I would like to hear about experiences with using GPS navigation on mobiles
(e.g. OVI or Google maps) for car navigation compared to dedicated devices,
such as TomTom One I have been using so far. How does it compare, how do you
mount it in the car?
divoch wrote:
> I would like to hear about experiences with using GPS navigation on
> mobiles (e.g. OVI or Google maps) for car navigation compared to
> dedicated devices, such as TomTom One I have been using so far.
> How does it compare,
Comparing Google Maps on a Nexus1 to the inbuilt Honda one
Entering destination on a small screen is more difficult, voice
recognition is hit and miss (mainly miss)
constant downloading of maps on-the-fly can eat a lot of data (which can
cause annoying bursts of radio interference if it's dropped back to GPRS
rather than using 3G)
If it doesn't know resolve the address properly it can end up just
taking you to the geographical centre of the first half of the postcode.
It doesn't give sufficient advance warning of turns
it has bad text-to-speech pronunciation of road names and numbers
On 2010-11-13, divoch <divoch@REMOVETHIShotmail.com> wrote:
> I would like to hear about experiences with using GPS navigation on mobiles
> (e.g. OVI or Google maps) for car navigation compared to dedicated devices,
> such as TomTom One I have been using so far. How does it compare,
I don't know about Ovi Maps, but I have given Google Maps a try. The main
difference, and drawback, compared with purpose-built satnav devices is
that Google Maps requires a continuous internet connection. That means in
effect, 'mobile internet', which can work out expensive very quickly - so
make sure you're on the most appropriate tariff before you do anything
major with Google Maps! It also means of course that 'navigation' depends
not only on good signals from the GPS satellites, but also on a good
mobile internet connection - and the further you are from population
centres and major roads, the more likely it is that there won't be a
usable mobile internet service.
But there are apps (at least for Android, I don't know about other
systems) that allow you to download maps onto your smartphone and use
those for navigation - so you don't need a continuous mobile internet
connection. I would recommend looking at those apps before trying to
replace your 'real' satnav gadget with a smartphone. I'm in that
research stage myself right now.
Smartphone navigation may not be quite as 'polished' as a dedicated satnav
gadget - eg less precision, erratic handling of complex road junctions,
quirky pronounciation of place-names, and scratchy robotic sound of the
smarphone's 'text to voice' software.
On the plus side, Google Maps integrates with Streetview which means you
can get a good idea of what places look like before you get there, which
can make it easier to spot landmarks as an additional aid to navigation.
But the real advantage of using a smartphone to navigate, is that you can
get up-to-date maps at little or no cost whenever you want, whereas
updating the maps for purpose-built satnav gadgets can be very expensive.
If you make use of maps based on the OpenStreetMap project
<http://www.openstreetmap.org/> you can even contribute your own
information to make the maps more accurate and useful for others.
> how do you mount it in the car?
>
> thanks
My smartphone fits comfortably into a basic in-car mobile phone holder
that 'suckers' onto the windscreen, and I have an in-car charger that plugs
into the cigar-lighter socket.
There are apparently special 'car docks' for at least some models of
smartphone, which may interact with the smartphone to make it easier to
use in the car - but they seem to be both expensive and rare. I've never
seen one (other than on a web page).
"divoch" <divoch@REMOVETHIShotmail.com> wrote in message
news:qtwDo.91769$co2.82015@newsfe28.ams2...
> I would like to hear about experiences with using GPS navigation on
> mobiles (e.g. OVI or Google maps) for car navigation compared to dedicated
> devices, such as TomTom One I have been using so far. How does it compare,
> how do you mount it in the car?
I use Nokia maps to supplement paper maps.
Nokia maps are free and cover much of the world. They also give street
level information which an ordinary map might not show. I use a separate
Bluetooth GPS. I just have the phone loose in the car, which may be a hired
one. Excellent product IMHO.
I use the phone to tell me where I am, rather than where I want to go to. I
don't use any of the voice instructions.
I also have Google maps, this needs a network connection, but one one
occasion was able to give a better indication of where a UK post code
address was.
"divoch" <divoch@REMOVETHIShotmail.com> wrote in message
news:qtwDo.91769$co2.82015@newsfe28.ams2...
>I would like to hear about experiences with using GPS navigation on mobiles
>(e.g. OVI or Google maps) for car navigation compared to dedicated devices,
>such as TomTom One I have been using so far. How does it compare, how do
>you mount it in the car?
Nokia Ovi Maps is generally good. You can download maps do they are in the
phone (I use a Nokia E71), so it can be used without a data connection at
home and abroad. The search function is more limited without a data
connection though, and therefore it can be fiddly to get an address entered
in the correct format if you do not want to use a data connection.
It gives clear and sensible voice instructions and different languages can
be downloaded. It has worked well in the UK, except Central London where it
got totally confused by one way streets / no entry routes as the maps did
not seem to include some of these details. It also gives warnings if you
are travelling above speed limits, when you approach speed cameras (although
not all) and so on.
For mounting, I bought a combined car charger and mounting device on eBay
for less than a tenner (came from Hong Kong).
"Jeremy Porteous" <REMOVEjeremyporteousTHIS@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:RYzDo.17025$AT2.11614@newsfe01.iad...
> "divoch" <divoch@REMOVETHIShotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:qtwDo.91769$co2.82015@newsfe28.ams2...
>>I would like to hear about experiences with using GPS navigation on
>>mobiles (e.g. OVI or Google maps) for car navigation compared to dedicated
>>devices, such as TomTom One I have been using so far. How does it compare,
>>how do you mount it in the car?
>
> Nokia Ovi Maps is generally good. You can download maps do they are in the
> phone (I use a Nokia E71), so it can be used without a data connection at
> home and abroad. The search function is more limited without a data
> connection though, and therefore it can be fiddly to get an address
> entered in the correct format if you do not want to use a data connection.
>
> It gives clear and sensible voice instructions and different languages can
> be downloaded. It has worked well in the UK, except Central London where
> it got totally confused by one way streets / no entry routes as the maps
> did not seem to include some of these details. It also gives warnings if
> you are travelling above speed limits, when you approach speed cameras
> (although not all) and so on.
>
> For mounting, I bought a combined car charger and mounting device on eBay
> for less than a tenner (came from Hong Kong).
>
> JP
Thanks all for sharing their experiences. Very useful
divoch
On 13/11/10 13:34, divoch wrote:
> I would like to hear about experiences with using GPS navigation on
> mobiles (e.g. OVI or Google maps) for car navigation compared to
> dedicated devices, such as TomTom One I have been using so far. How does
> it compare, how do you mount it in the car?
>
> thanks
> divoch
Sygic seems okay and you can have traffic for €7.50 pa. It doesn't seem
to understand one way systems though.
Jeremy Porteous <REMOVEjeremyporteousTHIS@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> Nokia Ovi Maps is generally good. You can download maps do they are in the
> phone (I use a Nokia E71), so it can be used without a data connection at
> home and abroad. The search function is more limited without a data
> connection though, and therefore it can be fiddly to get an address entered
> in the correct format if you do not want to use a data connection.
The one problem I've had with Ovi Maps on the 5230 is it has a tendency to
get stuck after a while. I had 50 miles of motorway to drive down and then
somewhere to get to in London. It's quite happy navigating down the
motorway but somewhere along the way it either lost its GPS fix or crashed,
and I couldn't persuade it to find it again. That meant that the time I
came off the motorway into unfamiliar city streets, it was no help.
The big picture stuff is easy to do with a road atlas, but having a satnav
comes into its own for driving about unfamiliar towns.
It may be poor GPS accuracy due to having it loose in the car, but it also
likes saying 'in 400 yards, bear left' when it actually means 'take the
sliproad on the left NOW' because it can't tell the difference between a
sliproad until it's diverged sufficiently.
On 2010-11-16, Theo Markettos <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:
[...]
> It may be poor GPS accuracy due to having it loose in the car, but it also
> likes saying 'in 400 yards, bear left' when it actually means 'take the
> sliproad on the left NOW' because it can't tell the difference between a
> sliproad until it's diverged sufficiently.
>
> Theo
'Loose in the car' would make it hard for any device to maintain contact
with the GPS satellites - unless the car is open-topped. It also makes
the phone a nice hard ballistic missile inside the car any time there's a
sudden change of velocity ...
Urban areas can be tricky for any GPS device; buildings get in the way of
signals, and there's a lot of 'interference'.
--
-- ^^^^^^^^^^
-- Whiskers
-- ~~~~~~~~~~
"Theo Markettos" <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote in message
news:xQq*0Mjot@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk...
> Jeremy Porteous <REMOVEjeremyporteousTHIS@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>> Nokia Ovi Maps is generally good. You can download maps do they are in
>> the
>> phone (I use a Nokia E71), so it can be used without a data connection at
>> home and abroad. The search function is more limited without a data
>> connection though, and therefore it can be fiddly to get an address
>> entered
>> in the correct format if you do not want to use a data connection.
>
> The one problem I've had with Ovi Maps on the 5230 is it has a tendency to
> get stuck after a while. I had 50 miles of motorway to drive down and
> then
> somewhere to get to in London. It's quite happy navigating down the
> motorway but somewhere along the way it either lost its GPS fix or
> crashed,
> and I couldn't persuade it to find it again. That meant that the time I
> came off the motorway into unfamiliar city streets, it was no help.
>
>
You did have GPRS-A switched on?
Steve Terry <gfourwwk@tesco.net> wrote:
> You did have GPRS-A switched on?
Yes. It just stops updating its position, and has done this on several
occasions. A powercycle and reentering the destination would fix it, but
that's not possible when driving.
Ovi Maps was the current version when installed in September.
car navigation with GPS and maps on a mobile 
Linear Mode
