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Best navigation App

D

dblock05

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 30, 2011
4
0
Hey guys, I just wanted your opinion on the best navigation app. We all know that Maps is terrible compared to what Google Navigation.

I know that there is Garmin, TomTom, CoPilot, and a few others. I just wanted to see if people have any preference towards one.

For my usage, I would just like great turn-by-turn voice and be able to calculate the destination quickly along with re-routes.

I would not be using this for traffic so that isn't a concern.

What do you guys use and how do you like it?
 
Really there's only two real options for me:

#1 Waze ***FREE*** (automatically recalculates while driving based on traffic conditions for optimal time, alerts you to police / accidents / slowdowns ahead of you on your route)

#2 Navigon (Data free navigation if you live in the boonies)
 
I've tried Waze and Navigon... Waze can be inaccurate as far as routes go. The $0.99 Garmin onDemand app is AWESOME. It has full feature turn-by-turn for the first month. But then you have to pay like $20 a year for the full service.
 
I've been doing some researching and it seems like there isn't a perfect navigation app, but TomTom and Navigon seem to be the best one.
 
Waze is really good! I would definitely recommend it for free voice turn by turn navigation.
 
ap3604 said:
Really there's only two real options for me:

#1 Waze ***FREE*** (automatically recalculates while driving based on traffic conditions for optimal time, alerts you to police / accidents / slowdowns ahead of you on your route)

#2 Navigon (Data free navigation if you live in the boonies)
Click to expand...

Mapquest4mobile is also a free turn by turn...don't know if it recalculates.

It also has POI's and you can put in 2 points to get directions (like the stock google map app), which I don't see a way to do that in Waze?
 
aztooh said:
Mapquest4mobile is also a free turn by turn...don't know if it recalculates.
Click to expand...

Yup, it does. I used it in a pinch, it wasn't bad for being free.
I bought Navigon and the native maps make all the difference. I travel all over and losing cell signal when your maps rely on it sucks.
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone : Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

TeleNav. It is $10 a year but it does traffic for free and it's maps are not stored on your device wasting space. I have used telenav on other devices before and it's experience on iPhone isn't any different which is a good thing as the service works well.

I think it caches the route so no worries about cell signal. Not sure as I've never been in a situation without signal.
 
I experimented with Waze for the first time last night.

Pros:
Excellent voice turn-by-turn directions. Pronunciations of obscure street names was shockingly perfect.
Great crowdsourcing features for accident/speed trap/etc. reporting
Top-down 45 degree view is excellent and has day/night view modes

Cons: Directions weren't perfect. They got me to my destination but bypassed streets that would've gotten me there faster and in a shorter distance.
 
dontwalkhand said:
Wirelessly posted (iPhone : Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

TeleNav. It is $10 a year but it does traffic for free and it's maps are not stored on your device wasting space. I have used telenav on other devices before and it's experience on iPhone isn't any different which is a good thing as the service works well.

I think it caches the route so no worries about cell signal. Not sure as I've never been in a situation without signal.
Click to expand...

i like telenav as well. i haven't tried any of the others. i used telenav with sprint when it was free. it is a different version - at least it looks different - but i haven't noticed that any functionality is lost. there is a free version but it doesn't include voice prompts.

i used telenav a ton when i drove from jackson hole to canada over the summer. there were places in WY where there was no gps and so the map wouldn't refresh but it still told you where to go. and then I also used it in Canada. i was a little more worried about this because data costs so much when you're roaming, so i would just search for the place, let it map the route and then turn off my data.

i've been happy with it.
 
As I've said before, I'm actually baffled as to why more people don't recommend Skobble GPS Nav 2. It's a $0.99 one time cost voice-directed turn-by-turn that looks, in my opinion, much better and cleaner than Waze. And it has downloadable maps for spots without data for $3.99 more. It has good music integration, auto-corrects routes, etc. I just really think it's terrific.
 
I use Metroview here, but TomTom comes a close second. Both have good and bad points, but in the end they both get me to where I need to be
 
I've used TomTom for a couple of years and Navigon for a while too. I like TomTom the best.

I tried Waze the other day because I heard so much buzz about it. It looks nice aside from not having the on-board maps. But the worst part of it were the directions. I had it plan a 90 mile route for me and I would never have gone the way it suggested. Just absurd. TomTom's IQ routes alone made it well worth the cost.
 
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