Filed under: iPhone, App Review
NDrive brings a low cost nav solution to the iPhone
Gee, I thought we had seen all the nav apps, but new ones keep popping up. NDrive, a new U.S. $32.99 app [iTunes link] is actually pretty good for the money, and has a reasonably complete feature set. I don't put it in the class of the TomTom, Navigon or Magellan apps, but they cost twice as much.Here's what you get for your 32 bucks plus change:
- The maps are built into the app. No cell connection needed
- Auto day/night switching
- Alarms for speeding
- Portrait, landscape mode
- Alphabetical or QWERTY keyboard option
- POIs with favorites, descriptions, phone and website links
The app has a strange syntax when announcing a turn, saying something like "in miles .3 turn right." The developer says that will be fixed in a couple of weeks.
IPod support is weak with no control of the music, it just keeps playing what you are already had on. That's going to be fixed too.
I thought the GUI was actually quite nice. Zooming is and out is done by pinching and squeezing, but if you zoom out too much you won't see many details.
The app was quick to get a GPS fix, but I found turn instructions came just a bit late. It needs to anticipate the upcoming turn in enough time that I can get in the correct lane.
Bottom line: A pretty good app for a reasonable price. If you are on the fence about a GPS app, and want to get something for holiday travel but don't want to sink $80 or more into some of the other offerings, NDrive is a pretty good app. With the update scheduled for a couple of weeks out, the app will get even better.
Gallery: Ndrive navigation app screens


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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kaptein said 12:35PM on 11-30-2009
Now it just needs a better interface. I end up always using navigon just because of the horrible interface in N-drive. But for the price I guess you cant complain.
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Megarain said 1:31PM on 11-30-2009
Too bad Google killed their market.
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Erwin Dink said 7:51PM on 11-30-2009
No comment on the app but "32 bucks plus change" riles me. Call it a quibble over pennies, if you like, but $32.99 is really $33. Why go along with the idiotic convention of pretending otherwise?
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mrcubes2u said 10:24PM on 11-30-2009
$33 doesn't seem like a low cost navigation app considering there are many for a tenth of that price. I use MotionX GPS Drive which costs $3 and works great.
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Jose said 11:35PM on 11-30-2009
mrcubes2u, maybe I missed something but I thought that MotionX is $2.99 / month, so much more over the long run?
mrcubes2u said 11:40PM on 11-30-2009
It is $24.99 per year if you want voice navigation but it is fully functional without it. That is a feature I never liked in rental car GPS navigation units.