Menneisyys
05-18-2006, 05:01 PM
Let me introduce iGO 2006 Europe – a really capable new GPS / mapping program with almost full (including Finnish / Greek / Central-Eastern-European, excluding the Baltics) maps!
Because of my “special” needs (maps of Finland), I’ve always had problems with Pocket PC-based navigation software: up to now, there was a definite lack of maps for the Pocket PC with a decent map of Finland. For example, Microsoft Autoroute 2006 (http://www.microsoft.com/uk/homepc/autoroute/ProductDetails.aspx?pid=002), while being pretty cheap, only contains Western-European, Czech, Slovakian and South-Finnish/Greek maps as can be seen in this map (http://www.pcwelt.de/imgserver/bdb/43000/43090/original.jpg), (also see this Finnish language discussion (http://shop.karavaanarit.fi/etuteltan_puheet/etuteltan_puheet/avoin_keskustelu/?num=176117) if interested) – not full Finnish ones. The same stands for the cheap MS Pocket Streets: it only supports three Finnish towns (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a1f4ffc7-e3f1-40db-a067-78a716f6249c&displaylang=en). The situation is made even worse by the fact that PDA’s mostly mean Symbian S60/S80-based Nokia smartphones in Finland – that is, there’re no large Pocket PC user groups, no decent Finnish sources of (mostly) Pocket PC-specific information etc (the best sources, like Tero Lehto’s blog (http://lehto.net/blogi/), are generic and still mostly Symbian-centric ones), and most Finland-related software is Symbian-only (like, for example, Navicore S80 (http://lehto.net/blogi/2004/12/koeajettua-gps-navigaattori.htm) and S60 (http://lehto.net/blogi/2004/09/gps-paikannusta-series-60lle.htm)).
There have been two Pocket PC-based solutions that do have full maps; one of them is from Genimap-Alturion (http://www.alturion.com/products/details.php?id=500), which costs 79 euros (Finland (http://www.karttakeskus.fi/workspace.client_organization/PublishedService?file=page&pageID=9&itemcode=F125490)) and 180 euros (full Western(?)-Europe (http://www.tietokone.fi/uutta/uutinen.asp?news_id=22150)). It contains (as opposed to iGO 2006, the subject of this article) fully localized Finnish guidance and GUI. The other is TomTom GO Scandinavia (http://www.navshop.com/en/product/tomtom-go-sd-card-scandinavia/151/26/1). Without being able to test it first (particularly that I wouldn’t use it very often), I don’t want to pay 70-200 euros for these. (I still don’t understand software developers that don’t offer have trial versions of their software. I won’t pay 200 bucks for an application that may prove useless and/or far inferior to the alternatives. Needless to say, there are no one-on-one, thorough comparisons of the available mapping software products.)
Therefore, I jumped right on the full (excluding the ex-Soviet states, including, unfortunately, the Baltics) European version of the brand new iGO 2006 (http://i-go.com/en/), which has definite merits – for example, it's cheap, has very fast path finding and support for VGA screens without having to use the native/forced VGA mode.
Note that the following is not a full review (there will surely be several of them – check out the i-GO homepage, the folks there will surely be linking them) but some unbiased bug report on the quality of the maps, particularly when it comes to non-mainstream countries like Finland or Eastern-Europe.
I’ve thoroughly tested the little Finnish settlement Sonkajärvi to find out more about the quality of the Finnish map and POI database. It is pretty good. Much as it does have its share of problems (more on them below), I was really pleased with what I saw.
The problems with the Finnish database
* I’ve quickly tested the Montelontie house numbers in Sonkajärvi. They are completely wrong (they start with 1 from Iisalmentie (http://www.winmobiletech.com/052006iGO/iGO2006MontelontieHouseNumbers.bmp.png), which is not the case – just the other way around). However, this is not a big problem as you will soon find out this fact while you’re there.
* The Finnish POI database is buggy (as opposed to that of all the other countries – I’ve tested them all):
1. under Sports/Recreation, only Golf Courses (http://www.winmobiletech.com/052006iGO/iGO2006FinnishPOIRecreationGolf-2.bmp.png) and Stadiums have POI's – for ordinary people much more important swimming pools or fitness centers aren’t. The only place I could find, for example, the Iisalmi swimming bad was Public Transportation/Parking (http://www.winmobiletech.com/052006iGO/iGO2006FinnishPOIRecreationUimahalli.bmp.png). Unfortunately, not even this contained any kind of a telephone number or any kind of address as can be seen in here (http://www.winmobiletech.com/052006iGO/iGO2006FinnishPOIRecreationUimahalli-2.bmp.png). But, at least it’s correctly put on the map as can be seen in here (http://www.winmobiletech.com/052006iGO/iGO2006FinnishPOIRecreationUimahalli-3.bmp.png), as can be seen in here (http://www.winmobiletech.com/052006iGO/iGO2006FinnishPOIRecreationUimahalli-4.jpg), on an official Web-map (screenshot from here (http://map3.centroid.fi/ylasavonseutu/map.php?x=3509866&y=7051467&px=1.0&txt=Uimahalli)).
Unfortunately, the Sports/Recreation POI problem is a bug common for the entire Finnish map. For example, the same in Helsinki can be seen in here (http://www.winmobiletech.com/052006iGO/iGo2006HesaSports.bmp.png) – only Golf Courses and Stadiums are listed (in some other cases, all categories were listed but none of the others contained anything). From the above-mentioned Transportation/Parking you can only find (http://www.winmobiletech.com/052006iGO/iGo2006HesaSports-2.bmp.png) the Mäkelänrinteen Uintikeskus (http://www.urheiluhallit.fi/hinnat.asp#13786); for example, the one at Helsinginkatu 25 (http://www.abl.fi/?op=body&id=59&cid=123) can’t be found.
2. it doesn’t contain the post office in Sonkajärvi (http://www.winmobiletech.com/052006iGO/iGO2006FinnishPOIPostOffice.png) ; neither does it contain the small shop in the Iisalmentie-Montelontie crossing either. Of course, given that these are very small offices/shops, this is nitpicking, compared to the recreation POI bug, which, on the other hand, should be fixed.
As has already been pointed out, maps of other, even East-European countries don’t have this bug (I’ve tested them all) - they all have extensive POI database in the Recreation category too (and, as far as I could tell, in all the others also). In addition, other (non-recreational) Finnish POI’s are extensive and pretty reliable too.
All in all, this is a really capable application - your only (except for the Czech Republic and Slovakia) choice for Eastern-Europe (except for ex-Soviet states) and a very good choice for Greek/Finnish maps. I’m eagerly awaiting the chance to directly compare its, say, POI and address database to that of both TomTom GO Scandinavia and the Genimap-Alturion Finnish maps.
Because of my “special” needs (maps of Finland), I’ve always had problems with Pocket PC-based navigation software: up to now, there was a definite lack of maps for the Pocket PC with a decent map of Finland. For example, Microsoft Autoroute 2006 (http://www.microsoft.com/uk/homepc/autoroute/ProductDetails.aspx?pid=002), while being pretty cheap, only contains Western-European, Czech, Slovakian and South-Finnish/Greek maps as can be seen in this map (http://www.pcwelt.de/imgserver/bdb/43000/43090/original.jpg), (also see this Finnish language discussion (http://shop.karavaanarit.fi/etuteltan_puheet/etuteltan_puheet/avoin_keskustelu/?num=176117) if interested) – not full Finnish ones. The same stands for the cheap MS Pocket Streets: it only supports three Finnish towns (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a1f4ffc7-e3f1-40db-a067-78a716f6249c&displaylang=en). The situation is made even worse by the fact that PDA’s mostly mean Symbian S60/S80-based Nokia smartphones in Finland – that is, there’re no large Pocket PC user groups, no decent Finnish sources of (mostly) Pocket PC-specific information etc (the best sources, like Tero Lehto’s blog (http://lehto.net/blogi/), are generic and still mostly Symbian-centric ones), and most Finland-related software is Symbian-only (like, for example, Navicore S80 (http://lehto.net/blogi/2004/12/koeajettua-gps-navigaattori.htm) and S60 (http://lehto.net/blogi/2004/09/gps-paikannusta-series-60lle.htm)).
There have been two Pocket PC-based solutions that do have full maps; one of them is from Genimap-Alturion (http://www.alturion.com/products/details.php?id=500), which costs 79 euros (Finland (http://www.karttakeskus.fi/workspace.client_organization/PublishedService?file=page&pageID=9&itemcode=F125490)) and 180 euros (full Western(?)-Europe (http://www.tietokone.fi/uutta/uutinen.asp?news_id=22150)). It contains (as opposed to iGO 2006, the subject of this article) fully localized Finnish guidance and GUI. The other is TomTom GO Scandinavia (http://www.navshop.com/en/product/tomtom-go-sd-card-scandinavia/151/26/1). Without being able to test it first (particularly that I wouldn’t use it very often), I don’t want to pay 70-200 euros for these. (I still don’t understand software developers that don’t offer have trial versions of their software. I won’t pay 200 bucks for an application that may prove useless and/or far inferior to the alternatives. Needless to say, there are no one-on-one, thorough comparisons of the available mapping software products.)
Therefore, I jumped right on the full (excluding the ex-Soviet states, including, unfortunately, the Baltics) European version of the brand new iGO 2006 (http://i-go.com/en/), which has definite merits – for example, it's cheap, has very fast path finding and support for VGA screens without having to use the native/forced VGA mode.
Note that the following is not a full review (there will surely be several of them – check out the i-GO homepage, the folks there will surely be linking them) but some unbiased bug report on the quality of the maps, particularly when it comes to non-mainstream countries like Finland or Eastern-Europe.
I’ve thoroughly tested the little Finnish settlement Sonkajärvi to find out more about the quality of the Finnish map and POI database. It is pretty good. Much as it does have its share of problems (more on them below), I was really pleased with what I saw.
The problems with the Finnish database
* I’ve quickly tested the Montelontie house numbers in Sonkajärvi. They are completely wrong (they start with 1 from Iisalmentie (http://www.winmobiletech.com/052006iGO/iGO2006MontelontieHouseNumbers.bmp.png), which is not the case – just the other way around). However, this is not a big problem as you will soon find out this fact while you’re there.
* The Finnish POI database is buggy (as opposed to that of all the other countries – I’ve tested them all):
1. under Sports/Recreation, only Golf Courses (http://www.winmobiletech.com/052006iGO/iGO2006FinnishPOIRecreationGolf-2.bmp.png) and Stadiums have POI's – for ordinary people much more important swimming pools or fitness centers aren’t. The only place I could find, for example, the Iisalmi swimming bad was Public Transportation/Parking (http://www.winmobiletech.com/052006iGO/iGO2006FinnishPOIRecreationUimahalli.bmp.png). Unfortunately, not even this contained any kind of a telephone number or any kind of address as can be seen in here (http://www.winmobiletech.com/052006iGO/iGO2006FinnishPOIRecreationUimahalli-2.bmp.png). But, at least it’s correctly put on the map as can be seen in here (http://www.winmobiletech.com/052006iGO/iGO2006FinnishPOIRecreationUimahalli-3.bmp.png), as can be seen in here (http://www.winmobiletech.com/052006iGO/iGO2006FinnishPOIRecreationUimahalli-4.jpg), on an official Web-map (screenshot from here (http://map3.centroid.fi/ylasavonseutu/map.php?x=3509866&y=7051467&px=1.0&txt=Uimahalli)).
Unfortunately, the Sports/Recreation POI problem is a bug common for the entire Finnish map. For example, the same in Helsinki can be seen in here (http://www.winmobiletech.com/052006iGO/iGo2006HesaSports.bmp.png) – only Golf Courses and Stadiums are listed (in some other cases, all categories were listed but none of the others contained anything). From the above-mentioned Transportation/Parking you can only find (http://www.winmobiletech.com/052006iGO/iGo2006HesaSports-2.bmp.png) the Mäkelänrinteen Uintikeskus (http://www.urheiluhallit.fi/hinnat.asp#13786); for example, the one at Helsinginkatu 25 (http://www.abl.fi/?op=body&id=59&cid=123) can’t be found.
2. it doesn’t contain the post office in Sonkajärvi (http://www.winmobiletech.com/052006iGO/iGO2006FinnishPOIPostOffice.png) ; neither does it contain the small shop in the Iisalmentie-Montelontie crossing either. Of course, given that these are very small offices/shops, this is nitpicking, compared to the recreation POI bug, which, on the other hand, should be fixed.
As has already been pointed out, maps of other, even East-European countries don’t have this bug (I’ve tested them all) - they all have extensive POI database in the Recreation category too (and, as far as I could tell, in all the others also). In addition, other (non-recreational) Finnish POI’s are extensive and pretty reliable too.
All in all, this is a really capable application - your only (except for the Czech Republic and Slovakia) choice for Eastern-Europe (except for ex-Soviet states) and a very good choice for Greek/Finnish maps. I’m eagerly awaiting the chance to directly compare its, say, POI and address database to that of both TomTom GO Scandinavia and the Genimap-Alturion Finnish maps.