My gf, who's got an iPhone, likes google maps better on my Droid 2. The cursor is just a blue wedge, and it just seems easier to use than hers.

Coming home on the freeway, I've entertained myself by magnifying the screen so I could see my position on the freeway and even tell when I had come closest to my home street while on the freeway.

I was on the phone (during which Traffic does not work) for almost an hour while driving just now. When I went back to the map, I found:
*it had me at the Mulholland Bridge over the 405, which they are knocking down over the weekend. Yup, I was there, saw all forty news trucks, etc. But that was an hour before.
*I moved the map a bit with my thumb, then hit the button that centers the cursor. It did not move.

*When, some five minutes later, it finally moved, I had a big blue circle around the wedge, just like the iPhone's cursor. I don't like that.
*the cursor was not pointed in the direction I was traveling.
*at some point I touched the cursor and it said it was accurate to within 800 meters. It had been accurate to within about twenty feet up to today.
*in fact, it was inaccurate by almost 800 meters during the rest of the trip. It showed me plowing down backyards, being on the freeway when I wasn't, being in the river while driving down my driveway.
*it was not simply behind. It was off in various directions from my actual location, with the cursor never pointed correctly.

Anyone having trouble with google maps on their cell phone? Their Droid in particular?

"Who's got an iPhone", short for "who has got an iPhone". The proper was to have said that would have been, "who has an iPhone". Got is not necessary.

Sorry, Ernie, I just couldn't resist. ;)~

Under 'location and security', turn off GPS and turn it back on.
If that doesn't help, power cycle the phone.

the iPhones gps does show you which direction you are heading with a wedge of sorts.
on the bottom left of maps, press that little white arrow once for it to locate you on the map, press it again for it to show the wedge with the direction you are facing (via built in compass)

Right. But I've always seen it with a blue circle around it on an iPhone. I don't want extra visual garbage on the screen. That circle tells me nothing.


The equivalent of this on the Droid Maps is a compass point arrangement at the upper right. Pressing once moves the map to center the wedge. Pressing it repeatedly gives you a view where you're looking straight down on the map with your direction being up; and a view where you're up in the air following the arrow, again where the arrow always points up, but this one has some perspective.

Those last two are worthless because of a REALLY STUPID thing that Maps does. When you stop moving, the arrow magically changes direction every time. If you're in those last two modes, your map rapidly rotates, as if you'd done a Fred Flintstone, picked up your car, swung it around in sort of a half do-si-do, then set it back down facing the wrong way in traffic. When you're still, that is, at the time when it's safest to read the map, it suddenly rotates on you!

By the way, I removed the battery last night, replaced it, and it seems to be working all right. I had not removed the battery for at least eight hours....

The blue circle around it is only if it doesn't have a gps lock. What iPhone does she have? Maybe she has the iPhone 3G (without gps?)

Ernie, the blue circle is the cellphone tower's triangulation, so that's why it was only accurate to 800 feet.
As other's suggested, if that happens again, turn your GPS Off than On to restore functionality.

The top left compass pointer is just that, press it once and your map locks into true (or magnetic) north, press it again and map will rotate to follow you and give you your current direction pointing up view (you know what I mean, right?).

If you lose your position on the map, which can happen if you tap on the map, switch to another app, etc., there should be that blue chevron pointer thingy in the bottom right, tap it once and the map should re-center to your current position and follow your movements.

You're right that "got" is not necessary for this expression to be grammatically correct. However, common usage is a bit different from exact grammatical correctness.

It would have been correct to contract "who has an iPhone" to "who's an iPhone," because that correctly contracts "who has." Unfortunately, that contraction is identical to the contraction of "who is," and most people would read the grammatically correct "my girflfriend, who's an iPhone" NOT as "who has" but as "who is." The colloquial "who has got" clears up the possible misunderstanding.*

While "got" is not grammatically necessary, as you say, and many feel that using a colloquialism is a grammatical step backwards, inclusion of the "got" makes the meaning clear in a way that the grammatically correct phrasing does not.


I like your beard, Charlie Chan!

No problem, either! I know that I know some things about grammar, and that some things are not cut and dry or cut and dried (as opposed to cut and try), and that reasonable people can have different ways of expressing things, all equally "correct."

edit:
*in fact, if you read books from the 1920s or before, you will find "who's" meaning "who has." I think it was dropped because it was confused with "who is."

One of the first times I used my droid map app, I was cruising along looking at the graphical map with the little wedge, then the display changed... not having my reading glasses on, I thought huh what's that... when I got a better look it was a photo of the actual hose which was on my right! Amazing technology.

It actually had a photo of the guy in the car with you? WOW!