Smaller Can Be Better.(Column)

Byline: Steve Thompson

The American Automobile Association and Networks in Motion recently released "AAA Mobile,'' a package of GPS-based navigation services available through Verizon and Sprint on selected cell phones for $10 a month or $3 a day. As part of the PR effort for the release, I was contacted by a Networks in Motion rep and given an LG phone loaded with the software to try for a few months on the East and West Coasts.

I was so impressed with the results that I signed up for myself and my wife. To say that's unusual is an understatement; I've evaluated several portable GPS units and have not been sufficiently convinced to prefer them to paper maps. You can find out why I like AAA Mobile at www.aaa.com/aaamobile. There, a demo program explains in detail what I cannot in this space. But one feature alone captured my attention: the roadside-assistance one-button call to AAA, which automatically provides a service operator with your AAA member number and location. For myself, a member of AAA since 1975 and recently disabled, and for my wife, who has experienced what I readily admit are too many breakdowns in my "interesting'' cars, this feature is very important.

So, too, are ...