My quick VZ Navigator review

[shaggymatt]

I started writing this in response to someone Else's thread, but figured it was almost deserving of its own topic since it was turning into my review on Nav.

I really want to like VZ Navigator. Telenav doesn't have traffic in my area, and even when google maps fixes the Storm gps issue, they don't have traffic here either. Windows Live Search does have traffic, and I like the interface, but it doesn't yet work with the Storm either. VZ Navigator does have traffic in my area.

I turned on my VZ Navigator trial yesterday (yes, you can do this online through your account). Dropped the phone in my dash mount and routed myself the 15 minutes home. I changed my settings to use traffic for navigation, which should route me around traffic. Route it plans, takes me on the highway, into the throat of the traffic. No way I'm going that way. So I make a turn onto a bridge (over land according to Navigator).

The application throws up, and can't recalculate my route. I drive a mile across this bridge and while sitting at the light, it finally figures out where I am and again gets me routed again. I couple more "wrong turns" for my usual route home, and it does calculate properly.

This morning, plan my route into work, again, it does the exact same thing. Throws up when I give it its first recalculation requirement, but all is well after that. I do have good cell coverage during the entire drive, so it isn't like it is losing a signal.

What I like:

• Addition of routes/destinations through the VZ Navigator site. Far easier than doing it all on your device.
• Contacts integration
• Reading of actual street names. Being a long time GPS user, I feel that they dumb you out. I have a great sense of direction and enjoy learning routes, etc. But I like learning street names as well. My dash Garmin just says turn left/right, etc.
• One device. My biggest like of the Storm. Putting my iPod Touch, GPS, and phone into one is a huge benefit.

What I don't like:

• Integration into features like gas price search. Requires too much thought/finger time to make use of while driving. Oops standard disclaimer, I did pull over before searching.
• Menu selection items can be a bit small when driving. My mount does bring it pretty close to steering wheel though.
• BATTERY HOG! 15-20 minute drive, I lost a single bar on the battery. External power a MUST.
• First use crash.
• Recalculation time. Sometimes quick, sometimes you are a couple blocks past before you get a new route.
• While it didn't happen, from what I understand, you can't take a call and continue navigating. Follows the no simultaneous voice/data that others have discussed. Guess you'll have to ignore a call if you're coming into a detailed navigation situation.
• Coverage is yet to be seen. I have a long road trip through the back woods of PA (seriously) for Thanksgiving. Will be interesting to see what it does in marginal coverage areas with the maps downloading. Not too keen on the no coverage no maps, which would be reason enough to keep my dash unit. Come on guys, make use of the SD card.

Price wise, I can't complain. $8/mo (with my discount) is okay if you look at it as the money savings can be recovered with the ability to find cheapest gas in your immediate area/route. Not as bad now with the lower gas prices, but when stuff was over $4, it wasn't uncommon to find differences of $.20-$.30 for the premium fuel I need. That right there will pay for a month of the service.

Windows Live Search is free, and has all those options, just no compatibility yet. So of course if all that can be had for free, I'm going to chose free!

Buddy has TeleNav which doesn't yet work with the Storm. We used it for a trip to Watkins Glen over the summer. He had a hockey puck GPS unit for that. Worked well, we did have a couple hard BB crashes, once in the middle of a town. I think that the BB operating system on the Storm is a lot more stable than previous versions. I haven't seen a single error that is OS related yet. I got them all the time on my Pearl.

[darkreve]

I only used VZ nav one time.. back in july with my old BB-8830. I had a wonderful experience with it. While we were driving to the little town to our destination my wife decided that we need it to stop at a bank. so told her how to tell VZ NAv to search for the closest one.. it found one.. took us there and after it recalculated to get us to our destination.. didnt take long for it to recalculate.. I have not tested VZ NAV with the storm yet. my .02

[russelln]

I've been using (and paying) for VZNav on my Pearl. The latest software release is much improved. I since canceled my subscription and am thinking of getting a stand alone GPS since they seem to be coming down in price. I'll check out the web sites on Black Friday. Too bad because I would love to use the GPS on my soon-to-be-delivered Storm but don't want to pay $10/mo. Plus I've read the posts 'uninstall VZNav for better performance'.

[dgalanter]

I use it on my Dare for traffic here in D.C. Generally, works well. Sometimes I have to force a detour.

[briankeith513]

Yeah, I've used VZ Nav on my last 6 or 7 phones including the Storm, and I couldn't be more pleased with it. It does everything that I could want, and does it well.

[jseemann]

When i get into VZ Navigator when my Storm is connected to my car via bluetooth, the Storm crashes and then reboots. VZ Navigator works fine when I turn the car's bluetooth off. Anybody have the same problem?

[shaggymatt]

Bumping my review, after a 5 hour road trip using Navigator.

I'd give it a 4/10 now. The route it planned as a shortest used the turnpike which has tolls, so I turned off that option. Ironically, that isn't even the shortest route. My Garmin Nuvi 200 would take me a different way. Okay, recalculate not using toll roads. It sends me on an even longer route, taking me northeast for an hour and a half before going northwest where I am going (Harrisburg to Erie). Whatever, I take the route that I already know. Eventually it recalculates.

Give it a try for a dinner stop, want something more than an off the highway fast food location as we're traveling with an 18 month old. He needs to release some energy, so we pick a place near a mall. Great, finds us a dinner location. Bit of griping from the wife as it is 2 miles off the highway, but hey, it is flurrying out, he isn't running around outside to blow off steam.

Couple drop outs of coverage, where the maps show there should be coverage. GPS continues functioning, you're just driving with nothing on the screen. Strange but understandable - again why not make use of the SD card to download maps??

Since it is such a battery hog, and I didn't yet have my car charger, I didn't run it the entire route.

Coming home, we want a place to eat again. Again we look for a place that isn't a fast food joint and choose a diner. Takes us downtown in a podunk PA town. Sending us through alleys! My wife misses a turn, so it goes into the Press Ok to retry navigation loop. This goes on for two minutes till it finds us again. Unacceptable. Back on track, we arrive where it says the diner is. Sitting on the corner, and there is nothing there but old dilapidated buildings. Strike two. Normally I wouldn't care, but with an 18 month old who has a car time limit before meltdown, it is a problem.

If this is touted as always being up to date and not needing to by map updates, this isn't a good case to show that sales point. There hasn't been a diner in that spot for a LONG time, no evidence at all of there ever being one there.

[rj5570]

so there is no way to use voice commands to find or search on VZ NV like Windows Live Search.

way to go verizon lol

[christo.md]

is what I want. i love the voice commands for calling, but with vznav installed would like to expand voice commands.

any ideas/success?

[Laren]

Driving in the Seal Beach/Long Beach/Huntington Beach area, VZ Navigator hasn't let me down. In fact, it sometimes recommends more sensible routes than what I would otherwise take due to familiarity. It got me to downtown LA with no problem, either- but when I got downtown, it went to dust. It told me to make a turn on a street after I had already passed said street, and could NOT recalculate the route after that. Honestly, that bothers me a LOT. Downtown LA is one of the last places I'd like to be lost, thank you, Verizon.

Outside of that, it works great for me, with the exception of its solution to almost everything being "make the next legal U-turn".

[kokuryuha]

Odd, I've never had an issue with VZNav. Always served me well when I used it. I didn't really use it that much though so I just put Nav4All on my phone cuz its free. Not the best, but it serves its purpose the few times I use Nav.

[NEPAGutters.com]

Vz naz make moving to a new city easy. Its much easier to find my way around. Local search is great to find local businesses.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[mgm1979]

I've been using VZNav since day one (release day)...it's gotten confused a few times, but so did my standalone Garmin. My biggest complaints, at this point, are not being able to Nav and talk at the same time, the ungodly battery drain, and display backlight not always dimming during night navigation (my guess due to the accelerometer always on high alert while the car is in motion - I dunno though). I'd like an option to force the thing into night mode, much like my Garmin did (although, it was always quick to realize when it was night thanks to the GPS time signature).

[Yenkomuscle]

Good review

[shaggymatt]

I haven't been on crackberry in a few days, and here I find my post on the first page when I come in. Wow.

I actually signed up for VZNav again since I had to ditch the Garmin package as there was no manual route around.

Another gripe is the "you have arrived at your destination." I went to a new doctor today, and according to the GPS, I arrived a block before I got there, even shown as such on the map. It doesn't continue your tracking, just shows a waving flag. Sadly, I actually passed the office. Which meant I had to make a U-turn and figure out how to get there. Naturally, the back tracking, put me into the back log for a long light cycle before I could get to the turn lane for the office.

My decision not to go with TeleNav was based solely on the lack of traffic coverage for my area. I'm thinking now that this is less of an issue. VZNav only covers the main highways anyway. I have only a few routes I can take to get home, and only one has traffic coverage. So it really won't save me much time when I find myself sitting on a secondary road.