I love my guidebooks and maps because they combine the two things I most enjoy: reading and traveling. So it is with a heavy heart that I announce the paper guidebook is doomed. Of all the categories of electronic books, cellphone guidebooks will most easily trounce paper.
I have scores of guidebooks for six of the seven continents: North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa (yes, Sarah, it's a continent). One of my first was the 1971 version of the seminal Europe on $5 a Day, although that year I couldn't manage on less than about $25 a day. Each of those guidebooks brings back happy memories of great trips.
But here's why cellphone guidebooks will generate even better memories:
1. I purchase at least two guidebooks, usually more, for every country I visit. When I went on a photo safari in Kenya I purchased about half a dozen. But who wants to lug multiple guidebooks? I could store 100 in my phone and memory card and not worry about weight.
2. I have no sense of direction. I once spent about two hours searching for my hotel in Tokyo. Today, cellphone GPS is a godsend. Even in familiar cities, when I'm walking I love GPS to pinpoint my location with Google Maps or BlackBerry Maps for directions. Cellphone guidebooks should include complete addresses that can be cut and pasted (sorry iPhone evangelists) or automatically incorporated into GPS. If your paper map doesn't cover the exact area you need, download one that does!
3. Speaking of Tokyo... It's not easy to get around Japan because of the language barrier. I try to learn a few useful phrases, such as "Where is the electric socket?" and "You don't have free Wi-Fi?!" But sometimes people don't understand my pronunciation or I haven't memorized enough words. I could point to words in a paper guidebook or dictionary, but it would be useful for my phone to "speak" the phrase to people as well as teach me the correct pronunciation. If you need a specific audio dictionary or phrase guide, you should be able to download it via cellular.
4. I admit that it's sometimes useful to open a large map. But have you ever tried to find a tiny trail or pond? A search function on your cellphone's map could find it fast. Also, the zoom function could make the location much easier to see. Microprojectors will enable maps to cover entire walls. Perhaps the cellphone's screen will fold out like origami.
6. Cellphones will blow away paper guidebooks for historical information. Download history books and podcasts and historical fiction as you're touring. Check out Google's (yes, Google again) amazing ancient Rome software developed in conjunction with the University of Virginia's Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities. This 3D software recreates Rome in 320 AD with more than 6,700 buildings and monuments. Google is offering prizes to six schools that create the best curricula based on ancient Rome. This is the beginning of the augmented reality I discussed three months ago.
Many people will still carry a single paper guidebook and a map. But there's no contest: Cellphone guidebooks' advantages will kill paper ones.
I don't think I've read anything about a nationwide U.S. Wi-Fi network. The FCC is looking into offering spectrum for a nationwide wireless data network that would include a free -- but content-filtered component (which I'm very much against, as I wrote) -- but that wouldn't be Wi-Fi.
I've looked at mobile satellite communications for many years. I don't think we'll see a consumer-based satellite service because the economics just don't make sense. For niche applications -- journalists, Haliburton construction workers, mililtary personnel, etc. -- for companies with the need and money, satellite phones will continue to exist.
But there are too many cellular terrestrial towers to make satellite a mass market mobile service. However, if there is a significant advance in technology that makes satellite services viable -- and the advance would have to be dramatically better, not just a little bit better -- perhaps mobile satellite service for the mass market would be revisited.
From an electronic guidebook standpoint, cellphones will continue to be the most full-featured, economical and lightweight wireless Internet device.
Yeah, absolutely - it would complement the manual search. Several times I've been looking for a place to eat nearby, and the search hasn't been as smooth as I thought it should.
I wonder if projects like Iridium (LEO satellites for phone services) will resurface and try to tap into literally all-over-the-world coverage. Also, they had an idea to provide terrestrial indoor coverage through the use of repeaters inside the buildings - maybe the GPS system can use this idea and work on that.
The cliche is that the Internet gives everyone the opportunity to be a publisher, and it's true. Any city, town, village or tiny souvenir shop is able to post information on the Web. And, there are a variety of ways -- some free -- to make Web sites "wireless friendly."
It certainly makes sense for many locations to provide information specifically for mobile phones, whether it's on a mobile-friendly Web site and/or in a mobile-friendly document that can be easily downloaded. How many advertisers would love to sponsor cellphone guidebook-related products? Many, of course.
(Maybe I should go into the cellphone guidebook consulting business! I am a wireless data consultant!)
I do believe that with a lot of business enterprises that would wish to become visible in almost every part of the globe this could be an opportunity for advertisement. It would also mean another income for the localities that would enjoy the presence of these companies and advertisers and a lot more beneficial to tourists who could still enjoy their favorite coffee shops, banks and everything else anywhere in the world.
Yes, with location technologies, the need to search is reduced and you bring up a good point. But the need for manual search isn't always eliminated.
What if you're in downtown Washington and you need to go to northwest Washington (say, Friendship Heights) or a bit further north (say, Bethesda) to eat lunch, but you want to search while you're in downtown Washington to determine whether you should get off at the Friendship Heights or Bethesda Metro station, and you want a specific type of food or atmosphere? In this case, you might want a much more specific search that would be more efficient if you entered parameters.
The "wisdom of crowds" has a lot of merit. But you also need to filter results based on the "wisdom of me"!
What if you're in Paris and thinking about traveling north to London or south to Madrid? Again, automatic, location-based searching has a lot going for it, but many times it's better to enter specific categories manually. Ideally, a cellphone guidebook could do multiple simultaneous searches and present results on different pages.
And, of course, if you're in a major metropolitan area, such as downtown New York, your chances of getting a GPS signal aren't assured. GPS works poorly -- and often not at all -- when you're indoors.
I got a little late to the commenting party and maybe it was already mentioned (I admit to not having read the 3 pages of comments, just the first) but since we are throwing ideas out there... why the need for me to search? I want my cell phone to know where I am and tell give me ideas of where to go, what to see based on the "wisdom of the crowds"?
"70% of the people go to this area, here's a picture of what it looks like and a review given by someone 10 days ago. You can go by bus (departs in 5 minutes, takes 5 minutes), walking (1 mile, 20 minutes) or driving (click here for directions)".
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