Frustrated by nav software!

joshh385 · 02-07-2007, 03:04 PM

I've been practically pulling my hair out trying to find a GPS software package that really fits the bill for my carpc. I've been using a TomTom 910 nav device for about 5 months and love it; there are a few seemingly basic features that I just can't seem to find in a pc application.

1) Entering a new destination needs to be quick and easy. TomTom accomplished that by allowing you to first select what sort of a destination you are after (city center, address, POI, etc). Say I pick address, it will then ask for the city, then street name, then number. All of this is done with a nice on-screen keyboard and an autocomplete list.
2) Automatically recalculating routes. Pretty straightforward, but if I miss a turn it needs to just figure it out.
3) Full screen ready-to-go. When I start the application I'd like it to be ready to navigate. I don't want to have to jump around a bunch of menus to start GPS tracking, go to full screen and so on.

I've tried Mappoint 2006 and Streets and Trips 2007. The map data in both of those applications is excellent, and Streets and Trips really has some awesome features (like the Live search integration). It has a home on my carpc for sure, but I don't think it can serve as my actual nav application. I've read a number of opinions on iGuidance and Garmin's application. I am completely up for buying whatever application really gets the job done, but so far everything is missing at least one vital quality. I'd LOVE to be able to get demos of some of these apps, but that doesn't really seem to be doable. I'm sort of leaning towards playing with the SDK for Mappoint (I do have a development background) but I hate to reinvent the wheel too.

jeffreyd_tx · 02-07-2007, 04:23 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by joshh385

1) Entering a new destination needs to be quick and easy. TomTom accomplished that by allowing you to first select what sort of a destination you are after (city center, address, POI, etc). Say I pick address, it will then ask for the city, then street name, then number. All of this is done with a nice on-screen keyboard and an autocomplete list.

iGuidance sucks at this. The maps are beautiful and handles just about everytihng just fine but forget it is you are actually looking to find, say, Best Buy.

Rafster · 02-07-2007, 11:11 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by jeffreyd_tx

iGuidance sucks at this. The maps are beautiful and handles just about everytihng just fine but forget it is you are actually looking to find, say, Best Buy.

Yeah, but most GPS's suck at this....

The navigation system on my mom's '06 Honda Odyssey has always had issues finding things like Best Buys and such... always finds one like 2hrs away...

It's just the nature of this beast we call GPS...

Rafster

Aaaron16 · 02-08-2007, 12:16 AM

FYI, most of the navigation functions are not easily accessed using the MapPoint SDK. Seems like they added the nav features without considering the programmer's needs.

rembo666 · 02-08-2007, 12:21 AM

Yeah, they all seem to find these tiny businesses, but don't try to look for a Walmart or something. That's off limits.

iGuidance is definitely the best software I've tried by far. I tried MS Streets and Trips and Destinator.

MS Streets & Trips provides very good mapping capabilities, and the directions it gives aren't half bad. However, it is not designed to be used while driving alone--controls are too small and there is no 3D mode.

Destinator sucks on both accounts. While it does provide a 3D mode while driving, it does not show the street names, so that makes it useless. While giving directions, it tells you to turn at the last second with no warning. It sucks.

iGuidance is the only program I was able to use while driving by myself (that's with a laptop sitting in the passenger seat). As far as the POI entry, it showed me to a couple of very interesting restaurants and a few ATMs and gas stations. Favorites feature works well, so I just make sure I do my research before I go shopping. The best by far.

joshh385 · 02-08-2007, 01:09 PM

iGuidance does sound pretty good, I might have to try it. I played around last night with the SDK features of MapPoint 2006 and it does seem true that many of the NAV related features are pretty buried.
Am I right in that the NAV features of Street Deck are built on MapPoint? How does that compare to, say, iGuidance?
It's been said on the forums before how tough it is to find a GPS solution when you can't actually TRY them first... shooting in the dark at $100-$200 a pop isn't too cool.

S4Per · 02-08-2007, 05:56 PM

have you looked at copilot? I've tried a few different apps out there, and it is, hands down, the best PC nav out there....IMO ;-)

nkotch · 02-11-2007, 01:38 PM

With the exception of it's POI coverage, I think iGuidance has a terrific interface for in-car use. When selecting an destination you can choose an Address, POI, or a recent address or a list of favorites. when doing addresses it does like you want and first asks for city, then the road (and only shows the roads that are pertinent to that city), and then the address. The ONLY downside is that you have to select a "valid" number address that it has in it's database, if the number you are looking for isn't in there for whatever reason just choose another address that's close, by that point you're on the right road and are usually looking around for the specific number anyway.

I'd definitely recommend it, I have no problems using it regularly while in the car. May not have the most extensive POI database but that's not really a priority for me. If I really have to find something I can call 411 and get the address and type that in. Each program will have it's strengths and weaknesses and I've been very happy with this one for the past year or so.

Marvin Hlavac · 02-11-2007, 05:11 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by nkotch

...The ONLY downside is that you have to select a "valid" number address that it has in it's database...

Not exactly. You can choose any number withing the valid range. For example if iG has in its database that King Street in your town starts at number 1000 and goes all the way to 3099, then you may enter any number from 1000 to 3099 and iG will approximate where the location very likely is (even though a house with such number may not exist on that street).

nkotch · 02-11-2007, 05:32 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Marvin Hlavac

Not exactly. You can choose any number withing the valid range. For example if iG has in its database that King Street in your town starts at number 1000 and goes all the way to 3099, then you may enter any number from 1000 to 3099 and iG will approximate where the location very likely is (even though a house with such number may not exist on that street).

I'm currently running version 3 and that's not exactly true. Say King Street has addresses from 1000 to 3099. You can choose any number in the range as long as it's an address that's IN iGuidance's database. Say I don't know the specific address and so I just randomly choose 2000, if there isn't an actual address of 2000 in it's database then it will NOT accept the address. I've had to enter a couple different numbers until I found one that was accepted. Doesn't happen a lot, but I've come across a few streets here where some numbers seem to skip and thus certain numbers aren't recognized in the program.

Marvin Hlavac · 02-11-2007, 05:42 PM

Are you really talking about iGuidance? I've never personally experienced that. However, the exact same behavior you are describing is my # 1 reason why I stay away from CoPilot by ALK :-)

nkotch · 02-11-2007, 05:59 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Marvin Hlavac

Are you really talking about iGuidance? I've never personally experienced that. However, the exact same behavior you are describing is my # 1 reason why I stay away from CoPilot by ALK :-)

Yea, definitely iGuidance. I've only run across the "problem" a few times over the past like year so I'm guessing it's in rare cases and dependent on the area, like if an older street/neighborhood is extended and they skip some address numbers when assigning the "new" ones...... not really sure. Definitely not a deal breaker regardless.

Aaaron16 · 02-20-2007, 11:18 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by nkotch

I'm currently running version 3 and that's not exactly true. Say King Street has addresses from 1000 to 3099. You can choose any number in the range as long as it's an address that's IN iGuidance's database. Say I don't know the specific address and so I just randomly choose 2000, if there isn't an actual address of 2000 in it's database then it will NOT accept the address. I've had to enter a couple different numbers until I found one that was accepted. Doesn't happen a lot, but I've come across a few streets here where some numbers seem to skip and thus certain numbers aren't recognized in the program.

The reason you won't find an address is because it's outside a specific range. In the case mentioned, it probably didn't find 2000 because the streets are broken up into multiple ranges such as 1000-1999, and 3000-3099. As far as I know, there isn't any commercial geocoding software that searches for actual addresses. If that was the case, the map storage would be HUGE.

nkotch · 02-20-2007, 11:25 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Aaaron16

The reason you won't find an address is because it's outside a specific range. In the case mentioned, it probably didn't find 2000 because the streets are broken up into multiple ranges such as 1000-1999, and 3000-3099. As far as I know, there isn't any commercial geocoding software that searches for actual addresses. If that was the case, the map storage would be HUGE.

Exactly, the program may prompt you for an address from 1000-3099 but it "knows" what are actual "valid" addresses according to what it's got in its database, so if you just pick a number that's not in there (street numbers are broken up, or any other reason) then it won't accept it.

Marvin Hlavac · 02-21-2007, 06:00 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by nkotch

Exactly, the program may prompt you for an address from 1000-3099 but it "knows" what are actual "valid" addresses according to what it's got in its database, so if you just pick a number that's not in there (street numbers are broken up, or any other reason) then it won't accept it.

Hmm, I don't think iGuidance (and most other programs) works that way. If you post at least one example of a street number and street name, then we can have a look at it to see what the issue may be.