The creators of G-Map, XRoad Co., Ltd, have given us a copy of G-Maps to review and promo codes for you to win.  Please check out the review below and be sure to enter in the contest! We will be giving away 5 copies of both East and West.

When you first launch the app, you will notice a very nice and simple layout as seen in the second to last picture.  You can easily see exactly where you are by hitting the View Map button.  As with all GPS units you need to be outside to get a good GPS lock.  Testing the program indoors will not find your location that easy unless you are by a window.

Creating routes for use later is very simple with G-Map’s Route Manager.  You can view you current route, create and edit routes and even revers the routes.  This is perfect if you travel to certain destinations frequently.

If you are on a current route and accidentally make a wrong turn,  G-Map’s will instantly create a new route to get you to your final destination. You will notice that if you are in an area of construction like I was that the maps may be old and not updated with the current info.  I was on the highway that got rerouted and G-Maps instantly recognized it and recalculated the best route to take.  It will put a red flag up as your new starting point as seen in the picture.

Another handy feature  is the route preview.  You can simulate the driving as if you were going 20-100mph. This is nice so you can get a preview of where you will have to turn throughout your actual driving route.

You can easily go back to the main screen at anytime to update your route with a new POI (point of interest).  Say you need gas, G-Maps quickly finds the closest gas stations and tells you their name and how far away they are from you.  There are many more options such as food, lodging, and rest areas.

G-Maps gives you a few nice options to choose from such as fastest and shortest route, Are you driving a car or truck (not sure what kind of difference this would make…).  You also have the option to stay away from certain avoidances such as toll and unpaved roads.

Advantages

-Very nice voice.

-Lots of voice commands.

-Updates your route on the fly if you go the wrong way.

-You can easily update your route with a POI (Point Of Interest).

-Lots of POIs to chose from.  It will display the name and how close you are to them.  This is very helpful if you need to see how far you are from the nearest gas station.

-Ability to choose the fastest or shortest route.

-Ability to avoid certain items like Toll Roads and Unpaved Roads.

-Ability to create, save, and manage routes as well as reversing them.

-Does not use Cellular Data!

-Priced between $19.99 and $34.99 only for a limited time.  Here is the Direct Link to their iTunes Page.

Disadvantages

-Volume is really low.  If you have the radio on in your car it is hard to fully hear the voice commands.

-No landscape mode.

-Screen does not automatically dim or shut off.  It is on the entire time so make sure you are connected to a power source if you are going on a long trip.

-Way too many Food options.  This could be an advantage for some but most people would just like to see a list of all the options nearby.  This application gives you a list of 61 categories such as: American, Thai, seafood, Mexican, etc.  Once you click on the category it gives you a list of nearby restaurants.

-Take up 824MB of space on your iPhone (G-Map U.S. West version 1.3.1).  You need to have double that free space initially to install it as iTunes extracts it and then cleans up the space.

Currently for the price, I believe that this is the best GPS application out there as long as you are able to hook up the volume into your cars stereo.  Hopefully they will fix the volume issue in the next update!

Coverage Areas:

WEST

EAST

Well, this is a strange claim., but apparently, Gregory McKenna, a California man, claims to have sufficient evidence to charge Apple, Inc. with conspiring with the Mafia to illegally build and sell bugged iPods, and to add the word “herpes” into Mike Jones’ music video “Still Tippin”.

He claims that Apple, Inc. sent him multiple death threats.

Here’s what his lawyer had to say

:

“The recording of death threats and other evidence, prove that Apple, Inc. conspired with the Mafia and other Defendants to manufacture, distribute, and sell illegally bugged iPods and other electronic equipment to Plaintiff (Gregory McKenna) to perpetuate the stalking, extortion, and torture.”

Gregory also said that Apple forced him to model for them in New York, and if he refused they would kill him.

“We’re going to kill you if you don’t model for us in New York. Media sources report that the modeling industry has an infamous “shadow Mafia” that forces models to work for pay after fraudulently putting them into excessive debt, coerces them into the illegal sex trade, and then disposes of them.”

Now, this next one seems very odd to me, but he claims that they added the word “herpes” to Mike Jones’ music video “Still Tippin”. This is what he said the song was after they did it:

“Tippin’ on four fours, wrapped in four vogues, HERPES. Tippin’ on four fours, wrapped in four vogues. Tippin’ on four fours, wrapped in four vogues, AH”

Now, for the sake of argument, I watched the video 5 times, and I never heard the word herpes! I am not sure where Gregory is going with this, but I just don’t see him having a case with that.

Well, this story is very strange indeed, but until we see/hear actual evidence, I can’t say anything more on the matter…

Kane Kramer came up with a gadget and music distribution service almost eerily similar to the iPod-iTunes relationship that predates it by three decades.

The IXI (Kramer’s device), was flash-based, (flash memory in 1979 only could have held about three minutes of audio), and featured a screen, four-way controls, and was about the size of a cigarette pack.

He predicted the creation and sale of digital music and foresaw all the good and bad that would come from this: no overhead, no inventory, piracy, but a great push for independent artists.

He predicted DRM and in his one concession to the time, guessed that music would be bought on coin-operated machines placed in high-traffic areas.

It’s creepy, really. Last year, Apple even brought him in to testify on their behalf (they weren’t at risk of being sued themselves, since his patent had expired.)

Pretty amazing, considering there wasn’t even internet at the time (he used telephone lines instead).

How is this possible? Well, nobody really knows how. I would like to think this is impossible, but there are facts to prove it. Wow, I wonder who predicted the iPhone…

Well guys, this topic may be “old news” but lately I’m not the only one asking this, many analysts have been pondering this very same thing now that Apple has been put to the test after all these months without good-old Steve Jobs holding their hand the entire way. Well, its almost time for Mr. Jobs to return to Apple as CEO once more. So let’s take a look at Apple in 2009…

Well, back in January, Steve Jobs had finally admitted that something was wrong and that he had to leave Apple until “the end of June”. If you recall, he had said that he had a simple “hormonal imbalance”, which we later learned that he actually was more severe than that. This had a chilling effect on Apple stock, their stock plummeted to as low as $78.20.

We should also be aware that at that time, the world was in the middle of a recession so we can also relate some of those losses twards the bad economy, I would like to think that its very stupid to assume that Apple stock only fell due to Steve’s poor health.

By February, their highest value was $102.51. Not much happened during February 2009, so this is just speculation from investors.

March was an even better month for Apple, they announced iPhone OS 3.0 to the world at a special event led by Scott Forstall. Their stock was at $105.12 by March, 31, 2009. Still nothing like what they were a year ago at nearly $200 a share.

April, a huge month for Apple, they were, in fact, in the middle of their beta testing for iPhone OS 3.0, they sold their one billionth application on their highly sucessful App Store on April 23, 2009, and they were actively testing Snow leopard with their developers. They ended off at $125.83.

May, another huge month for Apple. They were finishing off iPhone OS 3.0 beta testing and Snow Leopard was also recieving beta releases, also Apple stated that all major work to the frameworks was done, and that developers should start making new applications as the next releases were going to be simple bug fixes.

New beta releases were available for both platforms. Also speculation about Apple’s newest iPhone device were at their peak as references to “Jibbler” (voice-control) , “Accessibility”, Magnetometer (digital-compass), and video capabilities had been found in the iPhone OS 3.0 firmware during beta testing. They ended off at $135.81.

Now onto June. Apple’s biggest month since Steve Jobs’ absence. This is where WWDC 2009 was at. They announced their new (more affordable) MacBook line starting at $1,199, Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) starting at just $29 (for Leopard users), QuickTime X, Safari 4, iPhone OS 3.0 (GM seed released to developers, June 17th release for the rest of the world), and the highly anticipated iPhone 3G S (the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet).

Well, on June 5th (Friday before WWDC) they ended up at $144.67. Great price. Now after WWDC 2009 they ended off at $142.35.

This has basically a tradition, Apple stock falls after their keynotes, no one is exactly sure why that is, even if the announcements are ground breaking, it still falls no matter what.

At the time I am writing this, they are at $139.48. A slight dip from their pre-WWDC value. This is due to glitches with iPhone 3G S activations and iPhone OS 3.0 activation complications, and AT&T’s uncanny ability to ruin a great launch by not supporting MMS or teathering at launch.

Investors have liked the way Apple has been running so far under Tim Cook, Phil Schiller, Scott Forstall, and Bertrand Serlet’s leadership at Apple during Steve Jobs’ absence from the company.

I agree, they have been doing a great job without Steve holding their hand the whole way. They have managed to not kill Apple, but rather survive and thrive during the harsh economic downturn. Apple has been one of the most sucessful companies during the recession.

Not even Microsoft could sustain themselves completely, they had extreme lay offs. Apple also had lay offs, but not very many. At this point, they are giving everyone their job back because they are opening 100 new stores in the U.S. alone this year.

My verdict, Apple will survive without Steve Jobs. I don’t however, see there being very many revolutionary products comming out of Apple after Mr. Jobs is gone.

I do however see them surviving as they have a set goal in mind. Steve said at the launch of Mac OS X, “Mac OS X sets Apple up for at least the next decade”, and now with the iPhone OS, there are limitless possibilities with this brilliant idea of a screen that displays whatever you want with a keyboard that only appears when you need it.

These past few months, Apple has showed us that Apple is more than just one man with brilliant ideas and vision, but rather many people who work as one to bring the world great new technology.

Steve Jobs is the key to Apple’s huge sucess, there is no denying that, but I believe he has always been looking for someone who shares his vision and passion, an heir if I may, and mabe, just mabe, he has finally found his sucessor that will take over Apple so that it continues to thrive for the many years to come.

Sources say that Steve Jobs may return to Apple as part-time CEO, but at this point, I think we should all be ready for a part-time Jobs. Many people have speculated his return to Apple will be a short one. Most don’t expect his to stay to be more than 5 years at Apple, so let’s just hope he still has time for a few more Stevenotes and revolutionary technologies that will propel Apple deep into the 21st century and beyond.

Hey everyone, well it seems us here at LimitedEditioniPhone have done it yet again. A few months ago, we reported that Steve Jobs was in Tennesee getting a much needed liver transplant. Now, I am not proud and am not going to say “I told you so” because I look up to Mr. Jobs and admire his work too much to say that.

So why until now to get confirmation? Well, Steve Jobs’ medical leave is almost over. (We might even expect him to be back Monday morning, if not, he should be back by June 29, 2009, which is incidently the iPhone’s 2 year anniversary)

His condition is unknown (not confirmed) but we have gotten some status updates throughout 2009. Woz (Steve Wozniak, Apple, Inc. Co-Founder) stated about a month ago stating that he was in good health and was almost back to his old energetic self. A few weeks ago, some Apple workers on Apple’s Cupertino Campus reported that they had seen him on site roaming around, and they also stated that he looked a lot better than in the Fall/Winter of 2008.

As you may remember has Apple never stated anything about Steve Jobs’ health when it comes to cancer. In 2004, Apple revealed Mr. Jobs’ pancreatic cancer to the world after his surgery that (allegedly) cured him of cancer forever.

Well, I did some research, and I found some startling facts, Steve Jobs’ cancer is a very small and often undetected disease due to the cancerous cells being so small. Well, it seems that sometimes, when they remove all or most of the pancreas, one, they get diabetes which is fortunately treatable (but still horrible to have), two, they will have to remove some of the liver as well as the liver is next in line for the cancer.

Sometimes, however, the doctors don’t remove all of the cancerous cells (due to them being so small and undetected) and the cancer spreads to the liver. Which explains his liver transplant (like I had speculated a few months ago), he had liver cancer from the old pancreatic cancer.

Not only this, but he will be on medication for his entire life to prevent what’s called “rejection” in which a transplanted organ may be attacked the the body (because the body thinks its bad, like a virus).

So as we await Steve Jobs’ return to Apple, just keep in mind that this can happen to anyone, so be aware and be safe everyone, and Steve, where ever you are, “Good luck, and welcome back!”