[Kronk]

So this past weekend I took a trip from home down to Houston, about a 350 mile trip, and decided to give Nav4all a go for voice directions. I also kept my trusty Magellan eXplorist XL with me since I had logged this route in the past.

First off, it's a very simple drive, consisting of one highway (287) and two interstates (I-35 and I-45). The simplest and most straightforward route is this:

287 S to W35 S back to 287 S (you stay on the same road, it just changes names.) to I-45 S all the way down to Houston. Roughly a 6 hour drive.

For some reason unknown to me, Nav4all was doing everything it could to get me off of 287 S like it was plague infested. It wanted me to exit at almost every exit point and turn west when the most direct route was clearly to continue south. At one point I decided to listen to it to see what would happen, and it tried to put me on the loop around Dallas, rather than continuing south. I don't know if it was trying to avoid traffic, which there was very little of, but following it's route would have wasted far more gas than I wanted.

This series of misdirections continued until I got to I-45 S, at which point it straightened up and became very accurate. It even guided me directly to my destination accurately and I was pleased. Then, on the drive back taking the exact reverse of the original route, everything was fine until I left I-45 and got back onto 287 N. Again, the directions tried to make me get off at every couple of exits, most of which would have taken me off of my vector.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

[StoneRyno]

I know telenav has a number of route types you can choose when setting up a route to get driving directions. Perhaps it has something to do with that. Or maybe even an outdated detour.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Kronk]

Nav4all has a "Driving Style' option menu that lists several things like Economist, Easy Rider, Tourist, No Highways, Shortest, etc. I made sure No Highways was not selected and I tried all of the others on the trip and had pretty much the same results with all. Very weird.

Oh, and I refuse to pay for a service on my BB that is rightfully free to the rest of the world. So if I can't get a free app to work for me, I'll just stick with my trusty Magellan.

[StoneRyno]

Definitely strange. I get telenav free with my sprint plan. I agree about paying extra for the software/service. I thought ATT provided free navigation. They seem to imply that in their advertisement. I even concidered switching to ATT based on the adverts. And nearly at the same time I was considering, sprint got the curve 8330 so I didn't need to switch for lack of a BB I wanted.

[Kronk]

As far as I know you have to pay for Telenav, and BBMaps is disabled.

[jbonnot03]

You are correct on the Telenav and BB maps. $9.99 for unlimited routes and ? for like 10 or 20 something like that and no BB maps. I use Nav4all also and found that sometimes it is dumb. Most of the time I know where I want to go and how to get there and just use it as a supplement just in case. Back in May I was in Htown for a wedding and went to pick up my bro from Hobby Airport. We went on Beltway 8 as that was the fastest and easiest way. Nav4all wanted me to go through town on a street that didn't go through. I kept getting "PAY ATTENTION" from that little lady. It was pretty funny.

[FF22]

Oh, and I refuse to pay for a service on my BB that is rightfully free to the rest of the world. So if I can't get a free app to work for me, I'll just stick with my trusty Magellan.

Actually, while the gps signals beaming down from the satellites are FREE. Devices that can read those signals are NOT free, i.e. Garmin car and handheld units, the BB phones, TomTom units and the gps pucks many use with laptops or VERIZON (sniff) BB's. So you do pay for a device to capture those signals.

Similarly, while a device may capture the signals, now you need software to decipher those signals into useful data. That software can provide minimal info like lat/long, maybe speed or direction of travel. Or it can be very elaborate, calculating routes and alternate routes, incorporate current traffic conditions, show points-of-interest and elevation. That software is offered graciously for free by some programmers while others charge. Some charge the one-time-fee and now (in my opinion, unfortunately) the monthly subscription price.

So, while, yes, the gps signals are provided free (well, someone's tax dollars, really), they are useless floating around the atmosphere.

Back to Verizon - their policy is very unfair and unfortunate with BB devices. They charge you for the device but then will not allow you to use the GPS unless you pay them a hostage fee to use their software. Since the BB is, in a way, a generic computer, it can use a variety of gps software (some free, some costly) but Verizon will not allow their users a choice of software. That is WRONG in my opinion. In this case, I did pay for a phone that has a gps. I should be able to use the gps as I see fit.

[Kronk]

I'm well aware of how GPS works, thanks. But you're not understanding my meaning. I never said anything about free hardware, but the ability to receive and interpret the satalite data is a free service. Of course you have to pay for the receiver.

I have the device - My GPS enabled Blackberry. I have the software - BBmaps. I might even "buy" a program that contained map data and voice modules, but I refuse to pay a monthy extortion fee for a what amounts to a selling point. I don't see the 8320s having to pay a monthly fee to use their wifi tx/rx feature.