[Doug Raeburn]

Originally Posted by signothefish

* How accurate were the routes? Did you try different profiles (shortest vs fastest, etc) to check for accuracy? Did you compare any of them to ones calculated by other software to see which ones were consistently better?

OK, I have some answers for you. This one I could have answered right away, but I thought I'd try to get some info on the rest of them before answering.

The routes were very accurate. I recently took OCN6 on a trip from Milwaukee to Rapid City, South Dakota. I also had TTN6 on my primary PDA. TTN6 was intended as the actual nav software on the trip, since I had used it and its quality and accuracy was known. OCN6 was along to be evaluated. At any rate, when I used both packages to route to a particular destination, the routes were just about always identical and quite accurate. This seems to apply regardless of the profiles used.

* Was the estimated time of arrival pretty accurate?

It seemed to be. Again, when running in parallel with TTN6, the ETAs were similar, although OCN6's ETAs were a few minutes later than TTN6. I'm sure that's due to different assumptions of speeds in the profiles.

* Does it have elevation display. If so, is it accurate?

Elevation is displayed through the GPS Status screen. As far as I was able to check, it seems to be accurate.

* How fast do the routes calculate- particularly for long distances? Did OcN6 seem to perform any unnecessary calculations using multiple waypoints before or during navigation?

I tried a 2200 mile route with one intermediate stop. This was calculated in approximately 45 seconds. The same route took just under a minute with TTN6, so both were pretty much comparable. I wasn't aware of any unnecessary calculations at any time.

* You mentioned an extensive and informative POI list. Were there any POI's you were surprised to see missing (such as established department stores, etc)? Do phone numbers show up for the POI database?

I tried a number of different department stores in my area, as well as some that are not in my area. OCN6 found all of the stores in my test, with one exception. I tried Macy's, one of the major dept stores in my area. For some reason, it didn't find the closest one, a former Marshall Fields store about 10 miles away. On the other hand, it found a different Macy's that's also a former Marshall Fields store about 60 miles away. But overall, it did a pretty good job. And it does have phone numbers available.

I couldn't compare to TTN6 as I have been throughout in this review, since department stores aren't a POI category.

When I'm out and about today, I'll try to check into the elevation thing. Hope this helps.