That was a rhetorical question. Yes, you do…especially when that application is MapQuest® 4 Mobile.

MapQuest 4 Mobile, a free app, brings over a decade of digital mapping experience to your iPhone^TM with distinguishing features to help you get where you’re going. Our legendary attention to driving directions warrants a place in your starting lineup. Get the latest version (1.4) – just released – here.

New – Hands Free Directions
Auto-Advance is our latest innovation to help you get there. It improves the standard “Find Me” by using your iPhone’s GPS to automatically locate you within your driving directions, recognize when you have taken a turn, and prepare you with the next maneuver – all without having to touch the screen.

Why is this good for you? Well, say you get directions from your house to where your kids are playing soccer. When you leave your street, your iPhone screen automatically changes to your next turn. Once you make that turn, you guessed it: the view changes to the next step in your directions. No hands! For a detailed explanation of how this works, visit our help site.

Also New – Energy Savings Mode
MapQuesters, headquartered in beautiful Colorado, tend to think ‘green.’ As such, we’ve introduced settings that help to reduce battery drain – a plus for a map app (these tend to use a lot of battery with the GPS).

For example, if you were driving from Denver, CO to Billings, MT, you would want the setting to be ‘High Savings.’ It’s a long, straight drive, where you will not need the app for long stretches of time, so why waste your precious battery? Conversely, perhaps you are navigating through New York City’s West Village on your way out to LaGuardia – in this case you may want to keep your screen from dimming during the journey, knowing that there are a multitude of maneuvers. In this case, you would set the app to ‘Low Savings’ (the default setting).

Try our new features, and find out why MapQuest 4 Mobile is different, and a must for your starting lineup.

Los Angelinos represent our #1 market for search traffic, so perhaps it’s no coincidence that the Los Angeles Times ran a piece within the Daily Travel and Deal Blog featuring 21 travel apps worth using, and you guessed it, MapQuest 4 Mobile bats leadoff.

Add MapQuest 4 Mobile to your iPhone™ travel toolbox!

Hampton Hotels will be recognized for their advertising excellence award for MapQuest Business Locator at the 53rd annual Adrian Awards Competition, one of the largest and most prestigious travel marketing competitions globally. You can check out all of the winning entries after the Adrian Awards Gala on Feb. 1, 2010 at www.adrianawards.com.

The MapQuest Business Locator is a one-of-a-kind, on-map search tool that allows you to find Hampton Hotels as well as other businesses and services such as Restaurants, Bars, Coffee Shops and many more!

Hampton Hotels also participated as a MapQuest Business Locator beta partner on the MapQuest 4 Mobile on iPhone™. The MQ4M App allows you to search for the Hampton Inn nearest you, while you are on the move!

What a great way to ring in the New Year. Congratulations Hampton Hotels and MapQuest Business Locator! Cheers to continued success in 2010!

Not to be overshadowed by the recent MapQuest.com release of 360 View, the MapQuest Mobile Team has been working around the clock (almost like little North-Pole Elves) to roll-out upgrades, feature enhancements, distribution arrangements with carriers and much more.

Put simply, our mobile software suite is now better than before, can be accessed on more phones and is available through more channels and carriers.

Let’s go through the list and see what has changed:

I. Mobile Safari and Android Updates (Mobile Web experience)

We have listened to your requests and added Geo Location to the latest release. That’s right, iPhone and Android users visiting MapQuest.com now have the ability to utilize their Smartphone’s GPS receiver to pinpoint their current location within the map, directions and search forms.

For those of us that love to “tap” instead of type, this feature is a huge time saver!

A few additional highlights of this release include:

A. Access to saved maps and routes from MapQuest.com
B. Utilize walking directions to navigate pedestrian-only paths.

If you have an Android phone or an iPhone, check it out at http://m.mapquest.com

II. MapQuest 4 Mobile on iPhone

Since its introduction in July, the MapQuest 4 Mobile on iPhone product has gained feature enhancements every month–with December being no exception. Available last week, version 1.2 features many enhancements that our users have long asked for.

The latest release (1.2) includes:

A. Walking directions feature that provides directions to navigate pedestrian-only paths.
B. New map styles with terrain and vegetation imagery that emulates the MapQuest.com experience.
C. Directions Mode now includes a collapsible “hat” that allows users to expand and contract their route narrative, resulting in a larger view of the map.
D. Metric Units Support. In Directions Mode, users can now view their route detail in metric units.

Get the new version here via iTunes.

III. MapQuest 4 Mobile on BlackBerry

The last few months we have also been busy collaborating with new carriers and distributors to offer the BlackBerry version of MapQuest 4 Mobile to their customers.

As such, we are happy to announce that MapQuest 4 Mobile for BlackBerry is now available as a free download on BlackBerry App World!

In addition, you can also download the product for free at the following locations:

A. http://www.handmark.com
B. Sprint customers with BlackBerry phones can download the product via the “PocketExpress” application.

NOTE: New BlackBerry models are coming! Look for the popular 9700 and 9630 models soon via BlackBerry App World.

We are excited to be able to bring you these updates as we head into the New Year. Make sure to check in at http://wireless.mapquest.com to see the latest release information.
Happy Holidays from the MapQuest Mobile Team!

MapQuest 4 Mobile:

The next evolution of maps and directions on the iPhone.

Overview: A FREE simple and full-featured alternative to the on-board iPhone maps application providing users easy access to maps, directions, points of interest business listings, and the ability to view MapQuest My Places information.

Designed For:

• Casual and business travelers, as well as anyone looking to view maps or easily create directions (route) to and from a specific location(s).
• Users wishing to view and utilize their Maps & Directions created and saved at MapQuest.com on their iPhone. Get your My Places account here.
• Users traveling to a new destination wanting easy access to various business listings such as coffee shops, hotels, restaurants, and more.

Current Version: 1.1.2 (NEW!) Get it here.

Resources:

• Product Page
• Demo Video
• Support Page

MapQuest Navigator:

Simple, intuitive, voice-guided navigation for everyone.

Overview: An affordable streamlined, easy to use turn-by-turn, voice-guided navigation application that presents users with an intuitive interface for receiving their route directions via spoken street and highway names.

Designed For:

• Casual and business travelers, as well as tourists looking to optimally navigate to a new or known destination via verbal cues and spoken directions.
• Users that are looking to easily navigate to a known or unknown location-avoiding traffic incidents or traffic congestion.
• Users traveling to a new destination wanting easy access and route guidance to various business listings such as coffee shops, hotels, restaurants, and more.

Current Version: 1.0 Get it here for only $3.99/mo, $9.99/3 months, $29.99/yr

Resources:

• Product Page
• Demo Video
• Support Page
• Voted Best of CTIA Fall 2009

For those of you that haven’t downloaded the free application, we have made it super easy to get the app so you can hit the road! Over on wireless.mapquest.com we have added a handy little widget that allows you to easily get the application on your BlackBerry. Simply enter your mobile number into the form, click “Send me the link” and seconds later your download link arrives via a *text message. After clicking on the link, your download of the application will begin. It’s the fastest way to start using MapQuest 4 Mobile on your BlackBerry!

To see if your BlackBerry is compatible, please click here and select your carrier and phone.

*standard carrier text rates apply

After the product began to “settle-in”, we heard from a great deal of users that the “1-line” interface was confusing and a bit “clunky”. What did we do? We fixed it and then improved the overall performance of the app as well. Now in version 1.1, when you click within the search field, you are presented with two horizontal search boxes; one for “search by business” and one for “search by address” (see illustration below).

The list below represents the complete set of updates found within the new 1.1 version:

• Improved search experience: “Double-decker” entry for business search & address
• Improved Place Carousel speed and performance
• Faster “tabbing” between modes: Maps, Directions, My Places, and Settings
• Improved routing performance
• My Places locations and locally stored locations can now be viewed on the same screen

If you haven’t already downloaded the free application for your iPhone, click here to get the latest version now {opens iTunes link}.

Since our MapQuest 4 Mobile on iPhone app launched last month, a great deal of you requested a way to easily plot the address of a contact in your address book onto a MapQuest 4 Mobile map. Well, ask and you shall receive! The latest version available now in the iPhone App Store includes this new feature as well as a host of changes and enhancements. Here is the complete list:

1. New Address Book integration! Easily plot any address from your iPhone’s address book onto a MapQuest 4 Mobile map and get directions to that address.
2. 13 new branded place widgets that include: Chili’s®, Citibank®, Comfort Inn®, Embassy Suites®, FedEx®, Home Depot®, HSBC®, Interstate Batteries®, Kohl’s®, Papa John’s®, Quality Inn®, Sears®, and Wendy’s®.
3. Added Search, Map, and Directions Icons to My Places for easier visual recognition.
4. Various user interface bug and stability fixes.

So, if you haven’t downloaded the free application, what have you been waiting for?
Click here to get it now.

“MapQuest’s new free iPhone app – pretty much a head-on direct competitor to the Google Maps client that ships with the iPhone OS. Definitely worth checking out.” – John Gruber, Daring Fireball

“I like that MapQuest has a few tricks up its sleeve that are not in the built-in Maps app. I’ll definitely be keeping it, using it, and finding out whether I prefer it to Maps.” – Patrick Jordan, Just Another iPhone Blog

So, if you haven’t downloaded the free application, what have you been waiting for? Your iPhone is begging for an alternative to the standard Maps app from Google!

Click here to get it now.

After many months of development, we are proud to announce the availability of MapQuest 4 Mobile on the iPhone. Since last September, the MapQuest 4 Mobile mapping and directions product has been available to BlackBerry® Smartphone users as a free application. With the iPhone, our developers saw an opportunity to start from scratch and completely overhaul the MapQuest 4 Mobile experience to take advantage of the iPhone’s unique Multi-touch interface and large screen. The end result is truly the next evolution of maps & directions on the iPhone™, offering a set of unique features that simplify your mobile mapping and directions experience.

Here are a few of the innovative features:

1. Save Maps and Routes on MapQuest.com and retrieve them on your iPhone using your My Places account. (Get your MapQuest My Places account here)

2. More useful driving directions featuring an oversized display and landscape mode orientation.

3. New MapQuest® Place Carousel allows you to easily display locations for hotels, movie theatres, gas stations, and more with a single tap.

4. Negotiate difficult turns or sets of turns with the help of orientation arrows when viewing directions in map mode.

5. Create your own “My Position” icon that represents YOU on the map using the iPhone’s built-in camera or choose from a variety of existing My Position icons.

6. Easily add multiple points to your route.

So, if you have an iPhone and are looking for a free, full-featured maps and directions application, now you have a choice! Join the evolution and download MapQuest 4 Mobile on iPhone today.

Want more information? Visit: http://wireless.mapquest.com
If you would like to download the feature screenshots, click here. To see the feature-by-feature YouTube video, click here.