iPhone Nav App Advice Wanted

ajacques · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 08, 2009 Posts: 8

Ive just purchased a ( or an ! ) iPhone, this poll has been of interest as I want to install one of the sat nav programs as soon as possible. From the poll I see the Navigon is well out in front, is there anyone here who can offer a new user a little bit of advice and guidance ?
Other than the UK I will need coverage for what I term near Europe, France. Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, I have a convertible car with a canvas as opposed to metal folding roof, the iphone is mounted to the windscreen with a Griffin Window seat mount.
Any advice and suggestions will be welcomed, if this question is in the wrong area could one of the mods please move it to an appropriate area ?

Darren · Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 3:34 pm Post subject:

ajacques · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 08, 2009 Posts: 8

Thanks, sorry for my mistake, I was hoping for a little advice regarding my choice of program, just basically is there anything out there that I should avoid, I have been reading the various reviews, Tom Tom was a name I recognised but opinions have been divided, with a very expensive cradle being offered through Apple at £99, Navigon was the one at the top of my list but it is not a name I am familiar with but if you say anyone will be suited to my needs and the poll puts Navigon at the top then that looks like it will be the one I purchase.

Darren · Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 4:14 pm Post subject:

Navigon's very good, they are a well known company and you won't be disappointed.
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Darren Griffin

mikealder · Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 5:33 pm Post subject:

With Navigon you get Text To Speech, speed cameras (albeit not the ones supplied by this web site), Lane Guidance, Reality View - The only bit thats missing is the ability to enter full 7 digit postcodes directly within the application but there is a third party app which is cheap that can add this capability to your device. Navigon also provide the best support for the iPOD functionality and overal it just feels better in use than the others IMHO.
TomTom has the IQ Routes feature which is about the only good thing it offers, IGo takes ages to load is rather costly but otherwise its not bad, Sygic is decent but still looks/ feels like a PDA application ported to run on the Apple product, G-Map provides some "Interesting" routes but I wouldn't trust it one bit to provide anything like the optimum route, finally Co-Pilot which is decent for the price but the user interface just doesn't suit me (and I have heard others say the same thing) - difficult to say exactly what is wrong but I just don't get on with it.
In order of personal preference:

1/ Navigon
2/ Sygic
3/ IGo
4/ Co-Pilot
5/ TomTom
6/ G-Map

The above is based upon using each of the applications over quite some time, I tend to swap applications from day to day to see whats different and stay up to speed with each application so if you find a preference list of mine from a week or two ago you might find some of the apps have moved around in the order I like them, but this is based upon real world driving - Mike

ajacques · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 08, 2009 Posts: 8

Thanks for the replies, I have purchased the Navigon European version and all seems well.
My observations,
finding the location and calculating the initial route seems quick,
the app seems to notice and recalculate rapidly if I decide to take an alternative route to the one initially suggested, my Navman would continually nag me for approx 10 miles to perform a U turn before waking up to the fact I was taking a different route.
The voice instructions seem much more polite than the Navman, it is a surprise to hear the word please before being instructed to turn around rather than the abrupt perform a U turn voice of the Navman.
I also downloaded the 7 digit postcode app, for UK use I find it good, I inputted the mother in law's postcode, pressed search, it found the address on Google maps, I clicked on the Navigon button and the pin appeared in exactly the right place, when arriving there it actually told me my destination was on the left, so no excuses for getting ' lost ' ! when making the obligatory visits :-)
Thanks for your help

ajacques · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 08, 2009 Posts: 8

I am still pleased with the accuracy etc of the Navigon, just a question about Reality View Pro, is this something built into the software I have ? is there somewhere I have to switch it on in the options ( cannot see anything ) ? or is it an add on I have to download ?
I get lane assist but but have never seen the Reality View screen, maybe I have not been to any of the locations where it works as I live in a smallish town away from the main motorways.

Darren · Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2009 9:03 pm Post subject:

Reality View will only appear at large motorway junctions. If you haven't driven through any of these then you won't see it unless you demo a route.

Try a route along the M42 across the M6 or M1/M6 in demo mode to see what it looks like?
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Darren Griffin

BigPerk · Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 11:45 am Post subject:

Also check your display options settings (I'm assuming the iPhone Navigon app has them!), as things like RealityView, CityView, etc are all features that can be set on or off.
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David
(Navigon 70 Live, Nuvi 360)

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