Destinator 7, any news?

ramsses · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 07, 2006 Posts: 36

The road naming bug seems to be in the underlying map data - the fix I suggest is just a work-around.

Willton: In conversations with Destinator, it might be worth pointing this thread to them as we seem to have unconvered a few interesting bugs.

As regards destinator vs Tomtom vs Igo or whatever, the main thing for me is the TrafficSAM TMC stuff - which only Route66 compares to in the UK (although they use iTIS data rather than TrafficMaster for their data provider). IGo is excellent (you can hack it to pieces and make it whatever your want - I am the author of the AndySK skins for Igo - so I know what can be done!). Tomtom is fast, easy to use and reliable, but somewhat basic and the lack of TMC (I do not wish to pay a fortune for their traffic data and GPRS charges) is a big negative. It is also virtually impossible to do any significant customisation. Both IGo and Tomtom are let down in the UK by their map provider being Teleatlas rather than Navteq like D7, Route 66 and Navigon (although Tomtom PDA can be made to use the Navteq Tomtom Rider maps, this is violation of the EULA). Route 66 always gives the impression of being not quite finished, although is very fast; it also has rather old map data now (2006.Q2). Navigon looks nice, but unless you hack it to bits, it is very slooow, and has no TMC in the UK.

I still have a soft spot for Destinator. Although a bit old fashioned and quirky in places, it actually performs very well in the getting you to your destination reliably and by the best route stakes. The TrafficSAM and new TTS functionality make it better still.

Andy

Quickbeam · Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 1:26 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the quick answers Willton, I think they've retained the bits I liked enough to upgrade to D7.

There is of course no perfect product yet... To me there are maybe 5 or 6 products that if the best bits were incorporated, the perfect sat-nav would exist Laughing

willton · Lifetime Member Joined: Jul 29, 2007 Posts: 150

willton · Lifetime Member Joined: Jul 29, 2007 Posts: 150

After over 3 weeks, a reply from Destinator Support:
thanks for your reply and sorry for the delayed reaction.

As your reporting in extremly detailed and voluminous, we forwarded your e-mail to the department which is responsible for development. Our colleagues at the main office will contact you as soon as possible.

Please notice, that the latest version doesn´t have to contain the same fuctions as the previous versions!

Should you have further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

kind regards
Destinator Technologies GmbH Service Center

With reference to the patronising comment about functionality in new versions, I have written back suggesting that Destinator should make it clear what the product is offering before customers spend any money. Destinator needs to show a comparison chart with all the differences so customers know what to expect.

I have also reverted back to D6 as I am disgusted with D7, and have asked for my money back.

On a lighter note - how is everyone else getting on with it?

efjay · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 03, 2005 Posts: 29

Is there any way to use the newer maps from D7 with PN? I tried D6 and had issues on my Tytn and returned it for a refunt and from first accounts it seems D7 has issues as well. I am back using PN and find it works very well on my XDA Orbit apart from the maps being from 2004. All I need are updated maps and PN would be optimal for me.

TheRock · Regular Visitor Joined: Aug 24, 2005 Posts: 126

PN can use the old maps with 'standard' compression.
Newer D6 maps and the D7 maps do have the new high compression.
For these maps you need D6.1 or higher.

Short answer: PN can not be used with D7 maps.

But in my opinion is D6.1.1 much better than PN and D7 much better than D6.
I would never ever consider to switch back. Smile

_________________
D7
loox n500

willton · Lifetime Member Joined: Jul 29, 2007 Posts: 150

efjay · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 03, 2005 Posts: 29

Thanks for the info, lets hope Destinator addresses all the issues AND gets round to releasing the US version soon.

jbn · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 19, 2006 Posts: 10

I have been using D7 for a couple of weeks since upgrading from D6.

1) I was using on an HTC Hermes under WM6 and I like the fact that the Hermes is supported - audio output via the connector is now OK.
2) I had no problems with TTS but since downgrading the Hermes to WM5 to try to combat a known memory leak that causes grief to D7, I cannot quite get this to work properly. Seems like basic directions are OK but no TTS despite all the right boxes being ticked and I have reinstalled several times.
3) Can anyone PLEASE recommend a basic text editor for the destinator.ini file etc? I have tried various ones and the net effect seems always to be that D7 just ignores the file altogether and appears to create a new one from scratch. Most frustrating!!

many thanks!
Jonathan

ramsses · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 07, 2006 Posts: 36

You must use an editor capable of saving as unicode text. I use ultraedit.

Andy

TheRock · Regular Visitor Joined: Aug 24, 2005 Posts: 126

jbn · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 19, 2006 Posts: 10

Thanks guys. I have found that my enthusiasm for setting USER_ABOUT_SHUTDOWN=0 in the perhaps mistaken belief that it would stop the check Do You REALLY Want To Shut Down? seems to trigger the reset of things. Leaving this line alone seems to keep things quieter.

In the meantime I worked around the TTS problem by going back to WM6. There was no real evidence that WM5 was not having similar memory issues anyway.

Like everyone I too look forward to easier user changes to the set-up. But having used both TomTom and Mapopolis I have to say that D7 really is not bad, and the TTS is particularly decent. Now, if only it would route me over the Forth bridge outside Edinburgh instead of ignoring it................ Very Happy

willton · Lifetime Member Joined: Jul 29, 2007 Posts: 150

Wishing you all a gr8 2008. Here is the final reply from Destinator:

Thank you for your email and your patience.

This is the feedback we got from the technical department:

1) Map Scale
This was the first time, this issue have been reported and the technicians reported it to the developers.

2)TTS Road Numbers in 1,000's
have been forwarded to the developers as well.

3)csv load failure
have been forwarded to the developers as well

4)
The function "map cutting" isn´t offered and there will not come an adjustment for this.

5)uploading maps failure
Is reported already and a patch for the pc portal will solve this. At time we don´t know when a patch will be offered on the website.

6)This is the only report to this item - we don´t know if an update to this item will appear. This could be a hardware(pda or SD card) issue as well. (WT: this was the problem with map redraw delay - other users on other forums have reported this as an issue and resolved it by map cutting)

7)transparent
It wasn´t planned and an adjustment will not come.

9)device stops
This issue didn´t happened during our tests at all. This error has most of the time something to do with the pda and/or SD card. (WT: this was the problem with device hanging on switch on - other users on other forums have reported this as an issue)

11) Click
This Click is intended to be a kind of help for the user, so he can hear, that he hit the button. Of course we can forward your suggestion for improvement. (WT: this can be resolved by the user - rename or delete the click.wav file)

12)POI announcing alert
Destinator 6 alerts only
Destinator 7 with TTS says for example alert gasstation.
We didn´t receive any notification that it doesn´t work in Destinator 7. (WT: this was the problem with non display of the name of the Favourite POI group on proximity - now only voice but only if TTS is switched on)

13)POI
We didn´t receive any notification that it doesn´t work.This issue have been completly revised and it really should be unlimited. How many data sets did you try to import/copy? (WT: this was the problem with unlimited POI's - can other users please attempt to load the full split category Speed Cam files and report back to the forum)

14) As desired by most of the Destinator customers, Destinator decided to remove this option and will not change this back. (WT: this was the problem with U-Turn - you can restore this by editing the ini file)

15) County Option
We apologise for the mistake in the manual.

16)Skins
In the present version the standard skins are offered only. If further skins will be offered in the future isn´t known yet.

17)gives direction and turn
We reported it to the technicians. Their feedback: This was the first and only report to this issue. But of course we will check this as well. Should you have further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

ramsses · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 07, 2006 Posts: 36

I think the TTS stops working as you go into 2008!

Changing the time back on the PDA and it works again!

Andy

If you look in SVOXKEYS.TXT:

E 1 2 2007 CPS 4.0 Destinator Uri 10 31 12 2007
VTXPKEDAYIKEAHRUKSFCBLUPHWRXNFGQWMRKRPXHSLGQWQRTPHOCBLRZOBOWVUVUPPVUOFRZTCJMPXCAVRJUSXUVLGAJRSTV

Hmmm, I think destinator screwed up!

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