Editorial
Smartphone navigation continues to consume most of the column inches this week. PND development has stagnated recently, almost certainly due to the economic situation. Software development is far cheaper and requires less capital investment. Whether smartphones will ever usurp PND's as the navigation device of choice still remains to be seen but they are getting better by the day.

My iPhone offers 80% of the features I require and of course it is connected so could conceivably offer additional services. But until I can add speedcam POIs it will remain my 'emergency' nav device. Sure an iPhone/Cradle/Nav Software is an expensive combination and compares poorly with a PND but if you have the phone and cradle already then a £50 nav app is a cheap upgrade.

Darren Griffin

GPS News

Nav N Go Announce iGO Amigo Solutions for Android

Hungarian navigation software provider, Nav N Go, have announced that their iGO Amigo software now runs on Android. No release has been announced but the press release implies that it may be released by 3rd parties, perhaps even network providers.

RouteBuddy Atlas 1:50K OS Great Britain Map Available

RouteBuddy have been busy this month. Hot on the heels of the 1.1 release of Atlas for iPhone comes news of the Ordnance Survey maps of Great Britain. Available at 1:50k and 1:250k scales the maps are priced at £99.99 and £7.99 respectively.

Carcomm TomTom x40/x50 Cradle Available

Carcomm now have three cradle solutions for TomTom's x40 and x50 range. With passive and active options as well as a 'music' model, the active models support 12/24v power inputs and can be hard-wired or connected using a cigarette power plug.

Smartphone GPS Usage Surges Ahead in China

A report published this week claims that China’s 2008 smartphone market witnessed a 30% increase over the previous year. Up from 12% in 2007, smartphones made up 15.3% of the total mobile phones shipped in China last year.

Residents take action against satnav map errors

Angry residents in Salisbury have erected a sign in an effort to warn motorists about a map error. This has resulted in drivers being sent along a road that is in fact a dead end. Satnav maps from Tele Atlas AND Navteq both contain the same error.

Speed Camera Data Update Nov 4th - v7.111

For this weeks database release we have accepted 62 changes that have now been incorporated into the database.

Of all the submissions 24 met the qualification criteria for Lifetime Membership this week, 10 were existing Lifetime Members and one was not a subscriber at the time the report was submitted.

And so this week we welcome 13 new members to the club. All have now secured a FREE Lifetime Subscription. Our congratulations to the new 'Lifers':

Barbs, edthedriver, fatheralice, jholderp, knuttucks, LoneCrusader, MikeGordon, MoonBeam, nitrox50, sandiesasha, slink, wissam, wolfspawned.

If you are one of this week's lucky members then the 'Lifetime Member' rank will be added automatically. Please ensure you CANCEL the renewal from within your PayPal account if you paid via PayPal. If you do not cancel the payment then we reserve the right not to issue a refund. This is time consuming and we have warned you!

Speed Camera News

TomTom's Speedcams

Many of you will have received TomTom's mail offer with a discount on their speedcam service. In fact many of you will note this is an extension to an extension to an offer which suggest they aren't selling very well!

And it's little surprise when you actually examine some of their data. We are sometimes criticised for our service because we cannot offer custom installer programs for specific devices. But whilst TomTom's cameras are indeed a paragon of simplicity to install, their data, the crucial component of the service, is appallingly bad.

I compared our data with theirs on a recent journey and found entire sections of SPECS cameras unreported and passed a mobile camera that was not alerted. All these were correctly recorded in our data. TomTom's data is cheaper, but it is for ONE device (ours covers THREE) and there is no Lifetime Offer. If the data is so bad then does it matter if its cheaper or even free? It's useless if it misses cameras!

Member Subscriptions

All subscriptions made via PayPal use an auto-renewal service and will renew each year as your subscription falls due.

This is clearly stated on the subscription page. If you do not wish to have your subscription auto-renew you can easily cancel the recurring payment from your PayPal account at any time before your subscription falls due.

Members who choose to remain in the auto-renewal scheme benefit from renewals at the price that was in force when they first subscribed regardless of any price increases in the interim. If you cancel the recurring payment you will no longer have this benefit.

We send out reminders to the email address recorded on your account a few days prior to renewal and this contains a reminder that you can opt-out and cancel the renewal if you wish. Should you miss this reminder then we will issue refunds for any auto-renewal payment so long as you have not accessed the database following renewal.

As you can see, this system is very fair. If you have any issues with a payment or need guidance on cancellation please open a support ticket.