Stinsonddog’s Blackberry GPS Review
(Note my pre - May 2007 GPS
page can be found here
now.)
October 2007 - Windows Live Search
available and it's really good. You can download it here. http://wls.live.com
I think it will compete with
Google Maps in some ways. The
application features local business search and directions (no voice) and also covers
traffic, movies and maps very well.
You can call phone numbers from the app. Give it a try. You can use an internal or BT GPS.
Mapping on my 8800 is
incredible. I was skeptical when I
first tried it on my 8700 but I was very impressed. With the 8700 I needed a separate BT GPS
puck. The 8800
has built in GPS chip, and that was a major upgrade reason for me. The 8100 and 8300 to date don't have
built in GPS chips and in my opinion will not ever have them. My 8800 locks onto satellites very
quickly as it also uses cell towers to triangulate
location. With the 8800, I don't need the puck and that is one less item to
keep track of with yet another charger.
The 8703 has a built in GPS chip too, and Sprint allows its full use
while Verizon has crippled it, making plenty of their customers upset. I will bet the same happens with
the upcoming 8830 on Verizon and Sprint.
If you need a puck, I was
using a Royal
Tek 2001 BT receiver with my 8700 which you can get from Seidio. The puck is the GPS receiver (don't
confuse it with a GPS antenna which goes on a receiver to give it better
reception, if needed). I have also
heard good things about the Holux
236 Slim, and the Globalsat
359 looks cool since it is so slim.
The Verizon 8703e can be paired with one of these GPS receivers, but
what a waste since the GPS chip is built in.
Once you have the receiver or
8800, you will need the software to use it with. For the Blackberry, there are six
different software programs discussed here: Telenav,
Blackberry Maps, Google Maps, Wayfinder,
Spot, and Mapquest. The one thing all these programs have in
common is that the maps are not stored on the BB, so they use data and possibly
lots of data for those not on an unlimited plan. This also means that if you are out of a
coverage area for your carrier, these programs won't pull down new data. Wayfinder and Telenav do provide directions where you have obtained a route within your
carrier's coverage area and then move outside of it; however, you won't get an
route updates if you go off course.
BBMaps is RIM's native mapping
application. Wayfinder
provides driving directions and points of interest. Telenav is also a driving direction
program and for US users is without a doubt the preferred one. Telenav uses NAVTEQ for its maps and points of interests,
while Wayfinder
uses TeleAtlas and
InfoUSA, the same provider for BBMaps. For an interesting article on NAVTEQ and
TeleAtlas read this article. One note here is that with any of these
don't give up your Google Maps application (GMM), and with
version 1.5.1 it also uses GPS both on the 8800 and with a BT puck with other
models. GMM offers real time
traffic and favorites. GMM seems to
have the best ability to find an address and business, and these addresses can
also be used with these other GPS applications. Note that there is a new player
called CoPilot that apparently has a
similar product coming although it's not on their website yet. Rumor is that they will also have a
version for the microSD cards in the 8100 and 8800. I suspect that TomTom might jump in
also. In order for that to happen,
RIM may have to open up access to the microSD card for applications. So what's on the wish list for these
applications - Routing maps with user selectable POI's? Say I have directions to a pet store
programmed and I am also hungry.
Wouldn't it be great to be able to see where I am on the route and be
able to select a category of POI's (places to eat) to show up. Telenav has this in their 5.1 version, and
is now available for the 8800.
Version 5.1 also has traffic reporting.
Spot is another type of program that provides positions
information, waypoints, WMS maps, and elevation information, and for
information on a few other providers you can read more at Brent's page. If you want to read about a few old
applications like Caffinefinder and FastFoodFinder, Berryvine Companion
(European navigation), Trimble Outdoors and Naggie you can read this summary. Want to know more about the US Map
makers and who is relying on their products and POI's, then read this article. What if you just want to start your
device, log your travels, blog your thoughts, share it with friends and family
and keep a record, then you need to sign up over at Chronicle Road, and start traveling.
So to sum up you need
hardware - a Blackberry with a GPS chip built in or a separate receiver, and
you need software on your Blackberry, AND YOU NEED A BLACKBERRY DATA PLAN.
Here's the big
picture: BBMaps is excellent as a
free application for going to a place you know or that is your address
book. BBMaps also has the fastest maps and zoom
function as explained below. If you
want to find a business or find cheap gas that you are not aware of, and you
want voice prompts, you should try Telenav
or Wayfinder. BBMaps
includes driving directions but neither voice prompts nor a turn by turn
navigation screen. For
driving directions with voice prompts, Wayfinder
is the product of choice for
Telenav 5.1 is the
product to have in the
←↑→↓
|
Feature↓ Product → |
My
Favorite |
Garmin-AVOID THEM |
Mapquest Navigator (in the |
|||
|
GPS Enabled |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Where you are on the Map, |
Yes - use space bar to change |
Yes - use menu key to change |
Yes - use # to change |
No - route view with turns identified |
? |
Yes |
|
Next Turn |
Scroll to read-doesn't update |
Icons for next two turns plus rerouting |
Icons for next two turns plus rerouting |
Push number to read-doesn't reroute or
update |
? |
Icon for
next turn plus rerouting |
|
Voice Prompts |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
|
POI finder |
No |
Yes-Best in US |
Yes-Best in |
Yes-Best in US |
? |
Yes, from
Mapquest |
|
Scaleable Vector Maps |
Yes |
No, bitmaps but small maps |
No, bitmaps |
No, bitmaps |
? |
No |
|
Data Source |
InfoUSA through
TeleAtlas |
NAVTEQ
and Tele Atlas |
||||
|
Cost |
Free |
$9.99 month |
$99 one time |
Free |
? |
$9.99 month
(free trial) |
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Telenav
- BEST OF CLASS FOR DRIVING AND POI's IN THE
Telenav is a true driving
direction program. This review has
been updated in May 07 for version 5.1 on an8800. Version 5.1 has outstanding enhancements
including traffic, map summaries and search POI's along the route. As mentioned above it uses
NAVTEQ for its data and it works really well as a direction program. I have become a real fan for use the
When you start it up you will
see the DWT (driving while texting) warning followed by the main screen after
your acknowledgement. Ironically
the one key safety feature, a menu item to Switch Applications, is not
available as RIM has not made that choice available to third party
developers. Instead if you need to
get to another application you need to Alt-Esc which is more distracting.
As you can see you have a
choice of the Drive To a destination via GPS navigation, using the Directory to
find a business, looking up a location on Maps and getting traffic
information. You can also use
Tools/Extras. One of the key
preferences set in Tools is backlight on at turns (not shown below) and Turn
Icon. The Show Next Turn can
be set to Always or When Nearby.
The choices for Tools/Extras looks like this:
Within the Tools, the compass
gives you basic location, speed and GPS signal strength information. You can also Record Location and save it
as a favorite. After
reading the location you can give it a name and save it.
The key to this application
is a very strong set of search tools that enables you to find business and
locations. Once you enter the Drive
To screen, you have a choice of using My Favorites (well your favorites really) , Recent Places, an Address or Intersection, a Business or
Airport, and your Address Book. The
latter is a really nice feature and it will allow you to pick from Business or
Home. One
BIG Trick is if you are picking from your address book, don't start Telenav
first, but go to your address book, find the contact and click Drive To or Map
It. That is faster than having
Telenav search your address book. If you are doing a route, you can choose
Start from Here or Set a Different Origin. You can also find places to go by
using the Maps function. As you can
see the menus are quite similar.
Above are the choices for
Recent Places and Intersection. The
Address Screen is similar except you don't have two street lines, and if you
click the trackball you have the option of typing in the address or calling it
in. The call in menu is cumbersome
but arguably safer and it works quite well. One thing I don't like about 5.1 is if
you choose My Favorites it always goes to the server to synch first which takes
time. Why favorites
if there is going to be a delay in getting there?
If you choose business, the
Search For dialog comes up, and you can limit the search to categories.
If you choose the Address
Book, it will first read it which takes a while so my trick above works much
better.
Once you have a location by
using either the map or looking something up above you can get a route, and
apply different styles to the route.
After you ask for the route
it will be downloaded, and thus you need to be in coverage area. If you go off track a new route will
download. Volume controls are at
your fingertips during your route.
Once your destination has
been set, the driving directions will start, and I must say they have
implemented this very well. I keyed
in an address and started up the freeway.
The choice of views is impressive along the way. Let me show you some of the choices.
They include a 3D Moving Map, Turn Icons, Route Summary, Traffic Summary, and
Map Summary. You can also Search
Along the route for POI's.
3D view above is what you
would see if a bird was flying 50 feet high and 2D view (below) is what you would
see if you were a cartographer.
Notice the ETA and Distance alternates and you have a turn arrow. Your current street is shown in 3D view. With either view you can get Traffic and
if you want you can just have the Map follow you. Also if you don't want a 3D or 2D map
you can just have the turn arrows as shown below.
Traffic reporting and
rerouting is available on 5.1, along with the choice to avoid a segment or
minimize all delays.
2D map below with Traffic
Telenav does talk to you and
you can press the space key to replay the last message. I noted that rerouting is done very
quickly.
And when you are done, it
will ask you if you are done. There
are actually an number of confirming dialog boxes,
some of which are more helpful than others.
______________________________________________________________________
Blackberry Maps
RIM has decided the mapping
is an important feature, and the 8100
Pearl is the first Blackberry to have BB
Maps. You need to use the Blackberry Browser to download it over the air
(not Opera or any other browser). The application can be used with a BT GPS
puck or without. You can see maps
and get directions without it, but you need the GPS device to track where you
are. BBMaps is now available for
the 4.1 OS system BB's with color screens at www.blackberry.com/maps. The
application uses Tele Atlas' map data and scalable vector maps to provide
driving directions via an external Bluetooth puck. Scalable vector maps are smaller data
hogs. Scalable vector images convert the graphical information on a single
image that is downloaded once and then uses mathematical equations and geometry
to describe the map. If the map
service uses bitmap images the device must download additional bitmaps as you
zoom in and out of different areas.
The BB Maps application offers
the ability to find directions to a location from where you are currently and
the ability to map to an address in the address book, which is a nice feature, but you have to have the country in the
address (US or
Here is my current location
with the U key pressed so that the info bar at the top shows. Another press of the U and it goes away
like in the following two screen shots.
Notice how if the GPS is active you see a satellite and it also tells
you which view you are seeing. If
you click Pan in the menu, you get instructions on how to pan using the keys. You can also pan up and down with the
trackwheel or right and left by using the trackwheel with the Alt-key. If you click Zoom, you get a Google like
zoom bar that is activated with the scrollwheel and it
works really well with the vector maps.
You can also use I and O for shortcuts.
Below are two screen shots of
the full menu. You won't get a GPS
view unless you Start GPS. You can
have the application Go To location you type in or map
a location in the address book. If
you have a home and work address you will be given a choice. If you have the GPS on, you can choose
from
In the screenshots below you
can see the two views of GPS and Route Review screens (the Map view is
above). In the GPS screen, black
street letters indicate it's the street that you are "currently on"
and red street letters with a + is the street that you are "coming up
on." You can see your
current direction and speed, plus an arrow showing you where North is. If you are connected, you see how
many satellites you are connected to, and the view you see is listed at the top
information bar (U toggles this on and off). Space bar toggles between the views of
Map, GPS, and Route Review. In the
second route review below, I "Zoomed to Point" and instead of showing
me the starting point marker (red balloon with the 1), it takes me to the red
arrow which is my current location.
Note that in GPS view the map is a bit compressed, but zooming is the
easiest and quickest of all of these applications. To start directions
from your current location, when you begin to enter the directions use the
Trackwheel to select "
Note that these Route reviews
are no longer present in version 1.1.32.
They are shown on a separate screen and I have not updated the screen
shots.
The options screen is pretty
basic. You pick a GPS device and
you tell it if you want the backlight disabled. This is different than Telenav which
gives you the option to turn the screen on a turn approaches. Enable Track Up allows the direction you
are headed to be at the top of the screen.
In the menu you can change that to North if you like. You can also see your data usage for
those not on an unlimited plan.
Shown below is also the email location screen
and the help screen which comes through the browser.
Here is a tip from Steve at
BBF on how to use BBMaps effectively
with Google Maps by exporting a location from BBMaps to Google Maps.
If you are interested in
using Google Maps to locate businesses in the area in question or whatever
reason you might have go between programs.
In BBMaps, wherever your cursor is, you can click for the menu and
select "Copy Location" in order to save the information to the
clipboard. Then go to Google Maps and use "Find Location",
"Enter an address" and paste the clipboard contents in. Google Maps
can't use it as-is, so edit out the URL information and leave Latitude and
Longitude coordinates separated by a comma.
For example:
http ://maps.blackberry.com?lat=43.04588&lon=-87.95956&z=1
Becomes: 43.04588,-87.95956 (Important - don't forget the
"-" if there is one).
Now, you use Google Maps to locate a business, such as Pizza, if you are
hungry after a tour at Harley-Davision HQ in
You can download the BBMaps
guide here.
New features coming in the
version for the 8800 include the ability to search for POI's, bookmark
locations, and the following views.
I will update this page if they materialize. BBMaps version 1.1.32 does not have
these features and that is what is on the 8800. This is so even though the manual says
the following features should be present.
Map view:
You can view maps, location markers,
routes, and points of interest.
Directions Dashboard view:
You can view location
markers, routes, text directions, and points of interest. You can also
highlight and move between directions.
Directions List view:
You can view a list of all
text directions.
Locations List view:
You can view a list of
location markers and location information.
Locations Map view:
You can view routes, location
markers, and points of interest on a map.
Navigation Dashboard view:
You can track your movement
and view routes, location markers, and points of interest. You can also view
other navigational
information such as upcoming streets, your speed, and your
compass direction.
Navigation Map view:
You can track your movement
and view routes, location markers, and points of interest.
If you don't like BB Maps, go
into Options,>Advanced Options>Applications, and then delete LBS. You will also need to delete the
following modules, and then do a hard reboot:
The four modules are:
net_rim_bb_lbs
net_rim_bb_lbs_api
net_rim_bb_lbs_int
net_rim_bb_lbs_res
________________________________________________________________________________________
Google
Maps - Keep this Application Handy
Google Maps is a great program for finding points of interest and
locations and seeing detailed maps.
You can also see a satellite view and navigation is a breeze. You can search for a business, and call
one too directly from the application.
You can also find locations.
When you find a business you can obtain directions to and from your
business or location, and save it as a favorite spot. For some places you get a detail screen
that you can access by holding down ALT and rolling the Trackwheel. With version 1.5.1 you can use GPS to
find your current location (just push 0) and search for businesses at that
location. After you start the
application if the GPS is on it will automatically update your location. See the screen shots with the red around
them.
Mark a favorite with a star
and return to it easily by pressing *. Your favorites are stored on your
BB in something called the Content Store, so be sure to do backups with Desktop
Manager. Press # to see
traffic information and call a business you have found. Zooming in and out is easy with the I
and O keys, and moving around is also easy. U is up, J is down, H is left and K is
right, all on my 8700 of course.
Below is a screen shot of traffic on the SF Bay Bride and a satellite
view of the SF Wharf.
Routing shows you your start
and end point in green and red and you push numbers to advance and get turn
directions. In areas where there is
traffic information you get the traffic delay in minutes too. Pushing 1 and 3 moves you to the
previous or next direction. You can
overlay traffic too and your route is shown in purple.
Since Google is using NAVTEQ
they have an extensive database of businesses and locations. If you are going to use Wayfinder below
because you like the onetime fee, you need to have a good mastery of Google
Maps too. The About screen in the
Help menu has some interesting info like data used and the version. I recommend that people read the help
sections.
If you are having problems
connecting (usually if you are not on BES - corporate servers), make sure you
can otherwise connect to the internet (sometimes you have enter TCP and APN
settings), and try resetting your firewall for Google. Options>Advanced
Options>Applications>Google Maps>Edit Permissions>Reset Firewall
Prompts
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Wayfinder
- Great in
Wayfinder is
a great program for driving directions and points of interest. I really like this application and it
far exceeded my expectations in terms of usability. I found it easy to use with plenty of
detail and great accuracy.
When you start it up, you see
the following screen with the options menu if you click the Trackwheel. The choices are Find, Route Planner,
Show Map, Close-2-you, Favorites, Options and Services.
You can see your current
satellite information if you are wondering about your GPS coverage.
If you choose Find ("the magnifying glass"), then you can find
items by address, company, category or directory (Eniro is a leading directory for the
Scandinavian countries only).
Wayfinder is a Swedish company.
They hope to add a
You can also use Wayfinder to find places that are
Close-2-You by either using your GPS position, the find tool, your favorites,
or a position on the map.
You can save favorites for
use in routing and discover details.
From the favorite menu you can select one and set it as the start or
destination and other choices as shown in the menu below. The synchronize feature allows you to
enter favorites on your PC at your Wayfinder
account and then they are added to your application when you start it up. This is a nice feature for planning a
trip.
The heart of the application
is the Route Planner where you get your driving directions. You have four icons to choose from: graphical turn by turn, the navigation
map, the route on the map, and the detailed route description. The Route Planner main screen shows the
estimated time and the distance for the entire trip. That is the total estimated time and
distance. The time or distance on
the detail screens is usually to the next turn. The four choices are shown below.
The turn by turn map is great
as it shows you the street you are on, your destination street, what your next
two turns are and how close you are to the next turn with the blue bars. Your ETA and speed are shown too. The navigation maps shows where you are
the direction you are pointed along with a close up map of where you are
driving. If you use Wayfinder in
the turn by turn view (they call it the Guide View), or the navigation map view
then as long as you were in an area with internet coverage when you created the
route you will still be routed to the destination if you drive out of a
coverage area. The only problem
would be if you go off track as you then need to be re-routed. The navigation map is drawn by the
application, and can be set to automatically reroute if you are in a network
coverage area.
The route on map screen shows
you the big picture map along with your next turn and the distance to that
turn. There is also a satellite strength
meter. The detailed route
description shows each turn and the description. Note that if the
amounts were less than a mile then meters is used to show the distance. Again the Swedish influence hasn't been
fully adapted to the
The best feature is hit # and you get to
move through these different views.
The Options screen below
includes turning the sound off, certain routing choices shown in part below,
GPS setting and your account communication.
The announcement of upcoming
streets is now adjustable to
bbTracker for Sports
and other Activities
This is going to be a popular little program. The program is great for sports and
other activities. You get three
views right now of your current track, elevation and speed. You can select how often it samples, and
they have plans to add a summary screen that summarizes:
· Total Distance
· Total Elevation
Gain
· Max Speed
· Ave Speed
· Total Time
This trip was below was across the SF Bay. This is a great little
application. Go to the download
page and install it.
http://www.bbtracker.org/wiki/Download
More information can be found
at http://www.bbtacker.org and a BBF
Forum Thread.
After installation, select your options. Pretty straightforward if you ask
me. The only one that really made
me think is the Startup Action- you have choices of Do Nothing, Initialize GPS,
Start New Track and Open Track Screen.
You can see what I chose, as this gives me time to get prepared to take
off, but I am ready to go when I do.
I am using a Blackberry 8800 with built in GPS by the way.
Once you have done this go back to the menu and start your track. The results are below.
Track View - shows coordinates, speed at current point, degree heading,
elevation, total distance, and number of track points. Roll the trackball to view the
points.
Speed View
- shows coordinates, speed at current point, degree heading,
elevation, total distance, and number of track points. Roll the trackball to view the
points.
Elevation View - shows coordinates, speed at current point, degree
heading, elevation, total distance, and number of track points. Roll the trackball to view the
points.
The elevation view was a little problematic as this trip was over the
Bay. I am not sure I ever really
got to -141 feet, as I never had that drowning sensation. I am sure there is a good explanation
for this.
You can export your files to both .gpx and .kml formats for viewing in
GPS programs and Google Earth or Google Maps from a PC. In fact if you save your .kml file to
the web you might even be able to view it on your BB by entering that web
address in the location entry dialog for Google Maps on your BB.
SPOT
for Blackberry - A Geocaching Program
Spot
provides positions information, waypoints, WMS maps, and elevation
information. Spot is
available for $49 for most Blackberries including the 8100. This application is not primarily a driving direction application. This is a mostly a geocaching, hiking
program that can occasionally be used with a street map to show where you
are. The application can center
your current position and will therefore move with you, but it can't really
keep up in a car. It's really for
hiking and other outdoor activities.
Centering your position is similar to BB Maps but no turning directions are provided, and like I said it
can't keep up in the car, and as map will keep trying to update, the screen
will go blank as the needed data isn't pushed from the server fast enough. This can happen when you are moving too
fast or zoom in too much on the map.
However if you are walking you can use either street level maps, or in
more remote areas (that have a cell signal) with maps composed of satellite
photos or topographic maps. Once
cool feature of Spot is that you can
they say you can load any maps that are based on the WMS specification. Spot maintains a list of WMS maps
but I had a hard time getting them to work correctly. In fact their standard maps were not
reliable. I think the best use of Spot's
routing feature is for navigation to a waypoint. Spot
can give you information on the distance, estimate time of arrival and so
on. You can add waypoints/POIs (Point of Interest) to mark you favorite
locations or download them from the internet. They will be visualized on the
map and will show your orientation to wherever you are. You can save .loc files from www.geocaching.com after posting them to
a website. After saving them to a
site, put that site's URL in Spot and
they are imported as a waypoint. Spot can then look up the details of the
cache and then download them to the application. This a great feature for geocachers. To my knowledge, this is the only application
that can be used for geocaching
on a BB. A built-in tracklogger
draws a red line showing where you have been on the map. The Elevation screen
will visualize the elevation profile of your track. On the 8700, you use 2 and 8 key to zoom
by a factor you set by pushing the spacebar to be either 2x, 4x, or 8x. The 5 key toggles between zoom and pan,
and the choice of auto center is set in the global
settings. If auto center is on you
can't pan. If you are panning the
2, 4, 6, and 8 keys are for panning.
Spot 1.4.1
adds the ability to save waypoints and maps to the microSD card for the BB 8100
and 8800. Brief instructions on
maps can be found here.
Here is what it looks like in
action. The icons were added in
version 1.4 and are a nice addition.
Also added in 1.4 was the green indicator that your GPS is locked on and
available.
Menu Screen with choices Position
information screen.
Topo Map in route high zoom Topo
Map in Route lower zoom
The red line is trackback
route, and the blue box is the current position. The shots above are with the Terraserver
Topo map and I found that one to be the most consistent of the choices.
Version 1.4 added some nice
features, including the menus items seen below. You can also see the green ball in the
upper left that indicates you are getting a GPS signal. The ball is red if there is no
signal. Note that the new menu
items let you choose a zoom level and some standard maps. These are nice but are not
consistent. For example the Topo 1
map you see above would not load at the Zoom: Street Level so you had to go to
the City level then zoom in as explained above. If the maps don't load you get the WMS
error seen below. I always got a
WMS error on Topo 2 and sometimes on the Street Level map too.
The Layer manager allows you
to choose what you will see. In the
Topo map example above, I have the red line (Tracklog) showing plus the
Waypoints (there were none saved from this view), and scale info which you can
see in the lower left of the screen shots above. The WMS choice screen is shown above
right from version 1.3 (in 1.4 you get US Street Level as a choice instead
too), and the screen shots above are with the Terraserver Topo map. You can see the US Street Level examples
in the menu shots above. Note that
I never did successfully use a custom WMS map. The geographynetwork choice shows street
level maps. Changing the options
requires a lot of Trackwheel clicking which as many of you know isn't my
favorite thing to do.
The Waypoints menu lets you
add new ones, import them from the web and assign categories. If I deleted a category and still had a
Waypoint in that category I got a warning message. I did have some java errors trying to
use categories. The Browse Waypoints screen shows you all of your waypoints but
you can't really display the list by categories so I am not sure how useful
they are. The Route to screen is
useful in directing you to your waypoint.
I am going to give this a try geocaching.
The Browse Waypoints menu
shows ones that I saved from the Waypoints menu above. The second one is from www.geocaching.com.
These shots show elevation
and the satellite positions and strength.
For whatever reason, the ferry boat seems to be underwater at a negative
elevation. I am not sure what
is happening but it seems like the elevation readings are off a 100 feet or
so.
Here are the Global Settings
choices and the Settings menu. You
can change your key configurations and reconnect to your BT from these
settings.
So SPOT is really the only
program out there for hiking (assuming you have signal) and geocaching, but the
program is inconsistent and not reliable, and there for I think it's way
overpriced.
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Mapquest
Navigator for Blackberry by Telmap- Currently in Testing for Spring
07
Telmap provides the GUI
interface for Mapquest (an AOL company).
While supposedly only available for Sprint and Nextel subscribers for
9.99 per month after a free trial, these screen shots are courtesy of MrKyoo at
BBF on his T-Mobile 8100
One the distinguishing
features of Telmap is that their navigation system uses a unique technology
called " Route corridor technology", this is
a patented technology they developed to avoid the famous " ping
effect" you get with other apps.
Say you are driving along your route, you make a mistake (or just stop
to get some gas), since other apps only download the information about your
specific route, it has no idea where you are when you make a mistake and need
to re-calculate (ping...), Murphy's law would have it that at this specific
time you would be out of network coverage, on the phone etc.. therefore the system would not be able to recalculate and
you would make another mistake (ping...). What Mapquest does is download a little but
more data (corridor) around your route, that way the program can:
a. Do an automatic re-route
without contacting the server (out of network coverage, on the phone etc.)
b. Recognize IMMEDIATELY when
you make a mistake (try it!)
If you do go out of the
route, it will try to reroute through the server.
I will say that the Night
Mode shot below has a cool factor to it.
