Review?

[gyre]

[Sorry for the delay. Also posted on the my-symbian forum]

A mini-review of Navicore on the p910

I've used Navicore for about 2 months now, on and off, and have promised a mini-review, so thought it was about time I got off my fat butt and wrote one


The version of Navicore I have comes on a 256MB sandisk memory stick. About half that is used by by Navicore, and the rest is free for normal use.

Besides the software, I also received a Navicore-badged Globalsat BT-338 gps receiver.

At around 200 UK pounds, this wasn't a cheap purchase, but if you take into account the price of the receiver and memory stick, it turns out to be not so bad.

The receiver has mixed blessings. It's very small and light. The battery life is amazing... you can get well over 12 hours without charging. Once it
has a 'fix' it also works quite well indoors too. When using in the car, i let it have a clear view of the sky until it locks on, then put it in the glove compartment for the rest of the trip.

The downside is that it can sometimes take ages to get a fix. This may be just my particular unit that I can't be bothered to return, or it could be a
generic problem that might be fixed by a recent firmware upgrade. A quick fix is to take the battery out briefly.

When working well, it should get a fix between a few seconds and less than a minute or so.

Installing the software is a breeze. You just plug in the memory stick and select the Navicore icon from the application menu.

Navicore starts up fast. No more than about 8 seconds on my phone. It will then (depending on an option) take a look around for a GPS receiver, and,
after the first time, automatically use it. If the receiver has got a fix, you'll be shown an area of map around your current location.

You can now do the standard satnav things of finding a location on the map, or plotting a route etc.

As far as routes go, if Navicore knows where you are, it just asks for the destination. If it doesn't it will ask for both origin and destination.

Locations can be specified in several ways. You can specify locations from a recent history of locations; from your list of favourites; via co-ordinates;
via postal address; from the points of interest database or from a position on the map.

The postal address is a little underpowered, in that it doesn't allow a full UK postcode. Only the first 4 or 5 letters/numbers can be specified. I've
found that using another program that does accept full postcodes and then cutting/pasting the co-ordinates works OK. Alternatively, you can add your
own POI entries if you happen to have a UK postcode database in ov2 or csv format.

Routes can have more than 2 points. You can add waypoints too. There are a few ways of doing this, some more klunky than the others.

You can select a point on the map and add it to the list of waypoints. The klunky part is that Navicore will then re-calculate the route and zoom the map
back to the origin. Which is frustrating if you were planning on adding more waypoints nowhere near the origin.

Another way is to drop into a route planner page and add the waypoints textually. This will let you add them by location and once you've left that
page then the route is re-calculated. Less frustrating, but not as nice as just marking spots on the map.

Once 2 or more locations have been added then Navicore will calculate a route between them. By default it appears to be the fastest route. You can then
change an option to re-calculate it to be the shortest route.

Navicore briefly shows a map with the route on it, and after a few seconds zooms back to the origin of the route. I find this annoying, cos I'd like to
examine which route was chosen before setting off.

You can select an 'paw' icon on the screen to move along the route. Sort of a preview thing. This is one of the weakest parts of the software, for me, as it has several limitations.

irstly, you must start at the beginning of the route to move along it. You can't go to the route planner page and select a node along the route and start from there, nor can you select near a point on the map and start from the route nearest that point.

Secondly, lots of things seem to cause Navicore to want to show you the start of the route again. Clicking in the wrong part of the screen for example.

I'm fairly sure that the periodic 'you have a gps receiver attached, I want to show you the origin' does that too. Which is incredibly frustrating on long routes. I hope they improve the flexibiltiy of this route preview tool in later patches.

In general use, uou can always move around the map, quickly zooming in and out etc. So I normally zoom out from the origin, taking a quick look at the route generated just to make sure it avoids known blackspots. You can drop into the route planner screen to see what turns it is suggesting and what roads you'll be taking.

You can mark roads as blocked, and Navicore will route around them. You can also ask Navicore to find an alternative route should you be stuck in traffic. I'm not quite sure which algorithm it uses for this... as it has come out with some very interesting routes

OK, so we've specified a set of waypoints and a final destination. It is time to use Navicore for real and start driving.

You can choose 2 voices in the UK version. One male, one female. The male voice is OK, but the female one drives me up the wall with its nasal American accent. It's like being on-hold talking to an AT&T operator

I wish Navicore had taken 2 native UK speakers, but this is a minor gripe.

The voice directions are very clear indeed. So clear that you don't really need to look at the screen of the p910 if you don't wish to. You get a
warning well in advance of the turn (perhaps depending on your speed), then much nearer the turn, then at the turn itself.

It also gives follow-on directions. For example... turn right and then immediately turn left. etc.

There are 2 downsides to the voice. The first one is that if you are going straight on, it will usually stay quiet. Makes you wonder if the phone has
died. The second one is that sometimes the sounds will be chopped off at the end of the sentence. This only happens rarely.

The on-screen navigation is good. You can get a 2D or 3D view. You can change the colour scheme for daylight, bright sunlight or night.

I find the 3D view a little limiting in that it doesn't put in road names.

An option lets the view zoom in and out depending on your speed. I find this useful for me.

If you have a 'follow-on' instruction, then you get 2 turn indicators on the screen, the first turn being normal sized, and the 2nd turn underneath being smaller. Very neat.

If you don't follow its route, it will dynamically re-route once it notices. The re-routing is usually very quick... for me, depending on the route, maybe a couple of seconds.

The trick seems to be to take the turns suggested as advice. If you want to take the road, do so. If not, ignore it, and you'll very quickly be given
another route if there was one available.

Sometimes, it will tell you to take a u-turn. It isn't overly persistant tho,so once it sees a clear route it won't keep on nagging

In use, I found it to be a life-saver. Normally family holidays are full of arguments from tired drivers and tired passengers about how to get to the
destination. Not this year. The wife and kids could sleep while I found my own way to the cottage and tourist spots

The actual program seems robust. You can run other things on the P910 at the same time without it crashing. I've had my daughter using a MSN clone while I was driving, and I could still hear the voice directions. You can shut the flip and navigate entirely by voice if you want.

Navicore have put up a tool on their website to create your own POIs. They accept either plain text / csv files in a given format, or TomTom's ov2 format.

The POI tool itself works fine. There are a few minor cosmetic glitches from using user-defined POIs, but they are totally outweighed by having this functionality.

I've been able to add the pocketgps UK 'safety cam' database with ease. It even beeps at me when I'm speeding near a 'safety cam'

There are a few minor bugs in the code, but none are show-stoppers, nor detract from doing a good job of navigating. I've reported them to their tech guys, so hopefully the next version will have a different set

-- gyre-

[Nords]

Cheers Gyre, very comprehensive.

Do you give it a thumbs up overall or if given the chance again, would you go for TT5?

On the 2D / 3D part, can you change easily when on the move? Is it a single prod or a bit more involved. You mention the 3D with no road names, could you confirm it does name in 2D?

Thanks alot!

[gyre]

I took the plunge and bought Navicore after waiting for ages for TT5 to come out and after TT themselves replied to my question with 'no, we don't have TT5 for the p910i coming out'.

This was about 6-8 weeks before TT5 for the p910i came out

However, I did need it for a family holiday in August, and it did the job great.

I think hardware-wise, the Navicore gps receiver seems (to me at least) better than the receiver my m8 got with TT for the Treo. Cuter and the battery life seems far better. I don't know if the TT5 receiver is different for UIQ.

Navicore will get me to my destination without fuss and without crashing. The core functionality works great.

As to whether I'd choose it again over TT5... that's a hard call. I do like what I've seen of the TT5 screenshots. TT5's route preview seems far more comprehensive. The ability to route around traffic is cool... but I've heard a rumour that Navicore will also offer this in the future.

So, tough call. Send me a TT5 and I'll let you know

As far as selecting 3D goes...

Navicore has an area of the screen you can press with your finger that will bring up a full(-ish)-screen menu of 12 icons. Pressing the 3D icon with your finger will toggle to 3D etc.

It is doable. I'm pretty sure they meant that to be used on-the-move.

So, a double-prod. One to bring up the menu. One to select 3D.

Yes, names are displayed in 2D just fine. I asked their tech support about the missing names in 3D and they said it was by design

-- gyre --

[Nords]

Cheers Gyre,

Two last questions!............. TT5 claims that it's UK version also give the major roads of Europe (from mobilefun's site here: http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/product/6292.htm ). What happens to Navicore if you go ouside of UK? I realise you can purchase additional maps of individual European countries and there is a Europe CD spoken about. Just interested in what european ability the std UK version has.

The other question is, what is supplied on the CD? Could I install it onto my 512Mb mini memory stick thingy?

Thanks matey

[gyre]

I don't know about non-UK&I maps. I've not seen anything on my display to indicate the existance of anything like that. You'd need to ask their support guys.

IIRC, the CD just contains a user manual and software for the GPS unit.

The memory stick contains all the software for the satnav program.

I'd have guessed that it would be OK to copy that to another larger memory stick, as they ship some kind of license manager that calls home initially, and again when you change the sim card.

-- gyre --

[Nords]

Seems likely on the larger stick front; happy with that Gyre, if you have the map 'up' on your phone, can you move the map across to France? I have an evaluation copy of Route 66 and as you seem to suggest, the ferry crossing just run out half way across the Channel.

Thanks once again!

K

[gyre]

I can move the map to where France is supposed to be. However, it just appears to be loads of water.

Navicore is quite expensive for extra maps. I think it is like 100 pounds per country that arrives on another memory stick. At least according to what I remember from the globalfun site.

It appears that you are, or were, torn between getting Navicore and TT5.

TT5 is probably the more fully-featured and mature product from reading some of the reviews. Navicore appears to be smaller and simpler.

I guess which one to get might well depend on what you wish to do with it.

-- gyre --

[raboyme]

[Nords]

Hi Gyre,

Decided on TT in the end, however we will have to swop memory sticks at some point so we can review the other system perhaps? Don't think that is dodgy as we will not be using it twice at the same time but the software might get funny about being used on a physically different phone (even though same model)? It must be akin to us both 'selling' it 2nd hand to each other?

I'll play around with it when it arrives and write a review in the same style as yours.

Cheers

[gyre]

Cool. I'll await your review.

-- gyre --

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