LocatioNet launches free mapping and navigation service, amAze

This is a piece of genius. You know when you’ve just taken your N95 out of its packaging and you wait patiently for the GPS to activate… THEN you flick up the Maps application… only to find that you’ve only got the basics. Total arse. If you want everything — the enhanced, proper service — you have to download and pay for it.

Not anymore.

amAze is LocatioNet’s free mapping and navigation service which works on regular mass-market mobile handsets. It gives regular java-enabled handsets access to mapping, satellite imagery, route-planning, weather forecasts and locally relevant search information. AND voice-guided navigation if you’ve got yourself a bluetooth GPS — or if you’ve got an N95 and patience.

I met LocatioNet’s President, Ofer Tziperman, a wicked chap, this week and he demonstrated the technology to me. It’s very smart. They’re able to give the end user free access to the service (obviously, data charges apply if you’re stupid enough to still be with an operator busy hosing you for data fees) by adopting an ad-funded approach. Income is generated via advertisements (i.e. cash machines displayed on the map) as well as sponsorship of the service.

LocatioNet are no flash in the pan. They’ve been around for over 16 years and they know exactly what they’re doing. For example, the amAze application doesn’t do much calculation. No. That would take a load of handset resources and is thoroughly inefficient. Instead, when you need a route calculated, the details are fired off to the amAze server that does the computing and within a second, the results are fired back to the handset. Very smart indeed.

This would be a great application for the likes of Shell, Texaco, BP or somebody to give to their customers.

Get yourself a free copy of amAze at www.amazegps.com. I’ve got more to post, including a particularly wicked example of how a 14 year old using amAze on his bike beat Denmark’s most experienced GPS navigation expert armed to the teeth with oodles of standard Garmin GPS technology. Heh, excellent.