Filed under: Software, Odds and ends, iPhone
G-Map East and West for iPhone updated with text to speech
When the latest G-Map app covering navigation in the U.S. and Canada was updated with text to speech, it didn't make owners of the older East and West [iTunes store links for each] versions too happy. Now that has been corrected, and both iterations of the U.S. $24.99 app have text to speech, iTunes integration, and the ability to resume navigation automatically after a call.Traffic will be added soon to both apps as an in-app paid update.
Meanwhile, the U.S. and Canada version has been pulled from the app store. According to the company:
'we found a critical issue in the new update of G-Map US & Canada. In order to protect our current users, we have no choice but to temporarily pull the app from the App Store. We already corrected the problem and re-submitted the G-Map US & Canada for approval. Please allow us a few more weeks to serve you. We will do our best to minimize any inconveniences that might occur to you.'
All the G-Map apps have been reasonably priced, but a bit buggy which has not pleased buyers. I'm working on a holiday buyers guide for nav software for the iPhone, but the whole landscape will change radically if Apple approves the free Google nav app with turn by turn directions and photo realistic rendering of routes. The app is shipping in the new Android 2.0 phones, starting with the Verizon Droid, which is scheduled for release tomorrow.
If choice is a good thing, iPhone owners have a veritable bounty of navigation apps in all price ranges and features. MapQuest has now released their own navigation app, and frankly it's a mixed bag.
Users have been begging for it, and now 
Have you ever wished your Mac could read a long text document to you? Well, with the speech service, you can easily have your Mac read as much or as little text as you want. 
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