Navigon MobileNavigator for iPhone launches in AppStore

marcol · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 09, 2006 Posts: 22

I have no idea why you chaps have such a different experience with Navigon to me. I haven't had a GPS drop for a couple of weeks. I just tried it - 11 seconds from pushing 'Show map' to getting a lock - and I'm currently indoors! I don't have any pro-Navigon axe to grind here - in fact I'm seriously considering getting Sygic (not least because I only have the UK version of Navigon and I'm off to Europe week after next) - but I really don't have the problems you do.

J2b2 · Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 2:28 am Post subject:

in regards to this gps signal thing.

I saw someone say about poor signal using runkeeper...
I also use runkeeper and it never realy gives me higher than a poor/medium signal quality. However my runs are allways tracked very precisely. As precise as the current gps sattelites allow id say!

Also i tested sygic and and with gps locked about 10 minutes prior to this.
i was going over tower bridge in incredibly slow traffic. 1-5mph maybe Laughing Out Loud

?

I was half way across the bridge and sygic was tryin to tell me i was at the beginning of the bridge. I found the quality of my friends navigon which i teted much more precise in tracking your location... but lack of features obviously..

I advise all to wait for tomtom personally before parting with your hard earned cash. Because i can almost gauruntee when tomtom comes out yourl wish you had bought that instead.

ttrevor · Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 7:53 am Post subject:

I do like the look of Sygic but I am going to wait for the Navigon free updates as it does work perfectly on my Iphone no loss of GPS signal in fact I don't think it has ever lost the signal and I have auto wiper sensors just above where my phone sits that I know can cause problems, so its time to wait and see what to go for but at present Navigon is good for me .
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Iphone x 64gb IOS 11.3.1 / IPhone 6 Plus 32gb IOS 12 beta /Volkswagen Scirocco R 280 bhp /Suzuki Vitara swb vvt+ /Suzuki Jimny special/running Apple Mac Mini / Apple air/ iPhone x /6 plus navigation / Apple car-play

gatorguy6996 · Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 5:05 pm Post subject:

I wanted to repeat a post I made in another thread, as it's really more appropriate here. Navigon has a very unique routing algorithm on it's newest models, tho somewhat similar to a Garmin-developed function in use for a few years. It actually learns from your personal driving style, adapting both travel times and routing based on your own travel speeds over certain road classes. Someone with the Navigon mobile app for iPhone would need to confirm they've used their latest routing development. If so, that would go a long ways towards explaining some computed routes that at first glance might appear to be odd, but in fact may be the fastest way for you personally to go. Along with Navteq's emerging TrafficPatterns, similar to TomTom's IQR, it could make Navigon's mobile package the best available option for the iPhone, and something TomTom (for now) couldn't match.
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Garmin 1695 / 255 / 760 w/MSN - Droid w/Google nav + Navigon - Navigon 8100T - Dakota10 - GPSMap76C - GeoMate Jr.

reteb · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 25, 2006 Posts: 40

classy56 · Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2009 9:09 am Post subject:

alan_dr · Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 2:54 pm Post subject:

Europe version reduced to £59.99 until end of August. Things are hotting up!
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Alan - iPhone 5 64GB, with CamerAlert, TomTom Europe & CoPilot

klopus · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 25, 2006 Posts: 6

Yes, I finally took a plunge and installed Navigon on my iPhone 3G 8GB. Still 2.5GB left. Here's few initial observations about overall performance after half an hour drive thru Manhattan from TriBeCa to Midtown:

- Rout calc and recalc speeds are, funny enough, faster than my Nuvi 755. Dunno if it's more attributable to hardware or software differences between iPhone/Navigon or Garmin nuvi platforms. Probably Navignon's software rout calculation engine is simply more efficient than Garmin's even on comparable (or worse?) hardware.

- GPS acquisition time and reliability is more or less on par with stock Maps app which isn't to say is good but still tolerable. At least it shows that Navigon doesn't make iPhone GPS hardware worse than it already is. Garmin in Midtown with all these skyscrapers around wasn't all that much better anyway.

- Map redraw smoothness and speed is nothing to write home about but still sort of better than expected. Signal lag was really hard to judge at slow speeds. I would say overall Navion on iPhone is on par with low-level previous gen PND like my old Nuvi 270.

- Some non map related parts of Navigon's UI are sluggish to the point of being at times annoying especially when you prepare to navigate. Address entry makes you wait for lists of available selections, you touch a button and wait till something happens, etc. Probably it's better on 3Gs. On the other hand switching from 3D to 2D maps is seamless so I think Navigon has some UI code optimization to do.

- Functionally Navigon iPhone is pretty bare, even more limited than a cheap previous gen PND like Nuvi 270. Things like TTS and real-time traffic not speaking of seemingly basic stuff like rout preview/simulation, list of next directions steps, zoom in/out 3D map, detour, etc. were dearly missed compared to my Nuvi 755. Though maybe I didn't figure out yet how to do some of the basic things I'm complaining about. Why Navigon (and TomTom) can't switch automatically between day and night views is beyond me.

- 3D Map view is on one hand well designed and detailed with a nice sense of horizon and flexible selection of POIs to show. On the other hand I didn't figure out how to zoom it in/out and too much of limited screen estate, especially on top, is wasted. I hate how Navigon aligns street names with street direction instead of showing names parallel like everybody else does.

- Address entry is also hit and miss. Overall I think it's more flexible and better designed than the one on Nuvis. Theoretically ability to use iPhone Contacts is very welcome but in practice I found it to be somewhat fiddly. It works only when (1) address in a contact is formatted exactly according to the field labels, (2) uses abbreviations that Navigon understands and (3) exact address how it's parsed by Navigon is in Navteq database. Having zip code in a Contact sometimes helps but sometimes doesn't. I found that if even one of these conditions is not met not only Navigon will reject the contact but it may crash. I had especially bad luck with the following address in Williamsburg, Brooklyn: "162 S 3rd Street, New York, NY 11211". Google Maps, MapQuest and Nuvi had no problem locating it. Only Navigon not only couldn't find it but without "S" (as in South) would simply crash. Latter applied even to manual address entry.

- Most annoying behavior is that when you explicitly (not because of the call) exit Navigon app it doesn't remember where it was. Moreover when you start it later inexplicably it won't show you the map until it obtains the GPS lock. Which obviously precludes any rout simulation or poking around in a map. That's silly since biggest attraction as opposed to the stock Maps app is that Navigon has all the maps right here on the device and you can't utilize it without GPS signal!

Nonetheless my overall feeling so far is that I was expecting much worse in performance and much better in functionality. iPhone/Navigon combo actually seems to be usable and probably would be worth $70 with TTS and all $100 (but not more) with some basic functional additions mentioned above and most importantly iPhone connectivity utilization like real-time traffic and POIs. At a current state it's more like $50 tops but somehow I don't regret buying it (yet).

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