Windows Phone 7 and Bing saves lost at sea Microsoft dev

May 21, 2011 | By Surur

Martin Tirion User Experience Evangelist at Microsoft writes on his blog how on a recent boat outing in Greece his Windows Phone 7 handset and the built-in Bing maps helped save his bacon.

He writes:

We went for a short vacation to Greece and decided to go for a boat-trip for a day by ourselves. A small boat for a small area around some small islands. Because of a very bad map, bad instructions, bad supplies and an error in navigation we ended up in the middle of open sea without fuel. Luckily I could use my Windows Phone to call the rental agency. They would pick us up. But … where were we?

I mentioned the navigation error, so we thought we were just below a specific island. But they couldn’t find us. We were drifting at (a more and more getting rough) sea for 4 hours and they still couldn’t find us. “Tell us what you see, describe the island you see” … but how to describe an island other than “rocks, trees, and no people or landmarks”. Imagine how we felt: winds picking up, waves getting higher, drifting away, cold, people looking for us but they were unable to find us. And this at the end of the day, so in a few hours the sun would set.

Now, Windows Phone has by default Bing Maps installed combined with use of GPS. To get this to work you need a GPS coordinates and an internet connection to retrieve the maps to show where you are. You need all of that at the same time. At sea we had phone contact most of the time, internet connection through GPRS sometimes. I have no idea how it works with retrieving GPS coordinates. But it didn’t come together until after 4 (long) hours.

I have never been this happy to see Bing Maps on my Windows Phone zoom into the map and show the yellow mark of our location. Immediately I called the guys looking for us and informed them of our location. Finally we were found and rescued!

The guy who picked us up told us we were very, very lucky. We were in open sea and big waves could have tipped our boat over. Big ships could have made waves that would have tipped the boat over. We dropped our anchor just before cliffs of an island (the small one to the right of the blue X) that would have damaged our small boat. The anchor line however was so thin that it could have snapped … and crashed our boat into the rocks of the small island.

So, Windows Phone and Bing Maps probably saved our lives. Talking about user experience …

While of course there is nothing here which any smartphone could not do, its nice to know when you need it your Windows Phone will be there for you.

Do any of our readers have stories on how their Windows Phone saved the day? Let us know below.

About Surur

Site Admin and Windows Phone enthusiast, he has been using Windows Mobile devices since before they were called PocketPC’s. He is currently sporting a HTC 7 Trophy.

Tagged microsoft, windows phone 7

Anonymous

This is not really positive, is it? 4 hours until they got the GPS fix is actually very bad…

Anonymous

I suspect it was the map rather the GPS fix he was waiting for, due to his spotty data connection.

Anonymous

Yeah, you are probably right

Pyre

Can you get a GPS fix without a map? On android there are GPS apps that will give you coordinates, then you call your searchers when that works and tell them the coordinates. Good that the guy got saved, but 4 hrs for a location seems terrible even with no cell coverage.

Anonymous

Yeah you can, but you need an app like the one you are talking about… Glad I have Navigon on my WP
Anonymous

The trial of Deluxe Moon, for example, allows you to retrieve pure GPS coördinates (and thus you don’t require a data connection).

There are several other apps that do the same thing.

Eric_sc2

Bing Map? What is it?

Oh yes, the crappy GPS software that I have on my WP7 phone. The one with the blurry inaccurate maps.
No thanks. I really have nothing positive to say about it.
Eric_sc2

Bing Map? What is it?

Oh yes, the crappy GPS software that I have on my WP7 phone. The one with the blurry inaccurate maps.
No thanks. I really have nothing positive to say about it.

Anonymous

It’s true that Bing Maps lacks a couple features, like turn-by-turn navigation, but I wouldn’t go as far as say they’re blurry. I actually think that satellite view, at least here in Geneva, is better and has a higher resolution on Bing maps than on Google Maps.

http://chmun77.myopenid.com/ Koka

Higher resolutions but much lesser information as compared to Google map? I will take Google map rather…. I can’t even see building names as compared to Google Maps. I stayed outside US btw.

Anonymous

Same here, Bing sucks in Germany, I hope the Nokia deal changes something…

Ken6kay

Oh shaddap!

Funny this title came on today, ‘cos i just got back from a day trip to Breda in Netherlands, and was able to find my way around the city using a cached Bing map session I got at my hotel in Amsterdam over WiFi.
As my phone did not have a data plan here in Holland I expected a day of asking my way around town, but to my surprise Bing maps cached an address I looked up earlier and cached the whole city, and it was very accurate and not even bury. So i was petty much able to walk around the city today for hours using Bing maps and the GPS and didn’t have to ask any arrogant Dutchie “Mag ik u iets vragen?” (May I ask you a question?). Ha.

Anonymous

While this is great, other smartphones could’ve done the same, it’s not extraordinary.

the-hq

Well that’s exactly what the article says in the last sentence, eh?

zzz

Speaking of maps, there seems to be a Google Map app called Gmaps in the marketplace. Anyone tried it?
zzz

Speaking of maps, there seems to be a Google Map app called Gmaps in the marketplace. Anyone tried it?

http://www.facebook.com/miguelsantos1985 Miguel Santos

Gmaps works good… But now that I managed to get Navigon working… WP7 is bliss…

Anonymous

If he had been using Nokia (Ovi) Maps he would have saved 4 hours! The only phones with full maps stored on the device that do not require an internet connection.

With an N8 he could have also got some great 12MP photos of the rescue!

In a few months this will all be possible with Nokia WP
Anonymous

If he had been using Nokia (Ovi) Maps he would have saved 4 hours! The only phones with full maps stored on the device that do not require an internet connection.

With an N8 he could have also got some great 12MP photos of the rescue!

In a few months this will all be possible with Nokia WP
Anonymous

Just think. Without Bing maps you could have been the next Gilligan’s Island . . .
Anonon

There is no excuse for going out without current and accurate maps. It is your responsibility. Relying on bing to save your ass from yourself is a dangerous precident.