It's nice to know that even Starfleet officers can forget where they parked their starship. For the rest of us, who sometimes misplace a mere car, it's nice to know that G-Park, an incredibly simple and powerful iPhone app, can find it for us.

One of the classic Star Trek movie scenes is in Star Trek IV when Captain Kirk and crew members land a Klingon Bird of Prey in Golden Gate Park. Captain Kirk admonishes: "Everybody remember where we parked!" That was 1986.

Splash Screen = Home Screen.  All You Need.

Now, in 2009, you'll never have that problem with G-Park from Posimotion. Their iPhone app is simplicity itself, maybe, in my mind, one of the quintessential iPhone apps for all time.

Operation

When you get out of your car, just press the giant "Park Me!" button. The GPS system will log your car's coordinates. Go shop. Get lost. Then, when you need to find your car, just press the other giant button "Where Did I Park?"

At that point, the app knows where you are, where the car is, brings up Google maps and draws a route back to your car. Just follow the street map and avoid getting run over by a bus.

Street Map to Your Car (Courtesy Apple)

The app utilizes the GPS system in the iPhone 3G, so I'm guessing this app probably won't work well on an iPod touch with location services limited to Wi-Fi. An original iPhone with cell tower triangulation would likely do better, but I didn't test that.

There are some extra goodies. For example, there's a snapshot function right in the app so you can take a photo of your car against the background. That way, when you get close to the car, you can find it by comparing backgrounds. You can also attach a note. If the GPS system didn't quite nail the car's location, you can make a manual adjustment.

The only problem I've had with this fun and amazing app is that when I was in Steamboat Springs, Colorado recently, I was on the fringes of known territory and the Google map wasn't very complete. But that's not PosiMotion's problem; it's Google's.

No iPhone 3G is complete without this essential app. You could even find your misplaced, invisible starship.

G-Park requires iPhone OS 2.0 or later and is compatible with all iPhones and iPod touch.