All Articles Tagged turn-by-turn

(Navigon Mobile Navigator for iPhone Forum Review by cjvitek For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!)

MobileNavigator North America [$69.99 - iTunes link], by Navigon, is the second GPS TBT app I examined. This one requires you to download all the maps in advance (1.5 GB for the US version, 1.67 for the European version) so make sure you have space on your iPhone. The advantage of this is that you can get GPS directions even if you do not have an AT&T signal. In addition, the actual “routing” process seems a little faster since it is not downloading directions OTA.

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Navigon just sent word that their turn-by-turn GSP navigation solution, MobileNavigator for iPhone [$69.99 on sale - iTunes link], North American edition is now live in the iTunes App Store.

Previously available in European flavor, the North American edition features the same NAVTEQ maps, Reality View Pro, Lane Assistant Pro, Speed Assistant and Day & Night Mode component, points of interest (POI) along the route, and a host of other features.

Pricing is set at $99 — on sale for $69 through August 15. So, if you prefer to pay up front rather than entering into a subscription service, and you give MobileNavigator North America a try, let us know how it works for you.

G-Map from XRoad sent us a postcard from their drive up highway 3.0 and let us know they’ve come back with great new features like real-time voice guidance and turn-by-turn arrows.

And as always, since G-Map 1.3.1 downloads its maps to your iPhone, you don’t need a data or Wi-Fi connection to use them, which comes in handy when in-between cities and off the grid.

Both G-Map East [$34.99 - iTunes link] and G-Map West [$34.99 - iTunes link] are currently on sale at a reduced price in the App Store. So, if no-subscription, download-to-your-iPhone turn-by-turn GPS navigation appeals to you, and you decide to give it a try, let us know if it gets you where you’re going.

First push-Instant Messenger (IM) apps, now Turn-by-Turn Navigation? Can our long standing dreams finally become reality?

A few days ago we mentioned Gokivo + Yahoo! Maps had made it into the App Store. Now it’s joined by:

AT&T Navigator [free - iTunes Link] provides an iPhone front end to AT&T’s $9.99/month subscription service.

MobileNavigator Europe ($94.99 – iTunes link) features Reality View Pro, Lane Assistant Pro, Speed Assistant and Day & Night Mode component as well as the opportunity, to show POIs along the route. (See YouTube for the gist)

What’s interesting from a user-perspective is the ranger of options we’ll likely be seeing: either free or $0.99 up front and ongoing subscriptions, or more expensive up front (will $100 be the price point?) and no subscriptions — though will we have to wonder about charges for updated maps eventually?

What’s your preference?

TiPb had the opportunity to test drive Gokivo Navigator ($0.99 + In-App Purchases – iTunes link) over the last couple of days. This is one of the first iPhone 3.0 specific apps in the App Store, so first off it was great to see turn-by-turn navigation working (even in Canada!), and second it was interesting to see how Apple handles in-app purchases.

Getting this going is a little bit of work. You start the app and type in a destination. I found Apple Canada in my contacts so hit that. Similar to the built in Maps app, Gokivo will show you your location on a map. Instead of Street View, however, you have a green GO button. Hit that and you’re on your way to turn-by-turn.

If you don’t already have a subscription, Gokivo activates the aforementioned in-app-purchase engine, and once you login with your iTunes ID and buy a month of service ($9.99 in the version we tested) the GO gets going.

It takes time to acquire a good GPS signal, and will advise you if there isn’t one to be had. Once it locks on, however, you’re in for a pretty smooth turn-by-turn experience. Arrows point your way and a synthesized female voice tells you when and where to turn and, and preps you for upcoming turns. We repeatedly went the wrong way, and were impressed with how quickly and accurately Gokivo recalculated and tried to get us back on track.

Note, Gokivo isn’t free just for the app because Apple doesn’t let developers do in-app purchases for free apps. Hence, $0.99 will likely be the foundation for what TiPb considers iPhone “scaleware”. Whether the $9.99 monthly fee — or other in-app-purchasing options — suit your needs and budget you’ll have to tell us.

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It was a long time coming, but as part of yesterday’s WWDC Keynote, TomTom co-founder Peter-Frans Pauwels demonstrated their company’s solution to turn-by-turn GSP navigation for iPhone 3.0, and interestingly, it comes in two parts:

• The TomTom navigation application for iPhone; an Apple version of TomTom’s award-winning turn-by-turn navigation software, including IQ Routes and latest maps from Tele Atlas;

• The TomTom car kit for iPhone; a specially developed car kit for secure docking, enhanced GPS performance, clear voice instructions, hands-free calling and in-car charging.

No word on pricing or availability yet, though it will be at some point later this summer, after the iPhone 3.0 release on June 17.

Was it worth the wait, and what kind of pricing are you anticipating (or hoping for)?

As we reported earlier today (before the Apple event, even), the iPhone 3.0 update will allow real, turn-by-turn directions on the iPhone. It looks like Apple isn’t bothering with enmeshing themselves in the confusing licensing issues surrounding turn-by-turn and is instead simply lifting the SDK Ban on turn-by-turn directions. The first app may very well come from Sygic (that’s what they’re claiming, anyway), which we had the chance get some eyes-on time with during Mobile World Congress.

Apple is simply allowing 3rd party apps to extend their access to CoreLocation (the iPhone’s built-in location service that includes GPS, cell tower-based, and WiFi-based location) to include turn-by-turn. Of note: Apple says that developers need to “BYOM” (Bring Your Own Maps). What that implies is that the licensing issues referenced above prevents Apple from allowing developers to use another new iPhone 3.0 feature: embeddable maps. iPhone 3.0 allows (almost) any app to include embedded Google maps, complete with pinch, zoom, and the like, within the app itself. Using that embedded map for turn by turn directions, however, is verboten. Instead developers will either have to require a large download of maps and/or provide them over-the-air as TeleNav does.

It’s also possible that developers will be able to use the new in-app purchasing feature of iPhone 3.0 to allows users to purchase maps as well. It’s unclear who else besides Sygic is getting a turn-by-turn directions app ready, but you can probably rest assured we’ll see such apps from the big players in short order once 3.0 is released this summer.

Update: TeleNav is still staying quiet about their plans.

Dieter gave us our first eyes-on look at Sygic’s Turn-by-Turn GPS solution for the iPhone 3G, but we wondered if Apple — whose iPhone SDK specifically forbid providing such navigation — would ever allow it.

Seems Sygic thinks they will:

Sygic is entering the AppStore to be the first on the market that offers full turn-by-turn navigation for Apple users. “We believe Apple users will benefit soon from Sygic Mobile 2009 turn-by-turn navigation worldwide – the same as all of our customers on different platforms” said Michal Stencl, CEO and founder of Sygic.

Could this be part of a new Premium App Store launch later today? Our tipper, antonioj, seems to think it will…

Only 2 hours left, so be sure to join us for our live meta-blog coverage and hopefully we’ll find out together!

A few weeks back we introduced you to a little Jailbreak app called xGPS. This is the first app available to bring turn-by-turn directions to your iPhone. It has just been updated to version 1.2 and seems to be much more polished overall. The biggest improvement is this version is of course, voice instructions support. To those of you who have not interested in Jailbreaking, are you tempted now?

Everybody would say: Finally! Yes, xGPS 1.2 has been released. The version has been sent to the MMI repository and will be available within some hours. It should be in everybody’s Cydia as the MMI repository is installed by default. Just do a refresh within some hours and xGPS should pop up. This version of xGPS has required us a lot of hours of work. We have tried to bring the most advanced and stable navigation software for the iPhone / iPod touch. However, even if we have made our best, you have to keep in mind that this software is free but not bug free. If you experience such a bug feel free to ask in the forum but do not say “It doesn’t work, it’s crappy”.

It’s important to remember, this application is only available to those of you who are Jailbroken. For all of the details be sure to stop by the xGPS Blog!

[Thanks to all of you who sent this in!]

There you see it, folks, a real live native iPhone app that provides turn-by-turn GPS directions with voice prompts, points of interest, support for multiple countries, maps stored in-memory instead of streamed from the internet, the whole nine yards.

Working off a tip/reminder from antonioj (thanks!), I scurried off to the TeleAtlas booth at the close day here at MWC to visit Sygic, a company that makes (you guessed it) downloadable GPS apps for smartphones and PDAs. They had promised a demo of their iPhone app at MWC09 and, well, they delivered.

Read on for more!

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