Filed under: iPhone, App Review
G-Map back in action with new nav app
XRoad gave us one of the first Nav apps for the iPhone. It's still for sale under the name G-Map West or East, and gives users either a Western or Eastern U.S. version. It was pretty basic when it first came out, but there have been many improvements. Now the folks at XRoad have a new app that covers the whole of the U.S., Puerto Rico, and Canada, and it's on sale for US$39.99.
The new version of the app brings text to speech to the party, free traffic service for one year, and a claimed update to the Navteq data. Like many of the competitors out there, G-Map offers address book integration, 3D views of the road, detailed renderings of thousands of intersections, trip planning, and it allows the editing of POI information by adding notes or phone numbers.
So how does it work in the world of cars, traffic, and road closures? OK, but it's not wonderful. First, the app is pretty slow. It acquires a GPS signal right away, but then G-Map takes it's own sweet time orienting the maps. For a few seconds, your direction of travel is not at the top. After a bit, G-Map figures it out, but I think if you were launching the app when you were already underway, you'd get some pretty confusing visual cues.
When you get a call, the app stops, and after the call you can go back in. When I did go back into the app, I had to once again acknowledge the legal mumbo-jumbo by tapping on the screen.
The maps were complete, and I couldn't find any missing streets in my area. The app runs in portrait or landscape mode, and makes the switch quite rapidly. The voice is quite good, and not garbled. I did find the app too chatty, and wish there was a way to limit the interruptions to a minimum.
As in the original release of this app, the POI database is troublesome. It is not very deep. Movie theaters that opened last November in my neighborhood are not there. Worse, I wanted directions to the Phoenix Airport and tapped Airports in the POI list. It showed a lot of little airports within a 50 mile radius, but nothing beyond that distance. When I told it to search more widely, it found nothing. When I suggested that we just drive to Phoenix, rather than the airport specifically, G-Map found the destination with no problem. It may be that the app has a limit to the distance it will search for some POIs, but if you are a cross-country driver, fiddling with the app to get the POI is silly and dangerous. This is especially hilarious since when you first log in you are warned to "not operate this application while driving."
I want to like this app, but it stills feels rough and not perfectly thought out from an ease of use perspective. You can listen to music while it is running, but only if you start up the music before launch, and there are no controls within the app to skip ahead or choose something else. If your iPhone is set to get iPod controls when you double tap the menu button, you can control the music that way. I never saw any traffic information. Maybe I live in too small a town, but during a planned trip up to Phoenix, I didn't see any traffic info either. The 3D map views are nice, but no matter which direction you turn, G-Map shows a big city ahead with tall buildings. It's a needless distraction, especially when you are in the middle of nowhere. This is the first app I've seen that induces hallucinations.
This app is reasonably priced (while on sale) and the maps are good. The POI database is very limited, and forces you to fool around with the app while driving, which is downright dangerous. For people who bought the older 'half the country' version, I don't see any information on an upgrade path. I'd hate to have purchased half of the U.S. for $34.99 a few months ago, only to find that I could get the whole country and text to speech for 5 bucks more.
The iPhone navigation race has become very interesting, and all the competition is good for those of us who love nav apps. It seems there are new or updated GPS apps every week, and that can only benefit consumers in the long run.
Here are some screen grabs:
Gallery: X-Road G-Map
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Travis said 7:56AM on 10-09-2009
Or... you could just pay $2.99 for GPS Drive in the App store. Speech text is extra, but its only $24 a year. But you don't have to pay for map updates ever.
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Mike said 8:21AM on 10-09-2009
I purchased GMap East about 1.5 months ago, and have been patiently waiting for an update to improve the crummy POI database, as well as the poor GPS performance (compared to Navigon), and have been majorly disappointed. The app store should really give us the ability to demo a product, because the East version isn't worth the money.
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Kbtkpk said 9:49AM on 10-09-2009
Count me as really peeved after having bought the half-country version the week it came out and having no upgrade path to this new version. I wrote to the vendor about this but have gotten no reply.
Steve said 10:36AM on 10-09-2009
Two things: I have owned GMap West since v1.0 and it works, but could be better. The improvements introduced with this new app would go a long way toward making it a serious contender, but we'll see if they ever arrive. This developer tends to make upgrades, but slowly. I've contacted them too so now we'll have to wait and see.
Second, GPS Drive is $0.99 right now ($2 off the regular price), so there's no reason not to give it a try.
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brian said 12:35PM on 10-09-2009
I too feel kicked in the nads on this...
early supporter and feel this should be part of the east map pack.. why SHOULD i have PR, CA and everywhere else .. ill never go there.. im NOT paying for the same app again with a few extra features... i would gladly pay an extra $5 bucks or whatever the diff is, if it was an in app upgrade.. i Will not purchase anymore GPS apps from them.. this isnt version 2 of some videogame..
dont get me wrong i like this app, just hope they do the right thing...
but if they are going to add afew extra features and make it a new app, or rewrite the whole app .. it could still be the same app...
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Darren said 12:19PM on 10-09-2009
Question I have about these Nav apps. Every single frickin review says that when you get a call the app closes and you can go back to the app *when the call is finished*.
Is there some reason why you can't go back to the map while the call is still in progress? I've done that with the Maps app and it seemed to work just fine.
Point is, a 20 second pause in navigation while you answer a call and jump back to the app seems a lot more palatable than not having any navi at all until your coworker finishes yapping...
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lostboy said 2:20PM on 10-09-2009
"The POI database is very limited, and forces you to fool around with the app while driving..."
Let's be clear here: The app doesn't force the user to do diddly. If you fuss with POIs while driving instead of taking the time to pull over somewhere safe, you do so by choice.
I agree, though, that it's downright dangerous. A difficult choice to defend.
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