iGuidance - thoughts?

**Taytay** · 05-31-2003, 07:05 AM

Does anyone here have experience running iGuidance (http://www.inavcorp.com/products.htm ) on their car computers? The people at gpspassion(here and here ) really seem to like it for the most part, although I do admit they're usually talking about the PocketPC versions. The "laptop" version is just a straight port though, so I thought it would be really good for touchscreen interfaces, and at $100, it's cheaper than Co-Pilot. I called them today and they claim they'll have a demo version out in 2 weeks or so, but in the meantime (before I decide to drop $100), it would be great if anyone here had experience using it in their cars.

Cheers,

Taylor

**cjs2000** · 05-31-2003, 10:15 AM

Yes I am using the laptop version. I don't have a touchscreen yet, but I can see that it would be very easy to use with one. The autorouting is fast, the voice prompts are good, and it uses the Navtech maps. Destinations can be input with an on screen keyboard that automatically pops up. The laptop version looks just like the pocketpc version, except the map screen can be bigger and you can display the turn by turn directions and gps monitor windows all at the same time. Screenshot below.

I haven't used copilot so I can't compare, but to Street Atlas 8, it is much better for door to door.

CJS

**Taytay** · 05-31-2003, 02:39 PM

That's great. Thanks. How good would you say it is for just a reference map to tell you where you are? I will probably be using it for a geeky reference ("Ooo Look! That's us!") more than door to door instructions, although when I do want instructions, I do want want it to be better than S&T! (Voice commands and easy-to-see arrows). Are the fonts resizable for the street names? I know a big complaint about Delorme's SA2003 is that the fonts are fixed so it can be problematic for TV and small screen resolutions. I am running a 7" TV in my car, so this could definitely be an issue for me as well. I have been running MS S&T and I must say the resizable fonts are a godsend!

Thanks for the screenshot too! Have you run it at any "funny" resolutions or any smaller than normal resolutions to see how it handles it? I run at 800x484 (or something close to that...) and hope it could adjust appropriately.

I love the idea of the popup keyboard! That makes me want it right there!

Many thanks,

Taylor

**cjs2000** · 05-31-2003, 03:17 PM

My thoughts are that it is best used as a door to door router and moving map showing where you are at the moment. You can't really pan around that easily like in Street Atlas. You can just zoom in and out while navigating and right click to set the start, finish points, etc. I've run it at 640 by 480 and 800 by 600 but I have a 15" screen, I will be getting a 7" soon but I don't know how readable it will be. I assume good if you can read it on a pocketpc, though. The map window is resizable, but the others are not. I haven't tried any odd resolutions so I can't comment. All in all it is a good package and you can put the whole US on your hard drive. It is definitely worth the price.

**Taytay** · 05-31-2003, 04:22 PM

Great - thanks. Keep me posted on running it on a 7"

And that's a good point: If it's meant to be readable on a PocketPC, I shouldn't have too much to worry about.

Many Thanks,

Taylor

P.S. Anyone else have experience with this package? Heard anything I should know before I buy it?

**mp3car415** · 06-17-2003, 07:17 PM

I have it and like it. A couple of caveats:

1) Running it with a Delorme usp gps mouse and Windows XP Home Edition causes Windows to blue screen of death. Seems like the usb to serial driver and IGuidance don't play nicely. The same usb gps works with Street Atlas.

2) Running iGuidance on Windows 98 (and Windows ME) and win4lin (a windows emulator for linux) does not work. It works great to show maps, search etc, but as soon as I connect to my Garmin eMap gps via serial windows complains that the application has done something bad. Delorme Street Atlas works great under the same conditions with the Garmin eMap.

3) iGuidance on Windows XP with a Garmin eMap serial gps works great. The navigation voice prompts are perfect and auto-routing totally seamless. However, if you have a specific route in mind that it does not choose by default you cannot set a bunch of waypoints to force it to your choosen route.

4) Under emulation I've set my screen to 848x480 and find the maps and guidance to be very readable.

Summary: it seems that iGuidance has some strange serial interface requirements that push the envelope.

Mike

**Taytay** · 06-18-2003, 12:22 AM

That's great news that the text is readable at that resolution. That's the resolution I'm running as well. (And just to clarify, are you running on a TV LCD or a true VGA screen?) So when you say I can't set waypoints to force a particular route, do you mean I can't set waypoints in general? Does it not have support for them?

Thanks for sharing your experience/difficulties with it.

**mp3car415** · 06-18-2003, 03:01 AM

I'm running iGuidance on my laptop's 1600x1200 15 inch native resolution screen within a emulation environment where Windows 98 uses 848x480 pixels. This physically uses about the same space as a 7 inch screen has.

As far as waypoints are concerned, iGuidance doesn't really have support for them. It has the concept of a single stop-over. A stop-over is an intermediate destination. When you select a stop-over, the software marks that as the destination and figures out a route to it. The original destination no longer is noted on the screen or route list. When you arrive at that stop-over you need to cancel the stop-over and then the software will auto-route you to the original destination from that point.

I hope that makes sense.

Mike

**morpheus** · 06-23-2003, 12:02 AM

how is IGuidance compare to Navman, Routis (deluo), earthmate, Copilot? I am looking for a nav solution for use inside my car. Can anyone suggest a good solution?