TomTom and Navigon Bringing Turn-by-Turn GPS Car Navigation to iPhone

[mschwartz]

FWIW an iPhone/TeleNav 3G demo on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em6GkilVnK0

The guy is of course doing what your not supposed to be doing, which is interacting with the device while driving. Let's see, one hand holding the camera, one hand interacting with the iPhone and the third hand on the wheel...hmmmm....

Anyway, I found it interesting, just to get a real life sense of the performance of the device in doing a POI search and getting the maps and routing downloaded OTA.

 

[JCastro]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em6GkilVnK0

The guy is of course doing what your not supposed to be doing, which is interacting with the device while driving. Let's see, one hand holding the camera, one hand interacting with the iPhone and the third hand on the wheel...hmmmm....

Anyway, I found it interesting, just to get a real life sense of the performance of the device in doing a POI search and getting the maps and routing downloaded OTA.

Actually it looks like he is using his left hand to operate it and radio looks to be on the left as well. To me it appears as if he is in the passenger seat.

I just downloaded this AT&T Nav. reluctantly. I will just cancel the service when something better comes along. Come on Tomtom!

 

[mschwartz]

Actually it looks like he is using his left hand to operate it and radio looks to be on the left as well. To me it appears as if he is in the passenger seat.

I just downloaded this AT&T Nav. reluctantly. I will just cancel the service when something better comes along. Come on Tomtom!

It looks to me like the iPhone is mounted to something on the center console, so he is in the driver seat to the left of the phone. The smoother passenger side of the dash (probably for an air bag) can be seen to the right of the phone.

BTW, I just checked the Edge version of the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_k4Vu_j-Ebg

in which he mentions that he is not driving. Note that the Edge version is, as expected, notably slower. In fact, he gives up on it. He mentions that when he moved to a 3G zone, he would stop, so the shaking of the image is not from road vibration, but just his hand shaking.

It looks like if you are typically in a 3G area (which I tend to be in), this app works fine. But if you tend to be in Edge or non-service areas, this is not going to serve you well. You would want an app that is not dependent upon cell service, but only the GPS signal.

In either case, let us know what you think of the TeleNav app. I also wonder if the app will shift to a landscape orientation if the iPhone is rotated 90 degrees as other apps will now do.

 

[tivoboy]

not moving

It also looks like he is not moving.

 

[mschwartz]

It also looks like he is not moving.

Yep...guess I was focusing on other things and in my peripheral vision was noting the slight movement of the car icon on the screen.

Now that I look at it and see that he is "only" 0.4 miles from the pizza joint, it becomes clear that he is stationary...supported of course by his comments on the Edge version.

As my daughter would say, "Daddy, you are not being very observative"...

;-)