The view of the curb, road divider, shop front and all other eye level details are near perfect... the colours and 3D rendering almost real... you anticipate a beemer or some other speedster on four wheels to rush past... well almost. This is not the description of another high end 3D road rash game. Welcome to the next generation 3D GPS navigation soon to be available on your mobile device. Tele Atlas has made it possible and Singapore will be the first city to have such 3D maps with completely realistic rendering and verbal instructions to reach your destination. It might just be possible to use the same interface to play a 'location enabled seamless 3D virtual reality game' on your mobile device till the traffic light changes or when stranded in a jam.

All such location enabled services are sure to get better with age now that the Russian President has signed a decree providing the navigation signals of the GLONASS system for all, and without limitations! What ever be the real intentions, such announcements are sure to force the Galileo consortium to put their show together and stay in the race. It also makes better business sense for all national GNSS programs to form a consortium and decide on the communication protocols and interoperability issues. What with GPS using the WGS84 coordinates utilising the 1984 position of the north pole while GLONASS using PZ-90 with the north pole being a mean of all its positions between 1900 and 1905. I sure wouldn't like the error in my location increased due to incompatibility within the 'GPS-GLONASS Compatibility Working Group', or worse be told that I'm in two places at the same time.