Are There Any Decent WinPho GPS Apps Yet? [Ask the Readers]
Surur of WMPoweruser just ran a review on another one of these Windows Phone GPS apps, GPS Tuner Turn by Turn Navigation USA and Canada (brilliant name…) for only $16.99. Looks okay I suppose, the usual features you’d expect from another one of these things, though apparently turn by turn does not mean 3D. I keep mixing that up.
It would get the job done based on his review, but it ain’t no Google Maps Navigation, that’s for sure.
I wanted to go on Surur’s article thread and ask about other GPS options for WinPho as that’s struck me as one thing really holding it back and how could they leave that out. And unlike with an iPhone, you can’t just download TomTom, that ain’t happening. Seems TomTom wasn’t interested in WinPho. The fools, right?
Anyway I can’t do that, go on a WMPU article and ask good questions, because Surur banned my ass a long time ago. Wouldn’t even tell me why. And I thought I was contributing, offering a contrarian perspective, refreshing or whatever. Sigh, I guess the man’s got his reasons… argh. Let me back!! You’re killing me with that hammer. Killing me. Yes there’s some rocky history between me and Surur but it’s old history. I’ve written the man an out-of-the-nowhere letter of general praise *before* this happened. I have no recollection of crossing the line in the time leading up to the ban.
What are the sorts of things I posted on WMPU precipitating my ban? Here’s an example. And look at what I wrote him (also pre-ban, and no, he never responded) for no other reason than pure respect. Read this. From the heart bro. Can’t believe I’m actually posting this, I just feel so pathetic and rudderless, you know?
Sidetracked, sorry.
Anyway, what was it.. ahh yes, so that y’all have the best information spread amongst yourselves (and to satisfy my own voyeuristic curiosity), what are all you WinPho users using for GPS driving navigation? And in what way is your WinPho better for driving than your old WinMo phone? Here’s the marketplace link to Surur’s reviewed app.
There are actually 110,000 pages on WMPU that include “turn by turn” and maybe you could sort them out. Hey Waze people, how about throwing these guys a bone already? Trapster? C’mon. Et tu, Google?
Cheers, Surur. Smart guy, can’t put it past him to ban me in order to get me to write about his site more and promote his promotional efforts. Genius.
Doug Simmons
Related Posts
About The Author
Doug Simmons
Biographical info.. hmm. I have a history of not being able to strike the balance between what is "safe" to put into these forms and what is, in my mind at least, funny. Can't do it.
lol for you and surur, anyway navigon’s apparently the best atm but haven’t tried it yet
You know Don sometimes I go for a walk and think to myself, Hey, maybe Surur was having a busy day and sort of clicked the hammer onto my name by mistake, don’t take it so hard.
But then I think, Hey wait a second, that’s even worse, that I’m so small on his radar that he could possibly make such a mistake.
Don, woe is I (woe is me is gramatically incorrect you know — I know because I feel that way all the time because of this incident and naturally learned the predicate nominative as a result).
Navigon huh. Hmm. Maybe they got a youtube clip I can watch while I wait in hopes that this will pop up as a trackback on one of the many WMPU articles I linked, or maybe he’s got google alerts, … Navigon.
Hearing really good things about the NAVIGON app. Actually thinking about forking over the $30 to use it instead of using AT&T’s navigation for $10 per month. Yet another reason why AT&T sucks eh Simmons.
Navigon is the choice I landed on, mostly for the fully off-line functionality. In the WinMo days I used the hell out of CoPilot, so off-line was a must for me.
Navigon has worked great for me on the road and now allows you to choose which states’ maps you want to keep onboard (saving a little memory). My only beef with the software is that they haven’t implemented WP7’s appconnect feature, so you can’t pass an address in directly from a Bing/Local Scout search, you have to search from within the app. Otherwise it’s been a solid GPS unit replacement, surprisingly not killing my battery outright, either!
Navigon.
Seems we’re looking at a winner by a unanimous margin without any bad thread drama about my Surur fun (which I did pretty well), turning into a good thread which by the way Smith changed the timestamp yesterday to bury it (I passive aggressively nudged it up to second post instead of first, which I regarded as an acceptable compromise).
But what about this Nokia Drive thing, the Ovi 3D that was so heavily hyped up since the partnership announcement. Anyone see the videos on that? The computer version looked pretty damn impressive.
One more thing I like about Surur, he’s uniquely unpredictable. Steady stream of reviews like this and then suddenly Bam! out of nowhere he bashes Microsoft for bending over to the carriers, rather than the usual carrier bashing. Chevron guys, the wp/XDA heroes? Yeah right, bam! he blasts them. Plenty of arguably better wp-heavy sites for him to spend his leisure time reading and participating? Wrong browser, Bam! he posts a comment here. Just starting to think he likes me? Banhammer! he exhibits mixed feelings.
So when I come at you with an ode to Surur that’s kinda funny, I’m being sincerely and Surur, I hope you realize that.
And Smith, stop burying my good posts. At the very least don’t bury them below your happy holiday garbage.
I popped for Navigon a few months ago when it required 1.2 gigs of storage. To me it was well worth it. It works without a cell signal. With the new update it lets you download only the States that you choose. In functionality this is the best navigation program on a phone I have ever seen. It has been fast & accurate. Recalculates directions instantly if you miss a turn. 3d view is awesome. Tells me the speed limit of my location in real time. I sometimes drive thru Oregon and the speed limit changes every 10 minutes. It calculates my eta, how many miles I have driven and how many remaining. The voice directions are great. My only complaint is the method of input is slow. First State, then city, then street, then address #. Still, I wouldn’t want to be without it now.
How much did it set you back, and is it possible to install it without a computer with Zune?
I paid the introductory price of $29.00. Even though they now let you select the States to download with the app to reduce storage, (like the ios version) it is still to large for a cell connection and has to be installed thru zune. I am still getting used to that system although about 100 million ios users have been doing it for years. I think sideloading and access to mass storage will become normal in wp7, probably in 2012. I bet this app is even better on a screen like a Titan. I am using a surround right now.