Apple Patent on Podmaps Hints at Strong Navigation System

This patent application from Apple is for an application called Podmap. It looks like it has everything that is needed to build a GPS application that the one found in in-car navigation systems. Of course, this could be used to turn an iPod Touch or an iPhone into a fully-featured GPS navigation system or it could be used to build a stand-alone device, an iGPS, if you want.

Turning existing devices into better navigation devices would make more sense in the short term. After all, we believe that the iPhone 2 will have a GPS chip and a 3G connection, which would be required to access the network described above. However, a stand-along GPS device that has a 4.3” to 7” display is not completely out of the question.

Note that this is “just” a patent application. It does not mean that Apple is actually working on it, but at least, they are “thinking” about it.