Navigon USA

[a3p3g]

I have a question and a couple observations regarding this app that was just released yesterday.
a little background.....i have a hd7 with tmobile and recently had to ditch my data plan (budgetary reasons). i was excited to hear that there finally was going to be a fully onboard gps app releasing w/ on-device maps (rather than using your data plan to dynamically download or having to download in advance....currently i had been using Turn by Turn which worked fantastic if i downloaded the map ahead of time but you cannot pick a new destination once you're away from wifi so scratch that)

along comes navigon......you download the initial 5mb app from the market place and the first time you launch it prompts you to dl a 1.5gb map (took me about an hour)

I only had a few min outside to test (i'll report back tomorrow after i give it a true test on my ride home tonight) but even w/out data I am able to find myself on the map right away, search for POI's and plan out a trip no problem so thats great. the layout i'll have to report back on after i use it.

my questions about this in regards to my no data situation (wifi only) is what features will i NOT be able to use w/ this app w/out a data plan?
-I'm assuming I wont be able to use the traffic feature (but handheld gps devices are able to do that so i thought maybe i'd have a shot)
-speed limit notifications
-red light camera

if anyone has any input or feedback i'd appreciate it!
thanks!

 

[Vulak'Aerr]

In my experience (admittedly this was with Tomtom and CoPilot in the past), traffic is the only feature requiring a data plan. I was under the impression that cameras are a particular type of POI and speed limits are built into the map?

FYI: I have the European version of Navigon now so I'll let you know if I find out any further details.

 

[a3p3g]

In my experience (admittedly this was with Tomtom and CoPilot in the past), traffic is the only feature requiring a data plan. I was under the impression that cameras are a particular type of POI and speed limits are built into the map?

FYI: I have the European version of Navigon now so I'll let you know if I find out any further details.

awesome thank you for your input! i would assume the speed assistant would work fine w/out data as well if thats the case since that would just take the onboard speed limit info to go off of

it would be pretty badass if the traffic didnt require data either but not holding my breathe. i'm pretty certain that the gps chip on the phone wouldnt be able to send/pull that kind of info (but rather JUST be used for location

just testing the demo mode on it now and the one thing i dont see that I wish it had was the ability to show the step by step route while you are navigating (for example if i'm on a route and want to look ahead to see which exit it is going to take me or if its going to take a particular road or not so i can determine if i need to ignore it and have it recalculate)

if i'm just blind and you find this please let me know
thanks!

 

[Vulak'Aerr]

Okay, from what I can see, you can't calculate alternate routes AFTER the fact. What you do get is a choice for alternate routes when the initial calculation occurs.

Also, to see the entire route, you can click on the 3D map whilst navigating and it will show you a 2D map. On the menu of the 2D map is an "Entire Route" option (the linked dots on the minimised menu).

You can, however, add a POI along your route after initial calculation from the expanded menu options on the 3D map. Hope that helps.

P.S. I don't think you'll ever be able to get traffic without a dataplan on current technology.

 

[a3p3g]

Okay, from what I can see, you can't calculate alternate routes AFTER the fact. What you do get is a choice for alternate routes when the initial calculation occurs.

Also, to see the entire route, you can click on the 3D map whilst navigating and it will show you a 2D map. On the menu of the 2D map is an "Entire Route" option (the linked dots on the minimised menu).

You can, however, add a POI along your route after initial calculation from the expanded menu options on the 3D map. Hope that helps.

P.S. I don't think you'll ever be able to get traffic without a dataplan on current technology.

i would imagine it would HAVE to be able re-calculate a route if say you ignore one of its instructions (ie. if it tells you to exit at the next offramp and you know that you would rather wait until the next exit....wouldn't it recognize that you are off your route shortly after that ramp and recalculate ....like every other gps app can do)...hopefully so!

yup i think you are right on the traffic. no huge deal there if that doesnt work.
so with the entire route thing......can you actually see a list of the turn by turn directions or does it just show you the map?

i'm going to give it a test run tonight and i'll report back as well

 

[Vulak'Aerr]

i would imagine it would HAVE to be able re-calculate a route if say you ignore one of its instructions (ie. if it tells you to exit at the next offramp and you know that you would rather wait until the next exit....wouldn't it recognize that you are off your route shortly after that ramp and recalculate ....like every other gps app can do)...hopefully so!

Yes... sorry. This is absolutely the case. I tested this feature this morning on my way to work. I just meant in the way that Tomtom and CoPilot allow you to calculate alternative routes at the press of a button.

 

[a3p3g]

Yes... sorry. This is absolutely the case. I tested this feature this morning on my way to work. I just meant in the way that Tomtom and CoPilot allow you to calculate alternative routes at the press of a button.

ahhh right yup i know what you mean.....like tomtom lets you "avoid" a certain road.

as long as I can get navigation and recalculations on the fly minus a data plan i'm a happy camper! hopefully the routing is close to on par with garmin.....i used to have a garmin handheld that did great w/ routing

 

[a3p3g]

just a couple other observations so far in my demo testing

1. interface seems a bit glitchy/jumpy (not terribly suprising for a first release....hopefully can be smoothed out w/ updates)
2. It would really be nice if you had the option to zoom in on the 3d map interface. this is useful to me when on city roads and you want a more granular view at slower speeds.

hopefully can be fixed and updated but great start so far! i'm excited to use it

 

[Ivan006]

Any ideas when the app will work for Canada?

 

[Vulak'Aerr]

just a couple other observations so far in my demo testing

1. interface seems a bit glitchy/jumpy (not terribly suprising for a first release....hopefully can be smoothed out w/ updates)
2. It would really be nice if you had the option to zoom in on the 3d map interface. this is useful to me when on city roads and you want a more granular view at slower speeds.

hopefully can be fixed and updated but great start so far! i'm excited to use it

1) I've noticed the app can be quite jumpy when it is looking for a GPS signal but silky smooth when it has a solid one.

2) Agree.

3!?) Noticed last night it failed to reroute for me. Not sure if it's because the signal was on the blink so will try again today.

 

[a3p3g]

1) I've noticed the app can be quite jumpy when it is looking for a GPS signal but silky smooth when it has a solid one.

2) Agree.

3!?) Noticed last night it failed to reroute for me. Not sure if it's because the signal was on the blink so will try again today.

i agree.....when you have a signal lock its pretty smooth....using zoom in 2d mode and flipping portrait/landscape mode is the main jumpiness i'm seeing. minor things to me if the main functions work well.
hmm thats strange......i was just going to report back that after using it on my way home last night and into work today i'm pretty damn impressed. it actually re-routed me really quickly (didnt give me any audible notice that it was doing it....just did it). so thats great.

i seemed to only loose my signal one time and i just had to go back to the pick route screen and back again and i was good (hopefully that was a fluke that it didnt just reconnect on its own.

one other glitch i saw was i recieved a text while routing so i flipped to that and then when i went back to navigon (mango fast switching/multitask), the resuming didnt lock in and start to navigate again like other apps are good at (ie. turn by turn)....i had to go back and start over again. again this could be a one time fluke so i'm gonna try again tonight.

overall i've been pretty impressed for a product thats out for a couple of days so promising things ahead. i would love to think that the issues i've seen are minor and easy to patch...especially since they seperated the huge map portion from the small shell app.

 

[a3p3g]

another interesting side note i just saw on the wpcentral main page that turn by turn is releasing an update this week to add offline navteq maps. i wonder if current owners of the app will get the update free. would be cool to have 2 options since i already paid for both. and good to see competition. would be pretty cool if this would push garmin to go the offline route too (speaking of, why did garmin purchase navigon and decide to keep them seperate??)

 

[Vulak'Aerr]

Panic over. Mine rerouted fine this morning. It must have been the patchy GPS signal I had last night. Deeply impressed with the software overall. I even think it just inches past CoPilot in overall user experience for me, and I was very happy with CoPilot.

You're right though. It doesn't have fast-resume, which is disappointing.

 

[a3p3g]

i'm sure thats not a terribly difficult update for them. with navigon being the first out of the gate with true offline maps (turn by turn sort of had it already)....i would hope they try and keep ahead of the curve.

and in comparison to garmin, i actually could see the company keeping navigon w/ offline maps and using the garmin app for on demand rather than have both products w/ the same target market. sucks but probably what will happen. either way i'm happy w/ navigon so far!

 

[a3p3g]

just had one more small update after using this for 3 days now. I would just say i love this app! w/out having a data plan even, this has been rock solid.....only the 1 hiccup of loosing its signal (turn by turn would loose its signal every few minutes sometimes.)
and the fast user switching (say if i'm in navigation, get a text, and jump back and forth has been seemless after the first day)

again the only improvements I would love is if there was an easy way to bring up a list of the turn by turn directions for the route( rather than just a map of the entire route....if i'm driving and my wife wnats to see each turn down the road for example)

and zoomable 3d map would be nice (ie. like garmin handhelds do)

havent been able to tell for sure if traffic requires data or if it goes over gps (99% sure it owuld need a data plan but still waiting to find out)

 

[yesanl]

A lot of the reviews of the app in the Marketplace indicate GPS issues, and I seem to be having the same issues on my HTC Tropy. GPSInfo, GPSSatellite, Glympse, Bing, etc. all seem to be picking the GPS up just fine, so it does seem to bee a Navigon issue.

I've tried restarting, toggling GPS on/off, etc. but still seem to be having issues. Has anyone successfully resolved this issue? Thanks in advance.

 

[Vulak'Aerr]

I had been having endless GPS issues with this application until I located the source of my woes. I use an FM transmitter to get sound from my Zune/WP to my in-car stereo. The FM waves appear to have been a huge problem for my phone's GPS signal and Navigon was more sensitive than most apps when it comes to the interference. When I turned the transmitter off I got a signal in less than 60 seconds. I think it's worth experimenting with different frequencies too.

 

[yesanl]

I had been having endless GPS issues with this application until I located the source of my woes. I use an FM transmitter to get sound from my Zune/WP to my in-car stereo. The FM waves appear to have been a huge problem for my phone's GPS signal and Navigon was more sensitive than most apps when it comes to the interference. When I turned the transmitter off I got a signal in less than 60 seconds. I think it's worth experimenting with different frequencies too.

Thanks, Vulak. Unfortunately, no FM modulator here. I've tried in car, outside walking in open air, etc. A bit perplexed, as when I pull up the Map section (from Other) in Navigon, it seems to pick up my location. When I go to GPSInfo from there, it does not show any coordinates. Don't really understand, but hopefully the next software update will resolve the GPS woes that others and I have been having. Thanks again for your help.

 

[cbrines]

Anyone else think the POI search functionality of this application is horrible?

I can be less than five miles from what I'm searching for, and Navigon will never find it.

I'm guessing that Navigon uses Bing's POI database?