WP7 Services in SA?

[Timb]

Hi,

Long-time lurker and all that. I'm considering getting a WP7 phone. I'm really looking forward to seeing what Nokia pull out of the bag next week.

My question for those of you that currently use WP7 is this:

How well do the Bing (integrated) services work with the phone in South Africa? At the moment I'm using an Android phone, and I use the mapping and turn-by-turn driving directions a lot. For example, last night I typed in the name of a restaurant, found it on Google Maps and was able to select Driving Directions. I did a test on Bing.com and couldn’t even find the restaurant by name.

Maybe I should just stick with Android

 

[roguemat]

Yes, unfortunately Bing Scout doesn't include us, which means no restaurants. There are google maps apps that I'm sure would suffice.
Turn-by-turn works great here. And if you wanted an alternative there at other turn-by-turn apps which are very descent. But I've found the Bing one to be fine.

 

[Timb]

So how would one, for example, find a location by name and then get directions to it? And by address? Do you have to search on a Google Maps app and then copy and paste into a navigation app / turn-by-turn?

 

[roguemat]

So how would one, for example, find a location by name and then get directions to it? And by address? Do you have to search on a Google Maps app and then copy and paste into a navigation app / turn-by-turn?

Firstly by address, you would open "Maps" and type where you want to go(the address), then it will show the route and speak the steps to you (tap the screen to repeat current instruction).
Then with the other apps, I honestly have never needed this so I'm not sure, but presumably every descent 3rd party map app would have it's own directions in it so you wouldn't need to copy into bing.

 

[lariato]

Turn-by-turn works great, local scout isn't supported (although there are alternative apps like From Here), Bing Music is decent (not available when using SA live ID but available when using US ID).

 

[Timb]

So, once I've found what I'm looking for -- via Google or Bing or whatever -- the navigation works okay? It seems that the link between the finding and the navigating is not as seamless as it would be in the US.

 

[AJKock]

I don't use the Bing Maps (not very user friendly and lots of times it gives incorrect destinations, maybe I have incorrect settings?). I love the look but it just doesn't work for me. The interface is not that intuitive.

If you like your Google Maps, you can download "gMaps Pro" which is very good (Google Latitude integrated).

 

[roguemat]

I don't use the Bing Maps (not very user friendly and lots of times it gives incorrect destinations, maybe I have incorrect settings?). I love the look but it just doesn't work for me. The interface is not that intuitive.

If you like your Google Maps, you can download "gMaps Pro" which is very good (Google Latitude integrated).

This is not my experience. Personally Bing Maps has by far the smoothest and best UI out of all the apps I've seen. Intuitive-wise, there's only like 3 buttons to press so it has a learning curve of about 6 seconds.

While gMaps Pro is descent it is slow (laggy, not load times).

 

[lariato]

Bing Maps was quite useful for a recent trip. Voice guided turn-by-turn was decent. GMaps was meh... Well, that's just my experience.

 

[iDenTiTy]

For some reason, my voice gauidance doesn't work!
I launch the Maps app, type in where I wan't to go.. I shows the route, but doesn't tell me [voice] when to turn where!

Is there a specific setting for that?
My location services are set on.