I don't need it to load satellite views, but why couldn't it load all the roads in the general direction you'll be going? Or even pre-load just the roads on your route (it might already do that, I don't know). Why couldn't they do that? Would it be so difficult? It's Google, I think they have some smart people there who could figure an algorithm to decide what data to load before you set out.


I'm not sure what you thought I was saying. Did you think I thought it should load data over GPS? These phones, unlike a nav-only device, have almost-constant data connections, so in fact I'd expect them to be even better at their jobs.

When it comes down to it, these phones have more capabilities than a traditional GPS. And if I have an 8GB card in my phone, or all that space on an iPhone, why shouldn't I be able to preload a simple route, or even an entire city, or region, or country? My GPS in my Honda Odyssey had the streets and addresses for the entire country on a single DVD. Sure, that's at most 4.7GB (though I doubt it took up the whole disc), and Google maps has a lot more data than that Nav did, but I don't see why you couldn't load an entire city on your phone. Like I said in my post, I get the impression that the Garmin phone already does this, so what are you arguing?