Whats the cost of using ?

[cardiff_gareth]

Hello,
I have just got an iPhone4 and have been looking at the different sat nav's available and also this app for the speed cameras. One thing I don't know is how they work? Does the iPhone have a built in GPS or does it use radio masts? I take it then if the iPhone4 has a built in GPS there are no costs / data costs etc If it uses radio masts then I take it there are costs involved. I get 1gb of interent use a month at present with my deal (i'm on 3)

I won't use it abroad, just in the UK

So, in a nutshell can someone explain how it works and the costs please

[DennisN]

iPhone has built in GPS, but that's only for your location.

CamerAlert downloads map tiles on the fly via data connection as you travel along. Can't tell you about costs, because I have "supposedly unlimited" internet on Vodafone - I've had the phone six months now and never a penny for the data downloads. I've looked back at a couple of bills and see that I use CamerAlert virtually every day, but the largest amount of data download on one day was 9.997Mb.
_________________
Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

[cardiff_gareth]

Got it, so say I use the same route back and forth and download the map tiles, once I have them then thats it no costs?
I set up a wifi network when at home for my apps for speed as its sooo much faster and also for the cost = free using wifi :D
Can you use the app in non gps mode indoors using wifi and scroll across the UK as then to download the map tile content using wifi so again free

One other thing, the 59 cost of the app I presume will have the latest camera database included. When it comes to redownloading the latest camera database is that a free update or are you charged?

I can see a 59p purchase coming on!

[DennisN]

Sorry I can't answer everything for you - I'm just an old bloke who's very pleased with CamerAlert which seems to me to have been designed by people who know exactly what I want from the speed camera database.

I assume your iPhone does the same as mine and can grab any wi-fi it can lay hands on to give you fast and free service (try it in Little Chef and McD - I think you have to register for your first logon, then all other branches let you in without hassle - could be wrong on that though)

I'm guessing, but I would assume your thinking on caching the map tiles is not the way it works (obviously it'll cache some, but I can't think you could look around and have them all to hand). I guess your caching idea might work if you only travel round a five mile radius from home, but it might not be that wide a tile.

For mine, wi-fi takes precedence over Vodafone, so at home right now it automatically switches to my wi-fi away from Vodafone. When I was abroad recently, I logged into a free wi-fi cafe one day and every day thereafter when we walked past (actually loitered in the street outside to pick up my emails!!) that place, it switched to their wi-fi. (Data Roaming is automatically OFF by default, so it never did download any data via the phone connection abroad - e.g. emails).

You can also set CamerAlert not to show the map at all, or to show it only when it alerts to cameras, or to show it all the time. First is no data downloads, second is some and third is all. I have mine set to the second choice.

59p gets you the application (and any future upgrades free of charge - and you can download it again free of charge if you have a minor cockup and lose it). That download gets you a free updated copy of the database at the time of downloading - with updates being in real time you'll get whatever the database is at the time you download the App. After that, you will need to subscribe (annual, £19.99) then you can download updates every five minutes if you want to (and it DOES change as soon as our database Admin changes it, on a daily basis, throughout the day). But one thing you can't do is download and re-download the App to get a newer database - you'll only get the first one free!

One other thing. The App will run in the background, behind whatever else you are running (e.g. a navigation program). In that case, it will sound the alert by audio, but not show the map (simply warns of an approaching camera - you can set your own preference for how much time warning - I have mine at 30 seconds). Actually, I run mine in the foreground, with the iPod feature playing a nice tune in backgbround.

I WISH SOMEBODY ELSE WOULD COME IN ON THIS - I'M NOT THE SORT OF GURU YOU NEED TO TALK TO!
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Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

[Darren]

[cardiff_gareth]

Cheers Darren

[lbendlin]

There is a certain amount of map tile caching going on, but it only goes so far. Since we are zooming in and out of the map based on the speed you would have to drive your daily route at exactly the same speed to fully utilize the cached tiles (each zoom level has their own tiles).

The camera icons will be unaffected by that. So you could still be in map mode, without cached tiles (only seeing the grey pattern), and you would see the cameras shown in the right spots.
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Lutz

Report Map Errors here:
TomTom/TeleAtlas NAVTEQ

[cardiff_gareth]

Cheers for the reply, I'm all good now, been busy, reported 4 mobile camera gun areas and also one that's no longer there

[Darren]

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