How To Get Direction to Any Place On the Road Using iPad and Wireless Broadband

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 01:45 AM PST

Have you ever need to visit a place but do not know the location? You know a place but do not know the driving direction? It happened to me couple times and, with iPad wifi + 3G and Maxis wireless broadband, I have found out a way to get direction to any places. Read on for the details.

Here is my setup of Super GPS Navigator:

iPad WiFi + GPS — we need the GPS function to get geolocation
Wireless broadband for iPad — we need Internet connexion on the road. I’m using maxis wireless broadband with wide coverage in Malaysia
Navigation app for iOS (optional) — such as tomtom or Papago. Used to get the turn by turn driving direction.

Step 1: Get the venue’s name

If you do not know the exact venue name but you know some keywords to describe the venue, try google search the keywords with the area name. Example: steak house near bukit bintang, kuala lumpur. With the Google’s power, you probably get the exact venue name from the search engine result pages.

Step 2: Get the address

Now you got the venue name. We need the address or better still, the GPS location of it. Search the venue on google maps first. If it is popular, you’ll get it on google maps. No luck on google maps? Try google the name for address. It is better if you can get the GPS location.

Step 3: Get the direction

Launch google maps for iPad, key in the venue’s address and get direction from your current location.

Optional: Use turn by turn navigation app

Maps for iPad is free and works great but it does not provide turn by turn navigation. Therefore, I bought TomTom for iPhone and installed it on iPad with 2x zoom. Now I have a giant GPS navigator! I enter the GPS code in TomTom on iPad and I’m ready to go. I don’t have the worry about low iPhone battery with GPS turn on.

Hope these tips help you to find your way on the road.

- Posted from my iPad