My comments on Telmap 5 Beta

[Icarus3000]

Generally I am very pleased with the improvements made from 4.5 to 5. The graphics are amazing and animation is very smooth.

I like that it shows you not only where to turn next, but what street you are currently on.

A few suggestions:

1. The user interface is much too complicated. Why can't you access the settings while you are driving? Sometimes i am driving and decide that due to traffic I would prefer to avoid highways. Now I have to exit the navigation mode and go back to the main screen. Wish I could access "settings" directly from navigation screen.

2. I like the look of the "widgets", but either make all options available as widgets, or all options available from the menu, or better yet, both. It took me a long time to figure out how to get the "ETA" to show on my navigation screen.

3. Integrate it with my blackberry address book. Why was this taken away from 4.5 to 5? To be honest, it wasn't done very well in 4.5 as it only allowed you to search by first or last name. Why not integrate it fully with the address book so that you can search using the blackberry's built-in searching functions?

4. Add option for "business" in the widget searches - right now you can look for ATM's, gas stations, etc... but would be better if you could search for ANY business by name (somehow connect to yellow pages website or something like that)

5. Have option to keep "ETA" and distance to arrival on screen at all times. I know how to get this on my screen now, but if I go to another widget, this disappears. I want it on ALWAYS!

6. Backlight issues. I want the backlight ON all the time! Now, it dims first, then goes on again. Continuously blinking "off" and "on" gets annoying.

7. Very minor. Detect what country the person is in. If NOT in Israel, completely get rid of the option to "avoid green line". This is confusing to users NOT in Israel, and quite useless.

8. Stability. I am currently experiencing some difficulty EXITING the app. It seems to freeze up when I try to exit. Also took me a few tries to even install it - a lot of freezing.

I have to say that I really like the look of this navigation system! I tried out the Garmin for a 7-day trial, and while that was pretty good, overall I think Telmap is better. What I didn't like about Garmin is that it doesn't show you all the side streets unless you keep zooming in, and it won't "stick" on a selected zoom level, but keeps zooming back out. Also, it doesn't show you what street you are on. The one big plus Garmin has is that it is 100% integrated with the Blackberry address book.

Keep up the good work!

[Icarus3000]

Just thought of one other suggestion:

Allow the user to go into navigation mode without first selecting a destination. Sometimes I just like to drive that way so I can see what streets I am passing and don't really need to type in a destination. Driving with the "map" view isn't as helpful.

[SyBorg]

Good list Icarus. Not sure I agree with playing with settings while on route but....
For the backlight issue on the BB have you looked at the settings for the device itself? I used to get that with another software and changed the settings to fix it - only problem now is password/security timeout so I have to hit a button each hour or it locks.

As for....

[Icarus3000]

re: changing settings while en route

While I agree that drivers shouldn't be playing around with their phone/gps too much while driving, sometimes it is inevitable (hopefully driver will pull over or only do this while stopped at red light). It's not as though the app locks you out of any menus while driving, just the settings, which I don't understand.

I often find myself unsure of whether to take a highway or go through the city roads depending on traffic and time of day, and would prefer a quicker way to switch between the two settings. If it's a safety issue you are concerned about, right now it takes me twice as long as it should to change this.

[TUGAdmin]

Hi Icarus
Thanks for this great feedback. It's going straight to our product department.

The best way is to use our structured feedback form .

We try to calculate the optimal route that considers traffic conditions.
Since data on traffic is usually limited to main roads, sometimes - if you are driving in familiar territory - you may be able to find a way around the traffic. We do periodically "ping" our servers to check if the traffic conditions have changed - and update the route if a better one has emerged.

Keep the feedback coming.
THanks
TUGAdmin

[TUGAdmin]

One more thing - please see my post from today entitled "Back in town" - regarding our new version that is available to you now.

[Icarus3000]

Updating to latest version right now.

Actually one comment I had about the feedback form is that I found it to be too restrictive and complicated to fill out - particularly for general feedback. Maybe it is there and I didn't see it, but you should include a category for general feedback.

Thanks again!

We see you’re using an ad-blocker. We’re fine with that and won’t stop you visiting the site.
Have you considered making a donation towards website running costs?.
Or you could disable your ad-blocker for this site. We think you’ll find our adverts are not overbearing!