Last week it only took about four hours to send US iPhone users on an emotional roller coaster from which they may never recover. Early Friday morning, BGR (among others) reported that Google's turn-by-turn navigation system - which is currently only available to Android users - would come to other platforms, including the iPhone. The report was based on an article from UK site MacUser which stated that "Google confirmed at a London press conference that it plans to bring free satnav to other smartphone platforms, including the iPhone, although it wouldn’t say when."
Later in the afternoon, however, a different story was being told. According to BGR (who later posted a follow up story), in an article from PCWorld, a Google spokesperson makes it quite clear that iPhone users should not expect to see Google Navigation any time soon. The spokesperson clarified, "We did not say we would bring it to iPhone, we said to date we've had it on Android and that in the future it may come to other platforms but did not confirm this will be coming to iPhone at all."
This was likely disappointing news for iPhone users. However, Google did point out an interesting feature that their navigation app will have which was previously unknown. According to PCWorld, while using Google Navigation, you won't need to use as much data as you may think. The app uses the data connection to calculate your directions, but saves and uses that route unless you take an unexpected turn, at which point the connection is re-initiated in order to reroute. This is good to know considering in the coming months/years all-you-can-eat data plans may become a thing of the past.
Right now Google Navigation is only available to Android users, any readers have alternative phone-based navigation systems (paid or free) they'd recommend? Please leave your nav-of-choice in the comments!
