Old maps, strange grammar guides cell phone navigation systems

LAS VEGAS — Driving around a rapidly growing city on unfamiliar streets is not fun.

A wrong turn can land you in a maze of construction detours and bumpy roads. Some residents in Las Vegas' newer communities say stop signs and street names seem to change by the month.

So I tried navigating around town using cell phones loaded with Global Positioning System software. The programs — VZ Navigator, TeleNav, Garmin Mobile and MapQuest Navigator — can be downloaded onto phones with GPS chips and cost $9.99 a month.

With up-to-date maps and a comforting, computerized female voice telling me exactly where to go, what could possibly go wrong?

A few things.

First, I expected that because I was using the systems over the air in real time, I would be getting the most up-to-date maps. I was mistaken.

One day, I tried to locate a new bar that was opening at 1205 South Ft. Apache Road, on the west side of town. "Martinis" was giving away, well, free martinis, as long as I could find the place.

While the invitation included a rough map, I could not find the address on any of the systems I tried.

Oddly, MapQuest Navigator could not pinpoint the address, even though it came up on the MapQuest.com Web site.

So what's the point of paying $9.99 a month for a navigation system that can't find addresses?

It's a fair question, especially when you can pay $1.79 a call for 411 service at Sprint PCS for a real human being to give you turn-by-turn directions over the phone.

But this is a new, growing city. I suppose these navigation devices are good for places that have been around for a while, right?

Not so fast.

Recently, I used TeleNav to browse by name for the Primm Valley Golf Club in Primm, Nev. (opened in 1997) and the Mountain Falls Golf Club in Pahrump, Nev. (opened in April 2005).

Neither appeared, so I found them the old-fashioned way — by asking for directions. (Later, when trying out the Garmin Mobile program, I was able to locate both.)

All of the companies said they used map data from Navteq Corp., which Verizon Wireless spokeswoman Jenny Weaver said updated its database quarterly.