Practically all summer, the buzz surrounding TomTom's
forthcoming iPhone GPS app was near deafening. But said noise apparently didn't penetrate the labs at
Navigon, as that very outfit has produced what's easily the most full-featured option on the market today. Just a week after
updating the
already-great app with text-to-speech, iPod controls and location sharing, the company is now proclaiming that live traffic will splash down in October (at least in North America). The update will enable the software to utilize real-time speed data from drivers currently en route as well as historical information in order to alert you of slow-downs and re-route you when necessary. We've personally seen live traffic functions fail more often than not, but we're giving Navigon the benefit of the doubt here until we can test it ourselves. Best of all, it'll only cost MobileNavigator users (priced at $89.99) a one-time fee of $24.99 for lifetime traffic, and if you snag it within the first four weeks after it goes on sale, that rate drops to $19.99. So, TomTom -- what now?
posted September 17th 2009 9:12AM
TomTom blows
Who needs TomTom's overpriced mount with GPS and speakers?? Guess what, my iPhone 3GS already has GPS and I have never had any GPS reception issues with Navigon. And also, my iPhone is already connected via line out to my car speakers.
I love Navigon's software-only approach. It works great with my 3GS in and out of my car. TomTom can take its overprice mount and stick it.
"TomTom's overpriced mount"
This statement would be easier to accept with confirmation of the price of the TomTom mount. However, I disagree with the thrust of your argument that a mount is not necessary. I think one is almost vital but whether it has to be TomTom's or another solution is open to debate.
They announced a mount just like TomTom's a couple of weeks ago. Who wants to be it will be released before TomTom's model?
Ummm...what?
It looks nice, but doesn't have the features of the tomtom mount. I wish tomtom had the better app because the built-in iphone GPS and speaker suck. Handsfree calling is a big plus as well.
The Navigon mount is just a hunk of plastic that suctions to the Windshield. The Tom Tom mount does much more. They plan to release subsequent one that's more like the Tom Tom mount but who knows when that will be. The Tom Tom mount will be available next month.
Am I the only person who thinks an expensive mount is a liability? I can leave $20 mount in a car without much worry, but leaving a GPS cradle is almost as bad as leaving a PND on dash. I'd prefer a GPS receiver with bluetooth connectivity or a dongle that can pair up with iPhone.
I was considering getting the TomTom app...but at 100 bucks I'm not sure it's worth it. If I got one now I would get Navigon, but I'm still not sure it's worth it. For a little bit more I could get a dedicated GPS unit. This would prevent me from draining my battery (though since it's an iPhone it will drain fast anyways), and will extend the life of my phone battery since I wouldn't have it constantly plugged into a cigarette lighter. It also wouldn't be taking up 1GB+ of my phone's memory. I'm just not sure these app navigators are worth it.
Ecspecially AT&Ts. They are advertising it heavily but there is no way they are getting another 10 bucks from me every month.
To me they are very worth it. Sure you could buy a dedicated unit but they wont have software updates, will likely be of average build quality and who the hell wants to juggle 20 devices. Im a BIG believer in reducing cords so one less device means one less car charger and one less ac adapter.
For the app size its where living in a country like Australia really wins. Our nav apps are only 250mb. i have games bigger than that.
AT&T bit i def. agree with.
I have the Navigon and Tom Tom apps and Tom Tom wins out with a more natural UI and more standard maps. Navigon wins out in features though. I will be buying the car adapter when it comes out, ive read it can be used with any nav app not just tom tom.
Oh and why no love for Sygic Engadget?
1. You'll never get your GPS stolen from your car cause you'll likely bring it your iPhone with you when you leave.
2. At up to 32GB of capacity, and probably 64GB by next year (which your app will easily transfer to), it's hard to miss 1.5GB of space.
3. You'll always have your iPhone's battery charged when you leave your vehicle.
4. Less wires and devices hanging about in your car.
5. Same app can be on up to 5 iPhones/iPod touches simultaneously, while AT&T is per device per month.
6. As competitive as the App Store is, you'll likely receive more and faster updates than with a dedicated device. GPS manufacturers would rather sell you a new unit.
The list goes on. Simplify your setup, don't be Batman like I was and have a million separate gadgets.
1. Getting things stolen is a fact of life. Don't leave my GPS unit in my car it won't get stolen.
2. With an 8GB phone that is under contract for another year, I won't be getting a larger capacity one anytime soon.
3. My phone's battery is at higher risk for failure if I have to have it plugged in and charging all the time I'm driving
4. Same amount of wires, the wires for the GPS unit would replace the ones needed to have my phone plugged in all the time. Phone would be in my pocket so I wouldn't see any more devices
5. Why would I have more than one device that I wanted the app to be on? You've been arguing fewer devices and now all of a sudden more?
6. They would rather sell me a new unit, but will they do the same with apps? If they stop making money because of the apps and fewer unit sales they'll probably start charging for updates.
@Jordan: wow you are really dense
1. So you'd rather lug your GPS around as well as your iPhone instead of just your iPhone which you would carry around everywhere anyway?
2. The GPS apps only take up ~1.2GB of space at most. You'd still have plenty of storage space on there. And you must not be serious about storage space or else you wouldn't have bought the lowest capacity phone.
3. The iPhone, like the iPod, uses a lithium ion battery which doesn't suffer the "memory" issues you've experienced with other batteries on things like camcorders and other cell phones. Lithium Ion batteries actually are the opposite - they work better when "topped off" and work poorly when fully discharged, so the iPhone has a relay which kills power to the phone before the battery is 100% drained (so even when the phone says the battery is dead, the battery's not 100% dead).
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/ask-ilounge-5-9-08/
(This one's not your fault, most people don't know this)
4. No additional wires for those of us who already use a car charger is what he meant.
5. Some of us have wives with iPhones of their own.
6. Well Navigon already charges for add-ons - the one this article is about is $20, for example. But you win in the end because you get more features (as opposed to a TomTom, where you have to pay monthly fees or just buy a new unit)
@Schnapple:
Depends where you're going. Going to work? Put the unit in your desk. Going home? Take it inside. Going in a store - well most cars don't get broken into if you don't leave products in plain sight, ever heard of your glove box.
Well, yes, the iPhone uses a Li-on battery, as has any phone manufactured in the last few years. Yes, they don't suffer a memory effect, but, they do suffer when they are left on the charger. Having it plugged in all the time while driving will destroy the battery, just like leaving it on the charger at home hurts it. If you don't have it plugged in we all know the battery will drain quite rapidly, and again, we all know there are limited numbers of charge/discharge cycles
(This one's not your fault, most people don't know this)
Sucks I waited and purchased the TomTom App when it came out... and I am very disappointed in it. Wish i could get a refund.
Tomtom can shove it
You know what would be a good nav app is one that was pay by instance I only drive somewhere I don't know my way about 3 times a year. I would pay 5$ per instance for a free app with turn by turn. Also try the Super Reflex Challenge app, its free and absorbs all of my time.
They are a business that work for profits not you.
There are MANY things which would save us alot of dough if we were only charged when we used them.
Gokivo and AT&T have affordable solutions for your occasional needs. Gokivo's app seems to be well liked, but I have no experience with either.
I've been using G-Maps up until MobileNavigator came out, and I've been thoroughly impressed. It took a while for that GPS to be useful.. but my iphone has reached a new level of usefulness.
Btw, load time on 3GS is helluva lot shorter than on 3G...
Love the fact that it can reroute due to traffic :) .. I tried Navigon a while ago and didn't like their interface, but will have to check their iPhone app. I liked TomTom's POI searching better.
Google Maps has traffic also and its free... doesn't help with the reroute..but its free and you can manually reroute any gps system if you know what traffic is like based on the overview from google maps.
I really wish they would offer a free trial version so we could test out the features. Have it kick us out after, say, 10 minutes, that would give me time to see how it works and how well.
Imagine a Navigon Lite at 1.25GB? That's a hell of a trial download!
There was a Navigon Lite... Showed all of the features except routing. Came out before the full fledged app. I still have it sitting on iTunes ;)
Sprint nav on my palm pre has free traffic, in an already free app, and does reroutes out of traffic.
Just saying.........
Yeah, but what happens when you're driving thru a dead zone.
Who cares, Palm Pre had this free from day one with more features..
Totally agree. its amazing the things some people will pay for on other carriers..
Oh, just bugger off with these daft comments already. We're all *really* excited that you bought a Pre. Would you like a biscuit as a prize or something?
I'm seriously considering getting the Pre, and even I think this comment is just douchy to the extreme.
I know this is a pointless request, but please don't post useless comments like this. It isn't about the original topic, is only tangentially related, and is really just your lame attempt to inject the Pre into a conversation that isn't about the Pre at all. I hate when people do the reverse (i.e. insert the iPhone into a post about the Pre or the iTouch into a post about the Zune HD), and I hate it when you did it too.
Palm has apps now? :D
I'll take 5 useful apps that I use daily over 15,000+ available 'apps' that just take up space....
I think everyone can agree that 5 useful applications are much more desirable than 15,000 useless ones. However, is that the real situation? It's some nice numbers to throw out but I really doubt that it matches reality. There's going to be a lot of crap iPhone applications, that is for sure, but quality will always float to the top.
@ Kelmon, I think you are falling into the trap of trying to use logic with someone who does not care about logic. But, for what it's worth, I agree with you. It isn't a fair comparison to say "since 15,000+ apps on the App Store are crap, they all must be crap," just like it isn't a fair comparison to say "the Pre's App Catalog (or whatever it's called) has so few apps, so it's crap."
I've been doing a lot of research on this (I'm in the market for a new phone very soon, and it has pretty much come down to the iPhone on AT&T and the Pre on Sprint), and there are definitely a lot of quality apps on the App Store along with a whole lot of junk. It is unfortunate that there are so few apps for the Pre right now, it basically means someone like me who is trying to decide has to wonder if the Pre will ever get enough developer support to make the Pre a truly comparable device (which it otherwise is).
@Mikey M. I couldn't care either way to be honest. The more competition the better. Work is slow and I needed some entertainment :)
@Mikey M.
I'm inclined to suggest waiting another 6-months or so, if you can, to see if the Palm WebOS platform takes off or not. At the moment it is too early to really tell. If I had to choose a platform right now then it would be the iPhone simply because it is clearly going places but it is perfectly possible that the WebOS platform will also do well enough. However, if Palm already has applications to do what you want now then there is nothing to stop an immediate purchase. Mind you, it would help if Palm actually gave you the means to browse their current application catalog as I am sure that there must be more than the 12 listed on their website.
With all the nice features of Navigon, I wonder if my $35 spent on CoPilot is justified anymore. CoPilot blurted out their first update, and while appreciative, I get the feeling I'm missing out on something better... I like the live tracking of CoPilot, but I don't use it yet, and I could have used realtime traffic. Should I spend the $110 now?
I had been using the Garmin Mobile XT on my Windows Mobile phone for 2 years and let it rest since I bought the iphone last month. Ended up buying both TomTom and Navigon for the iphone and must say that they both are much behind the Garmin XT.
Primary reasons:
1. Garmin was very stable which both these get 'lost' pretty often
2. Garmin has a built in Google search for POIs along with the 'offline' POI search. Very helpful.
3. Garmin had free live traffic
4. Garmin would lookup gas prices in nearby gas stations and sort it by distance
I wonder what tomtom and to a lesser extent navigon have been thinking while trying to create such a high profile product.
Garmin may be getting set to release an app for the iPhone any day now...
http://gpsobsessed.com/garmin-iphone-app-coming-in-september-nuviphone-in-q4/
Yeah but with Garmin XT don't you pay fees every year for updates and from what I read the traffic wasn't that great. And map updates are far and few between.
0_o
Did you READ the article you posted???
It's a Pilot flight app that mostly concentrates on weather conditions.
*scratches head in confusion*
Umm...I think the Garmin iPhone app is a flight mapping app, not a GPS for your your car.
@rtfmid10t
Don't bet on it. Garmin has a vested interest in the nuvifone with Asus. That said, I am sure that stranger things have happened...
Scott:
Have not had to pay any fees to Garmin.
As for the map updates,it was kind of single click so am not sure of the frequency. I never really had problem of outdated maps and for POI, would primarily use the built in google POI search.
If Garmin is waiting for the nuviphone and thus not launching an app for the iphone then it is a foolish move. Most new mobile phones have GPS and by not actively participating in the market, they are handing over the game to the likes of tomtom and navigon.
If the idea is that Nuviphone will offer a 'better' GPS experience as it USP, then Garmin is a few years behind in their thinking. The GPS functionality can improve but will no longer be the primary reason for someone buying a phone.
Second time I've seen the Garmin app for the iPhone mentioned. And again this is for pilots:
"The app, from Garmin subsidiary Digital Cyclone, is a flight planning effort called Pilot My-Cast that will be coming to the App Store in September for American and Canadian iPhone/iPod Touch owners."
My car has some decent speed. But it doesn't have wings and can't stay airborne for very long.
Yeah I think I will cancel my contract with ATT, pay the ETF and then get a Palm Pre so I can get get free navigation with traffic. Thanks for the idea! Not.
...because you want to pay more for less?
Sounds like a great idea
btw, that stretch of road in Chicago is almost always stop and go traffic. I don't think they need a realtime update to tell that.
Yep, best to just pull off and have yerself a Goose Island
Does Navigon needs some quick cash?
Will they go bankrupt in a week?