Navigon brings MobileNavigator to iPhone's App Store, we go hands-on
By Darren Murph 
posted Jul 22nd 2009 2:06PM
posted Jul 22nd 2009 2:06PM
While the program definitely takes up a good chunk of your internal storage, the onboard approach is highly preferable in our eyes. Maps don't have to load over the air, and there's no recurring charge to grate your nerves. As with Navigon's standalone units, this app includes Reality View Pro, Lane Assistant Pro, Speed Assistant and Day & Night Mode. As expected, users can establish a Home address, setup favorite addresses, access nearby POIs and get from point A to point B via voice guided, turn-by-turn directions. The app also takes full advantage of the iPhone' accelerometer, switching from horizontal to vertical mode as soon as you flip the phone. There's even support for multitouch zooming, and while it'll typically run iPhone OS 3.0 users $99.99, Navigon is offering it up for just $69.99 until August 15th.
We managed to snag a copy of the software this morning, and by and large, we're impressed. One beef we had right away, however, was the apparent lack of real-time traffic updates, particularly since it's available gratis on its dedicated PNDs. Our iPhone 3G did take an annoyingly long time (a few seconds -- we're just hard to please) to recognize inputs when searching for states, cities and street numbers, but once it chugged through that grueling process, everything else sped along just fine. The POI menu was dead simple to navigate, and the switching from horizontal to vertical mode was as quick as we've seen in any app -- even compared to those that Apple includes on the phone. The lady telling us where to turn was loud and easy to understand, and the fantastic routing options let us avoid tolls / ferries and even interject a few stops along the way. We'd still recommend carrying around a car charger for your phone if you really plan on using this as a dedicated navigator (it drains the battery fairly quickly), and just remember -- without support for background apps, every phone call you receive will take your nav offline. Thanks, Apple.
Intriguing, but I'm still waiting for TomTom. I read about them recently and the car kit adds additional GPS recievers for better accuracy and it also charges at the same time.
"without support for background apps, every phone call you receive will take your nav offline"
Dam Apple, take care of this will you???
Apple: Hell No mothersucker.
The lack of traffic is a real deal breaker for me. Other than that this app looks pretty solid.
From the Navigon FAQ ( http://tinyurl.com/n4h8jz )
Is it possible to update the map material for the iPhone?
Answer:
At the moment, the software has the newest NAVTEQ maps available. Questions concerning map updates will be answered at a later time.
Hmmmm, so it's static data that has not been determined (or announced) how the corrections/updates will be handled... That'd be nice to know now.
when you receive a phone call and restart the app, will it udpate your location for your destination or do you have to input everything all over again?
From what I've seen of the AT&T app the software will pickup where it left off.
I really wish they had a trial for this software. I don't like the AT&T app. It just did not perform very well. Out of a dozen places that I asked the ATT app to navigate to, half were not even close.
Now considering that ATT is getting their map data from the same place I have to wonder if this is any better. I think I'm going to sit this one out and wait for the TomTom app to come out.
I have this app on my 3GS and its fantastic. There was a special $20 off in August and bought it for $69.99. Can't wait to put in the new update. It will resume the navigation as entered last.
Anyone have a POI count for the north america maps? 1.3 GB seems low.
Yea sorry apple nav on a device that cant multitask is a FAIL... freakin dumb phones multitask nowadays lmao.. Nav on my touch pro works great tho
Hmm, don't know if this is worth it. At $70, it's OK, but there are a lot of drawbacks, not least of which is the lack of Multi-tasking, and the nebulous map updates. At $100 it is getting awful close to the price of many dedicated Nav units. Got a Sanyo EasyStreet for that at RadioShack a bit ago, with a lot of features, and you can find Mios for that all the time. Being a GPS addict though, guess I'll have to bite, and add it to the collection.
Openstreetmaps anyone?
Android has http://wiki.andnav.org/
Think it's unlikely? Yahoo has committed to making all their map data open content by 2010.
1) Traffic- Please name me ONE official GPS program in the US on any platform that real time traffic? None. Not Tomtom, not Garmin, not this program on ANY platform. Ive used all these on WM and other platforms and theres no traffic except their PNDs and Igo which ISNT an official US version you can purchase. Let's not blame the iphone or Navigon, its just the trend
2) multitasking- just freaking jailbreak it takes a whole 5 min tops and is literally fool-proof. Then you can use backgrounder and multitask. Easy as pie to correct instead of whine like iphone hater babies
and thats ON BOARD gps programs stored on your memory/card), not ones that use data for the maps like carrier Telenav or what not.
Ok how about this, at least have some form of traffic, TomTom 7 on my Tilt had this, that's all this needs and it would be pretty damn attractive.
Umm, Garmin Mobile XT also does traffic on my At&t Fuze. Granted, it doesn't check traffic except when you first plan your route, but that's better than nothing. You can always get out of your route and plan it again from Recent Finds so it'll check traffic again. Not to mention you can check Fuel Prices, search Google Local for POIs, and much more from within the app.