Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Turn-By-Turn iPhone GPS App Already Available in iTunes
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
These apps will never make it.
1) The iPhone GPS Antenna just plain sucks. Period.
2) Try driving with this type of app on for 30min and feel how hot the back of your phone is? Can you say, "reduced longevity?" I can. A power supply is mandatory, unless your going around downtown.
Maybe the iPhone will be up to this task by the 4th or 5th generation.
My Garmin ain't goin anywhere for a LONG time.
Fortunately you can power it from your car.
Potential Killer App
I have been using G-Map East since it was released. The update on Feb. 7 cured the early problems and it truly is the only turn-by-turn driving application on iTunes at this time. Only the addition of voice prompts will be needed to complete it. The application uses NavTeq maps and works as advertised plus there is a quick start guide and users guide on the Xroad website
I have been using G-Map East since it was released. The update on Feb. 7 cured the early problems and it truly is the only turn-by-turn driving application on iTunes at this time. Only the addition of voice prompts will be needed to complete it. The application uses NavTeq maps and works as advertised plus there is a quick start guide and users guide on the Xroad website
These apps will never make it.
1) The iPhone GPS Antenna just plain sucks. Period.
2) Try driving with this type of app on for 30min and feel how hot the back of your phone is? Can you say, "reduced longevity?" I can. A power supply is mandatory, unless your going around downtown.
Maybe the iPhone will be up to this task by the 4th or 5th generation.
My Garmin ain't goin anywhere for a LONG time.
The GPS antenna is pretty weak, yes. It seems every time it rains, I have trouble getting my location.
That being said, the battery life on the iPhone is already crap, and a vehicular power supply is basically a necessity so that one doesn't need to keep their phone tethered to a computer CONSTANTLY in order to make it through a day. Increased functionality means increased usage - a phone that does all WILL do all.
But you know what? To eliminate clutter in the car, and allow me to hand the TomTom over to the wife (who can't tell north from south, despite being a positively brilliant person) full time, TOTALLY worth 20 bux. Google maps was frustrating me to NO END.
-K
These apps will never make it.
1) The iPhone GPS Antenna just plain sucks. Period.
2) Try driving with this type of app on for 30min and feel how hot the back of your phone is? Can you say, "reduced longevity?" I can. A power supply is mandatory, unless your going around downtown.
Maybe the iPhone will be up to this task by the 4th or 5th generation.
My Garmin ain't goin anywhere for a LONG time.
So why are navigation vendors creating apps and demos then and stating they work well?
Border State
Does anyone live on the border between the east and the west app? I'm thinking about buying it just to see what happens, but would like to save the $20 or $40 if it does not transition from the east map to the west map very well. It sucks living in the midwest.
Does anyone live on the border between the east and the west app? I'm thinking about buying it just to see what happens, but would like to save the $20 or $40 if it does not transition from the east map to the west map very well. It sucks living in the midwest.
Well they wouldn't create a product and then say it's absolute crap, now would they?
To answer a previous question ..... no, I don't believe the settings are saved if a phone call comes in. From my one week experience with this app, it seems that if you exit it (by answering the call), you lose the routing info and have to pretty much start from scratch. But I really haven't had a lot of chances to use it yet. Im sure there's someone here to correct me if I'm mistaken.
Without voice turn-by-turn this is a waste of money. I already use the Maps App to do what this software is doing. The problem is that you have to keep looking at you iPhone to determine when the next turn is coming up. When they finally release an App that has voice turn-by-turn I would happily pay twice as much for it!!
Cheers.
Cheers.
1) Must depend on the environment (buildings, hills), where you mount the phone (should be up high in easy view and with access to the windows) and the design (locations of glass vs. metal) of your car itself--factors which would affect any GPS device. In my car, with the iPhone mounted near the center vents, I get a precise GPS fix nearly 100% of the time. Move it down to a cupholder and reliability would decrease.
2) Lots of people already power their iPhone in the car: for music. A million different accessories allow this. (I use a Griffin lighter-socket adapter myself.)
I already use the iPhone's GPS constantly to track my location while driving. If I'm not in Pandora, I'm in Maps (plus iPod music). It works and it's proven, over the course of months of use. Additional apps to enhance that functionality will be welcome.
It's good that you like your Garmin, but that doesn't mean there's no room for people to choose other options. The reasons I want better iPhone GPS software and NOT a Garmin/other standalone unit:
1. Price. Likely lower for software on a device I already own.
2. Always with me, never left in the car for thieves, nothing else for me to lug around. This is the BIG reason, for me.
3. I already rely in my iPhone for music, and I only have one power outlet!
4. Better interface.
5. Hope for 3G-downloaded supplemental details: aerial imagery etc.
A Garmin would be great too--reason #1: bigger screen. But an iPhone GPS solution makes good sense in its own way.
G-Map is totally different from Maps in every way, shape, and form. I have used G-map for quite a while and don't have to look constantly at the iPhone. I don't believe Maps will do route recalculation, 3D View, Direction up, or many other functions. You should take a look at the G-Map user manual at Xroad.com. It will answer some of your concerns.
These apps will never make it.
1) The iPhone GPS Antenna just plain sucks. Period.
2) Try driving with this type of app on for 30min and feel how hot the back of your phone is? Can you say, "reduced longevity?" I can. A power supply is mandatory, unless your going around downtown. ...
My Garmin ain't goin anywhere for a LONG time.
Heh, this is like me saying that Garmin sucks, because my built-in navigation system is so much better.
People use portable navigation either because it's cheaper, or because they can take it travelling.
The iPhone, with its relatively large screen, would be a perfect GPS device for traveling, since you don't have to lug anything else with you: you have your phone, you have your music, your contacts.... A real GPS would be great, if you find yourself at a place where you need directions, or oversees.
It would be nice to have options: on the WM 6 side, you can have TomTom (functional, but rather tired interface), iGo 8 (best interface in the business, IMO,) Navigon, Garming (interface is ugly) and a few others I can't think of at the moment. You can get maps for most of the world, from different vendors. And most work very nicely.
But NO, the Apple either plans to make you pay for the next-gen upgrade in June/July, or they have a cheap chip inside (think EDGE, when everyone else had 3G), and are afraid of mass complaints.
Frankly, in the past few years Apple has become more evil than the Evil Empire, in the way they lock down consumers (didn't see them at the "universal charger" agreement) and squeeze every dollar before upgrading the line (think BluRay Macs.) In a certain way, they do have a captive audience, and they milk it.
If they had spent a small portion of what they spend suing competing technologies, on pushing development of the iPhone, they probably wouldn't have to worry so much about the "touch" competition.
Just venting. Feel better now.
That's the popular repeated story, but reality is not so simple. You can be sure that every time Apple is flexible and meets their customers' wants (which they frequently are, far better than Microsoft) it will be forgotten, while every time they do something that customers don't want, the most diabolical reasons for it will be invented without evidence. If the universal changer can't do everything (from sync to remote control to video to track info) that an iPhone dock connector can do, then it makes no sense for Apple to drop the dock connector. It then falls to the many iPhone charger makers to make an adapter, which you can be sure they will. And I'm not sure how hesitating on Blu-Ray (do they even make those drives thin enough yet?) has helped Apple make extra money from people.
You can be sure Apple IS pushing development of the iPhone OS, and pushing it in directions customers want, and pushing it FAR faster than Microsoft is advancing Windows Mobile. And spending far more on R&D than on lawsuits. (And Apple isn't the only company suing other companies--other companies frequently sue them, in fact. It's not unusual behavior, I'm afraid.) Apple let themselves get walked on in the past, when Microsoft took a lot of Apple's technology. It's only smart of them to play it more cautiously (selfishly, if you like) this time around.
The Google map does not work that well. I live in NYC, so I only need this as a pedestrian when I go to unfamiliar places like downtown Manhattan or Brooklyn.
Each time I attempt to use the Google map, I never am able to tell which direction I need to head to until I walk a few feet in the wrong direction. One day it was absolutely freezing, and trying to find my way without my gloves just to use my iPhone almost caused my fingers to freeze off. I did however eventually find my way due to the Google maps, but it takes a while.
I have not bought this GPS app due to the price, but I certainly would like to believe that it's better than Google maps. Oh, and $40 isn't the $200+ that a GPS system would be.
I say . . . .
AMEN to that . . .
thank you . . .
That is what I've been doing . . . since my Tom Tom map is Two Years old.
AMEN to that . . .
thank you . . .
That is what I've been doing . . . since my Tom Tom map is Two Years old.
One big reason this is needed!
...many people seem to want to know why this is so important. I'll tell you.
...because it works when there's no cell service. I recently found myself offroading with a car full of people on a very seldom traveled truck trail near Joshua Tree - normally I have my TomTom as well as my phone, but I forgot it in the wife's car. I have a Land Rover Discovery, so no built-in nav system like with the schmancy Rangeys, and LUCKILY had managed to cache enough of a low-rez google map to help me find my way through the maze of official trails and other trails that lead off to people's mining claims. I was in no real danger of getting lost; less than 30 miles from the highway, and I have a great sense of direction (plus, worst come to worst, go downhill, you'll hit something). Point is, if I HADN'T been lucky enough to cache what I did, I'd have been hosed, and I've been in PLENTY of situations where I could have used a GPS map.
...and yes, truck trails are on the maps. Pretty awesome, really. Too bad there's no topo, oh well.
...many people seem to want to know why this is so important. I'll tell you.
...because it works when there's no cell service. I recently found myself offroading with a car full of people on a very seldom traveled truck trail near Joshua Tree - normally I have my TomTom as well as my phone, but I forgot it in the wife's car. I have a Land Rover Discovery, so no built-in nav system like with the schmancy Rangeys, and LUCKILY had managed to cache enough of a low-rez google map to help me find my way through the maze of official trails and other trails that lead off to people's mining claims. I was in no real danger of getting lost; less than 30 miles from the highway, and I have a great sense of direction (plus, worst come to worst, go downhill, you'll hit something). Point is, if I HADN'T been lucky enough to cache what I did, I'd have been hosed, and I've been in PLENTY of situations where I could have used a GPS map.
...and yes, truck trails are on the maps. Pretty awesome, really. Too bad there's no topo, oh well.
Just bought this app, A few things I noticed
1) When you get a phone call, or press the home button for any reason, your route is lost. Which is really frustrating, and I assume will be fixed in the future. In the mean time you can just press "where to" -> "recently found" and reselect your destination, and the route will be recalculated.
2) YES music will play from your ipod while this program is in use.
3) The option to change from "day" to "night" is in the main iphones settings menu, so change it before you start, if its going to get dark. There is an option for "auto", which I guess will change at a certain time.
4) There are 3 options for colors for "day" and "night", you cant preview them, and there is no picture of all of them in the users guide, so the only way to see them is to quit the program go into the iphones main setting, change the color, re-enter g-map, re-find your destination, then see what the colors look like.
5) Every time g-map is started you get the "Caution" warning.
6) To find a destination by address, you automatically get put into the last city you searched (to change this there is a button), then you search the road name, then you search the "house number". To me this seemed counter intuitive at first, as I just typed the whole address into the first typing field I saw. After I realized how it worked though, it works ok.
7) From what I have found so far, I dont see how it displays or if it has traffic. If it does it doesn't appear like google maps. I have it set on "fastest" in the settings though, so its possible its taking this into consideration when planning the route.
8) Just as shown its only a red dot, no arrow, or car icon appears after it determines what direction you are going. I hope they change this. No real need though.
9) I hope they do a little more work on screen real estate work. For example the top bar has the name of the street you are going to turn on, then below it is the turn symbol and distance. It seems like this should be bigger and the text for distance should be bigger, and connected to the street name you should turn on. Another example is that the distance and time to destination should be bigger, or more visible. Just my 2 cents on UI design tweeks that would improve the app.
10) Like so many others have said, landscape mode would be very good. Also I think that an upside down view would be good. I say this because my iphone cable plags in at the bottem, so you cant really put in a cup holder because of the plug. If there was an upside down mode, you could put it flat into the cup holder.
Anyway just a few thoughts, and things I have noticed. Overall I really like the app, and compared to all the other GPS nav solutions it seems like a great value. I think with time, and a few more updates, all the issues will be ironed out.
1) When you get a phone call, or press the home button for any reason, your route is lost. Which is really frustrating, and I assume will be fixed in the future. In the mean time you can just press "where to" -> "recently found" and reselect your destination, and the route will be recalculated.
2) YES music will play from your ipod while this program is in use.
3) The option to change from "day" to "night" is in the main iphones settings menu, so change it before you start, if its going to get dark. There is an option for "auto", which I guess will change at a certain time.
4) There are 3 options for colors for "day" and "night", you cant preview them, and there is no picture of all of them in the users guide, so the only way to see them is to quit the program go into the iphones main setting, change the color, re-enter g-map, re-find your destination, then see what the colors look like.
5) Every time g-map is started you get the "Caution" warning.
6) To find a destination by address, you automatically get put into the last city you searched (to change this there is a button), then you search the road name, then you search the "house number". To me this seemed counter intuitive at first, as I just typed the whole address into the first typing field I saw. After I realized how it worked though, it works ok.
7) From what I have found so far, I dont see how it displays or if it has traffic. If it does it doesn't appear like google maps. I have it set on "fastest" in the settings though, so its possible its taking this into consideration when planning the route.
8) Just as shown its only a red dot, no arrow, or car icon appears after it determines what direction you are going. I hope they change this. No real need though.
9) I hope they do a little more work on screen real estate work. For example the top bar has the name of the street you are going to turn on, then below it is the turn symbol and distance. It seems like this should be bigger and the text for distance should be bigger, and connected to the street name you should turn on. Another example is that the distance and time to destination should be bigger, or more visible. Just my 2 cents on UI design tweeks that would improve the app.
10) Like so many others have said, landscape mode would be very good. Also I think that an upside down view would be good. I say this because my iphone cable plags in at the bottem, so you cant really put in a cup holder because of the plug. If there was an upside down mode, you could put it flat into the cup holder.
Anyway just a few thoughts, and things I have noticed. Overall I really like the app, and compared to all the other GPS nav solutions it seems like a great value. I think with time, and a few more updates, all the issues will be ironed out.
What are you, like 16? So far I can tell (a) you've never used a real GPS and (b) you've never used an iPhone will driving. I'm even questioning if you've ever used an iPhone at all, because if you did you'd know Apple is completely inconsistent with the wonderful rotation feature as certain things don't rotate. Like email. Or videos. Or the phone interface. Or the main user interface. Or Google Maps. I have to conclude you don't have an iPhone and that you didn't play with it for more than 5 minutes in an Apple store.
Secondly, since I shouldn't even assume you've driven a car in your life based on your ignorant statements, I'd like to point out that most people who use the iPhone in their car have a MOUNT and a dock connector hooked up for charging and aux input, or at very least FM modulation. Most if not all mounts do not rotate, even if they did one would have to leave a lot of slack in the dock cable to allow for it. And since the iPhone's rotation is so completely broken as to be useless, if you mount it normally you can't watch videos (they'll be sideways); if you mount it sideways for videos (or, if it worked in the first place, Google Maps), everything else will be sideways. Rotation is cool but Apple only implements it in a small handfull of the phone's apps.
If you don't know what you're talking about, kindly move to the back of the class and be quiet, please.
might be the way for most of them to do it. submit an app that doesn't violate any terms, then add a quiet update that does everything they want and apple doesn't. they just gotta hope no mac rumours website doesn't make a big thing about it 
might be the way for most of them to do it. submit an app that doesn't violate any terms, then add a quiet update that does everything they want and apple doesn't. they just gotta hope no mac rumours website doesn't make a big thing about it
"applications may not be designed or marketed for real time route guidance; automatic or autonomous control of vehicles, aircraft, or other mechanical devices; dispatch or fleet management; or emergency or life-saving purposes."
Well this has been broken already or did I miss something?
Add latency (ms) and do not market as real time.
omg, you are clueless!!!
i never said the app itself rotates! I know the app is FIXED.....that is why you rotate the actual phone in your hands as you drive and let the google map remain fixed.
for an example.......if your phone is straight up and your car is traveling on a road that goes to the right when viewing the phone from a straight up postion, just rotate the phone in your hands to the LEFT.......this now puts the road you are traveling on going up/forward. so, for orientation purposes, the blue dot you see on the phone is always going in the up direction on your phone....so if you're going up on the phone and you see a cross street coming up on the map, you know if you need to turn left or right.
geez, you sir, are a moro....eh, nevermind.
(seriously.....anyone else here on the forums who understands the simplicity of this, PLEASE explain to him how to operate a phone gps and follow the map......obviously, he just doesn't get it)
Still living on the line
Can anyone out there tell me what happens when you cross from the east map to the west map? I wan tot buy the apps, but I live on the line between east and west, and want to know what happens when you cross over the line, as I will be doing that quite frequently. Thanks in advance for any help.
Can anyone out there tell me what happens when you cross from the east map to the west map? I wan tot buy the apps, but I live on the line between east and west, and want to know what happens when you cross over the line, as I will be doing that quite frequently. Thanks in advance for any help.
What a load of rubbish. This has auto reroute when yuo make a mistake. With google maps I have to tap on it clear the start destination, select bookmarks, select current location and start again. I also have to have network connection. The number of times the map is loading during a black spot is just annoying!
This is a step in the right direction and if there was a UK map available I would purchase this now as it seems very reasonably priced. There will be bigger and better apps coming (if apple allows them)
Besides, why is this not allowed by Apple. Something just doesn't add up?
Glad you feel better.
If you had taken the time to read my post I never criticized the iPhone. I criticized it's GPS antenna, and the GPS apps generating heat. In fact my family has 3 iPhones on the (can you say sucks) at&t network. I've been a Mac Evangelist since 1990, but do not blindly hug every new software on it's first 6 months out. Especially when it causes the hardware to to function, IMO, at the edge of it's limitations. Heat=Bad. (stress cracks?)
I simply feel the current revision generates too much heat in these situations.
Hope you feel better now.