Teletype GPS software review?

sunomi86 · 12-25-2006, 11:25 AM

Hi. I was wondering whether someone has used this software before. The features of it seem pretty appealing.

* Redesigned navigation panel provides instant trip information at a glance
* Next turn shown graphically
* Street maps available for US, Canada, Europe, Argentina, Brazil, and Australia.
* Vector-based colorful street maps for maximum accuracy and readability.
* Comprehensive, searchable, and expandable Yellow Pages1 so you can find nearby hotels, restaurants, landmarks, and more.
* 3D Bird View for an ultra-realistic view of your surroundings.
* Routing presets allow you to conveniently save your most commonly used addresses for future use when creating new routes.
* Voice alerts available - choose from 5 different synthesized voices to warn you to turn, and even read you street names!
* Customizable automatic re-routing to compensate for missed turns.
* Door to Door routing is accomplished through an intuitive route menu.
* Routing can be done through many waypoints in the order that you specify.
* Live Traffic Incident Avoidance2,3 allows you to obtain real-time accident and construction reports for over 200 metropolitan cities.

Notes
1 Yellow Pages Premium plugin available to expand the basic 3+ million entries, to over 12 million entries.
2 This item is subject to an additional charge.
3 This feature requires an internet connection.

devious · 01-24-2007, 07:53 PM

I have TeleType Pro 06/2006 edition, both PC & PPC.

I've had it for a while, couple of long trips (cross-country), ton of commuting and shorter trips, taken it hiking, etc.

In general, it's been a disappointment. Too much to list in detail, but things like the screen is unreadable if you're driving (by contrast, a google map or mapquest map is very readable in the car, and worth the forever wait via Boost mobile to download, vs Teletype instantly available and synched), the zoom & pan is funky, lots of settings don't seem to really work (like, I try to say NOT to auto-zoom based on speed, but it always ends up back in autozoom mode - I usually want the more zoomed out view, like show me 3 states, and that's damned near impossible), the voice nav is laugh-out-loud funny (I've actually had the male voice and the female voices not only on at the same time, but disagreeing with each other), the nav doesn't seem to adjust to reality (like, I'll intentionally deviate from the prescribed route, it'll never figure that out, it just stays stuck on the original route - sometimes, days later, I've forgotten about my latest failed-yet-humor-filled attempt at navigation, and out of the freakin' blue, one of the voices will come out of nowhere and say "turn left now" - ohmigod, even the dog laughs at that), the PPC version is near worthless - it reliably craps out whenever I go far, something about getting stuck trying to load maps from a new state, and I've preloaded all states on a long route, all maps (which, btw, that is no small chore, like 2+ hours of copy copy copy).

It seems like their corporate philosophy is to nickel and dime you to death. The first few weeks I had it, I'd excitedly click on these different menu choices, and they keep putting out their hand and demanding money - enough already with the premium features!

Their tech support early on was strenuous - for me. I did get support on one item, but then they disappeared on another item, and I didn't bother. I've been on their site, but there's not a lot of extra help there.

I haven't seen any good signs for extensibility / api / programming etc. Msgs here on MP3car seem to indicate that it's pretty limited - wasn't one of the front-end guys going to work with Teletype at some point, and then gave up? Anyways, I looked on the teletype site, and it seemed like to even play around, you had to cough up an API fee or an SDK fee or whatever. So, that seemed pretty limited.

And, the thing I think that cinched me on buying them at the get go was some review saying how configurable it is, that it might be a little overwhelming for some, but if you like that kind of thing, go for it. So, I did. But, it's not really that configurable - yeah, there's a ton of options spread all over some rather random tabs, but half of them are premium features you can't use, others are features that don't work, and I haven't found anything that helps improve the screen image. I can say "less detail" - but I still get things like the same interstate with the "I91" label on it like 5 times in the same square inch, covering up other info that might actually be useful.

So, like I said, I could go on, but I won't.

sunomi86 · 01-26-2007, 01:18 AM

Thanks for the input devious. I think that helps out. I've received my software and am also hopefully going to put some more comments about it in terms of the mapping quality. What are your findings on that by the way? Oh and I'm having trouble getting any gps status currently with my holux gpslim 236 receiver. How did you make the software detect your receiver? Thanks so much.

devious · 01-26-2007, 01:31 PM

Glad it helped.

Map quality has seemed ok, but I haven't really looked very close at that - so I guess mark me undecided on that.

GPS interface has been pretty solid. You have to open up a status box - if you double-click on the bottom status bar where the signal strength bars are t'll usually pop up, or you can navigate thru menus. Either way, that's where you line up with com port, and then you also can turn it on or turn it off. They have a search function looking for available com port, I've had less luck with that. It never seems to help.

I also picked up gpsgate based on recommendations here, which has made that whole topic pain-free - definitely get that, very useful software.

The bluetooth gps unit that Teletype shipped with software was pretty good. I was able to connect from ppc easily, and it usually got 5 or so satellites within a few minutes. It would run for day or two without recharge, so I put it up in sunroof and forgot about it while driving. They supplied a house and a car charger.

I since switched to a sirfIII unit that is usb based, and that's been even better - locks onto sats very quickly, unless it's been off for over a day, no worries about recharge, etc. great for in-car. could be the same unit you referenced, I don't recall the name. But with either of these units, teletype did not have a problem.