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If you have read my other posts, you know that I have both Google Map and VZ Navigator. Although Google Map is free, I prefer to use VZ Nav for the following reasons:
1. VZ Nav has voice turn-by-turn navigation.
2. VZ Nav can navigate you to ANY address on your contact list which is extremely convenient, especially when you are on the road and it is difficult to type in the destination address.
3. VZ Nav has "follow me" feature which is very accurate. it literally follows me and shows what street I am driving on and what direction I am heading. When I gets out of the grid, the map redraw is very fast....much faster than the redraw on Google Map. That is very important when you are driving on the highway.
4. VZ Nav uses AGPS or Assisted GPS. Many other GPS application, especially the free ones like Google Map, use only the regular GPS. If you would like to know the difference, just Google "AGPS vs GPS" and read on.
5. VZ Nav can pinpoint me when I am inside an office building. Google Map can only triangulate me when I am indoor and it is 1/4 mile off target.
6. VZ Nav can provide weather forecast on your GPS location or any location on your contact list. You no longer need to use WeatherBug anymore. And there is no need to type in any address.
7. VZ Nav can help you find the type of restaurants (e.g. Italian) in the area where you are at now. And of course, provide you the navigation after you made the selection.
8. VZ Nav can tell you what movies are showing at a theater in the area where you are at.
9. VZ Nav is provided by Verizon Wireless, so they have the home-field-advantage over other application.
Yes, the VZ Navigator costs $10 a month. But it is roughly the cost of 2 Starbuck coffees. Nowadays, a decent sit-down lunch will cost more than $10. Besides, if you can afford a $200 phone with $30 a month unlimited data plan (plus whatever you pay for the voice), the $10 a month is like a drop in a bucket. So it should be a non-factor. In my humble opinion, the VZ Navigator is a must-have application for every Storm owner.
I understand that some people prefer Garmin. Since I don't have that application, I cannot comment on whether it is good or no good. But just for argument's sake, with everything relatively equal, just the Reason #9 above is enough for me to go with VZ Nav.
Last but not least, my last mobile device was the XV6800 (or HTC Titan). It has a built-in GPS chip. But the last time when VzW released a new ROM upgrade, they actually disabled the GPS for other 3rd party software to use it. So the only choice left for the XV6800 owners is the VZ Navigator. Now, I am not saying that VzW will do that again on the Storm. But you simply cannot guarantee they won't. This gives me another reason to use VZ Nav instead of other 3rd party application like Garmin.
Hope this helps.03-04-09 10:36 PM - If you have read my other posts, you know that I have both Google Map and VZ Navigator. Although Google Map is free, I prefer to use VZ Nav for the following reasons:
1. VZ Nav has voice turn-by-turn navigation.
2. VZ Nav can navigate you to ANY address on your contact list which is extremely convenient, especially when you are on the road and it is difficult to type in the destination address.
3. VZ Nav has "follow me" feature which is very accurate. it literally follows me and shows what street I am driving on and what direction I am heading. When I gets out of the grid, the map redraw is very fast....much faster than the redraw on Google Map. That is very important when you are driving on the highway.
4. VZ Nav uses AGPS or Assisted GPS. Many other GPS application, especially the free ones like Google Map, use only the regular GPS. If you would like to know the difference, just Google "AGPS vs GPS" and read on.
5. VZ Nav can pinpoint me when I am inside an office building. Google Map can only triangulate me when I am indoor and it is 1/4 mile off target.
6. VZ Nav can provide weather forecast on your GPS location or any location on your contact list. You no longer need to use WeatherBug anymore. And there is no need to type in any address.
7. VZ Nav can help you find the type of restaurants (e.g. Italian) in the area where you are at now. And of course, provide you the navigation after you made the selection.
8. VZ Nav can tell you what movies are showing at a theater in the area where you are at.
9. VZ Nav is provided by Verizon Wireless, so they have the home-field-advantage over other application.
Yes, the VZ Navigator costs $10 a month. But it is roughly the cost of 2 Starbuck coffees. Nowadays, a decent sit-down lunch will cost more than $10. Besides, if you can afford a $200 phone with $30 a month unlimited data plan (plus whatever you pay for the voice), the $10 a month is like a drop in a bucket. So it should be a non-factor. In my humble opinion, the VZ Navigator is a must-have application for every Storm owner.
I understand that some people prefer Garmin. Since I don't have that application, I cannot comment on whether it is good or no good. But just for argument's sake, with everything relatively equal, just the Reason #9 above is enough for me to go with VZ Nav.
Last but not least, my last mobile device was the XV6800 (or HTC Titan). It has a built-in GPS chip. But the last time when VzW released a new ROM upgrade, they actually disabled the GPS for other 3rd party software to use it. So the only choice left for the XV6800 owners is the VZ Navigator. Now, I am not saying that VzW will do that again on the Storm. But you simply cannot guarantee they won't. This gives me another reason to use VZ Nav instead of other 3rd party application like Garmin.
Hope this helps.
Once again, satisfied I have VZW03-04-09 10:56 PM
