Free navigation, GPS and life enrichment app LifeInPocket -- GPS discussion

[RoadComm Beta Team]

Post GPS related discussion or share your experience about LifeInPocket here. Experienced Life-In-Pocket users, please feel free to share and to help other users! Any non-GPS related question, please refer to Life-In-Pocker 3rd party app forums http://forums.crackberry.com/f35/fre...rvices-416996/
What’s LifeInPocket?
LifeInPocket is the only life enrichment app/services.
LifeInPocket home page has 15 icons (16 for Storm and Storm2)
Icons are color coded:
- Blue: 8 icons for location and GPS based services
- Green: 2 icond for Personal Services
- Sky blue: 4 icons for Media and web
- Red: System function and settings
Icons with satellite images are GPS based services
OTA link for BlackBerry browser download http://lifeinpocket.com/html/dlip.jad
Mobile page: Life In Pocket - Enrich your life by GPS
Home page (PC only): LifeInPocket GPS Mobile Application & Services - Your life in your pocket
Below TMCnet article gives you some overview.

CES Participants Gets Free Traveling Tools from LifeInPocket
By Carolyn J Dawson, TMCnet Contributor January 08, 2010

Attendees of the Consumer Electronics Show for the first time can leave their notebook PC behind instead of carrying it through airport security. RoadComm, Inc. reportedly announced the availability of the advanced LifeInPocket mobile suite, to CES (News - Alert) attendees.
Provided free of cost, LifeInPocket bestows a greater degree of functionality to BlackBerrys than any smart phone. The added list of features include GPS, voice navigation, local listing/reviews, satellite map, location messaging, friends/family locator, street view, Twitter, e-mail, IMs, Facebook,MySpace ( News - Alert), LinkedIn, YouTube, cheap gas finder, news, video, traffic, local events music, movies, local events, TV guide, weather, finance, banking, sports, flights, magazines, fashions, transportation, travel, yellow/white pages, dictionary, translation, the Bible and much more instant information and services.
LifeInPocket also incorporates one of the most cutting edge turn-by-turn navigation instructions with useful voice guidance. By making use of synced address book,BlackBerry ( News - Alert) address book and its unique online trip planning tool, LifeInPocket Navigation completely does away with the requirement for typing on miniscule keyboards. It is also far superior to other expensive phone navigation services available in the market currently.
CES attendees will now be equipped with the world's only personalized GPS/address-based local search that has more than 15 million points of interest. They can also go through other visitors' reviews and ratings which have been uploaded just minutes before getting into new restaurants, car repair shops or other businesses using voice navigation during the conference.
Much more robust than traditional SMS, CES attendees can transmit their GPS locations in real time with a message to family/friends to bring peace of mind and be better connected with them. Other than mobile features, almost all the services that are used daily with a PC are available with LifeInPocket.
The only mobile application/services platform of its kind, LifeInPocket paves the way ahead for the next generation of application and services by offering the power of expensive smart phones to regular cell phones, making smart phones even more functional and giving BlackBerrys the ultimate position to reign.

LifeInPocket supports US only at this moment; services for other countries are under development.
Disclaimer: I am with RoadComm, Inc. the maker of LifeInPocket and a leader in Telematics technologies

[RoadComm Beta Team]

RoadComm has been in Telematics business for 10 years. We design and manufacture our own industrial grade GPS hardware, firmware and software. Product
Q: How can I know if my BB’s GPS is working?
A: Perform below test
1 make sure you are outside or in your car
2 go into options on your blackberry
4 click on status
5 type the word "test"
6 Hit the menu button
7 click start
8 check the check box for GPS
9 click run
Wait a few moments (usually it isn't too long. Then it will say successful if GPS works.

GPS accuracy is determined by GPS chip and firmware in the BlackBerry or Bluetooth GPS receiver, not apps. We do not claim LifeInPocket GPS accuracy is better or worse than other apps.

USC 8330M, 8330 & 8230 GPS requires assisted data (PDE) while USC won't provide PDE data so USC 8330M, 8330 & 8230 GPS won't work with 3rd party apps.! The situation is similar to VZW locks GPS, only certain paid apps will work by sharing revenue with carriers.
9639 support autonomous GPS but BB map can get USC/VZE PDE data so if you fire up BB map first the GPS acquisition time for LifeInPocket and other apps will be faster.
Sprint and Alltel offer us PDE data, so all Sprint and AllTel BBs can get GPS very fast. VZW [/B] Alltel is acquired by VZW, so it's possible they may change their PDE policy.
VZW 9630, 9530, 9550 and 8530 can get GPS. All GSM BBs (AT&T & T-Mobile) can get GPS if they have internal GPS
If your BB doesn't have GPS or it's locked by your carrier, don't worry. LifeInPocket support Bluetooth GPs which you can get from eBay for as less as $15.

[RoadComm Beta Team]

Posted when first downloaded :

Originally Posted by nj_jamaican

Downloaded lifeinpocket for both mine and my wife's phone and we like what we see so far. tomorrow we will be taking it out on the road for a test run to grandma's house. we will report back our findings.

Posted 2 months later:

Originally Posted by nj_jamaican

lifeinpocket is a sweet APP. used it the other day and love the Navigation system. Its a NAV with voice guided direction. I was shocked when I first heard the voice because I was anticipating it to be like Googlemaps with just direction only. The voice app tells when to turn and right at the point of turning says "turn right now".

Using it also for local food spots, or any other type of facility is even better than my car gps because it is updated on a real time basis. This thing even directed me to the cheapest gas station for the day in question. In other words all specs are updated real time.

This one is a keeper. My car has a gps so not necessary to use it all the while, but my wife loves it since her car does not have gps system.

Thanks lifeinpocket you rock!!

Perfect navigation maps don't exist; all maps are relying on user reports to refine them. Always report missing address, map or route errors to beta@roadcomm.com immediately with detail information so our vendors can improve their digital maps and algorithm.

Location messaging allows you to send your GPS or address locations to friends. They can then navigate by voice directions to there, map it, view traffic, ….

[RoadComm Beta Team]

Edit: Updated on 02/20/2010
We apologize for our replies letting some people feel offended which led to angry, twitested and emotional posts and we applaud Xopher's latest post at the end of this thread for taking positive steps to end these emotions to move this thread toward positive direction.

Hi Xopher, Thanks for the latest post for letting people know that you made those posts when you were frustrated as you felt you were offended. We apologize for the confrontation we had and look forward to more balanced views from you in the future!!

Originally Posted by Xopher

First, if anyone has thought my remarks were personal, I apologize. ....

I think we need to work on directing this thread towards the use of the software. Hopefully the developer will do the same.

Edit: Introduction of some LifeInPocket features

Media Features
Offers Video, Music, Fshion, Photo, Cooking, Entertainment and Sports. They are web features but very handy for example you can view CBS News Show, AP News video, Fox Sprots Video etc. You can use rich contents from top movie contents provider Go 2 Movie, Mr. Movie, Hollywood.com, Fandango, Netflex, ….. You can even make reservation or buy ticket.
There are many magazines such as Car and Driver, Cover Girl, Elle, Marie Clare, … in various topic for you to choose.
Media features

Originally Posted by i7guy

... the traffic icon seemed to work without a hitch for me.

Real time traffic report

Local Business Search
You can use personalized search criteria or type your own to search. Most our users said LIP business search is better than Poynt because
1. LIP search can be personalized but Poynt cannot
2. You can one click search with LIP but with Poynt you have to type
3. LIP can save search results to "Favorite Business" folder while Poynt cannot
4. You can search using any address or marked location with LIP but Poynt cannot
5. You can save your search criteria while Poynt cannot
6. You can open any BB contacts from LIP and use the address for search but you cannot do that with Poynt
7. LIP offers comprehensive business ratings and reviews but Poynt doesn't. We can only wish you good luck when you venturing into an auto repair shop if you are using Poynt but our users know the shop well and will enter it with confidence

Business reviews/ratings

Here is reputable tech editor Carolyn J Dawson’s unbiased view published at top tech magazine TMCnet. It’s very different from certain naive views.

Provided free of cost, LifeInPocket bestows a greater degree of functionality to BlackBerrys than any smart phone. The added list of features include GPS, voice navigation, local listing/reviews, satellite map, location messaging, friends/family locator, street view, Twitter, e-mail, IMs, Facebook,MySpace ( News - Alert), LinkedIn, YouTube, cheap gas finder, news, video, traffic, local events music, movies, local events, TV guide, weather, finance, banking, sports, flights, magazines, fashions, transportation, travel, yellow/white pages, dictionary, translation, the Bible and much more instant information and services.
LifeInPocket also incorporates one of the most cutting edge turn-by-turn navigation instructions with useful voice guidance. By making use of synced address book,BlackBerry ( News - Alert) address book and its unique online trip planning tool, LifeInPocket Navigation completely does away with the requirement for typing on miniscule keyboards. It is also far superior to other expensive phone navigation services available in the market currently.
CES attendees will now be equipped with the world's only personalized GPS/address-based local search that has more than 15 million points of interest. They can also go through other visitors' reviews and ratings which have been uploaded just minutes before getting into new restaurants, car repair shops or other businesses using voice navigation during the conference.
Much more robust than traditional SMS, CES attendees can transmit their GPS locations in real time with a message to family/friends to bring peace of mind and be better connected with them. Other than mobile features, almost all the services that are used daily with a PC are available with LifeInPocket.
The only mobile application/services platform of its kind, LifeInPocket paves the way ahead for the next generation of application and services by offering the power of expensive smart phones to regular cell phones, making smart phones even more functional and giving BlackBerrys the ultimate position to reign.

[porando]

The other thread was closed "because below issue has made this thread lost it’s focus." Interesting.... When you don't like what you user say and you could not convince them that they are wrong - you say thread lost its focus?
Ok.. if you want a honest opinion - let people know and LISTEN...
Few comments if you care.
I have your App loaded on my BB for some time and have mixed feeling. I use News, Search and Net buttons - have list of custom links for quick connection. Blue buttons would be great if I could also used them indoors - why? Lets say I want to check traffic before I leave my office.. Also if I want to find cheap gas - let me do it from my desk as well. Your "cheap" list displays "cheap Cheap" gas - like Rotten Robbie - not sure if Cheap means the same for all. For me cheap gas means brand station with min price as well. So I use Search button and get the "other Cheap gas" link via Browser.
Navigation has nice graphics and the rest is "iffy" - too many buttons to press before I can go in the right direction (not a safe approach), errors instead of auto re-calc etc
One thing both Google and Nav4All (RIP) have done is that they get displayed on Options list in my BB contact list...so if I slick the name I have option to navigate to this address with one click. LIP has too many steps to get the same job done...
I know what Google can do and regardless what you say - I can find the business I want quite easily and get directions to it - no voice turn by turn but it is easy. If LIP was as accurate and reliable, I would use it but until it is I prefer safety and reliability.

And what I expect? No I don't expect you convincing me how wrong I am - you have an option to change things so users like LIP and I have an option to use whatever I like.
Sure LIP is free ... will it be free forever?
Would you like to have a group of "beta testers" who will test you product and give feedback for free AND once you finish you product and start charging - they will get free lifetime service"?

[tech_head]

Definitely needs auto-recalc. Should be an option.
If you can detect the error, surely you can initiate a recalc.
Also click when you have the right orientation???
No other GPS I've used requires that. You drive, then then it tell you if you are going in the wrong direction or not.

I use it but would like it better f it had those functions.
I like the business search.

[RoadComm Beta Team]

Originally Posted by tech_head

Definitely needs auto-recalc. Should be an option.
If you can detect the error, surely you can initiate a recalc.
Also click when you have the right orientation???
No other GPS I've used requires that. You drive, then then it tell you if you are going in the wrong direction or not.

I use it but would like it better f it had those functions.
I like the business search.

Thanks for the input! Our team will look into it!

[RoadComm Beta Team]

Originally Posted by porando

The other thread was closed "because below issue has made this thread lost it’s focus."

You probably missed the exciting part of the old thread but if you see couple newbies sent by other company made such fake impossible claims as below, it will upset your stomach.

Originally Posted by gulloo

I thought I will try the nav feature while driving home from Pittsburgh Airport. Ater a scan of satellites it located me in middle of Detroit.

While our navigation will only tell you which way you should head for and street/direction you should turn. It won't tell you that you are "in the middle of Detroit".

The other guy claims that the forum moderator can verify his employment but is it possible? View all those newbie's posts and you will know who they are and what dirty tricks they are playing. Apparently you didn't view that thread! Maybe I simply over estimated your intelligence.


Most of our users told us

Originally Posted by Vagrant_1

Yeah I use Life in Pocket it pretty accurate for me, I haven't had and issues with it.

Originally Posted by Outatime97

Life in pocket is one of the most used apps on my BB. (and everyone I know with a BB). Keep up the GREAT work!

Originally Posted by porando

Blue buttons would be great if I could also used them indoors

You can use our MyLoc, Marked GPS Location, planned destination and other ways to do that. You can use those to check cheap gas, traffic,.. indoor.

Originally Posted by porando

I know what Google can do and regardless what you say - I can find the business I want quite easily and get directions to it - no voice turn by turn but it is easy.

I like Google Maps too but looking at map direction when driving can take you to the **** (or Heaven) fast.

Originally Posted by porando

auto re-calc etc

LifeInPocket probably has the fastest route recalculation (2 to 5 seconds) in the industry and it's probably the only one offers the convenience of "one press" re-route any time.

While with other nav apps, users may have to wait for the app complete it's long struggle then they will be able to know which way to go.

LifeInPocket used to support auto route re-calculation prior to rev. 0.420 and it's at rev. 0.710 now.

The reason we removed auto route recalculation is because we have seem all nav apps (include ours) struggle with short distance turn and cellular signal issue.

When other nav engines need to take longer time to re-calculate route the situation for for short distance turn simply won't work.

It's true for all nav apps which auto route recalculation will only work when turn distance is long enough and cellular data network connection is well established.

Our current implementation is based on filed input but we would like to hear feedback from CB users.

We can always put those auto route recalculation code back for our next release if that's what our users want!

Attention: When driving a vehicle, you must focus on your primary driving responsibilities. Drive safely! Read our teams and conditions and follow accordingly when using LifeInPocket navigation services.

Originally Posted by porando

Sure LIP is free ... will it be free forever?

We are technical people, so we are not authorized to make official comments. Below is what we said in other thread.
The official answer should come from our marketing but here's what I know,
- LifeInPocket is to fulfill our vision of bringing life convenience to people's daily life. We never intend to compete with others. That's why it's unique.
- We intend to keep LifeInPocket free as long as we can financially afford that. We may seek other big companies to co-sponsor LifeInPocket if necessary to keep LifeInPocket free.
- Others cannot afford providing navigation for free because the map is very very expensive and it won't support free business model. However, we already paid for it for our Telematics Business Unit anyway.

So in the US, we are probably the only company can afford doing this for free.

I suggest you to go to our main thread at http://forums.crackberry.com/f35/fre...rvices-416996/ to view our discussion with our users then you will have better understanding about how we communicate with users and helping users.

Originally Posted by porando

Would you like to have a group of "beta testers"

You need to be familiar with the product in order to give accurate feedback. At this moment, you are not even an entry level user yet that’s why your feedback is not accurately reflection the product.

We have a “Elite Beta User” group of over ten thousand users, most of them have been using LifeInPocket for over one year since our private beta. We can consider you for the group when you become really familiar with LifeInPocket.

[RoadComm Beta Team]

Edit: Updated on 02/19/2010
We apologize for our replies letting some people feel offended which leads to angry, twisted and emotional posts and we applaud Xopher for taking positive steps to end these emotions to move this thread toward positive direction.

Hi Xopher, Thanks for the latest post at the end of the thread for letting people know that you made those posts simply to express your frustration as you felt you were offended. We apologize for the confrontation we had and look forward to balanced views from you in the future!

Originally Posted by Xopher

First, if anyone has thought my remarks were personal, I apologize. ....

I think we need to work on directing this thread towards the use of the software. Hopefully the developer will do the same.

Originally Posted by tech_head

Should be an option.
If you can detect the error, surely you can initiate a recalc.

To have it as user option is an excellent idea! This way they can have their own preference!

[RoadComm Beta Team]

1 Please personalize your services fist! This should includes your LIP web services and get familiar with all features before comment.

2. GPS Search We don’t want to make mistakes as other apps made, so we cannot keep GPS thread alive on the back ground to kill battery. It’s only 8 seconds or less difference. LIP can run on BB for many days with one battery charge.

Originally Posted by BlkBryAddict

I have Poynt and Viigo but ALWAYS shut them down completely. I double check constantly for this. I left Poynt running in the background once, and it killed my battery. Never will I let that happen again.

3. We don’t want sluggish performance LIP is fast and clean because we don't do what you wanted us to do.

Originally Posted by sabooher

That's my whole gripe about Poynt; the new version is sluggish. … I think a lot of the slowness is due to the automatic weather lookups in the background. They took a really useful app and made it more bloated IMO. I can't imagine running it on an 81xx or 83xx series BlackBerry, it seems even slow on my new 9700.

4. Most our user said our local search is better because,
Most our users said LIP business search is better than Poynt because
1. LIP search can be personalized but Poynt cannot
2. You can one click search with LIP but with Poynt you have to type
3. LIP can save search results to "Favorite Business" folder while Poynt cannot
4. You can search using any address or marked location with LIP but Poynt cannot
5. You can save your search criteria while Poynt cannot
6. You can open any BB contacts from LIP and use the address for search but you cannot do that with Poynt
7. LIP offers comprehensive business ratings and reviews but Poynt doesn't. We can only wish you good luck when you venturing into an auto repair shop if you are using Poynt but our users know the shop well and will enter it with confidence.
8. Poynt cannot use address to search
But we understand you have different need and we have to say sorry.

5. UI: This is an app offers 10 times the features of Poynt while the app size is about the same. You can always install 10 apps to do what LIP do and you need to open each of them and jump between them.

6. This is probably the only free app comes with voice navigation. It's good enough to take you from point A to point B comfortably. We own our own Text To Speech Engine (TI Express DSP Certified) and many technologies. Product. There are many thing we can squeeze in to LIP but we have to make smart choice. Street name is one thing we have been thinking hard.

[RoadComm Beta Team]

I don't see any reason we should not post other long time CB users' view about LifeInPocket. Only because they have different view with you so you call them apam?
I don't understand!

[RoadComm Beta Team]

Xopher review ???? Please look at the mirror!

[porando]

Xopher review is quite accurate and what he gets for it? A sort of sarcastic responses.

Should I also consider RoadComm Beta Team response to my question a complement?

"You need to be familiar with the product in order to give accurate feedback. At this moment, you are not even an entry level user yet that’s why your feedback is not accurately reflection the product."

Is that comment related to my CB user level here at this forum or using LIP ?
If this is an indication of Company attitude towards Customers and users - makes you think...


Sooner or later which such an attitude, people will just give up...
and if somebody like Google offers free turn by turn nav things will get much worse.

Don't you guys get it that device can be charged all the time while driving and though power consumption while using nav is important but not such a huge deal as compared to ease of use safety and reliability?

And to keep posting the same old positive comments all the time??.... did you ask yourself and others what value it has for THIS community?
Save yourself a time and stop this "propaganda of success" - sooner or later moderator will block you for spamming and we all will loose becouse LIP has a potential to become a quite useful product.

Do I care that others love this or that? Sure I do in process of making decision but not so much if it doesn't work for me at this time I need help and advice and not a stupid comment that you are low on our list because you are not experienced user.. like they knew how much I use LIP based on my CB number of postings?
And actually they are correct - I have LIP for quite a long time installed on my gizmo but not used that much - Why? Read Xopher report
Whenever I tried I get upset, open my glove compartment, pull my $150 Garmin nav and go.

If this is true that you will keep LIP free if you find sponsors, your goal should be to keep users within your application all the time and they will be using LIP not because you will talk them to it but because they like it.
Small example. I am using WorldMate Live a travel related application which allows me to book flights and hotels and every time I do that - they likely get some money from the hotel or airlines because they give me some small perks.. so I use it often.

The absolute most important thing to success is that people have to like this application and like to use it and use it all the time – otherwise will slowly move away from it

What I get from this community is HELP to understand and fix issues and I would expect LIP to do just that and I do that according to the old truth that
"One can learn ONLY by listening and not by talking”

So maybe LIP support staff could focus what you can do for your customers and live to us opinions what competitive applications can or can't do? And if they hear positive comments on competitive product – don’t try to tell us that we a bunch of dummy idiots – ask us WHY and do as well or better that they do because words are cheap

[RoadComm Beta Team]

Edit: Updated on 02/20/2010
We apologize for our replies letting some people feel offended which led to angry, twisted and emotional posts and we applaud Xopher for taking positive steps to end these emotions to move this thread toward positive direction.

Hi Xopher, Thanks for the latest post at the end of the thread for letting people know that you made those twisted posts simply to express your frustration as you felt you were offended. We apologize for the confrontation we had and look forward to balanced views from you in the future!

Originally Posted by Xopher

First, if anyone has thought my remarks were personal, I apologize. ....

I think we need to work on directing this thread towards the use of the software. Hopefully the developer will do the same.

Porando,

We value user input and we have come a long way with huge number of users with a special “Elite Beta Users” group of over ten thousand users.

When you truly get familiar with LifeInPocket and knows how to use all the features correctly, we will be glad to hear from you again.

We listen to huge audience but we can not do everyone wants! We have to make choice base on majority of non-biased inputs.

[RoadComm Beta Team]

2. GPS Search We don’t want to make mistakes as other apps made, so we cannot keep GPS thread alive on the back ground to kill battery. It’s only 8 seconds or less difference. LIP can run on BB for many days with one battery charge.

Originally Posted by BlkBryAddict

I have Poynt and Viigo but ALWAYS shut them down completely. I double check constantly for this. I left Poynt running in the background once, and it killed my battery. Never will I let that happen again.

3. We don’t want sluggish performance LIP is fast and clean because we don't do what you wanted us to do.

Originally Posted by sabooher

That's my whole gripe about Poynt; the new version is sluggish. … I think a lot of the slowness is due to the automatic weather lookups in the background. They took a really useful app and made it more bloated IMO. I can't imagine running it on an 81xx or 83xx series BlackBerry, it seems even slow on my new 9700.

We invest our resource to open this thread but we just feel we are wasting our time here.

You are right! We should close this thread and stop wasting our time!

Edit: Real time traffic report

Media features

Here is reputable tech editor Carolyn J Dawson’s unbiased view published at top tech magazine TMCnet. It’s very different from certain naive views.

Provided free of cost, LifeInPocket bestows a greater degree of functionality to BlackBerrys than any smart phone. The added list of features include GPS, voice navigation, local listing/reviews, satellite map, location messaging, friends/family locator, street view, Twitter, e-mail, IMs, Facebook,MySpace ( News - Alert), LinkedIn, YouTube, cheap gas finder, news, video, traffic, local events music, movies, local events, TV guide, weather, finance, banking, sports, flights, magazines, fashions, transportation, travel, yellow/white pages, dictionary, translation, the Bible and much more instant information and services.
LifeInPocket also incorporates one of the most cutting edge turn-by-turn navigation instructions with useful voice guidance. By making use of synced address book,BlackBerry ( News - Alert) address book and its unique online trip planning tool, LifeInPocket Navigation completely does away with the requirement for typing on miniscule keyboards. It is also far superior to other expensive phone navigation services available in the market currently.
CES attendees will now be equipped with the world's only personalized GPS/address-based local search that has more than 15 million points of interest. They can also go through other visitors' reviews and ratings which have been uploaded just minutes before getting into new restaurants, car repair shops or other businesses using voice navigation during the conference.
Much more robust than traditional SMS, CES attendees can transmit their GPS locations in real time with a message to family/friends to bring peace of mind and be better connected with them. Other than mobile features, almost all the services that are used daily with a PC are available with LifeInPocket.
The only mobile application/services platform of its kind, LifeInPocket paves the way ahead for the next generation of application and services by offering the power of expensive smart phones to regular cell phones, making smart phones even more functional and giving BlackBerrys the ultimate position to reign.