Navigon Mobile Navigator for iPhone
While Navigon has exited the North America market as far as PND devices are concerned, they are not completely closing up shop with respect to other types of Navigation. Available now you can pickup the Navigon iPhone app and get most of the Navigon experience you’re familiar with, on your iPhone. We’ve taken a few trips with the iPhone using it in Maine, Los Angeles, and points between to give the app a workout. And for the most part we are pretty impressed.
Pricing, Maps
As of press time, the app is on sale for $69 however this is a special price for the initial release and the price will go up to $99 on August 15. Currently, this price doesn’t include any map updates, nor traffic reporting although you can lookup local fuel prices. (Traffic will reportedly come soon.) However it is reasonable to expect other live services might become available in the future for an additional cost. There is no word yet on how much map updates might cost or exactly how the map update process will work.
Navigon puts the maps “on-board” the device. This has benefits and drawbacks. The drawbacks are that they are not automatically updated and more importantly this makes for one huge app weighing in at around 1.2 GB in size. Some people might not want an app that big on their phone and it doesn’t lend well to more spontaneous purchases.
On the plus side you don’t need to have network coverage for the app to work. Stick yourself out in the boonies and the app will be just as happy as sitting within sight of a network tower. The app is also a bit friendlier on battery power when compared to competitive apps that transfer maps gradually over the network. The “map refresh rate” is also faster than the AT&T Navigator application possibly due to the speed of on-board maps.
Entering a Destination
We were very happy to see integration with the Contacts app on the iPhone. After pulling up the Navigon MobileNavigator app you can access your contacts and the addresses within those contacts, then select one as a destination. This is pretty slick most of the time and a huge timesaver for people who frequently drive to locations already in their Address Book. It doesn’t work perfectly all of the time though. I have a few addresses in my contacts list that combine Post Office addressing with physical addressing like this:
John Doe
POI Box 456
1234 Main St.
Anytown, State, USA
The application seemed to have a difficult time parsing those addresses and I had to enter a few by hand. We also sorely missed the TeleNav feature (AT&T Navigator) where you can go to a website and enter destinations on your computer beforehand. That type of feature isn’t as big of a deal for the iPhone as it is for typical PNDs since most people keep their phone on their person when they might keep their PND in their car.
You can also pick from a variety of POI categories including restaurants broken down by food type. No store ratings are available, however the POI database is fairly complete. The POIs are displayed on the map as you drive along, and many of the bigger chains like Best Buy have branded POI icons.
If you are in a hurry, you might want to pull up the app before you get in the car as the application takes 30 seconds or so to launch, then typically a bit more time to fix onto the GPS signal.
Navigation
Navigation on the Navigon app is really slick. The interface has a fast refresh rate and the voice is just about as understandable as it could be given the iPhone’s weak speaker. Note it won’t be nearly as loud nor as clear as a PND, however it is much better than the AT&T Navigator app when it comes to voice quality. You do not get text to speech which is a bummer, however at least the voice is reasonably easy to understand.
About the only significant fault we could find with the navigation guidance on the Navigon iPhone app is that it doesn’t zoom in close enough on intersections as you approach them. Even when you are a few hundred feet away the intersection detail is very tiny and sometimes difficult to interpret– even for myself with near perfect vision. But the “next turn arrow” makes up for a little bit of that fault since it is large and easy to read.
You also get a few of the interface features familiar to Navigon owners like big signposts and Reality View. Reality View works really well, and frankly works even better in portrait view where the information seems to fit on the screen better. You can flip-flop the orientation of the iPhone and the app will automatically adjust between portrait and landscape views, however don’t expect it to rotate as fast as the Photos app. Sometimes it took up to 30 seconds for the display to re-orient after rotation.
While perhaps we should have expected it, seeing a nearly full database of speed limit information was really nice to have as well. You can customize speed limit warnings for both highways and more local roads. We did somewhat miss the “progress bar” used to graphically indicate just how close to a turn you are when it can be difficult to judge just how far away 400 feet is.
Customization
Navigon Mobile Navigator also offers many of the customizations Navigon owners have grown to love over the years. You can specify the route profile, set preferences for toll roads, highways, HOV lanes, ferries, etc. You can also specify you need a detour and set the distance you need to detour around.
I’m glad Navigon didn’t take a “cram everything on the screen” approach like they did with their PND line. On their PNDs this made many of the fields difficult to read as the font size needed to be so small and most of the information was superfluous to navigation. Not so on the MobileNavigator app which includes just the right amount of information at a reasonable font size.
Other typical PND functions such as day and night modes as well as being able to switch from 2D to 3D mode are also available.
The Final Fix
Navigon did a fantastic job with their first release of a navigation app for the iPhone. They took the best of their interface from their PND line, stripped out what wasn’t important, and put it in a very nice iPhone package. They took advantage of iPhone features like the Contacts application for quick access to addresses as well as being able to use the app in either portrait or landscape modes. While there are a few “would be nice” additions like traffic– we expect some sort of solution will come with time.
If your iPhone is already tight on space the 1.2 GB app might be too much to swallow and it does seem unfortunate to have so much mapping data when 95% of it won’t likely be used. However on-board mapping gives big advantages for the speed of the app and fast screen updates.
i am buy a MobileNavigator Navigon iPhone App
Everyone is scrambling to go home to install 1.1 North America. I left a flaming review on 1.0. To me it was worthless. NOW with 1.1 however, things seem different. I get a GPS signal rapidly, and it accepts to navigate, not just to simulate it. Wow! That was my biggest gripe. What’s a GPS that is unable to get a signal? A paperweight. Version 1.1 looks nice and reacts rapidly. Hint: Reboot the phone and run only this software. I tried on a day-long-on iPhone and it shut down and it was pathetically slow. After the shutdown all things changed. For me. Try….it looks promising, and in all fairness I will leave another review once it spared me get lost a few times. Cheers!
I tested it today and o boy did it suck
but I’m sure it is because of Iphone’s (3G) wussy gps module. TomTom will have to do magic in order to operate normal without their in-car kit.
I use it, and it works brilliantly. Get gps lock immediately, and have not lost it once. Problems are 4 digit postcodes only, and the fact that u lose guidance if you recieve a call, which is a general problem with using a phone as a gps device.
Graphically superior to the tomtom that I have. Let’s hope we get an update which allows full post code search, and maybe even control iPod and accept/reject calls in app.
i have a i phone 3g not 3gs ive just bought navigon mobile i cant get mine to connect to gps can u tell me ho u did i……………….it just goes into demo mode all the time can u please explain wot i doing wrong……….please contact me back asap
I’d try rebooting your phone, then stay in one place until it gets a GPS signal.
it’s on my iphone. I think the Navigon is better then iGo my way. here is two videos from iGo my way navigation software, it’s a RC version. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y-VxzI40F0&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPXcYVwvkQo&feature=player_embedded
Now that the Navigon app is released for the USA, I’ve updated this post with our full review.
It looks pretty slick, except that I cannot get it to work: problem with picking up a GPS signal (odd, given that other app’s have no problem finding the GPS signal). I’ve tried rebooting several times. Anyone else encountering this problem and, if so, any work-arounds?
Try turning off location services in Settings>General then launch the app again. It will ask to user your location.
I think the issue is that the app requires a GPS signal of a certain quality and accuracy before it will create a route, while other applications will settle for a “best guess” or a more limited accuracy that might not start you on the correct street.
I try to use NAVIGON for Europe and I encounter the same problem. From my point of view the program is unusable!!
I try to get refund from iTunes but is impossible because pass more than 60 day from purchasing.
I think that the problem is the week GPS signal provide by iPhone. Tom Tom came in next month with a car kit which contain a additional GPS.
I try to connect an external GPS via Bluetooth, but the iPhone not permit such connection.
Can you play music while the GPS routing is functioning?
Jim- Yes, you can play music. Although the speaker on the iPhone is so pitiful for music you probably wouldn’t want to unless you have some sort of external speaker setup through a patch cable or FM transmitter.
After using it for a few days, I will say that it works quite well!
The biggest complaints I have so far are:
1) startup time: It takes a fair amount of time to load, so if someone happens to call while you’re driving, you’ve got to figure it’s going to take around 30 seconds or so to get back to navigating, even if you don’t answer the call…
2) Searching POI: Maybe I missed it, but I didn’t see a way to simply type in the business name I was looking for… I had to drill down to the category or sub category first, which is tedious….
Adding traffic will be a big deal, and text to speech, but otherwise it’s a very usable product, and certainly much better than relying on just Google Maps!
I recently purchased this app and although it looks great it will not pick up a signal. I have rebooted several times and have let my iPhone sit with the app open for as long as 1/2 hour and still no reception! This app is in need of an update asap. As it stands the free maps application that came with the phone blows this 1 away …. lol
You have to make sure you are outside and have an unobstructed view of the sky to get a good lock on your signal. I’ve been using the ATT Navigator program for close to a month and if it was cheaper I’d keep it. It is adequate and has nice integration with respect to traffic updates. I just downloaded Navigon and I can’t comment on it yet as I get the red band across the top and that is to be expected since I am inside my house. If I’m able to, I’ll update my review tomorrow. As an aside, I DO have a NAV unit built into my car but the reason I wanted this is sometimes I like to have a backup as my car unit sometimes sends me on a crazy route. Secondly, it’s nice to have when I go away on vacation or if I am using my parent’s car.
Dan, the application is just tapping into the built-in GPS… aside from lowering the accuracy level they are willing to tolerate (which presents other issues) there isn’t much they could change in the software to get a better signal. It sounds like there could be something wrong with your phone if it had an unobstructed sky view for that long without reception. Navigon does offer this suggestion for people with reception issues that might help.
I have tested the application and it works pretty well. Never had any problems with fixing the GPS signal whatsoever. About the size of the application that is easy to fix. If you are using windows just rename the .ipa file to .zip, extract the maps you don’t need (they are separated by state) and then install it. I took out all the Canada maps and it brought it down in size by a big chunk. So far I am very pleased.
***** Five Stars to NAVIGON !!!!!
Navigon for iPhone absolutely rocks!! Compared to anything I’ve seen so far, NAVIGON has done an amazing job. Voice is clear, prompts are at the right time, signs and Reality view is the most amazing piece of this software. Any moron can follow directions with this. For $70 its a good deal. At least they offered a special on release day. Tomtom is taking months to release….
Pros:
Very accurate
Great clear maps
Amazing graphics
Loads fast
Doesn’t crash or freeze
animation and rendering is really smooth.
Better than any GPS I have purchased so far.
Cons:
Takes time to start at first.
No real time traffic yet. (People would pay for extra features)
Can’t buy custom voices (male, female, personalities, sexy etc) (People would pay for extra features like this)
Custom cursor (Car, SUV, pointer etc icon)
Takes a while to install, the app is HUGE.
SHILL
I bought this and it’s an unmitigated piece of crap. It crashes a lot, and can’t ever get a signal. This despite having wasted four hours of my life erasing my iphone and restoring it from backup, as instructed on the navigon website. I am looking into getting reimbursed for this pathetic joke of an “application.”
So almost 1,000 people have reviewed the Navigon app (986 as of this writing) and those thousand reviews had an average rating of four out of five starts. The Apple App Store restricts ratings to those people that have purchased the app. So are they all shills too?
I won’t dispute that YOU may be having problems with the app, but it works perfectly for me. I’ve already posted a couple of comments on this review as well as in the forums on my experiences. I work in a hospital and yesterday I was showing the app to a coworker in the building and I usually have a difficult time getting a signal for the Google maps gps function so I really didn’t expect to get any position reading from the Navigon. But after a minute or two the position arrow popped right right in. The map showed the onscreen icon for a hospital and my exact position there. I don’t think my TomTom 930 would have picked me up there. And believe me there was no clear view to the sky!! This is an excellent app, not perfect but well worth the investment. Your problems could be related to your specific phone.
are all you people runnimg this on a 3g or 3gs phone? iam wondering how it works on a 3g phone because thats what i have
For this review I did my testing on a 3G, not 3Gs.
I have a 3g and it works fine as long as you have an unobstructed view of the sky. Same limitations as a standalone gps and my Garmin has a fold out external antenna that adds to sensitivity. The maps are old. Can’t find my address in the app and my street is incorrectly named. On the Navteq site it’s right on and google maps is correct also. My old Garmin also has it as correct. Keep in mind that the best GPS is no better than the maps it uses and while Navteq is best for US customers, Navigon appears to not be current on theirs. Since the app was just release I think that is inexcusable for a $70 app.
Just got this. Any ideas why I do not hear voice commands? Interestingly enough I hear them if I play music with the iphone (the voice commands play while music is playing, so they are hard to understand). But the voice commands do not play when no music is playing. I have a 8Gb 3G (not3GS) Iphone. The GPS coverage is OK. Does this use true GPS satellites, or is it doing cell tower triagulation to emulate GPS?
It will use cell tower triangulation to provide a hint of where you are (if in coverage) and that info gets considered when trying to use the “true” GPS satellites. So it does use true GPS satellites with the assistance of cell tower triangulation to speed things up.
As to the voice/sound.. I’m not sure. Is the phone in vibrate mode? (I don’t remember if that makes a difference or not.)
yup, it was on vibrate. I turned off vibrate and it talks to me!
I’ve been relatively happy with the app, except that I cannot get the ‘time to destination’ to work accurately. It seems to always read out as 4:34 or something in that vicinity. What’s odd is that it estimates the speed the vehicle is going at fairly accurately, and also does a reasonable job of estimating mileage to destination. So it would only stand to reason that the time to destination should work as well. Anyone else had this problem, and if so any resolution?
Are you sure you are not looking at the estimated time at arrival? That would always appear to read about the same time. The device doesn’t consider your current speed in calculating a time to destination. (Or time at destination.) Instead it just looks at the road ahead of you and the estimated speed of those roads.
Thanks, Tim. I think that’s it. I’m accustomed to my Acura’s navigation system, which displays the estimated time of travel, not the estimated time of day that you arrive. Boy, do I feel stupid!
Don’t feel stupid… I’ve fallen for that one a few times too. If you tap on that time it will flip between different values and I think estimated time remaining is one of them.
Navigon for the iphone is not better than the standard maps program.
These are my complaints.
It takes forever to load.
POI Database is very limited.
Even when it has a gps lock the its very slow. If you miss a turn it may take 30 sec to a minute to recalculate. That’s not acceptable. I have an iphone 3g not the s model.
Hi Tim,
Have you got the chance to test the iGO My Way?
How does it compare with the Navigon Mobile Navigator?
Any idea on the release date of TomTom?
Any news about the Price?
Man so many questions.
Thanks.
Frank: I haven’t yet posted a review of the iGo software. I expect we are getting pretty close to a release from TomTom. As to the price, check out what I said in this thread.
I would skip the Navigon iPhone product, there’s probably a high probablitly they’ll choose not to continue to support the product once they get enough money… and then just return their european market never to be heard from again. Stick with the Major players if you want a longterm investment, skip the fly by night Navigons of the world…
Has anyone found that (or could someone here test if) Navigon is fully functional when the iPhone is in Airplane Mode with Wifi switched back on?
I’m trying to determine this before buying, because if it doesn’t fully work then data roaming would be needed when traveling outside one’s home country, thereby running up a potentially massive bill… which would be somewhat ridiculous for an app that is supposed to assist you in finding your way in unfamiliar territory.
http://www.navigon.com/site/us/en/products/navigation_software/iphone
“Turn your iPhone into a first-rate navigation system with MobileNavigator. Try the feature for yourself and enjoy the excellent user control and superior design that allow simple and intuitive operating. The application includes the latest map material from the market leader NAVTEQ and can be used without an Internet connection, which is of enormous benefit abroad, for example, as no extra charges are incurred. With MobileNavigator you can turn your iPhone into an equally handy and convenient route guidance system.”
It looks like a software update for the Navigon iPhone app is due to hit the App Store within a couple of hours.
I downloaded the app when the update came out. I’ve been able to get a GPS signal even in my house while near a window. All in all counting the activation of the app and signal lock this takes no longer and may be faster than activating my TomTom device. So there are no drawbacks there. It calculates a route quite quickly and surprisingly is faster than the TT at rerouting when I deliberately didn’t take the turn it wanted me to or took the wrong turn. The voice directions are quite loud and easily heard – it’s quite chatty making sure you don’t take the wrong exit as well as informing you of an immediate turn after the upcoming turn.
It only crashed on me once while doing a POI search. It does take a lot of power, even with my phone attached to the car charger I noticed my battery percentage indicator dropped 1 or 2 percent. The only drawbacks I’ve noted are that the street names – side and parallel ones – are difficult to read due to small fonts and poor contrast. Voice direction mitigates this quite a bit. Occasionally when making a turn the vehicle icon will spin until it determines your actual direction of travel. This is momentary and the voice direction is very quick at getting you to the next turn. As far as the POI look up I had to initially find the establishment on Google maps, copy the address from there and then paste it or type it into the address field. But I’ve had to do this a few times with my TomTom so this isn’t a major issue.
Essentially this works very well for me but I see it as a complement to my TT not a replacement. My phone is always with me so if I’m out and find I need help getting to some unfamiliar location I will have this to get me there. However if I’m traveling on a planned trip or know ahead of time that I’ll need navigation assistance I will take my TT. For those who will use this as their only navigation device they will encounter issues that do not bother me. I believe this would be the case with any of these navigation apps. The biggest complaint I’ve found is the legibility of the street names and some on screen info. If this were to be my only navigation device I might check out some of the other apps because of that.
I wanted to update my comment above. I used the Navigon app for a while now and like it more and more. I compare it to my Tomtom Go devices that I’ve used for quite a while -currently using a 930. On my 3GS phone the app launches and gets a satellite signal in about the same time that it takes to activate my TT and get a signal, if I haven’t connected my device to my computer in a while to download the Quickfix update the TT is definitely slower. Rerouting on the Navigon app is faster than my TT, and without TTS the voice prompts are actually more timely. I’m beginning to rethink how important TTS actually is to me. In urban areas many street signs are difficult to see or even find occasionally, so a timely “turn now” may be more useful. I’m actually rethinking whether this could be my sole navigation device
Problem isn’t I phone it’s Navigon. They have disserted their entire USA GPS base. They don’t provide us any map updates and support is very spotty. You cannot rely on Navigon. I have a Navigon GPS unit with their latest maps and find a lot of errors on the maps. I am shocked that Apple allowed Navigon to sell this service in the USA.LINCOLN
In trying to contact Navigon with pre-sale questions about their app, it took a number of tries to get a response and there was a long (unacceptable) delay. And in addition to that, their single answer to my clear & specific questions was vague and useless. I won’t be buying their app with that kind of support behind it.
Navigon submitted an upgrade for there north america application on like the 20th of august, it includes txt to speech and other asked for upgrades
This link will take you to a video showing those features.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/navigon/sets/72157622073010798/show/
Hey guys good news, I just read on Navigon’s facebook page that they are working on a car kit as well, and they will be implementing traffic info in an update passed 1.2.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/NAVIGON/51924150929?v=wall&viewas=0#/pages/NAVIGON/51924150929?v=wall&viewas=0
NAVIGON@Harald: we are working on a kir kit for the iPhone…more information will follow
@James: TMC and full UK postcode will follow in a next update..and don´t forget: summer is still here
this is from the navigon rep, I pasted what he said
Here is a pic of the Navigon iPhone mount, to be released in October. It will come with a charger– but it doesn’t look like it will have a speaker, Bluetooth, or GPS chip. (Though not confirmed.)
Pic:
http://img.gpsreview.net/wp-content/uploads/navigon-iphone-mount.jpg
Just got the new update for Navigon with Text to Speach, it works great. I love this app, and it just keeps getting better.
The new Navigon 1.20 update adds some really nice features. My only complaints with the app is the horrible POI interface where you need to know the exact city. The Tom Tom application has a much better POI system.
The other is the routing. On the Tom Tom you can block a specific road or section of the trip. The Navigon only allows a crude X mile blocking that doesn’t work as well.
I do like Navigon’s lane assist, reality view, text to speech, and iPod controls. IMO the POI and blocking on the Tom Tom still make it a tossup though.
I got the update as well. It was larger than the first app, took about 40 minutes to download. Haven’t used all the features but I noticed with TTS/spoken street names on the voice is different, still female but different. Also with this turned on the voice’s volume is lower. I tried it both ways and I believe I prefer it as it was. So for now I’m using it with TTS off.
I have a couple of questions.
Does this app do km as well as miles?
Does it speak km as well?
On one of my GPS units it spoke the directions in feet and miles
but displayed km.
Does it allow you to enter the street first or search all?
Or do you have to put the city first ?
Having to put the city first is a problem in some small towns,
if you are not sure where you are going.
Are the map updates free? If not how much?
Yes, it does KM as well as Miles
For street you have to select the state and city first, then the street you want, you can’t type in an address first and then select the one you want.
Maps are not updated besides the full application update itself.
Does anyone knwo whether it’s possible to disable that horrible “feature” they introduced with 1.2 that thickens the street drawing when you slow down?
I was driving with four lanes at my left and when I slowed down, those four lanes merged together to draw an ugly fat huge lane without details.
Worked perfectly under 1.1. What did they have in mind with 1.2
updates