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Editorial Contributor
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 5,411
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Navigon MobileNavigator
Being a sort of GPS junkie, I went and bought the new Mobile Navigator by Navigon. It is a bit unusual for iPhone apps as the price will make most of you gasp. $70 for a limited time, and $100 at some time coming up. Guess they want to guage the interest with a little discount incentive.
I've been a WinMo guy for a long time (actually still am), so I've had the opportunity to play with a lot of PDA/Phone based navigation products. As such I didn't really choke on the price. It is not that out of line with any other product that provides maps of the US and some outlying areas. Keep in mind that this does not require any data connection, as all the map data is resident on the phone. You just need the GPS view, which is free of course. That sets it apart from the mapping products that rely on downloading the current area, like Apple's own and Google Maps. Up to you if that is worth anything to you.
At this point the software isn't especially full featured from a typical PND (Portable Navigation Device) standpoint, but it is very easy to use, and there is the promise of updates. Check the iTunes store writeup. I played with it on the way to work this morning, and on the way home. It seemed to calculate the relatively short route quickly (23 miles one way), and rapidly re-calculated when I intentionally strayed of the recommended course as well. The software is based on Navigon's concept, but not owning one of these (I have Garmin, Sanyo and have had Mio & HP) I don't know how faithful it is to the dedicated devices.
It takes about 1.3G of space, so that is a consideration, but I think it has a place on my phone for those instances when I would like a more dedicated style of Nav device, but don't want to carry, or just forgot to pack, a real vehicle Nav. Price may be a put off as you can fairly consistantly pick up a dedicated device that has at least as many features as this for right around that $100 price range. That will come with a car mount, and charger, two items that you will likely need to add to your iPhone, if you don't already have them, to make MobileNavigator functional. If they could get this down to about $50, IMHO, they would put a real gap between themselves and dedicated devices, that might make more folks take notice.
I did encounter one interesting issue today. Normally Nav devices are set up in landscape, and this app does a great job of rotating when it needs to. I found it was pretty difficult to view, and initially attributed it to my being in a convertible, the sun shining, and my wearing sunglasses (prescription). Then I tilted my head, and it got better. Did you know that the iPhone screen has some degree of polarization? So do my sunglasses. If you didn't know, polarization is directional. If you hold one polarized lens in front of another and rotate one, you can go from almost clear, to almost opaque. I turned the iPhone to portrait and was able to see the screen just fine. I will still say it is a bit small, for a nav, but it is adequate to see what is coming up. The spoken directions are clear, with what I think is a fairly pleasant female voice, but it does not do street names, i.e no text to speech. I'm kind of ambivelent on that feature, though some think it is essential.
One other thing that was a bit annoying, but I can't quite characterize it, was that twice the phone shut off on me. It went to sleep. It was being powered, and I would have assumed it was a standard timeout that I could just change somewhere, but it happenned after about 5 min into the trip the first time, and about 25 min the second. Just a punch of the button and a swipe brough me right back to where I was each time.
I did notice the store has a European version, at a slightly higher price. For those that balk at the price, most such apps are relatively expensive because the companies license the map data from one of only a couple of providers. This data is from NAVTEQ.
As an aside, if anyone is thinking about a windshield/dash mount, I can recommend two. www.proclipusa.com makes a wonderful product, and I have been using their stuff for years. The benefit, and drawback, is that you get a mount specifically designed for your car. The device mount is specific too. So this isn't very portable/flexible without buying more stuff, but it really works well and looks great. I use their Move Clip System so I can move device holders around in cars that have the car parts that stay with them.
The other option is http://www.arkon.com/iPhone_Car_Mount.php . I got one of these and it works very well as long as your iPhone is naked. It would be pretty easy to throw in a suitcase for travel and rental cars.
Sorry about the book here, but wanted to share in case anyone was thinking about this while it was still $70.
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