ViaMichelin Navigation 4 - a short review

BaggieBoy · Lifetime Member Joined: Apr 13, 2005 Posts: 193

I've been using version 4 (it came shipped as 4.2 to precise) for a couple of days. My history with this product is as a Mapsonic 1.2/1.3 user that upgraded to Navigation 2.5 Europe and then to version 3. Although I had bought the "europe" version of 2.5 I opted to buy the UK only version of 4 on a SD card.

Prior to installation I removed the existing products from both the PDA (Palm Tungsten E) and my laptop. I put the v4 SD card in the PDA and followed the instructions. Installation went without a hitch. I then installed the Windows based software from the supplied CD. Again no problems. After installtion the Mapstore version was now found also be 4.

Fired up the PDA and started Navigation. Went through the various menus and noted there wasn't any major change. Set all my preferences and did a quick couple of tests in demo mode, verfied the "Time to destination" bug is indeed fixed; the times now estimated are what I would expect for journeys I normally do.

Next I added my custom POI file and this worked fine. I then added the Speed Camera database POI files, again no problem. It seems that the icon used can now be larger then the 14x14 limit in the previous version. I used the standard 22x22 versions and they worked OK. Again I checked using demo mode that the speed camera POIs worked as expected.

Yesterday I used it in the car for the first time. One strange thing I noticed is that the units had gone back to KPH, I'm certain I'd set it to MPH the day before. This hasn't happened again but I will keep an eye on it. Selected a custom POI, the old version had an option called "nearby" which has been changed to "GPS Position"; it now doesn't have the same range as it only showed a POI withing a mile or so and not my work location around 40 miles away. Did several journeys during the day and it worked flawlessly. Another "bug" that has been fixed is the one where you power of the PDA without shutting down Navigation, when powered up the time used by Navigation hasn't accounted for the "sleep" period; this now works OK.

The maps seem quite up to date, they have the new configuration of J14 on the M25 with the new sliproads and bridge. The "History" feature seems useful, however I haven't figured out if the "Bypass" feature is useful or not. I haven't tried the Speed Warner feature either biut I can't see it being very useful.

One change that irked me is it now harder to switch from Day to Night mode; when you press the screen instead of having the option directly available you have to press "Display" first to go to a second level screen. Since this is something I do on a daily basis it just means more screen presses which is not welcome.

So in conclusion it works for me. It's a shame I had to pay for features I really don't need just to get bugs fixed but l suspect Michelin won't budge on this (just watch me be wrong on this!). The alternative was to buy some other software package which would have probably cost more in the end.

metroace

BaggieBoy · Lifetime Member Joined: Apr 13, 2005 Posts: 193

[quote="metroace]I experimented with the bypass feature once and thought it was quite clever. How useful it might be in real life I don't know. Surely you would need to know the length of the problem ahead of you in order to make best use of the feature. How often do you know that the queue you are now stuck in is x miles long? You only get that information when you come out of the other end![/quote]

When on the move I use both a Trafficmaster Freeway box and the Orange Traffic Information service. Both give information as to the length of a problem. I'll have to experiment.

BaggieBoy · Lifetime Member Joined: Apr 13, 2005 Posts: 193

I played around with the Speed Warner feature and pretty much decided it is all but useless. I set it to have it warn at 65 MPH on major roads and 80 MPH on motorways. I was a liitle suprised when cruising down the M4 get get a warning at 65, seems it's not really a motorway according to the software!

metroace · Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2005 7:19 am Post subject:

So far, I haven't been able to get the address book link to work (in either direction). I have submitted a question by email to VM customer services but you all know how long that can take to get an answer! I'll be keeping on their case over this.
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BaggieBoy · Lifetime Member Joined: Apr 13, 2005 Posts: 193

I've now discovered that the M4 isn't classed as a motorway east of the M25 according to the Speed Warner feature. This actually makes a bit of sense because the speed is limited after junction 4.

metroace · Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 5:54 pm Post subject:

You're dead right. The speed limit going into town is 60mph from Heathrow and 40mph from the elevated section.

Coming out of town however, the speed limit is 40mph on the elevated section and rises to 70mph once you are back on ground level.

Does the speed warner recognise it as a motorway going out of town from that point?
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martike · Regular Visitor Joined: Aug 02, 2005 Posts: 194

These two new features, speed warnings and bypass, are a bit “gimmicky” and put into the software to look good as selling points. But are they really useful ?

Speed limits can change very quickly at the whim of a local authority, and on parts of very busy motorways like the M25 can change all the time on certain sections. Anyway, is this really something you want from a Sat Nav system ? You already have instruments in your car to tell you how fast you’re travelling.

Maps get out of date as new roads are built and the configurations of old ones change, but how quickly will speed limit data age ?

It’s been mentioned above that the utility of blocking off access to certain roads really does depend on knowing exactly the extent of the problem ahead of you. And in practice, how often does that happen ?

I’m not saying these features are useless, but they really aren’t very useful either. And they certainly don’t make version 4 a significant upgrade.

metroace · Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 7:54 pm Post subject:

Hi Martike

I find myself having to agree with you on that last posting. Both these feature are definitely gimmicky.

However, I do usually have my actual driving speed displayed above my 3D mapping as most vehicles' speedos are notoriously inaccurate.
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chartermarque · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 10, 2005 Posts: 4

Have any of you experimented with the post code find feature that the previous version doesn't handle well at all?

metroace · Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 10:48 pm Post subject:

It doesn't seem to work very well at all.

In VM3, if my postcode was (for example) UB3 3NB (which it isn't), then I could enter UB3 3 and get a hit on the area before choosing a street name to narrow down the search.

In VM4, the same search parameter gets no hits at all. I have to enter just UB3 then the streetname. Of course, in London that could mean total confusion as street names repeat far too often. AND, just to confuse, it thinks UB3 is in the London Borough of Hounslow when in fact it is in the London Borough of Hillingdon.

So, no ... the postcode finder is not so good.
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zinzan · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 03, 2005 Posts: 6

I've found the postcode finder to be quite useless! But other than that i works quite well... I've updated to 4.6, but it says 4.4 when I check the version info so not sure if it is installed correctly.

One thing the new version has done though is make my pda (Zire 72) very unstable - it is difficult to get it to turn on and deactivate the keylock - it seems slow and sluggish in responding, and every now and then it crashes out. I emailed Viamichelin about this issue and had quite an interesting back and forth conversation about it - basically they claim Palm should be able to help me as its not their fault.. (even though the pda is fine without viamichelin on it) I've tried it with nothing else on the pda, and installed it on a tapwave zodiac2 from a different pc and encountered the same instability problems...

here's a synopsis of our discussions.... I eventually had to give up as it was going no where.

After using ViaMichelin 3 I decided to upgrade to 4.6 figuring that the bugs and problems would have been ironed out a bit... mistake. After installing it on the Zire72, said handheld has become slow, unresponsive and prone to crashing/resets. (Almost like a microsoft device). After removal of software it returns to normal. Tried installing it on Tapwave Zodiac2 with similar results - Fatal errors upon power up necessitating resets.
So I contacted Viamichelin support and here's what has happened so far:

The extent of my conversations so far with ViaMichelin Sat Nav support... incidently, they gave me a civility rating of 1 on my original message.. that maybe about to change!

Hi.
I have installed ViaMichelin 4.2 and upgrade to 4.4 then 4.6 on my
Palmone Zire 72 handheld. Whilst the software works fine, I have found thatthe installation has caused my handheld to become unstable. It needs to be reset to power it on, and its response is slow compared to normal. Also, If I use the keylock, it does not repsond when I power the unit on.
Is there a way to fix this problem?

Regards,

Hilton

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your interest in ViaMichelin products and activities.
Could you please check how much free memory you have on your PDA?
Also what operating system and version of it your PDA runs?

Yours faithfully,
Customer Relations Department

Hi,

I have 11MB free memory on pda
Zire 72 running PalmOS 5.28004

Regards,

Hilton.

Dear Sir,

That shouldn't cause any trouble. We would suggest that you contact Palm on the matter.

They can be reached by phone: 020 7867 0108

Yours faithfully,

Customer Relations Department

I'm not sure how Palm could help in this case, as it is the ViaMichelin software that is causing the problem - when I remove it my pda returns to full, correct functionality. I've also installed it on another Palm pda to see if this is the case, and it causes the other device to have a fatal error and require a reset every time the unit is powered on. Given that I used a different computer and different Palm device for the second installation, it is very much likely that it is the ViaMichelin software causing the problem.

Regards,

Hilton.

Dear Sir,

The problem encountered is most likely due to memory problems on the PDA, which is why we suggested you caontacted Palm. Also if your system needs further testing it is Palm that has to be contacted since it is their bundle.

As suggested, it could be the ViaMichelin software that slows down the processes on your PDA, but it is a big program that requires a lot of PDA capacity.

We hope that we have answered your request, and are at your disposal should you have any other suggestions or questions.

Yours faithfully,
Customer Relations Department

As I stated, there is over 11MB memory free on the pda and 300MB free on my SD card. Also, I have performed a hard reset on the device (removes everything and restores device to its native configuration) and then tried a clean install of your software, and the problem rearises. This indictates to me its definitely a problem with your software, especially as I have had similar problems arising when I have installed the same software on another PalmOS handheld.

Dear Sir,

Everything that is loaded onto a PDA takes up both memory and processor power. ViaMichelin is a big program and will as such take up both memory and processor power that can slow your PDA. But also pictures, dosuments, music etc. slows down the PDA.

We therefor recommend that you, when using the PDA for navigation purposes, only have this software installed and then don't have anything else installed or stored on your PDA.
Also would we recommend that you contact Palm in order to see if they know how memory can be freed up, in order improve the speed and stability of you PDA.

We hope that we have answered your request, and are at your disposal should you have any other suggestions or questions.

Yours faithfully,

Customer Relations Department

martike · Regular Visitor Joined: Aug 02, 2005 Posts: 194

metroace · Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 9:23 am Post subject:

My thoughts also. Otherwise I would be carrying a whole host of devices around with me.
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zinzan · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 03, 2005 Posts: 6

Like you, my choice of pda for satnav device was for the added functionality.
Glad I shave my head, otherwise I'd have torn my hair out by now!

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