Machinehead

That was never my intent.

Shoot, I had a mac before they were trendy.

Anyway, I hope Qcar has decent navi, seems the Europeans will have something decent.

RouteBuddy

Hi,

I think it's worth flagging up that RouteBuddy 'are' interested in supporting in-car navigation.

Over time we will be working to supply all the features you need for this purpose. We'll also be taking into account screen resolution, track-up, touch-screens and input control devices.

As mapping is 'all things to all men' then you can imagine we are being asked to make RouteBuddy suit many different purposes, so we have to tackle the most popular areas at any one time.

May I suggest for the features you require that you submit them to our support team so they can be logged for working on. Please send them via this address: support@RouteBuddy.com

The new version of RouteBuddy (1.4) is waiting in the wings with many new features and, albeit not carputer specific, these new elements will give greater use and flexibility to the RouteBuddy application and its use of RouteBuddy Maps.

Around December we hope to release a version of RouteBuddy that will enable us to start planning work for the features that are specific to carputer use.

Updates are free to existing users of this product.

Thanks for reading and we look forward to receiving your comments and suggestions via support.


Neil
CEO RouteBuddy Ltd

http://www.routebuddy.com

EnglandGreen

Neil,

I would be happy if Route Buddy would just work like iGuidance - viz, I plug in a GPS receiver and typed in an address and it told me how to get there.

I need nothing more. Everything else is gravy, IMHO.

Stephen

RouteBuddy

Hi,

currently you can create a route in RouteBuddy and use that to navigate to a destination with visual and verbal instructions.
- Yes, its not clear on our website that you can do this! The website is going through a major overhaul and in future screencasts will be included to take people through RouteBuddy's features.

Routes can be created by either typing in an address to create a Waypoint / POI or by clicking out a route on the map.

In future there'll be a feature to select the POI and tell RouteBuddy to route you there. You may well ask "why not have this simple feature now?"
The reason being we are putting many changes in place in RouteBuddy 1.4 and 1.5 that would require us to undertake the work on some features twice over; so better we wait now and then implement only once at a later stage after RouteBuddy 1.5

Using a GPS receiver (BlueTooth or USB) is probably the easiest you'll ever find as it's just plug-and-play, RouteBuddy takes care of all the settings automatically.

Note that NMEA devices can only report a location and cannot be Synchronised as Garmin USB devices. (Older Garmin Serial devices can be used via a Keyspan converter to report a position over NMEA which is useful if all you need is a receiver.)

There is greater device support being released in RouteBuddy 1.4 but should you want to use a device that doesn't yet work with our free demo then please contact us via support@RouteBuddy.com so we can work on it for you.



Neil
CEO RouteBuddy Ltd

http://www.routebuddy.com

Bugbyte

Thanks for the update, Neil. Clearly, you'll have fans and support from the Mac community when you make it car-friendly.

My two cents from that point of view are auto-routing, which sounds like it will be in next version, along with reroute when you get off track.

If I can give you any advice from our side, it is to allow car PC'ers to customize the experience. Applescriptability and display options including skinning and layout are the types of things I'm thinking of. The ability to layer data on the map like traffic info is also a good thing.

Understanding that you gotta develop where the money is and we're just a small piece of that pie, realize too that with the Parallels capability of the Intel Macs, you ARE still competing with Windows alternatives, so even though a native solution is better, there's still a comparison that gets made.

Good luck to you on RouteBuddy!

__________________
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iamgnat

What would be really ideal is a Cocoa based interface so that front end developers can literally plug Route Buddy right into their own application. A custom NSView object to display the map info as well as methods to control the map (e.g. allow the default controls to be hidden so that the front end can provide it's own interface) as well as add way points and request directions.

Ideally the engine (including licensing) could be put into the API so that you don't have run the Route Buddy application at the same time, but I won't hold my breath on that

-dave

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CarFrontEnd (now it's own sub-forum!!!!)

Fallout

id gladly remove iguidance 4.0 from my computer if routebuddy worked just as good.

__________________
My RSX Carputer finished!

EnglandGreen

Same here. iGuidance is the ONLY reason I run Parallels....

__________________
EG

bpwned

Include some sort of API or other way to include it into a car front end, add TMC-support and it's bought

tkn

Does the guidance feature support Growl? That would be really useful for when you are running it in the background...

Also, if you are looking for what your 3d driving experience should look like, you should take a close look at the announced Provia unit from Korea which definitely has the sexiest interface I have ever seen for a GPS unit.

Third, definitely include some sort of API/carputer features. Skinning and defining the interface would be also huge.

I will probably run iGuidance through parallels until there is a good mac solution.

ClaZ

Mhmm... very interesting...
RouteBuddy is, at today, the only GPS route software for mac that is working and updating... Route66 is out of this market...
So, if a carputing version is shipping, i can pay for this, as i make for route66 for years...
Standby from Italy...

Bugbyte

It is the only international solution. Roadnav is an open source solution that works in the USA. This is primarily because it uses the freely available Tiger/Line maps from the US Census Bureau which are quite detailed.

Roadnav does support the open map standard, which means that it can be used internationally if there is coverage.

__________________
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-Find out about theiBug
-Attention Newbies! Have you seen the FAQ Emporium?
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EnglandGreen

I should add for those that do not own Route Buddy with the complete North American maps - it is deadly slow to refresh and to navigate. As in almost unusable. Not a slam - just the truth.

And I'm running a Intel 2.33GHz Merom with 2gb of RAM. It runs just as slowly on my 1.83GHz Intel as well, by the way.

I really hope that RB will step up to the plate and make their user experience the same or better than iGuidance.

I would love to be 100% OSX....

__________________
EG

Jirka Jirout

Strange. While I can agree that RouteBuddy is slow when I work with it on a desktop where I typically zoom in/out and scroll a lot (it is much slower than even the old R66), the map scrolling was pretty much OK when I tested it in my car (max speed was ca 100mph).

RouteBuddy

Hi,


We intend to give the Mac community a good product when it comes to navigation software so will certainly do our best.

Auto-routing / ReRouting: If we are talking about how you and I both expect the software to work then these features are already covered. For example reRouting depends upon the preferences set i.e Quickest / Shortest journey and will reRoute accordingly if you drive off-track. It's worth noting that while RouteBuddy doesn't yet have all the bells and whistles that current PNDs sport, it certainly will do in the future. After all it's running on a more powerful processor than PNDs have. ;-)



I couldn't agree more. AppleScript will be ideal for some of the advanced uses we imagine users will put RouteBuddy to, so skinning and layout choice is a no-brainer. After all, what suits my vehicle may well not suit yours, it all comes down to personal choice, vehicle interior color matching and so on.

In addition you may personally like a very complex control UI and your partner may not; maybe you take the car in for servicing so naturally you'll want to dumb down the controls and perform lockouts for many features..



Agreed. The power of communication, in various ways to and from a Mac, may well give unparalleled advantages over PNDs.




Thanks!

Sure, those WinPC comparisons have been made already and there have been plenty of them on features and price.
Here's where we come from: good quality build, extensible and modular software, high definition maps without-loss-of-fidelity and features-across-markets that Mac map users need. Feature for feature and buck for buck I am confident we are pulling ahead of PC digital map software on a global product sense. As RouteBuddy evolves then we'll round out features in each market sector, so Mac'd rides are fully supported, as are GeoCachers, as are PND users, as are business users and so on. Clearly maps are all things to all men! :-)

Thank you for your good wishes and bear with us whilst we carry on working to our goal.


Neil
CEO RouteBuddy Ltd

http://www.routebuddy.com