus so far; it's the beauty of everyone using GSM.

I have Sprint (with roaming incl) and have done drivearounds with Verizon users - negligible difference. Certainly not worth paying Verizon their quoted rate of DOUBLE my comparable service plan with Sprint.

http://www.vtbsd.net/

I predict Palm is going to integrate GPS into at least one Treo before 2007 is up...probably the Treo 800p. I'd expect Palm to "hog" a tweaked version of Google Maps supporting live GPS functionality for inclusion in the ROM of that device.

All speculaton, mind you, but still a good way for Palm to send Garnet out with a bang instead of a whimper and good practice for the Google team to work alongside an, ahem, "hardware company".

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P

All sheer speculation on my part but Palm might have figured out that between a larger/higher-res screen, built-in wi-fi, and integrated GPS, GPS was the easiest/safest thing to do when taking into consideration the desires of the carriers, battery life issues, and the limitations of Garnet. And Palm HAS been pushing GPS bundles and peripherals for some time so I've been expecting Palm to integrate GPS into one of their devices for a couple of years now.

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P

Pretty soon most phones will come with Gmail and Google Calendar as standard.

In short: Google is King.

Look at what superbowl advertisers pay for 30 seconds of bombarding one channel of TV with their "message" to anyone watching... and you can see it's a little more efficient to simply get inside *your* brain and emotions, figure out what and where you go - then use that information to "suggest" stuff for you to spend your time and money on. These are just baby steps right now.

So is it useful for Google to "give away" stuff that just happens to feed data into their unregulated database covering you (they seem to tie it in with your phone number and/or IP)? Apparently.

That's how they can build a great app like this and afford to give it away. We are *not* their customers, any more than we are the commercial broadcaster's customers - our *attention* is the product and the customers are the advertisers and government.