{"id":4572,"date":"2011-06-02T17:43:10","date_gmt":"2011-06-02T07:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/?p=4572"},"modified":"2011-06-02T17:45:43","modified_gmt":"2011-06-02T07:45:43","slug":"turn-by-turn-voice-gps-navigation-for-the-iphone-and-ipad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/?p=4572","title":{"rendered":"Turn-by-Turn Voice GPS navigation for the iPhone and iPad"},"content":{"rendered":"

The iPhone and iPad come with a Google Maps app but this does not store maps on the phone and thus is almost useless if you have no internet connection, and does not currently have turn-by-turn voice navigation.<\/p>\n

What one needs is a user friendly, reliable app which works even when there is no internet connection – ie. the maps are all inside the device and you just need to use the device’s GPS capabilities to make it work.<\/p>\n

The Samsung Galaxy has this built in, but not so with the iPhone, but you can buy apps which will do this for you, and do it quite well – although as with all such devices, having the screen on will run your battery down (perhaps within 1 hour of use) unless you have it plugged into a car charger (you will need a 2 amp USB charger for the power hungry iPad).<\/p>\n

Once you have bought the app for the iPhone, you can also download it for free on other iPhones\/iPads on your same Apple iTunes account which does make it a very cheap option indeed.<\/p>\n

A big difference compared to my older Nokia phone which took 15 minutes to initialise your GPS position, these devices use network information and A-GPS technology and you get almost instantaneous initialisation of your GPS position<\/strong> – very nice indeed!<\/p>\n

The 2 main leaders in turn-by-turn voice GPS navigation for the iPhone are Tom Tom<\/strong> and Navigon<\/strong> – both have very good products, although their Australian price of $A89 is a bit pricey compared with $A59 for their US app, but with Tom Tom, you do get the option to buy those gimmicky voices such as Homer Simpson, Darth Vader, etc.<\/p>\n

In Australia, I have discovered another option which seems to work very well, and is an Australian made app and very cheap at under $A20 – the MetroView<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I have been trying out the MetroView in metropolitan Melbourne and it has worked quite well thus far:<\/h3>\n
    \n
  • you can turn the display off and just listen to commands and this will consume battery at a slower rate – mine dropped 6% on the battery meter in 1 hour use.<\/li>\n
  • currently there are 2 voices<\/strong> – both with Aussie accents – one male and one female.<\/li>\n
  • the phone makes a noise when speed limit changes<\/strong> and it seemed quite accurate, including 40kph school zones, and alert you when you exceed speed limits.<\/li>\n
  • it will make a camera click sound when approaching known speed camera<\/strong> or red light camera sites, although it seemed to find a lot more than actually were present.<\/li>\n
  • unlike my old Nokia GPS, you don’t get the “take the 1st exit at the roundabout” but instead “turn left into xxx street at the roundabout” – it will take a bit of getting used to this change.<\/li>\n
  • the estimated time of arrival is fairly good but it seems a bit optimistic even when traffic is light.<\/li>\n
  • it did advise me to go through residential streets with 20kph speed humps all the way to make a short cut but mostly the routes were very sensible.<\/li>\n
  • I would recommend it, and if you decide you don’t like it, well, you haven’t wasted too much money!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The iPhone and iPad come with a Google Maps app but this does not store maps on the phone and thus is almost useless if you have no internet connection, and does not currently have turn-by-turn voice navigation. What one needs is a user friendly, reliable app which works even when there is no internet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[215],"tags":[163,192,217,504,218],"class_list":["post-4572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mobile-phones","tag-gps","tag-ipad","tag-iphone","tag-mobile-phones","tag-navigation"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t