For someone who spent the formative years of his youth reading maps in the Scouts, I have an unnerving ability to get lost. But so far – and this is especially inscrutable for a gadget freak – I have resisted the lure of satellite navigation. I just didn’t want to have to manage *yet another device* when a map and my innate sense of direction seemed generally adequate.

But a combination of my iPhone, an affordable satnav app called CoPilot Live, and a demand from the Significant Other to end unintended diversions – and I have an opportunity to see what this GPS driving business is all about.

So having ditched the maps for CoPilot Live, did my iPhone get me from A to B?

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I’ve had the Proporta USB TurboCharger 3400 for a quite few months now so I’m in a good position to be able to give a accurate account of how the TurboCharger 3400 might fit in to your daily smartphone usage. If there’s one item that has remained underpowered on all smartphones throughout 2009 it’s the battery. For those impatient types, or for those of you who are actively looking for a portable battery backup solution, let me cut to the chase. You need a Porporta TurboCharger 3400. With is 3400 mAh capacity and swappable charging heads, it’s hard to see why you wouldn’t want one.

I’ll give you three common scenarios – all real life examples – that should resonate with many readers.

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[Please welcome Jane Sales as a new reviewer. Jane previously wrote Symbian OS Internals, and is currently working on something location-specific for the iPhone.]

Twitter is becoming a platform, and GeoTweeter is the latest proof of that. It’s the new iPhone app from Schmap, the creators of the iPhone-friendly interactive travel guides and the Schmap.me location sharing service, and it’s a free download from the App Store.
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You may remember this post, in which I looked at areas of functionality in which Apple are very strong with the iPhone and areas in which they really should have stepped up to the plate, evening out the gaps. Recognising that there is something of an inbalance between the functionalities of different phones on the market though, I wanted to point out that there’s another option for fans of the iPhone OS, of the superb hardware and of the App Store. 

Regular readers here will know that, although having access to iPhones, I (personally) use an iPod Touch. Not crazy at all, this feature will hopefully explain one of the reasons why I’m happy with the ‘lesser’ device. The other reason is ongoing network/contract costs, but that’s another rant for another day.

Raise your glasses to the iPod Touch

You see, for Apple fans who eye up the telephony, connectivity and photography advantages of the best of the Symbian/Nokia world, it really is possible to have your cake and eat it. Read on…

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So Apple’s last ever keynote at MacWorld has come and gone. And, contrary to the tease mentions by some case sites, there was no iPhone Nano announced. Nor indeed any  significant iPhone announcements, rather strangely.

As I can illustrate from a chart I drew up for an AAS feature (reproduced below the break), the Apple iPhone is supremely functional in many areas but is let down in others (all well known). In the areas of photo/video and navigation, Apple could have knocked the ball out of the park and really, really rattled the cages of the likes of Nokia.

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