'iGO My Way 2009' Navigation App Comes to the App Store

[BC2009]

Navigon vs iGo vs TomTom-coming-soon?

How does Navigon and/or iGO handle phone call interruptions and backgrounding
the iPod? I heard that TomTom was suppose to be addressing those things in some innovative way, but that might be for late Summer 2010 for all we know.

I ran Garmin Mobile XT on my Palm Treo for years, I must say it was bad when you
were approaching a crucial interchange and the phone would ring and you would
miss the detailed GPS guidance as to what lane to get in.

TomTom has certainly kept things tight-lipped, but I will likely stick with Google Maps
until all the players have put their cards on the table. I just wish Garmin did not get
the stupid notion to do "NuviFone" and instead made an app for the app store like
they did for Palm Treo, Blackberry, and various other smart phones.

I'm a fan of the accuracy of Navteq maps (which is what Garmin, Navigon, and iGO all use). If I recall, TomTom uses a different map provider and my friends with TomTom units in their cars have complained to me about things too often being out-of-date.

Despite that, TomTom has a track record for best user interfaces for navigation and
for ease-of-use. I'm interested in hearing any recommendations anybody can make
regarding Navigon and iGo.

Thanks in advance.

 

[r6girl]

How useful are 3D maps, as opposed to a real street view, in practice? Do they help you navigate using landmarks or is it mostly just a gimmick?

When you say "real street view" do you mean the 2D view that mimics looking at a paper map? Compared to that, I find 3D maps quite useful since they help me get "in the map" better to see where I need to go when driving. Of course, this is definitely a personal preference thing since my husband hates 3D GPS views, claiming that he spent his whole life up until now looking at paper maps and he's just more comfortable seeing digital maps in that format.

 

[Stargaze]

How does Navigon and/or iGO handle phone call interruptions and backgrounding
the iPod? I heard that TomTom was suppose to be addressing those things in some innovative way, but that might be for late Summer 2010 for all we know.

I ran Garmin Mobile XT on my Palm Treo for years, I must say it was bad when you
were approaching a crucial interchange and the phone would ring and you would
miss the detailed GPS guidance as to what lane to get in.

TomTom has certainly kept things tight-lipped, but I will likely stick with Google Maps
until all the players have put their cards on the table. I just wish Garmin did not get
the stupid notion to do "NuviFone" and instead made an app for the app store like
they did for Palm Treo, Blackberry, and various other smart phones.

I'm a fan of the accuracy of Navteq maps (which is what Garmin, Navigon, and iGO all use). If I recall, TomTom uses a different map provider and my friends with TomTom units in their cars have complained to me about things too often being out-of-date.

Despite that, TomTom has a track record for best user interfaces for navigation and
for ease-of-use. I'm interested in hearing any recommendations anybody can make
regarding Navigon and iGo.

Thanks in advance.

I have to agree I have been a Garmin user and i much perfer those stand alones over the TomTom standalone.. I have seen the TomTom app on a Hp Ipaq and it looked pretty good and the "custom voices" was alot of fun and it did the job rather well so hopefully with pairing with the iPhone that tom tom is doing they have updated their maps..

I belive tomtom also offers the ability for end uesrs to "update" their map tiles to be more accurate not sure how that works but its a pretty innovative idea, it sure beats paying some company or someone in their company to go out and update the tiles and it gives the end user a benifit as well.

 

[FearlessFreep]

Posted this in the App forum as well, but I gotta say there are some intriguing features on this particular app. Worth a visit to http://www.igomyway.com to check it out. I was >< this close to pulling the trigger on Navigon when this got released. Now after reading some information on the app and the engine, this is a possible player as well.

 

[severe]

How useful are 3D maps, as opposed to a real street view, in practice? Do they help you navigate using landmarks or is it mostly just a gimmick?

I agree with r6girl above. I much prefer 3D view, though I occasionally will check 2D to zoom-out and see my progress when I'm really unfamiliar with where I'm going. Navigon makes the option easy to toggle. And I certainly don't find it gimmicky.

 

[m3coolpix]

Looks like 'iGO My Way 2009' is based on the iGO amigo GPS software engine, which is owned by a company called NNG Global Services LLC based in Hanover, Germany.

If you'd like the company history & background, here's a synopsis:

NNG Global Services LLC

Lots of interesting reading while browsing around the site, linking off to some of their other products, and even some Google searches (which found some Chinese software pirates at CeBIT 2009 trying to claim the iGO products were their own!).

 

[optophobia]

What's the deal with navigation apps charing monthly fees? Pfff... I've been using xGPS (free do DL and free to use) from Cydia and they are working on releasing their version on the app store soon.

The other navigation apps don't need a data connection, XGPS does....

 

[jetison]

Another app for Europe and North America.
I'm pretty sure, whoever develops a FULL Latin American version, will hit #1 in seconds.

 

[curly14]

(what's with the checkered flag? LOL) Hopefully, it is revolutionary and awesome and will sell a million copies.


well am going out on a limb here and say maybe that's you final destination position…lol

 

[Macintosh Sauce]

This GPS app looks interesting. I am never going to pay for a subscription for the AT&T one. I pay enough for the AT&T Family Plan I have for my wife and myself. AT&T is nuts if they think people are going to pay $10 a month on top of their already pricey bills.

The question is: How much is it going to cost for map updates after December 2010? I've e-mailed them to ask them this - when I find out I will come back here to post the information.

 

[Macintosh Sauce]

(what's with the checkered flag? LOL) Hopefully, it is revolutionary and awesome and will sell a million copies.


well am going out on a limb here and say maybe that's you final destination position…lol

Correct. This is from the PDF manual...

Checkered flag - Approaching the destination.

BTW, the app looks great from reading the PDF manual.

 

[captmatt]

3d Maps = gimmick

How useful are 3D maps, as opposed to a real street view, in practice? Do they help you navigate using landmarks or is it mostly just a gimmick?

I assume you are talking about the building graphics on the map. Those are a complete gimmick in my opinion. They're on my Garmin and I live in LA where they appear many times--they help not a bit.

Even the photo-realistic lanes aren't helpful--they take longer to interpret than a simple row of arrows with the correct lanes highlighted.

 

[Macintosh Sauce]

Here is the link to their North American web page info...

iGo My Way

 

[Macintosh Sauce]

I assume you are talking about the building graphics on the map. Those are a complete gimmick in my opinion. They're on my Garmin and I live in LA where they appear many times--they help not a bit.

Even the photo-realistic lanes aren't helpful--they take longer to interpret than a simple row of arrows with the correct lanes highlighted.

3D graphics, IMO, are a great help when one is unfamiliar with a city. For people that can think in 3D easily they help immensely.

I compared both programs, Navigon and iGo. iGo wins hands down for all of its features.

 

[severe]

(what's with the checkered flag? LOL) Hopefully, it is revolutionary and awesome and will sell a million copies.


well am going out on a limb here and say maybe that's you final destination position…lol

Not the first time I've seen a checkered flag at the destination. What's so funny?

 

[Tiffy]

Igo Myway / Navigon quick comparison

I just took the time to read the PDF manual of Igo Myway and here are the key differences I can see between these 2 apps :
Igo MyWay :
- Large buttons, easier to manipulate while driving than Navigon's smaller buttons and menus
- Text to speech possible (depending on the voice you choose : either "Natural" voice, without TTS, or synthetic voice, with TTS)
- Photo realistic view of some intersections (Very nice. Useful ?)
- 3D buildings in some cities (Very nice also. Useful ?)
- Automatic switch between daylight/night display

Navigon :
- Possibility to add waypoints
- Radars / Speed Cameras database
- Possibility to hide/show POIs by category

In summary, Igo is more "user friendly" and displays nicer pictures than Navigon but Navigon has more features. To be noted : the provider of the maps is the same (Navteq).

I don't own Mygo so I cannot judge one of the most important thing : the quality of the GPS positionning/sensitivity and the fluidity of the application.

Hope this helps...

 

[pbalogh]

One thing to realize regarding map updates. iGO My Way 2009 is the first onboard navi for iPhone which actually offers free map updates. Sygic does not, and to top that off, they also lock your purchase to the physical hardware, so if you exchange devices, upgrade to a new iPhone, etc, you're at their mercy whether they'll let you move your 100-dollar investment to your new device or not. To my knowledge neither Sygic, nor Navigon includes any free updates, and you can check their websites to see how much they are charging for each quarterly update for their PND software. It's in the range of 40-100 dollars, every quarter, if you want to keep your data updated...
We thought it's essential to provide regular free updates of both SW and maps, even if it increases our costs for the maps significantly from our map provider. This is the right thing to do, and we had to delay our launch of the product to be able to do this.

Cheers,
Peter

ps: Yes, I'm associated with NNG, so I'm biased. But check this topic carefully before making your pick. It's a big difference, imho.

 

[Tiffy]

One thing to realize regarding map updates. iGO My Way 2009 is the first onboard navi for iPhone which actually offers free map updates.

... until December 2010 . but you are right, you are the only one to guarantee that. Navigon does not say anything about future map updates. Maybe they will be free , maybe (more probably) not...

 

[FearlessFreep]

Peter:

Can you clarify a couple of things? Namely how playing your own music is handled within the app as well as text-to-speech. The feature set for IGo MyWay certainly seems impressive.

There is also a thread in the App forum as well: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/758849/ and some input from NNG would be appreciated.

 

[JFreak]

Looks absolutely horrible!

 

[r6girl]

One thing to realize regarding map updates. iGO My Way 2009 is the first onboard navi for iPhone which actually offers free map updates. Sygic does not, and to top that off, they also lock your purchase to the physical hardware, so if you exchange devices, upgrade to a new iPhone, etc, you're at their mercy whether they'll let you move your 100-dollar investment to your new device or not. To my knowledge neither Sygic, nor Navigon includes any free updates, and you can check their websites to see how much they are charging for each quarterly update for their PND software. It's in the range of 40-100 dollars, every quarter, if you want to keep your data updated...
We thought it's essential to provide regular free updates of both SW and maps, even if it increases our costs for the maps significantly from our map provider. This is the right thing to do, and we had to delay our launch of the product to be able to do this.

Cheers,
Peter

ps: Yes, I'm associated with NNG, so I'm biased. But check this topic carefully before making your pick. It's a big difference, imho.

What you say about Sygic is not true for their iPhone app (it may be true for their applications for other smartphone platforms). The iPhone app is purchased just like any other app and is not tied to a specific device - I have it and have installed it on my husband's iPhone since we share an iTunes account in addition to my own iPhone. Sygic has released one app update already that added "12 million POIs" according to the description in the App Store (I have not counted them and am fine taking their word on this) and the description in the App Store indicates they are planning another update to add more features, which will also be free. You are correct that they have not stated explicitly that map updates will not be free in the future, but neither have they said that they won't.

 

[m3coolpix]

After reading through the iGO manual this morning....and being a Navigon user:

I don't see any way in iGO with this release to directly enter an address to navigate to someone who exists in the iPhone contacts database (Navigon already does this). Am I missing this, or will it be included in a software update?

This is a big one for me. Anytime I have a destination to get to, I add it into the iPhone contact list, and this makes it VERY easy and quick to start navigation (no clunky entering). Also, I have found that addresses that may not be searchable/findable in the direct entry method, work just fine when entered as a contact that already exists. Perfect example was yesterday of going to a local Apple store at a mall. Searching for the address was futile, but entering it direct from the contact I added, and Navigon immediately found it and started navigating.

After reading the manual, cover to cover, the only two features that I'd want in Navigon are the text boxes for the street names, and the GPS signal level meter. Other than those, Navigon and iGO look almost identical feature for feature. Navigon just needs a manual (!) to show that the feature set is already there.

 

[bbplayer5]

After reading through the iGO manual this morning....and being a Navigon user:

I don't see any way in iGO with this release to directly enter an address to navigate to someone who exists in the iPhone contacts database (Navigon already does this). Am I missing this, or will it be included in a software update?

This is a big one for me. Anytime I have a destination to get to, I add it into the iPhone contact list, and this makes it VERY easy and quick to start navigation (no clunky entering). Also, I have found that addresses that may not be searchable/findable in the direct entry method, work just fine when entered as a contact that already exists. Perfect example was yesterday of going to a local Apple store at a mall. Searching for the address was futile, but entering it direct from the contact I added, and Navigon immediately found it and started navigating.

After reading the manual, cover to cover, the only two features that I'd want in Navigon are the text boxes for the street names, and the GPS signal level meter. Other than those, Navigon and iGO look almost identical feature for feature. Navigon just needs a manual (!) to show that the feature set is already there.

That makes absolutely no sense. Why not just type it into the navigation software before hand, and just pull it up as a recent search? Why clutter your address book...

 

[m3coolpix]

Perfect example was yesterday of going to a local Apple store at a mall. Searching for the address was futile, but entering it direct from the contact I added, and Navigon immediately found it and started navigating.

That makes absolutely no sense. Why not just type it into the navigation software before hand, and just pull it up as a recent search? Why clutter your address book...

Missed this part of the post?

The address (street name actually) was not found in Navigon. If that was the case, then I'd not have been able to use Navigon at all.

But, I've found a work around for when an address doesn't exist in Navigon.

I go over to the 'Maps' application, search for the destination, add the contact into my Address Book. Then use the Contacts part of Navigon to directly enter that address from the contacts list and it shows up immediately. Takes 20 seconds.

Since I have MobileMe, if I want to, I can delete the address in Contacts, and it disappears off all my devices. No big deal.

 

[lampcov]

How's the POI Database? Extensive? Lacking?

A lot of technical features have been mentioned in the thread, but for day to day use, one of the more important, at least for my wife, is the POI database. G-Map's is abysmal, can't even find a Costco or Lowes near my house. And I'm in Metro Detroit.

If anyone has the app, what's you opinion? Can you find the common locations like Costco, Lowes, Macy's, grocery stores, etc? The ONLY thing I like about the stupid TeleNav is that it uses an internet search to find POIs. I wonder why none of these apps have included a "Seach on line" option and solely rely on on-board data. Surely leveraging the data connection when available to augment the POI database would be a good thing.

Love to hear what your opinions are.

Thanks,
Marc