Back at the beginning of the year, I was considering purchasing a GPS unit for my car, a TomTom or something similar, after having seen a friend’s TomTom in action on a trip to Syracuse. I thought it would be nice to have, but since we didn’t have any car trips planned for the next little while, I wasn’t in too big of a hurry to go buy one. Then the announcement of the iPhone 3G (with GPS) coming to Canada happened. I had pretty much decided that I was going to be picking up an iPhone when they were available in Canada, and the fact that it had GPS had me dreaming… Surely someone (TomTom maybe) would be writing a GPS driving directions application that would be available in the App Store. In fact I think I remember reading something to that effect on TechCrunch. Well here we are, nearly 6 months after the App Store opened and I don’t see any GPS driving directions apps available yet. Is Apple blocking them because they have something up their sleeve? That’s too bad really.
P.S. Shown in the photo is the 3G iPhone windshield mount made by RAM that finally showed up (ordered it on July 29th). I bought it with a driving directions application in mind.
Coincidentally, I borrowed a friend’s GPS a couple of weekends ago to take the back roads to Stittsville to go to the baptism (I wanted the drive to be longer so Nicholas would sleep longer). I actually thought to myself “I wonder when someone’s going to finally put this into a phone – like the iPhone or Blackberry”. I figured it was a matter of time and, really, it should have been done by now… But I’m no electrical techy so I wouldn’t know what it would take to make it happen.
TomTom was rumoured to be working on an iPhone version. I seem to recall one of the rules in the iPhone SDK was that you couldn’t do turn by turn navigation apps so they (Apple) could be sticking to their rules.
I used to have it on my Treo and it was great to have….except if you where on the phone when you needed to use the GPS. I could see them charging at least $100 for the software as they did before so you’re almost better off just getting a dedicated unit for your car for around $150. Even to update the maps on my dedicated unit, TomTom wants to charge me $99…when I could get a new, better unit (with new maps) for only $50 more.
I guess I’m a little bit stuck on the concept of the ‘one device to rule them all’ that perhaps I’m not looking at this objectively. You raised some good points, especially the one about cost. I was willing to shell out $100 for a really good app, something that would give me the same functionality of a TomTom, but maybe it does make sense to just pick up a dedicated unit. My thinking is that the iPhone would have the ability to provide all the bells and whistles of the top-of-the-line TomTom, if the application was written right, and I don’t think you’re going to get a top-of-the-line TomTom for $150.
To be honest, I haven’t dug into the SDK at all, but it seems to me that it would (or should) be possible (maybe only Apple would be able to pull this off) to make/receive calls from within an application so that you could use the GPS and the phone at the same time. With respect to the updated maps – that must be somewhat frustrating. What is that “map share” they are always touting? Or do you only get updates for a year and then have to pay again?
MapShare let’s you correct errors on your own maps and it syncs these changes with others when you update your TomTom….not sure how long that feature lasts (1 year, forever, etc) as my unit is one model below supporting it :( Their business model seems to include customers upgrading their maps/hardware on a regular basis so I can’t imagine it will last forever.
I guess another thing to consider is the storage of the app….assuming it doesn’t utilize Google Maps in some way, TomTom maps can be gigs of data…presumably you’d have to have them all preloaded (and not download on the fly) for the software to do the calculations it has to do to plan your routes. Something to consider if you have a lot of other things on your iPhone.
I’m pretty sure the iPhone can handle GPS and phone calls at the same time…I was referring to the fact that if you got a call while driving, it would be difficult to continue navigating if your call info was on screen.
I’m not concerned about the amount of storage required. I basically don’t need to store any music on the iPhone anymore due to all the streaming apps available – be it internet radio or music from my computer at home.
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I have a Garmin that works very well. It has pretty much been a life saver since I have had it, but I am now looking at getting a tracking system for my daughter’s car. She is a new driver and I just want to keep an eye out on her for awhile. She is my little baby. I have done a lot of research and found a site that looks good. It is at http://www.gpstrackpro.com . I was wondering if anyone has heard of them or better yet, has anyone actually purchased this system. Any help would be great!
Thanks,
Rick
Hi,
I never use apple product except ipod.I don’t like their business policy about approving other vendor’s softwares.As you said,it it really bad for these vendors if they have better GPS application than the provided with iPhone.I hope they change their policy soon to give more to users.
A year (plus) later, there are now a few options for GPS driving directions apps available in the App store. They all seem to retail for between $70-$100 I think.
Hi there, while searching for an app that will speak driving directions to you I came across a new Rogers service. Of course, like any mobile provider, there is a fee ($5/month). However, the app looks decent, I haven’t tried it though. You can have a look on the app store, it is called Rogers Navigator.
Cheers,
James
I’m not really a fan of subscription services, especially for data that doesn’t change that often. That being said, if there isn’t a minimum number of months you need to subscribe (ie. you could buy 1 month and be done), then that might be a great option for anyone who is travelling. I mean I really don’t need a GPS driving directions app for when I’m in my home town…