navigon posts

If you've been lusting after the Navigon apps for your iPhone, the company has just released lower-priced regional versions that divide the country into three sections and let you add other parts of the U.S. with an in-app purchase.

You can now buy Western states, Central U.S. or Eastern states as standalone regions. The single region version is US$24.99 until April 12, when the price goes up to $29.99. If you buy one region, you can add another region for $12.99 each.

These new versions contain all the features of the Navigon U.S. and Canada version. All versions include the new MyRoutes feature. Navigon MyRoutes learns from the user's driving style to provide customized and better route recommendations. The feature also offers up to two alternative routes clearly displayed on a map including ETA, distance and driving time. This lets users choose the route that best serves their individual situation. The MyRoutes feature will be added to the North American version with update 1.5.0

Traffic Live, which is another add-on, provides crowd-sourced real-time traffic information to calculate better routes that avoid congestion and get drivers to their destination faster. The feature is available as an in-app one-time purchase at a promotional price of $19.99 until April 12th.

As I pointed out in my review of CoPilot Live yesterday, these add-ons are getting a bit confusing, and it would be nice if all the nav developers simply offered a complete version to keep things simple. Others will argue that by offering bits and pieces you can customize your app and get only what you want. It does keep the price down. Navigon has certainly done that with the Navigon MyRegion edition. If you stay in pretty much one part of the country you get a very advanced application at a very competitive price. You can find a complete Navigon feature list here.

The apps run on iPhone version 3.0 or greater. They can be used on first generation iPhones or the iPod touch with additional hardware accessories, and run on their own with the iPhone 3G or 3GS.

We told you it was coming, and now it has arrived. The popular US$59.95 TomTom app is ready to hit the road with real time traffic available as an additional in-app purchase.

Included with the 1.3 update at no additional charge is Google local search, revised map data, music fading, automatic day and night mode based on your location, and the ability to add locations from other applications.

The real time traffic option has some nice features. Updates are received every 3 minutes. If a delay along your route is found, you will get notification from the app and automatically be re-routed. The not-so-great feature is that the traffic info will set you back $19.95 for 12 months of information. By contrast, when I reviewed the live traffic option on the Navigon app in November, it was a one time price of $19.95. The Navigon app itself is 10 bucks more expensive than the TomTom app that includes the U.S. and Canada, but those yearly fees from TomTom can add up.

All the navigation app developers are loading up their products with more and more features, and iPhone owners are lucky to have the chance to agonize a bit over which app to get. There are worse problems to have.

The TomTom nav app works on an iPhone or an iPod touch but using it with the iPod touch requires a car kit. Including Canada and the U.S., the app costs $69.95.

[Thanks Jared for the tip]

Navigon continues to be very aggressive at making its navigation platform a continued top seller for the iPhone. Today, the company announced an open app interface called AppInteract, which is a simple script that embeds a link into any app to launch Navigon's MobileNavigator. At the same time, it transfers any selected address into turn-by-turn directions.

"For example, if you find a restaurant in an app that has implemented our AppInteract interface, you can get turn-by-turn directions to a chosen place instantly," said Gerhard Mayr, vice-president worldwide mobile phones and new markets for Navigon. "Our aim is to provide elegant and easy to use navigation solutions, for our customers, as well as to the developer community."

The technology has already been embedded in the Where To? app that I've reviewed previously. Now every developer who wants the technology can get easy access to it.

It's clear Navigon wants to become a hub for all the apps that look up addresses, and for good reason -- there are many of those in the App Store.

Looking back, it's amazing how far the iPhone has come in the last couple of years. I suspect there is a lot more around the corner, especially with iPhone 4.0 being released later this year.

Navigon has been very aggressive about keeping its highly rated MobileNavigator app [iTunes link] up to date. Now, new features are putting it even further ahead of a lot of the competition.

The update adds three innovative features: in-app connection to Facebook and Twitter, Panorama View 3D with 3D terrain views powered from NASA data, and personalized route delivery via NAVIGON MyRoutes, an intelligent direction provider.

For Facebook and Twitter connectivity, a simple icon tap posts the user's current position, destination, and ETA without navigation interruption -- handy for advising family of your expected arrival or updating other travelers with your location if you stopped for a break.

The MyRoutes feature analyzes driving habits, patterns, location, time/day and provides up to three routes clearly displayed in-map with ETA, distance and driving times for each.

The 3D views enable intuitive orientation of the surrounding environment, and show you what lies ahead with digital landscape elevations, shadows, and geographic images. Panorama View 3D is integrated in-map, independent from the phone's data connection. The Panorama View 3D feature will be available via an in-app purchase.

There is a special Macworld promotion of the current version of MobileNavigator for US$69.99 and one time in-app purchase of Traffic Live for $19.99 (regularly $24.99) from February 5-15. All the new features except Panorama View are free updates for existing owners of the app. The Panorama View feature will be $9.99. All the new announced features are expected to be available this spring.

Besides being available for the iPhone 3G and 3GS, the NAVIGON app also runs on the first-generation iPhone or an iPod touch. Additional accessories are required for GPS navigation on these devices.

Magellan was nice enough to loan me a Premium Car Kit for the iPhone or iPod touch, so I put it in the car and drove around on both city streets and highways to get an idea how it worked, particularly with the excellent Magellan Road Mate software [iTunes link].

The Magellan kit is advertised to work with most other GPS apps, and can be used with many iPhone cases so you don't have to pull your iPhone out of a case to get it into the cradle. Setting up was easy: just plug in the cigarette lighter power adapter, plug the other end of that cable into the cradle, and using the provided suction cup to attach it to your glass windshield. I was able to do that without incident. When the unit powers up, it is automatically in pairing mode, and my iPhone found it quickly and paired.

I have an InCase rubberized case for my phone, and even with the case, my iPhone seemed to fit into the cradle just fine, but more on that in a moment. The Premium Car Kit has a built in GPS receiver, and I found that signal acquisition seemed faster than using the iPhone built-in GPS. The product is advertised as working with any iPod touch (2nd generation or better) but since I don't have one of those laying around, I didn't get a chance to test that claim.

News in the GPS world keeps swirling around, and for downloaders it's not too late to get some holiday GPS cheer. Here's a couple of updates of note.

First, Gokivo [iTunes link] just announced a new pricing option that allows you to download Gokivo for just $0.99 for the first 30 days, and then pay $4.99 per month/$39.99 a year for service from then on out. We reviewed the app in November. It was middle of the road (pardon the pun) in performance and features, but it does have live traffic and text to speech for announcing turns, so it might be worth a look at this lower price.

Meanwhile, Navigon [iTunes link] has launched a version for Mexico at $49.99. The Mexico version includes many of Navigon's premium navigation capabilities such as Google Local Search, Enhanced Pedestrian Mode, Speed Assistant, Route Planning and even a localized point-of-interest database. If you're doing some driving south of the border, or happen to live down there, it should be on your list of travel options.

I expect the new year will bring a slew of enhancements and new products for the iPhone and iPod touch -- who knows, maybe we'll even get to see a tablet navigator before 2010 is through.

The Navigon Mobile Navigator [iTunes link] has become my favorite GPS app for the car. Great graphics, text-to-speech, auto night mode, and traffic integration.

Today, Navigon dropped the price 30 dollars to U.S. $59.99 and added Google search. That's a great idea, because the self contained GPS apps have static databases that tend to age quickly. Navigon solved that problem by integrating a Google search to their app, which gives you the advantages of on-board maps coupled with the most up to date POI information.

That's the good news. The bad news [see update note at the bottom of this post] is this first integration of Google into the app is an utter bomb. I selected POI from the menu, then Google. I then typed in 'pizza' and hit search. The query returned a 'no POI in your area' message, yet I was about 200 yards from a Pizza Hut. I tried some other categories. Nothing. Zip. There is another field to fill in with my location, so I typed the default 'current location' as prompted by the software. Still nothing. I typed in a city name and found all kinds of Google hits, but why should I have to type in my location when this is a GPS app? I tried this at several places, and with several categories. Nothing worked unless I typed in a city name, and of course cities are big places so I wasn't getting the closest hits.

Navigating from the built in POI database worked fine, but the whole point of Google integration was more data, and more up to date information. On more than one try I saw a server error, and it had to be a problem with the app because Google Maps returned good info with no problems. I'm not the only one seeing this issue, so it's not a local error. Other users of the app are reporting the same thing.

This issue may be a temporary one, or a bad bug, but either way it is a bad start for a new feature. I'm confident Navigon will fix the problem.

Competition has forced Navigon to lower the price (until January 11th) and the app is a good buy at that price. I know a lot of people were anxious to have that Google integration, but at least for me and some others, it simply doesn't work. I've contacted the Navigon folks, but haven't heard back yet about what might be going on.

One more small issue. In the past, even though the app has iTunes integration that works well, it can't seem to find any podcasts. That's still a problem with this latest version. If you select the podcast genre, it just comes up empty handed.

We'll let you know when it these issues get fixed, but if you were waiting to buy for the Google feature you might want to wait a bit longer. If you're having problems, or if it works great for you, let us know.

Update note: The Navigon Google search now seems to be working for all users that we've checked that were having problems before, including me. Navigon indicated it was caused by some server issues that interrupted the service for some.

It was just last week that TomTom offered a new version of its nav app for the US (minus Canadian data) for $49.99US [iTunes link]. That didn't make people who bought the full version for a hundred bucks and never needed the Canadian info anyway filled with joy. Now, TomTom has dropped the price of the version that does include both the U.S. and Canada to $69.99 [iTunes link] until December 28, making those earlier customers even more unhappy.

Price cuts, of course, are a way of life, and no one should be surprised that competition drives down prices. In my view, most of the iPhone GPS navigators are priced too high. I think somewhere between $35 and $50 is about right considering that you are providing all the hardware. Hardware solutions have really plummeted in price, with many selling for close to $100.00. The advantage of the iPhone solution is there is only one device to carry, but navigation stops when a call comes in.

I'll have a roundup of my favorite GPS apps in a couple of days, but if you are ready to go a 30% discount on the TomTom is a pretty good deal, especially if you need to navigate in both Canada and the U.S. The well regarded Navigon app [iTunes link] is selling for $89.99, but watch for sales on that product as well. I know a lot of people are holding out for the free Google Navigator for the iPhone, but there is no guarantee that it will ever hit the App Store.

Thanks to Steve for the tip!

In what appears to be a happy marriage, Where To? for the iPhone [iTunes link] now talks to the Navigon GPS app. You can select a category or search for a business and then transfer that information directly to the Navigon app for turn-by-turn directions. If you don't have Navigon, you get Google Maps directions instead.

This is a nice update because the Navigon POI (points of interest) database is contained on the app, while Where To? relies on Google information. This way you get the best of both worlds, with up to date POI info that can easily be picked up the the Navigon app for a pretty seamless experience.

While checking the app on a drive around town I found it quick and easy to find some specific places to shop. Restaurants are broken down into categories, including things like cuisine categories or other criteria like "all you can eat."

The Navigon link worked perfectly, and in real world use turned out to be handy.

The new version also adds contacts integration, and customization and deletion of categories. I liked Where To? when i first reviewed it earlier this year, and the Navigon integration is a welcome addition. Where To? is U.S. $2.99. If you don't want to spend the money, I'd suggest a look at Around Me [iTunes link] which uses the same Google data but doesn't link to any nav apps.

Gee, we were just saying how competitive it is getting in the iPhone nav department, and Navigon has gone and cut prices for holiday travelers.

For 10 days only, beginning today (November 20-30) Navigon's iPhone app, Mobile Navigator [iTunes link]will be on sale for U.S. $69.99 instead of $89.99 providing a $20.00 savings. In addition, Navigon's Traffic Live feature is also on sale for $14.99 instead of $24.99. Traffic Live is a one time charge, not a continuing cost.

That's a significant saving for this very popular app, and puts it under similar featured apps from TomTom ($99.99) and Magellan ($79.99).

In my tests of the Navigon app I have found it accurate, and it has a superior user interface that is easy to use. Of course you shouldn't be looking at it while you are driving, and the text to speech does an excellent job of helping you keep your eyes on the road.

The Live Traffic feature will route you around major traffic congestion and adjust your ETA times.

It's nice to see prices heading south on some of these GPS packages. Now you'll be able to head south (or north, or any direction really) for less money and with more features. Have a safe trip.

Very welcome news for owners of the TomTom iPhone nav app [iTunes link for U.S. version]; the company has announced a free update that includes many of the features that people were craving.

• Advanced lane guidance giving drivers extra clarity when navigating difficult junctions. For the first time this is in both landscape and portrait mode.
• Text-to-speech helping motorists to keep their eyes on the road by enabling street names and places to be read aloud as part of the spoken instructions.
• "Help Me" providing direct access to emergency numbers and directions to the nearest emergency providers.
• Updated map and safety camera database (Europe only)
• Customizable audio warnings when approaching safety cameras or driving over the speed limit, increasing driver safety and saving money.
• iPod player control ensuring drivers can conveniently control their music from within the application.

TomTom submitted the new version to Apple yesterday, and as usual, it's anybody's guess when it will emerge. It won't be fast enough for TomTom owners, who have seen their app fall behind the feature rich Navigon app and other GPS offerings.

The joker in this particular deck is still the free Google Navigation app, which is trying to get onto the iPhone and will have a gaggle of features no one else is offering.

[via Engadget]

I've already reported on the updated Navigon iPhone app, [iTunes link] and noted that live traffic info was now included as an in-app purchase. I've spent the last 2 days driving around town testing it, and it works as advertised -- but perhaps in not as many places as I would have hoped.

Here in Southern Arizona, there were very few traffic updates, so I set a destination for Phoenix and had lots of information. Clearly, Navigon is not always sourcing information from smaller U.S. cities.

As a comparison, I tried the traffic info built into my car nav system, and it displayed 9 nearby traffic incidents, some as close as 4 miles away. At the same time, the nearest traffic incident I got from Navigon was 94 miles away in the Phoenix metro area.

It was odd, because both systems source a lot of the same places (like Clear Channel Radio) for information. On the other hand, the traffic info from Navigon was more detailed, with nice close-up maps of the trouble areas.

I like everything about the Navigon app. The graphics are first rate. It automatically changes to night view, the text to speech voice is very clear in a noisy car, and the map doesn't lag from my actual position.

The traffic option is US$19.99 as a one time payment, and not overpriced in my view. My only caution is you may not get much information if you are not in the large metro areas, and it would be nice if Navigon posted where good traffic information is available.

For those in the bigger cities, it's a nice addition at a reasonable price.

Navigon [iTunes link] has been very aggressive in the world of iPhone navigation. After taking the early lead in features, they continue to pour on the steam. Using in-app purchasing, any Navigon owners can now get live traffic, both crowd-sourced, and additional data from Clear Channel radio stations and other traffic providers.

According to Navigon:

• Users receive immediate on-screen alerts via iconic warnings indicating accidents, construction and other incidents that can cause congestion along the current route.
• Provides detailed information regarding the severity of the incident and the speed of traffic flow.
• Based on the real-time traffic warnings and the excellent mapping functionality the user can determine an efficient, alternative route or stay on the course.
• The software automatically adjusts estimated time of arrival.

The add-on is U.S. $19.99 as a one time charge for the next 4 weeks. Then it reverts to $24.99 for the lifetime subscription. I'll review the live traffic feature as soon as I get it loaded and try it on some traffic laden routes.

I've found the Navigon app a pleasure to use. In addition to the extra cost traffic info, this new release has added to the base software. That includes extended destination search. If you are not sure of the address you can move an icon around on a map and navigate to that point. The app also can launch in landscape mode.

Navigon has offered a car kit in Europe with a cradle, speaker and power connections. The company says it is evaluating selling the kit in the U.S., but hasn't come to a final decision.

As I've mentioned in this space before, expect a holiday round up of all the nav apps we've tested, along with some recommendations. Drive carefully.

Live in Australia? Have an iPhone? Do you use the iPhone's built-in Maps app, Navigon, or TomTom [iTunes links] to navigate? If you answered yes to all three of those questions, then I have some bad news for you: under the Australian Road Rule 8th Amendment, all use of the iPhone in your car is soon to be banned unless you buy a cradle for it, including using it as a GPS navigator.

An article from the Sydney Morning Herald initially makes it sound as though you won't be able to use such apps at all, especially after reading this quote from a spokesperson for VicRoads, the traffic authority for the Australian state of Victoria: "A phone will only be allowed to be used for its primary purpose. If it's a phone, it's a phone." But once you read farther down the article states, "Drivers will only be able to use mobile phones if they are placed in purpose-made cradles and operation is entirely hands-free." The language of the amendment itself also supports that interpretation.

So it's not the end of the road for iPhone nav apps in Australia, but if you want to continue using your iPhone for said purpose, you'd better go buy a cradle for it, because the fine for getting caught using your iPhone in the car without one is heinously expensive: AU$234! Even TomTom's iPhone cradle doesn't cost that much.

So far the new rule is only confirmed to be rolling out in Victoria, and not until November 9. But don't be surprised if other states and territories follow suit afterward.

New Zealand has a similar cellphone ban coming on November 1, but the NZ proposal is less draconian than the Australian version: the fine is only NZ$80, and the language in the proposal focuses on use of mobile phones for talking and texting, without making any mention of GPS or other uses.

The Australian law seems a bit of an overreach, but I fully support New Zealand's upcoming ban on talking and texting while driving (especially texting – I can't fathom why anyone would think it's okay to text and drive at the same time). I can't speak for Australia's roads, but the roads in New Zealand definitely require one's full attention. The iPhone in particular requires a lot of visual focus in order to use it as a phone unless you have a handsfree setup, and that kind of distraction from the task of driving could potentially lead to a fatal crash on our narrow, winding roads.

Of course there's a question of just how enforceable these laws will be in either country. Unless you're holding the phone up to the side of your head or using it at night, it's unlikely that a passing police car is going to see that your eyes are focused on what's in your hand rather than what's on the road. That's where common sense has to step in: is that phone call from your boss important enough to risk flying off the road? Probably not.

Thanks to reader Brian Rayner for sending this one in.

It's coming! Navigon, maker of the iPhone Mobile Navigator app [iTunes link], will announce a live traffic feature tomorrow that will be rolled out next month. The update is only for the North American version of the software.

Our readers have absolutely lusted after this feature for iPhone navigation, and now, after already adding text to speech in an update earlier this month, Navigon has pulled ahead of the pack again.

According to the company:

The system 'uses real-time speed data from over one million drivers across North America including commercial fleets such as trucks and taxis but also regular drivers with a GPS system. So if for example several vehicles on a road report slow speed, the system recognizes congestion and provides an alternate and faster route.

The feature also uses an intelligent fusion of information from traffic cameras, speed sensors and conventional traffic messages coming through a radio network. In addition, the system includes historic traffic data to assist with the prediction of road conditions when calculating a route. This includes information about traffic conditions on certain holidays or yearly events, allowing the driver to avoid taking routes that traditionally are congested on a regular basis.

Navigon has announced that the traffic info, which they call Traffic Live, will be available as an in-app purchase for US$19.99 for the first 4 weeks it is offered, then it will cost $24.99 as a one time purchase with no other month to month service fees.

The software, which will run inside the $89.99 Mobile Navigator software, requires iPhone OS version 3.0 or greater.

Navigon has been very aggressive with this product, raising the bar every couple of weeks with some substantial free updates, and now some significant optional services. It will be interesting to see how Tom-Tom and some of the other navigation providers respond. The AT&T Navigator [iTunes link] app already includes real time traffic, but it is available only with a $9.99 a month subscription fee.