Navigate through major North American cities
I have made a minor career giving unofficial tours of Washington D.C. to visiting friends and relatives. At first, the tours were in-depth experiences where I would lead my trusty band of pilgrims through the
Washington Monument, the Capitol, Smithsonian, Lincoln Memorial, Union Station, and so on. As time went by, they developed into a glorified shuttle service where I'd drop them off with the words, "The museum is across the street and the Capitol is up the hill to your left. I'll pick you up at this same spot in four hours." Each person or group would leave town satisfied they had seen the sites of the city. Yet I know that they barely scratched the surface of what Washington D.C. has to offer.
Every major metropolitan area is like this: a multi-layered maze of unique stores, restaurants and hotels, and many other interesting places
to explore. To unlock the mystery of this maze you needed a good guide, a tour book, or a lot of time to browse the Internet and research your city of choice. If you're a Pocket PC user, you might take a close look at the Portable Guide by Portable Internet, Inc (www.portableinternet.com).
Portable Guide combines the best of all these tools, to help you navigate
confidently through many major cities in America.
A guide and expert (electronic) concierge
Whether you're traveling, or exploring your home turf, the Portable Guide is a great resource. Portable Internet describes it as an
"intelligent, personalized Web site." It's a stand-alone HTML-based program that installs on your Pocket PC and lets you access detailed information about most major North American cities. Portable Guide displays interactive maps, turn-by-turn directions to desired locations, and acts as an "Expert Concierge" to help you find the right restaurants, hotels, convention centers and other sites of interest.
Open Portable Guide and a welcome screen pops up, inviting you to select a city or proceed to the home page of a previously loaded map. The
home page shows you an interactive color-coded map of the city from preset
heights of five miles, 1.5 miles, or 1000 feet (see Screen 1). The home page also lets you select the other features of the Portable Guide and start unlocking the secrets of the city. You can pick out a restaurant or hotel, locate an address, or review noteworthy sites in the city. The links listed on the homepage include the following: Where Am I, Find an Address, Find a Place, What's Nearby, Dining Reviews, Lodging Reviews, Sight Reviews and Select Map.
Screen 1: Portable Guide's home page displays a map
of the city and lets you start unlocking the secrets of the city.
Where Am I gives you the address or general vicinity of the
"target" area on the map. This is your starting point.
Find an Address and Find a Place lets you locate specific addresses in the city and even gives you turn-by-turn directions to that address. You have to use the "Find an Address" link to first tell the Portable Guide where you are. Then you use it again to find the address you want to go
to. Tap on the "Directions" button and you get turn-by-turn directions that will take you right to the desired address. Instructions include street names or highway numbers and distances until the next turn (see Screen 2). Unlike a Global Positioning System, it doesn't tell you where you are at every moment, but it's the next best thing to GPS. Select "Find a Place" and Portable Guide prompts you to enter the name. It then gives you a list of all the places with that name. For example, in Washington D.C. enter "Capitol" and you get the Capitol Grounds, the Capital Hill Day Care Center, Capitol City Brewing Company and more. From that list, you can select the place you're looking for and get directions on how to get there.
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