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Sygic Mobile Maps Becomes Aura (and loses POI support?)
Article by: maft
Date: 14 Feb 2011
 Sygic have announced that they are discontinuing their Mobile Maps software and 'upgrading' everyone to Sygic Aura. Their app will then be known simply as "Sygic GPS Navigation".
Aura features impressive 3D views (with terrain) and a whole host of features mainly based around a 'community' of users. However, there is no 3rd party POI support like in Mobile Maps (which also allows for our real spoken alerts for speed cameras using .ogg files). We have asked Sygic to comment on the POI issue and will post any news once we receive a reply.
The free updates will also include the latest maps and will be available for all versions of their apps (iPhone, iPad, Android, WinMob, Symbian and Maemo) albeit with a few caveats...
 iPhone and iPad: Users will get their updates via the AppStore. Users who have purchased both apps will be entitled to free premium content.
Android: Users will be emailed about how they can upgrade. Aura requires a 3D graphics chip so many older devices (such as the HTC Hero) will not be able to use the app. If you cannot use the app then you will be offered an update to Mobile Maps to v8.2 and a free map - then that's your lot.
Symbian: The Ovi Store has limitations on app sizes and so Aura is not currently available on Symbian. You will get an update to Mobile Maps 8.2 and a free map update while they try to resolve the issue with Nokia.
Windows Mobile: Windows Mobile only allows 32mb of memory for apps to use while running. This isn't enough for Aura and so it will never be released for Windows Mobile. Users will get an update to Mobile Maps 8.2 and a free map update - then that's it.
Windows Phone 7: Aura will not be released on WP7 as Microsoft do not allow apps written in native code, which Aura requires.
Full details can be found at http://sygic.com/auramigration but, basically, by concentrating only on Aura and not their 'classic' Mobile Maps Sygic are essentially saying iOS and Android is where it's at.
What do you think to the announcement? Will you be affected? Do you feel 'ripped off' that an app you bought is being discontinued? Join in the discussion below!
| Comments
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 Posted by sn00p on Mon Feb 14, 2011 12:52 pm |
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Oh dear....
The only thing that Aura has going for it is the rather smart looking (and fast) 3D display, I noticed the other day that the current price for it on the iOS app store is considerably lower than what they were trying to sell it at, it didn't even mention being on sale or anything.
Considering how long it has been out, it has hardly any reviews, those which it does have are pretty poor (yes, I wrote one of them).
It still suffers from a "nasty looking" UI, they're still using a custom UI and not a native iOS UI for the menus. They switched a couple of versions back from the custom keyboard to the native iOS keyboard, but didn't bother with anything else. Try typing in the Aura account details, you get a native keyboard and then you just appear to be writing in the middle of nowhere with it, it looks unfinished, poor and unprofessional. It's also slow, try scrolling a menu and it just lags so badly (i'm on a iPhone 4!).
I have to confess that I still use TomTom, I bought Aura because it looked like it promised so much, but it delivered so poorly. The routing was poor in the first couple of versions (I did give it some test runs), I don't know whether they've fixed that or not.
Furthermore, how exactly is this "crossgrade" going to work in iOS app store? Are they going to just rename the current application, if so then they're going to end up with 2 Sygic Auras per region in the app store? Confusing.
They probably should have just removed the original Sygic Aura app from the store and then dealt with the complaints from all 5 of us who bought it! ;)
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| Posted by peterc10 on Mon Feb 14, 2011 3:47 pm |
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Oh dear ... and me with a HTC Hero. Now I have got CamerAlert working I am not too worried about the POIs though.
Not sure what the reference to v8.2 is for us Android users, since I am using Mobile Maps 10. Is it a reference to the map version? At the moment I am on 7.8 of those.
Am I right in thinking that Sygic is ultimately owned by Tom Tom? If so they seem to be adopting the same "**** you" approach to customer service.
Peter
HTC Sensation
Sygic GPS for Europe (No more TT "support"!)
Copilot for USA
Bury CC9060 bluetooth car kit & Brodit mount |
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| Posted by MaFt on Mon Feb 14, 2011 4:15 pm |
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| sn00p Wrote: | | Furthermore, how exactly is this "crossgrade" going to work in iOS app store? Are they going to just rename the current application, if so then they're going to end up with 2 Sygic Auras per region in the app store? Confusing. |
from their website: "In Australia, Brazil, Russia and UK, we will move original Sygic Aura to Travel category in order not to have two identical apps in the Navigation category. We will change its description and screenshots. Don’t worry; we are not going to remove any of its features. We will continue supporting original Sygic Aura with future updates including free map updates. "
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| Posted by MaFt on Mon Feb 14, 2011 4:16 pm |
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| peterc10 Wrote: | | Am I right in thinking that Sygic is ultimately owned by Tom Tom? If so they seem to be adopting the same "**** you" approach to customer service. |
no, they're not although the early versions of Mobile Maps were very very similar to TomTom!
MaFt
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| Posted by scarymonkey on Mon Feb 14, 2011 7:42 pm |
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On Android I found a few improvements from MM to Aura but there are a few annoyances - I have yet to work out how to get an eta on the navigation screen and the biggest is the mad time assessments it makes. Last week I drove the 150miles to Leeds and Aura proudly told me it would take me 1 hour 48 minutes. In reality it took 3 hours.
On the positive side for me it means I should get Aura on both my Desire HD and Dell Streak (it crashes a lot on this at the moment though). Not sure if I want to stay with MM for the POIs though.
Vince Marsters |
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| Posted by Pocketgps on Mon Feb 14, 2011 8:12 pm |
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I've been using Aura for a while now and it performs fine with my ZTE Blade android phone. Routing could be better, and as said the eta is a bit hit and miss. Find it really easy to use. Sygic customer support is very poor if none existent from my experience. Still have not found out how to update their safety cams, not that I use them. Download the Sygic Assistant, but it only seems to offer me the user manual for the app, no updates 
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| Posted by peterc10 on Mon Feb 14, 2011 8:20 pm |
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I have found Sygic's support to be good in the past. I just email them at supportatSygic.com and I always get an answer within a day or two from a real person who understands the product.
In one of those recent queries (getting MM10 transferred to my new SD card) they confirmed that they had now abandoned Sygic Assistant.
Peter
HTC Sensation
Sygic GPS for Europe (No more TT "support"!)
Copilot for USA
Bury CC9060 bluetooth car kit & Brodit mount |
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| Posted by mrfrank on Wed Feb 16, 2011 10:15 am |
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| scarymonkey Wrote: | On Android I found a few improvements from MM to Aura but there are a few annoyances - I have yet to work out how to get an eta on the navigation screen and the biggest is the mad time assessments it makes. Last week I drove the 150miles to Leeds and Aura proudly told me it would take me 1 hour 48 minutes. In reality it took 3 hours.
On the positive side for me it means I should get Aura on both my Desire HD and Dell Streak (it crashes a lot on this at the moment though). Not sure if I want to stay with MM for the POIs though. |
It only shows the ETA in landscape mode. In portrait it does not. Bugger.
Also, the following main things a re lost from MM:
1) custom POI (weknow that already)
2) manually check for alternative routes
3) No way to indicate a road block, which would force a re-route.
4) It seems to prefer smaller roads to motorways and there is no way to force motorways to be preferred (MM did not have this problem at all; must be a new routing logic, which is now crap in Aura)
5) Cannot select what to show on main screen (ETA, speed,miles left, etc...) as you could in MM
6) In order to navigate to a favourite you have to tap on "Find-Favourite", which is not intuitive at first.
There are more things lost, but the above are the most annoying.
Cheers!!
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| Posted by scarymonkey on Wed Feb 16, 2011 7:27 pm |
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| mrfrank Wrote: |
4) It seems to prefer smaller roads to motorways and there is no way to force motorways to be preferred (MM did not have this problem at all; must be a new routing logic, which is now crap in Aura) |
Oddly so far I have found the opposite to this as it has chosen the motorway I would use rather than take me on the A roads that MM used to chose. I guess it is somewhat variable and dependant on where you live then.
Vince Marsters |
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| Posted by Pocketgps on Thu Feb 17, 2011 12:11 pm |
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| peterc10 Wrote: | I have found Sygic's support to be good in the past. I just email them at supportatSygic.com and I always get an answer within a day or two from a real person who understands the product.
In one of those recent queries (getting MM10 transferred to my new SD card) they confirmed that they had now abandoned Sygic Assistant. |
Sent email to Sygic 5th Feb 2011 - replied today 17th Feb 2011
My question was:
How do you update the Speed Cameras / Police traps.
Reply (which I don't understand, or is it just me):
Dear Sir,
if you mean offline speed cameras, they're automatically updated with every update.
If you mean online police traps, just log in and db will be updated automatically.
In case of any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Thank you.
! 
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| Posted by peterc10 on Thu Feb 17, 2011 12:25 pm |
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They are referring to their own in-built facilities for camera warnings, which they call radars. That is the same on Mobile Maps and Aura.
The problem is that MM supports 3rd party POIs, and therefore the PGPSW camera database, whereas Aura doesn't.
Peter
HTC Sensation
Sygic GPS for Europe (No more TT "support"!)
Copilot for USA
Bury CC9060 bluetooth car kit & Brodit mount |
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