AAA offers GPS for your mobile phone

AAA has entered the GPS navigation market. But the beauty of this deal is that you don’t have to buy a GPS device. If you have a GPS-enabled Sprint, Verizon or Alltel wireless phone, you can push a few buttons, download some software, and your phone becomes a GPS navigation device that includes AAA travel-guide services, such as restaurant and hotels ratings.

In our testing, the AAA Mobile service worked as well as the more expensive GPS devices on the market but with two drawbacks: The program draws down on the cellphone battery very fast, and we found nowhere to put the cellphone so we could see the screen while driving. Price: $9.99 per month plus usage fees. Check your cellphone to upload the program or go to www.aaa-calif.com/gpsapps for more information.