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Navigon Demonstrates GPS Navigation Multitasking in iOS 4

finalcut said:
there should have an option to mute the nav voice then.
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you do have an option to mute the nav voice. it's called sticking with version 1.5 and not upgrading. For the rest of us who appreciate the option to do one, both, or neither, we'll take it.

never truer words spoken than the phrase 'can't please everyone.'

sheesh.
 
also, just saw this Tweet from Navigon:

"With our multitasking support in update 1.6.0 it will be possible to switch back to the map view while taking a phone call #iOS4"

Which should make it a little less confusing for some of you..

although at this point, you are loking at a screen, listening to a voice give you instructions, carrying on a conversation and operating a deadly machine..while I applaud the feature, I think we are headed for a time where navigation apps will have to disable this feature, as it's clearly been proven [article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/technology/07brain.html] that our brains just dont have the capacity to process this amount of information all at once.
 
Navigon on Display

To those of you who are saying Navigon should remain the primary application, this is already possible. While it will not happen automatically (until Apple allows something like that), once you've accepted a call, you can double-tap the home button to bring up the multitasking menu and return to Navigon with the green-bar at the top to return to your phone call. I have installed iOS 4.0 on my iPhone 3GS and phone calls can be sent to the background, just like in 3.0 if you taped the home screen during the call you could pull up whatever other application you wanted to.
 
This is nice and all, but I still can't switch between apps while using a chat client and NOT get disconnected. **** is that so much to ask for? :apple:
 
Background the Phone Call, not the app

What I really want is to background answer the phone call and not the app. I want an option to answer a phone call without going to the phone app. For example, if I have my Bluetooth headset in I want to be able to answer without ever leaving the app I am in.

So when an incoming call comes in I want three options:

1) Ignore
2) Answer and Stay
3) Answer and Switch

I can always get to the phone app through the green bar at the top to "return to phone call".

BTW... I keep voice guidance off usually but would love it if Navigon would give me an audio tone to get my attention when a turn was coming up so I could glance at the map.
 
WiiDSmoker said:
Don't be dumb. How else would it alert you when you're on the phone? You would be the exact same person who would complain if it didn't alert you and you miss your turn. It's the disadvantage of using a all in one device.
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On Windows Mobile phones, onboard navigation programs like TomTom handled taking calls five years ago in this way:

When a call comes in, you get a prompt. Tap to take the call.

You then continue with the call (or even start other programs). Any turn instructions are overlaid in a navigation banner across the top of the screen.

Sandboxed apps like the iPhone has, can't do things like that though.
 
spyda said:
This is nice and all, but I still can't switch between apps while using a chat client and NOT get disconnected. **** is that so much to ask for? :apple:
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I take it you're not using something like Beejive which maintains your connection for a week at a time?
 
Rot'nApple said:
Looks like Apple has more "Multi-Taskin'" to do! :D

So, I am sure you always turned the radio off when you received a call, not to mention, you asked your fellow passengers to 'shut up'... :rolleyes:
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Seriously...yes and yes, but not 'shut up' - a little more polite to my kids, 'be quiet'.
 
BC2009 said:
What I really want is to background answer the phone call and not the app. I want an option to answer a phone call without going to the phone app. For example, if I have my Bluetooth headset in I want to be able to answer without ever leaving the app I am in.

So when an incoming call comes in I want three options:

1) Ignore
2) Answer and Stay
3) Answer and Switch

I can always get to the phone app through the green bar at the top to "return to phone call".

BTW... I keep voice guidance off usually but would love it if Navigon would give me an audio tone to get my attention when a turn was coming up so I could glance at the map.
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It seems even easier than that to me. Why would you ever want to switch? When receiving a call, you rarely use any of the functions of the phone app (keyboard, mute, etc.) . You may use these frequently when making a call, but it seems far more rare when receiving.

It seems like the default behavior should be to stay in your app, with a quick way to switch back to the phone app if necessary after the fact.

In any case, GPS talking directions over a call seems natural to me. If you were using two devices, that's exactly what you'd get. The alternative is what? Miss your turn?
 
Sooo If she can hear the turn by turn... does that mean music too or baseball games?? .like if pandora were running in the BG.. or I could broadcast some MLB games to my bro over the phone lol..
 
Anyone know other apps that are currently making use of multi-tasking ? Dropbox is the only one I have installed now, but really can't figure out what other ones support it.
 
Advance The Man said:
Video shows receiving a call and the navigation voice keeps talking (annoying) and he says "isn't that cool?". Well no, it's not - it's annoying. How can you hear your phone conversation when you have Mrs. Robot speaking "turn left ahead".
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That's in part because because Navigon didn't think to have a button to repeat the last voice instruction. It's frustrating as heck on the iPhone 3G, which doesn't seem to have enough power to run Navigon without glitches. More often than not, you get partial instructions and then the audio cuts-out, and there's no way to repeat the instructions.

I hope Navigon fixes this in the next update. As well, I hope they do something about the horrible overhead the UI incurs, apparently due to some emulation or adaptation layer(s). (I thought Apple didn't allow emulation?) It takes several seconds to respond to a keystroke on an iPhone 3G. (It's fine on iPad, but I'm sure it's still sucking battery.)
 
It's funny how when the iPhone didn't have multitasking and the first turn-by-turn apps appeared, everbody was complaining how this is a complete fail because navigation was stopping when you received a call. Now that exactly this is working thanks to multitasking, everybody is complaining how it is so very annoying when the navigation continues when you receive a call.

WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT???? And what the hell do you do when you receive a phone call and your dedicated navigation device is still giving you directions? That's the exact same situation!

If you can't concentrate on two things, then EITHER navigate OR make a phone call, but not both at the same time.
 
Wow, people complain that they can't get directions while in a call, then you give them that and they complain that the voice gives them directions during a call?

The only time it would be annoying is if you are navigating some downtown city streets and making lots of turns, then you get a call.

If I were on a freeway on a call I would rather hear the voice in the background say, "Take the next exit" rather then driving past it and having to backtrack.
 
blizaine said:
the real question is, what happens when you are listening to Pandora, using NAV, you get a call, and Farmville tells you your crops are done, all the same time. I don't know if I can handle wielding this much power!
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Haha you gave me the laugh of the day, and I had a really bad day, thanks for that!
 
Looks okay, but also looks like something I've been doing for six months now on my Nexus One. ;)

The way it's implemented in Android, the voice still talks during the call, but the person on the other end doesn't seem to hear it.
 
DaveF said:
However, with an integrated device, the phone call takes over and the GPS is no longer displayed. Perhaps it is possible to "multitask" the phone call, so it's in the background and the GPS is on screen.
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Good point. But when you're having a phone call on the iPhone, just press the home button and launch any app and you'll have this green "phone call bar" at the top of the screen. This worked since the 1st gen iPhone. So basically: Receive phone call -> phone call & turn-by-turn directions overlap. If you get the feeling the call will take longer, just double-press home and launch Navigon again and voila you'll see where you are going. No problem here.
 
this is such a bad implementation! I would rather have the call running in the background and still be able to see the navigation than the other way around.

And the guy, isn't it cool to hear navigation whilst on the phone??? Is he crazy? Not only that you can't focus on the conversation but you won't focus on the navigation either. And how annoying for the person calling you :((

Thanks but no thanks
 
cg0def said:
It's cool that you can finally take a call while using the GPS but navigon should stay in the foreground the call should go in the background. I am not sure if that is achievable simply with API calls though. Oh and for all of those saying that this is annoying get over yourselves. In most cases you are likely to say can I call you back later to the person at the other end so this is a perfect solution (provided that it actually continues to show visual directions as well). I suppose Navigon could allow you to use the phone feature while using the navigation and mute the voice alerts but then again Apple doesn't give you access to absolutely every feature of the phone so this is most likely a needed compromise.
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I don't know of any (public) API calls that can bring your app to the front during a call or at all for that matter. But, the user can press the home button and launch/switch to any app he likes during a call - this was working since the very first iPhone.
 
zMudvayne said:
heavy-accent man too-close to a microphone, plus an AT&T phone call on SPEAKER
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With Navigon being a German company, this most likely is a German, and since the iPhone reads "Telekom.de" instead of "AT&T" it also clearly was NOT an AT&T phone call.
 
Gloor said:
And the guy, isn't it cool to hear navigation whilst on the phone??? Is he crazy? Not only that you can't focus on the conversation but you won't focus on the navigation either. And how annoying for the person calling you :((
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Well, then I'd suggest you just don't pick up the call or pull over during the call!
 
Small White Car said:
You've never used a stand-alone GPS at the same time as a cell phone?

Most people I know were never confused by that.
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People's complaints on this are being ridiculous.

As someone else mentioned they undoubtedly were the same one's complaining before about not being able to do both at the same time.

The weird thing is I suspect some of them might not even have a license to drive a motor vehicle thus negating this being a problem for them altogether.
 
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