Destinator SP anyone? (Back to the drawing board for GPS)

[hotdram]

Has anyone tried Destinator SP for smartphones? Do you know if they use the Nav Tech database for their maps?
I have emailed their tech support and asked the same question, just wondering if anyone knows.
I am currently evaluating CoPilotLive6 and it appears as if it is headed back before its 30 days of trial period are up.

Here is the link to Destinator: CLICK HERE (http://www.destinatortechnologies.com/en_US/consumer/smartphone/index.html)

Thanks,
~Rob

[Sven Johannsen]

Given Mapopolis a look?

[hotdram]

Given Mapopolis a look?

Yep,
I have played with their s/w and the trial maps. I might go with them, depending on what the answer from Destinator is regarding what database they use. The biggest downside to Mapopolis for me is that it is a subscription plan. You get to download all the maps you want from their website for a year from the date of purchase for $99.99. What I don't like about that is, I want the entire U.S. Their map download website is setup so that each county of every state is a seperate download. That is alot of downloading, if you were to download every county in the US. They need a way of downloading an entire state.

Also, I emailed the folks at iGuidance (there are similar programs to them from Rayming as well) and asked if they planned on releasing a Smartphone version of their software. I have used it on PocketPC and like it. There is no transfer of waypoints between the PC and PPC if I remember correctly, but the program works flawlessly on the PPC, with good voice instructions.
Sadly, here is their answer"
Hi Rob:
Unfortunately no. iGuidance will continue to only support PC (Windows ME and up) and PPC platform (wm2003, wm2003se, and wm5) OS.

Thank you.
Customer Service


~Rob

[Sven Johannsen]

Actually they do have that. Or did when I bought it. Each state has a zip file available that contains all the counties for that state and the major roads map for that state. Maybe the trial offerrings just don't show that. It's still a bit of downloading, but not all that terrible. I did it all in an afternoon. Some states have never even been unzipped. I think I have seen a CD available that has it all for a few bucks more.

I've never liked them calling it a subscription. Not real accurate. It's not much different than any other program that has a free year of upgrades. If you downloaded all the version 5 maps today, you could come back next Dec and download any updates to any of the ver 5 maps that may have happened. You can still continue to use those maps for the rest of your life. If California falls off into the ocean though, your maps would no longer be accurate.

Nobody else is offerring lifetime map data updates either. Actually I think this might be better. If you get all the maps on a Destinator CD, you can probably get program updates periodically, but do they have map data updates available for download? I don't know, just asking. I'm sure they don't send you a new CD next year for nothing.

One advantage to Mapopolis, I think, is that the programs are free, you pay for the map data. You can download the PPC and Smartphone programs, and one set of map data works on both the platforms. Someone even noted the Smartphone application worked on the HTC Wizard (IIRC) adding smartphone-like one handed operation available on the phone edition.

[hotdram]

When I go to this link: CLICK HERE (http://www.mapopolis.com/home.jsp?v=c&pg=gm&s=1136151576708230&p=&q=5) at Mapopolis (the Mapstore link), you are asked to pick a state, you can then list all maps for that state. The listing is by county. I don't see an option for a .zip file by state. I will inquire of them if when you purchase a subscription you have the option of getting a .zip file of each state. When you found the zip file, did you login to the "My Maps" screen?
I realize that no one else offers free lifetime map files, nor would I expect that from any company (I don't want to know how much money I have spent on Garmin upgrades), I also wouldn't expect any company to send a new CD for nothing.
I agree, the advantage to downloading off the web for a year, is that if the map is upgraded during the year, you have access to the upgrade.
I will probably end up going with Mapopolis (for that reason). I used it on my Palm M505 a few years ago (bought the CD of maps) and was happy with it. I didn't really use it for navigation, more of just a toy.
From what I have seen of the software and usage of the timelocked maps, I have been pretty happy with it. I like the display and the voice directions. It occassionaly requires me to restart my phone because it says that the com port (that the BT GPS is on) can not be found. I wonder if I am just not starting things in the right order. I have a little more trial and error to do with that. I also have to play with some of the settings (like, when navigation to a destination, if the next turn was in a long time (or long distance, haven't figured out which), the screen would revert back to my home screen, then would go back to the map screen when the turn approached, however, "remnants" of the home screen were still on the map screen. This was with RJShortcuts installed. I have since removed RJShortcuts, but have not gone back and retested because I received CoPilotLive6 to play with.

~Rob

~Rob

[Sven Johannsen]

My subscription expired some time ago, so I have not been able to log in to the real downloads. When I did though there was a link on the page that let you pick state and then county that took you to a zip for the whole state. I would expect that if you are downloading trials they wouldn't offer that. The trial maps expire after a few weeks, and creating a zip with an entie state's time bombed maps would seem more work than it's worth. You probably can't see the major roads maps either. That's a map of the major roads in a whole state that isn't much bigger than the individual counties. To do long routes, you can load like Colorado and Texas and the beginning and ending counties and get door to door directions for a thousand mile trip.

The counties are actually named on the major roads maps, so if you want to plan stops it is easy to go down the planned route and see what other counties you might want to have with you.

It's really a pretty good program. You might want to go over to www.gpspassion.com in the forums and get the latest Beta. It is in the Mapopolis Official Forum, in the News thread. v4.64 right now. It is significantly better than what is on their site I believe. I haven't been to the actual Mapopolis site in a while. They have been doing 'betas' for a year and a half it seems. WM5 came out in the middle of it. That's what I'm running it on...Jasjar at the moment, with a BT GPS...Delorme Blue Logger.

[hotdram]

You might want to go over to www.gpspassion.com in the forums and get the latest Beta. It is in the Mapopolis Official Forum, in the News thread. v4.64 right now.

Registered there last week (that is where I heard about Destinator). I have seen the Mapopolis forum but haven't had much time to peruse it. I will this week :)

~Rob

[hotdram]

Well, I purchased Mapopolis Navigator maps today and can confirm that when you login, you get an option to download an entire state at once, instead of county by county. And as Sven said, you also have the option of downloading a state's major roads. :)

I put the 4.64Beta version on my PPC and will put the 4.64Beta version for Smartphone on my SMT5600 when I get home. I will keep ya'll updated with what I like/dislike.

~Rob

[Sven Johannsen]

Well, I purchased Mapopolis Navigator maps today and can confirm that when you login, you get an option to download an entire state at once, instead of county by county. And as Sven said, you also have the option of downloading a state's major roads. :)~Rob

I think you'll find the major roads map is contained in the State zip, so you just need to do the states one by one. I made a folder for each state, and then if I unpacked a state, it was in it's own folder already.

When doing a trip I would have Pocket Controller open with the state map so I could see counties, AS with my SD card map folder open and the desktop unpacked maps. I click on a county to see the name, and drag from PC into AS (SD card window). Goes pretty quick actually.

One thing that is fun, but can be annoying, is the proximity alert. You can set it up to tell you if you are within some distance of some thing, like within a mile from a school. Depending one what you chose, you can create a very chatty PPC.

[encece]

http://www.mapopolis.com/mappacks.jsp?s=1136672142839142&p=&q=2
MapPack advantages:
-> Get all of North America or Western Europe for less than the price of a few maps.
-> Download state/country zip files quickly.
-> Use Major Roads maps along with county/region maps for long-distance routing.

Maps are offered on SD card now. I cant see where a CD is available any loner:
http://www.mapopolis.com/cardselect.jsp?pname=NavCard&s=1136672142839142&p=&q=6

[hotdram]

I downloaded each state's zip file to my machine. Each zip file contains every county and the major road map for that state. I did it over 2 nights, wasn't too time consuming. I burned the .zip files to a DVD, took about 900 Mb or so. I will download them again next year, just before my subscription expires.
So far I have been very pleased with the program. I have had little issues with it finding my GPS, as long as I turn on the GPS first. The maps are accurate and the directions to places I've routed to (my normal everyday destinations) seem good. Next weekend will be the big test. We are traveling from the Dallas area to the Fredericksburg Texas area for a long weekend. I have been there before and don't need GPS but always take my Garmin GPSMAP60CS with us. This time I am leaving it at home and just bringing my phone and BT GPS.

Also, I got the cradle in from Proclipusa.com for the 5600. Works well and the phone doesn't sit up as high as I thought it would (as compared to the universal mount I was using from them). I am happy with it and glad I could take off the little adhesive backed button that I had on for 2 weeks so I could use their universal mount.

~Rob