TomTom for Android now in SA

[Viva]

Pretty sure, not the first nokia fanboy post by ClintZA.
No matter, sure he will be a little more courteous this time round

As far as I know, banned members are not allowed to sign up again.

 

[Viva]

Yes, just cache the area before you go into it. even satellite if you like

That won't help, as you still need a connection to start the navigation.

 

[AstroTurf]

As far as I know, banned members are not allowed to sign up again.

I have no idea, that would be a moderator's call

 

[AstroTurf]

That won't help, as you still need a connection to start the navigation.

Say what?

I have done it from Pretoria to Jhb by turning off my data before I even enter the address.

 

[Viva]

Say what?

I have done it from Pretoria to Jhb by turning off my data before I even enter the address.

As far as I know this is not possible, as the route calculation gets done by Google's servers. The app itself does not do the route calculations.

For instance, I have my area cached on my Nexus 7, but there is no way I can get the navigation going without an internet connection.

http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/24617/does-google-navigation-work-offline

 

[BeVonk!]

As far as I know this is not possible, as the route calculation gets done by Google's servers. The app itself does not do the route calculations.

For instance, I have my area cached on my Nexus 7, but there is no way I can get the navigation going without an internet connection.

http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/24617/does-google-navigation-work-offline

My experience as well. Cannot go completely offline for navigation. I've tried the offline store and drive thing and it disn't work out. If it was that easy and cheap the likes of TomTom and Navigon/Garmin won't bother with Android and iOS apps.

 

[AstroTurf]

My experience as well. Cannot go completely offline for navigation. I've tried the offline store and drive thing and it disn't work out. If it was that easy and cheap the likes of TomTom and Navigon/Garmin won't bother with Android and iOS apps.

Tried it now, did not work.

oh well

 

[BigAl-sa]

My experience has been outside cellphone reception areas, Google maps is useless. I'm going to try Osmand next week in n KNP, but the maps don't extend to decent coverage there. I was going to buy Navigon to test, but okes in Europe and the US have given it really crap ratings.

 

[The Thug]

I've been using Sygic for the past couple of weeks and have been very impressed.

 

[BigAl-sa]

I've been using Sygic for the past couple of weeks and have been very impressed.

Sygic looks interesting (at least you can have a look at it for a week), but €80 is quite steep - almost the price of a dedicated GPS!

 

[The Thug]

I bought the Southern Afica maps for around R350

 

[BigAl-sa]

I think a huge plus for Sygic is they have a pdf manual that is downloaded automatically. Navigon requires a 550MB download, then another 70MB for the SA maps before you can use the app (even though it is marked as Navigon Southern Africa). Something missing for me in Navigon is the ability to scroll around on the map when you're setting up your route. You also can't set waypoints (well after 2 hrs I couldn't figure out how to do it).

At this stage, Sygic looks like a better product to me.

 

[jalize]

I'm using WAZE which I think is very good. Needs a connection to update traffic and so on. Very usefull to avoid traffic jams.

The best of all it's free.

Used TOM TOM a few years ago on Nokia E51.

Good Luck

 

[GreGorGy]

Tom Tom is incompatible with me but Navigon is ok - anyone know how big the full Navigon download is?

 

[DominionZA]

Tom Tom is incompatible with me but Navigon is ok - anyone know how big the full Navigon download is?

Was 525MB or something like that.

 

[BigAl-sa]

Tom Tom is incompatible with me but Navigon is ok - anyone know how big the full Navigon download is?

See my post above.

Well Navigon was ok on my trip to Phalaborwa, until I decided on George's Valley rather than the recommended Magoebaskloof (heavy roadworks) - it kept asking me to turn back. The speed limits were pretty accurate, except in George's Valley where there were none, and then between Gravelotte and Phalaborwa it got stuck on 60kph for about 40km and kept on swearing at me to slow down!

With my Note (Mike's Note) the internal speaker is too soft to hear properly, especially with the road noise from 4x4 tyres at 120+kph. One needs external speakers of some form.

There is a lot to Navigon, one just needs time to figure it out (as I said, a manual would be welcome). I think tomtom shot themselves in the foot by ignoring the high res devices.

(It's currently 37°C in Kruger!)

 

[GreGorGy]

(It's currently 37°C in Kruger!)

Thanks for info but to brag about the decent weather - that's just cruel man. We only made 30 here. Freezing!

 

[BigAl-sa]

One of the most frustrating things for me (and I don't know whether this holds for standalone devices) I am trying to set up a route, and there is no way I can find to set a waypoint manually. For something as sophisticated as a phone, when I'm setting up a route I want to be able to touch on the map and have that included as a waypoint. I can't even find a way to get the coordinates of a point on the map so I can enter those manually.

 

[JBenci]

I have a TomTom Go1000 which I purchased early last year, primarily for the so called Live HD traffic updates, I have had numerous problems with my Go1000, but the most disappointing problem was that the TomTom/ZA lackey responsible for entering and broadcasting the traffic updates was still fast asleep at the time I am normally on the N1(N) in the mornings, afternoon notifications were somewhat better.

TomTom's marketing surrounding the Live HD traffic updates made it sound like it was a completely automated system that received 'telemetry' info from vehicle tracking companies and other TomTom devices (GPRS) to determine where traffic had snarled up followed by broadcasting of notifications, I soon discovered that was not true at all and seems to involve a lazy incompetent person somewhere in the TomTom Live HD traffic loop.

The TomTom Android app does sound good, but based on my experience with the Go1000 as well as TomTom's money making firmware+maps update schemes, I will not fork out even a small amount of money to try TomTom's Android app.

Then there is just the small matter of TomTom's iOS6 app that has been widely reported to be a disaster of epic proportions, which leaves me with the impression that TomTom's app dev skills are just as bad as their firmware dev skills for the Go1000.

As for "TomTom does the Robot" it looks more like a bunch of wannabe zombie extras from a very low budget TV film.

Each to their own.

I couldn't go for long in JHB without my tomtom live traffic. It does do a great job of avoiding traffic and I use it daily. no problems for me and my 80 km round trip commute.

 

[MyWorld]

I'm using WAZE which I think is very good. Needs a connection to update traffic and so on. Very usefull to avoid traffic jams.

The best of all it's free.

Used TOM TOM a few years ago on Nokia E51.

Good Luck

Waze is useless outside the bigger cities, and map development was a nightmare.

I put three solid months into it last year, putting every single road in our town on the map, correcting mistakes, collecting "coins", candy and whatnot, hours of discussions on map editing...
* First the servers would crash almost daily, and sometimes losing edits I made, not fun...
* The map tiles would not overlap properly making it impossible to properly map out the one section of the country. When I queried it: "It is out of our hands, GOOGLE MAPS have some flaws".
What!!!! We get warned constantly NOT to use Google Maps for reference while the whole thing is build on the back of Google Maps?!
* The Android client was always months behind the iOS release, making new features impossible to use and making map editing frustrating.
* After losing a few edits, stuff not updating correctly and getting lost and that lame excuse for the map flaw I just uninstalled Waze, spending hours on the darn thing to only see it all go up in smoke, not funny!

/rant

Sorry for that...

I'm in the market now also for a good GPS solution, my basic needs:
ETA estimation - Google has this as well as many other apps, so not worried
Current Speed Indicator - Surprisingly, none of the free alternatives I have tried has this
Speed Limits - Again same as above, seems to be premium content
Speed traps - This would be a bonus

Anyone know of a well priced app that can handle all this? I know Tom-Tom and Garmen should be able to handle this, any other suggestions?