Google already provides the free Google Maps service (with Street View, pictured above), but could they be planning to step up to full on turn-by-turn navigation? Forbes thinks so:

Google, which generally gives its software away for free and recoups its investment through advertising, would likely sell ads within the navigation application rather than charge users, experts say. The ads could be particularly valuable because the program would know users’ precise locations and destinations, allowing advertisers to pinpoint specific kinds of consumers. Google recently started running sponsored link ads in Apple’s ( AAPL – news – people ) iPhone map application, which it helped build.

Forbes cites competitors who think Google will enter the “small but lucrative” space, and it would be a great value-add to Android, extending Google’s control over the software to an area some carriers still want all to themselves (with the monthly subscription feeds that go with it).

Before international readers get too excited, however, like Google Voice, it might be US-only, especially at first. That, and other factors have potential competitors already getting their shots in:

“Millions of customers use our service because of its reliability, ease of use and additional features,” [Mary Beth Lowell of TeleNav] says. [Steve Andler of Networks in Motion] contends the mobile market is different from the Internet, where “everything’s free and always in beta. People are willing to pay a premium to have something work all the time on their phones.”

Translation: they won’t try to compete with Google on price.

But what about you? Would you let Google monitor your GPS coordinates and activities, and send you targeted ads, in exchange for free navigation?

[via Fierce Mobile Content via Engadget Mobile]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Google Working on Free [Ad Supported] Turn-by-Turn Navigation App?

(iGo My Way 2009 – North America For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!)

iGo My Way [$79.99 - iTunes link] is the fourth turn-by-turn app I have reviewed. As with the other three, I have used the app around town as well as planning for a long trip (the same trip I have taken with the others). It generally suggested very reasonable routes, it had the vast majority of POI’s that I was looking for (in fact, I don’t recall a single instance where I couldn’t find something). So how did it compare in the long distance travel?

In the interest of full disclosure, I received a promo code for this app.

Let me start off by saying that I found the interface a little difficult at time. When you start, there is a screen with three main buttons and a map. Tapping the map at the top brings you to your current route and directions. The other three buttons are destination (to program a route), my route (for details on your current route), and settings. Maybe it is just me, but at times I found the layout a little less that intuitive. If I wanted to alter my route, for example, I kept going into “destination” instead of “my route”. While I am sure I would have eventually learned the different buttons, it didn’t strike me as the most obvious layout.

To program a route, you can go into desintation. From there you can select an address, a point of interest, a location on a map, of a list of favorites. In addition, you have your route history at the bottom of the screen. Unfortunately, there was no contact integration. I did find the interface for choosing a destination based on address to be very straightforward – you choose the state, city, street, etc. At any point you can go back and change any of the options. The POI database was very complete (as complete as any of the other apps I have seen), and choosing a point of interest was another straightforward process.

Once your route is calculated (based on preferences), you can make changes like selecting various route alternative. It includes shortest, economical, easiest, and fastest. One really nice feature is that it shows you the distance and the driving time for each of these, and you can select back and forth to see how they look on the map. I wish the display map had more details instead of just a red line showing your route – city names, highway names, or things like that would be appreciated. One nitpick – I had a default “shortest route” option selected. But when I compared with other routes, sometimes the fastest route was listed as many as 10 miles shorter than the shortest route (see the image below). Ummm…need to work on those routing programs!!

You can also choose to look at places around the destination, where it will give you a list of POI near your planned destination. Lastly, you can change any of your route settings (such as vehicle from car to taxi, bicycle, bus, etc). You can choose different preferences (avoid toll roads, avoid ferries) at this point as well. At any time, you can come back to the “my route” screen to get these options again.

Unfortunately, there were limited options to preview or browse your route. You couldn’t do anything aside from viewing a simple over view map – no listed directions, no detailed summary, nothing like that. There was an option to preview the trip, but it would simply plan an animation of your route – not something you had a lot of control over. You didn’t have any option of travelling “via” a specific road, highway, or city, so you couldn’t plan a multiple itinerary trip.

The settings button allows you to change default settings – sounds and warnings, regional settings, etc. Many of these are things that you only need to access once, but the settings also included the default routing options (route type, avoid/use highways, avoid tolls, etc).

When actually driving, I found the iGo app very good. The maps that are displayed are very detailed, to the point of telling you at times when you may need to switch lanes for an upcoming turn. The app (in general) avoids giving you specific distance estimates, instead telling you that you have “more than 50 miles to go” or “turn in more than 1 mile”. I found this to be beneficial sometimes (like when I am just starting a new leg) but at times I wish they gave me more detailed distance (like when I have five miles or less until a turn). Because there is no way to preview the direction in advance, you also can’t look ahead to see what you will do after the specific leg of the trip. You had limited option for data to display on the map – you could choose from distance left, time left, or ETA (or all three). There was supposed to be an option for an audible speeding warning, but I never heard anything so it was not very effective.

My biggest complaint with the app was starting it up. Multiple times, at least 70% of the time, the app seemed to “freeze” when starting. If I rebooted my iPhone and went right into iGo, I had no problems. But if I ran another app, ANY other app first (voice memo, iPod, anything), the app would freeze and not load about 70% of the time. I don’t know if this is a problem with my iPhone (it is jailbroken) or with the app itself. Right now I don’t seem to be having that issue – but it happened enough times, on multiple days to make it a major concern. I did get around this by installing backgrounder and having the app run in the background. Then, when I wanted to go back into the app, it was already running so I had no problems.

The app also seemed to lose the GPS signal more than any other GPS app I have. It usually found it again within a minute or so, but that didn’t happen to any other GPS app I have tested. The ETA’s seemed to be off for longer distances – at one point it said I had about 70 miles left, and the trip would take about 2.5 hours. Unlike some of the other apps, the screen blank was disabled, meaning the app stayed on even without me doing anything (which I think is good). And like some others, this app could be viewed in landscape mode (a big plus!).

Conclusion

All in all, while I felt the user interface was a little less polished than some others, the quality of the maps, the good POI database, and the options for trip planning were nice pluses for this app. However, the problems with the app starting up prevent me from giving it a high rating. This may be due to my iPhone, and thus may not be an issue everyone else is going to experience, so take that into consideration. But if I can’t even get into an app to run it, pluses (like good maps, nice options) and minuses (no contact integration, shortest route isn’t always the shortest) take a back seat. At $79.99, this is a pricey app, so caution should be used before purchasing (check others to see if they had the same startup issues). As it is, I give it three out of five stars – if I didn’t have the startup problems, I would probably give it three and a half or four stars out of five. (I welcome and will post any comments from the app programmers in response to this review)

Pros

• Very detailed maps
• Great side by side comparison of routing options
• Good POI database

Cons

• No “travel via” option
• Some problems with starting the app
• Route options aren’t logical
• Limited trip overview options

TiPb Review Rating

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App Review: iGo My Way 2009 – North America

TomTom has finally gotten around to revealing the price point for their much anticipated iPhone car kit, which provides its own GPS as well as iPhone charger, loud speaker, and hands-free dialing.

TomTom car kit for the iPhone will have a recommended retail price of EUR 99.99 or USD 119.95.

The TomTom car kit will be available this October and will be sold separately from the TomTom app. It will be compatible with the iPhone 2G, 3G and 3GS.

When you add in the price of the TomTom iPhone app, that more than $200 for the combo, not exactly a bargain compared to a stand-alone GPS device. Then again, this saves you having to carry around a second device just for GPS, so does convenience trump cost, or does TomTom need to rethink their business model here?

Could they offer a second version of the TomTom app — one that only works with the car kit — at a greatly discounted price for those who shell out for the car kit? More importantly, should they?

[Via GPSTracklog via TUAW]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TomTom iPhone Car Kit Pricing Revealed

Are you still on the hunt for the right GPS navigation application? Sygic Mobile Maps [$59.00 - US iTunes Link] has just gotten a much needed update and we are happy to report is has polished this GPS app nicely. Gone is the lag we experienced along with the addition of some other much anticipated features.

• Now with text-to-speech – voice guidance announcing the name of the next street or road
• Choose addresses straight from your iPhone contacts and navigate to.
• Music playback fades out smoothly so you can better hear the voice instructions.
• Improved GPS lock, now faster than ever.
• Smoother position display as you follow your route.
• Increased font size of street names and information bars for improved readability.
• No disclaimer warning message after completion of phone call.

So if you currently have this application, update now! If not and you’re still on the lookout for a good GPS app, Sygic Mobile Maps is definitely worth a look.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Quick App Update: Sygic Mobile Maps for iPhone

(Co-Pilot Live 8 for iPhone Forum Review by cjvitek For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!)

With CoPilot Live North America [$34.99 - iTunes link] The march of GPS Turn-by-turn apps continued. (See the App Review master list, above, for reviews of AT&T Navigator, Navigon Mobile Navigator, iGo My Way, and Sygic Mobile Maps). In the interest of full disclosure, I received a promo code to review this app.

GPS Turn-by-turn apps all want to achieve the same goal – become the ultimate navigation assistant to help you when you are driving. So far the apps I have reviewed have had strong points and some weak points – each having some features that are nice, but no one app dominating the competition. CoPilot Live falls right in, with some compelling features but also lacking some features to put it over the top.

Let’s start with the interface. I love it. In my mind, a GPS TBT app should be easy to use and operate – large button, easy to read screen, easy to program, etc. For the most part, CoPilot live does a great job. When using the menu, the buttons are large and easy to read (and hit). The features are clearly outlined, and there is a systematic approach to the layout (I had very little hunting around trying to find a specific feature). Having said that, some of the buttons were a little small – including the button to get to the menu. Like some of the other apps, when typing in an address or name, this app would try to anticipate what you wanted, providing a list of matching names. I find this type of interface very helpful, as I don’t have to type out the entire name myself.

This app did have contact integration. One interesting thing about the contacts – not all of them were listed. I think it only lists contacts that have an actual address – which makes sense, if you think about it. The five or six I checked matched that criteria, but I didn’t check all the missing contacts. If that is accurate, I say kudos to CoPilot Live for including this feature which makes sense, but is missing from other apps!

The POI interests can be viewed while traveling, and entered as a destination as well. Like Navigon, the POI database seemed a little sparse – it didn’t have the school I work for listed as a POI, and it is the tenth largest University in Texas (or something like that). Hopefully this will be something that can be added to in future updates.

I liked the use of the app as well. It was quick to pick up a signal, and I didn’t lose it once. You can choose POI to be displayed. There is supposedly a feature for lane assistance, but I couldn’t get it to work – possibly due to the fact I live in the outskirts of civilization here in Texas. WHen you have a map created, there were also options to choose an alternate route, and the option to avoid certain segments of your trip! Something I have been looking for in the other apps. Unfortunately, I tried it out, and it didn’t seem to make any different in the trip plans (the route was still listed as the same). It’s possible that I needed to actually REACH that road to avoid it, but I am not sure (especially since I asked to avoid a 163 mile segment of highway…I would have thought it would recalculate a large portion of a trip in that case). Unfortunately, there is no option to indicate a preferred road.

There are a number of live features that are supposed to be added – including weather (where you are, or your destination), traffic, and friends (which I assume finds contacts in the area?). However, the traffic and friends options were greyed out. The traffic is listed as being a premium extra that you have to pay for in future updates. The weather worked very well.

Another nice feature that I have only seen sporadically is the ability to add stops during your trip. You can even optimize them and plan for rest locations. While driving, you have various settings you can tweak – including when the app will warn you about an upcoming turn, how the map is viewed (2D, 3D, or 2D with next turn). You have preview options of seeing the whole trip, running a simulation of the trip, seeing an itinerary, or even going through the trip turn by turn. Nice options there. The screen itself also allows for two displays – you can have things like speed, ETA, distance left, etc. I didn’t see any option for speed limit warning, although other reviews have mentioned them. I might be blind, or it might be limited to other maps (UK or Europe, for example).

The biggest issue I had with CoPilot live was the choice of routes. Again, for small, everyday routes, the directions seemed very accurate. If the road was listed (there were a few times where newer roads weren’t on the map – my home street was not listed for planning directions), the route was very straightforward. However, for longer routes, I had some problems. You can choose between a quickest, shortest, and economical routes (with specifications for avoiding tolls roads and similar options). Now, I plugged in the same trip I have been doing for all the apps – Edinburg, TX to Terlingua, TX. About 600 miles as I drive it. The shortest route came up with the standart shortest route (by miles) at about 590 miles. However, the quickest route had me going about 100 miles out of my way, up to San Antonio. And the ETA’s for both of the trips was, well, insanely wrong. The trip has taken between between 10 and 12 hours. The estimated travel time for the quickest route (690 miles) was 18 hours. For the shortest route (590 miles) it was over 20 hours. Now, I could understand if it was driving back roads the whole time, but we are talking about driving on highways with a 70 or 75 mph speed limit!

As I previously said, I tried to “tweak” my route by indicating sections of the road to avoid (hoping that it would get me a route that I have taken in the past), but the map didn’t appear to change – despite the fact I said I wanted to detour around 163 miles of highway. Maybe some of these issues are due to the fact I am not trying it out in a big metropolitan area, and if you live in an area like that you won’t have any of the problems. But ultimately the app is supposed to be for anywhere in North America, so I should still be able to use it here, out in the middle of no where.

Conclusion

All in all, this app had some very strong points and some areas that clearly needed work. The interface and some of the options were absolutely great, but ultimately it is about driving and the routes. As such, given that it estimated a trip I know only take about 10 hours as a 18 to 20 hour trip, I can’t help but question the accuracy of it’s route choices for long distance trips. Some of the features (like road detours) didn’t seem to have any obvious effect on the routes and maps, but it could be that the effect would only be obvious when I got to that segment of the trip. At $34.99, the app is far from the most expensive, and for that money it delivered a reasonable GPS experience. But until the routing issues are fixed, I can only give it three and a half out of five stars.

Pros:

• Great interface
• good integration with contacts

Cons:

• POI database is lacking
• Some features appear to be disabled or don’t work
• Trip time estimation is way off

TiPb Review Rating

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

App Review: CoPilot Live North America Turn-by-Turn Navigation for iPhone

Well it’s official, TomTom’s much anticipated iPhone car kit accessory will not make it out this summer like the company initially had planned. Rather, it has been delayed until October according to their website’s FAQ page.

The TomTom car kit availability was originally planned for this summer. But we have decided to take some extra weeks in order to deliver the highest quality on this innovative product. So, the car kit will become available this October on www.tomtom.com.

We suppose it is best to delay the accessory for a few weeks in order to insure you, the consumer, can purchase the very best TomTom has to offer. It could have been worse and the kit could have been delayed until next year, right?

[Via TUAW]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TomTom’s iPhone Car Kit Delayed

While the wait for TomTom’s iPhone software to hit the App Store has come and gone, most of you are still eagerly awaiting the arrival of TomTom’s iPhone car kit, first shown off at WWDC back in June. Engadget Mobile is now reporting that your wait may be coming to an end as TomTom’s car kit has received its FCC approval. Included in that link, for your viewing pleasure, is the kit’s manual, some images, and a few test reports.

Since it’s announcement TomTom has kept pretty quite about the kits full capabilities. Well, a quick look in the user manual gets us all of the official details.

Your TomTom car kit for iPhone is designed to provide you with the best possible navigation experience. A built-in GPS receiver enhances your iPhone’s GPS signal, ensuring the most reliable navigation, wherever you are. Using the car kit, you get loud and clear voice instructions, can make hands- free calls, as well as charge your iPhone while you drive. The car kit is a safe and secure dock with the award-winning fold-and-go EasyPort� mount.

Are those the features you’ve been waiting for?

[Via Engadget Mobile]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TomTom’s Car Kit Gets FCC Approval

TomTom insists on teasing us all with the above video yet there is still no mention of pricing or availability. As you can see, this car kit brings a lot more to the table than a simple window mount for your iPhone. With the following extras, you can count on this being a pricey addition to your accessory collection.

• Hands-free dialing
• Louder speaker
• Enhances GPS signal
• Charges iPhone

As impressive as the TomTom car kit looks, we are thinking you possibly may have to dish out up to at least $100 for this tricked out window mount. Are you still interested in making this purchase?

Sound off in the comments!

[Via Engadget Mobile]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TomTom Promo Video Shows Off Car Kit

As you might have heard, TomTom’s GPS application hit the App Store late yesterday. The question still remained regarding the much anticipated TomTom car kit and if it would be compatible with the iPod Touch or other GPS applications. Macrumors is now reporting that TomTom public relations manager Yann Lafargue says yes, you will be able to use other GPS applications along with Apple’s iPod Touch with the car kit.

“It will work with the iPod touch and will also work with third-party GPS applications.”

There still is no word on pricing or availability except it will arrive “later this summer”, but keep an eye on the official TomTom Twitter page for the latest “official” information.

How much would you be willing to spend on this accessory?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TomTom Car Kit Compatible With iPod Touch and Other GPS Apps

UPDATED: Here’re the US deets: TomTom US & Canada [$99.99 - iTunes link], TomTom Australia [$79.99 - iTunes link], TomTom New Zealand [$94.99 - iTunes link], TomTom Western Europe [$139.99 - iTunes link]

ORIGINAL: TomTom [iTunes publisher link], the long-anticipated turn-by-turn navigation app for the iPhone is beginning to appear in international App Stores, starting with New Zealand and according to our tipsters, rolling across Australia and the UK.

Cost wise, the different versions (US & Canada, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand) range in price from NZ$105 (US$70) to NZ$179 (US$120).

Hopefully it will hit all the stores, including the US (and Canada!) sooner rather than later. If you find it in your local App Store, drop us a note in the comments. (Still no word, however, on the accompanying dock that was announced at WWDC 2009…)

[Thanks to Tyler from App Advice, David, Niall everyone who sent this in!]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

UPDATED: TomTom Turn-by-Turn Navigation for iPhone Beginning to Appear in International App Stores