GPS?

[Hamrnb]

I may misinterpreted this but I read that the zii has gps. I'm curious as to why creative would include this, because who is going to use gps on an mp3 player (please correct me if I'm wrong about that), unless they were going to release the zii as a phone which (in the US at least (to my understanding)) is required by law.

[copeys]

well they could have pre-loaded maps?? That would be handy

[Hirudin]

I personally no longer think it's helpful to try to classify devices as STRICTLY "phones", "MP3 players", or even "cameras". They're just small gadgets with screens (usually). Nearly everything I can think of that has a screen and is roughly pocket size* can play MP3s (I'm pretty sure even cameras can play MP3s when they're in "slide show" mode).
* Phones, DAPs, cameras, PNDs, PMPs, MIDs, and probably some other categories I'm forgetting.

Remember, until recently PNDs (or GPSes, whatever you'd like to call them) only recently became able to get map data over wireless networks. The older PNDs would store all their map data in onboard memory.

The Zii with GPS could be just as useful as a previous generation GPS unit. Actually, it can be better.

If you are somewhere with Wi-Fi you can use Google Maps for mobile. Combine that with the GPS and you can do local searches for businesses and stuff (Google Maps for mobile has a very cool search feature, or at least it does on Symbian S60**). Also, should you get lost, you could conceivably use Wi-Fi provided from a business (like Starbucks) to search for and find the address of your destination and give you the best route (Google Maps has very efficient route generation).

** The Google Maps application is very cool and very handy even on devices without touchscreens nor 3G connections. Check out the page I linked above, if you have a smartphone there is probably a version of Google Maps available for it already.

Some people may find the possibility of Geotagging photos to be useful too, so far I'm not convinced it's worth the extra drain on the battery.

And, one last thing that GPS can help with is "augmented reality" applications. I think a built-in compass (a feature I'm pretty sure the Zii doesn't have ATM) may be required as well though.

You Tube

You Tube

[Olley]

- Two cameras: Geotagging.
- The potential of location-based apps.
- With maps, Navigation.
- Imagine. Much more is possible.

[sonicmotion]

this is a huge selling point to me. I had a dedicated true gps unit that just died on me and is out of warranty. I'm looking at spending 500 dollars alone on a new one. If this does a decent job on the GPS side, I'm sold.