[Mystic205]

I am asking to see if the playbook can be used as a car navigation system..

Does the Playbook have native GPS..or just a-GPS over wifi?..

if its a-GPS, does the Playbook when used with bridge, obtain the GPS location from the BB..?

ie.. is there a turn by turn navigation and maps app for the playbook?..

thanks

[BuzzStarField]

The short answer is no, there are no turn-by-turn offline navigation apps available for the PlayBook.

There are several GPS enabled mapping apps; some are good, some are better and a lot of them are really horrible.

A more detailed discussion can be found in several other threads in this forum.

[skyscraper04]

Yeah there is and its called "coming soon" next summer

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[ScoobsDM]

Can u get turn by turn directions if bridged to your BB? That could be a great useful feature. An app, that when bridged to your BB would be displayed on the Playbook.

[Mystic205]

thanks..i searched anyway but you got the summary spot on....

I would have settled for telenav or similar on the playbook getting positiion via bridge to the BB but it looks like its a fat zero.

The short answer is no, there are no turn-by-turn offline navigation apps available for the PlayBook.

There are several GPS enabled mapping apps; some are good, some are better and a lot of them are really horrible.

A more detailed discussion can be found in several other threads in this forum.

[xsacha]

A-GPS is just a method of obtaining satellite data to speed up locking.
It still uses the GPS (it has a hardware/native GPS chip) no matter what.

As there's no 3G chip it can't triangulate data from cell towers though (phones without GPS chips or indoors often use this).

[bbaleno]

Magellan Compass its free and good.

[Wolfgan]

A-GPS is just a method of obtaining satellite data to speed up locking.
It still uses the GPS (it has a hardware/native GPS chip) no matter what.

As there's no 3G chip it can't triangulate data from cell towers though (phones without GPS chips or indoors often use this).

Maybe PB will be compatible with the new wifi geolocation service recently announced, just to compensate areas where GPS is not the best solution.
Wolf

[BuzzStarField]

Magellan Compass its free and good.

Magellan Compass is really good but it costs $4.99 with a free trial and it is does not have audible turn-by-turn navigation. It is also temporarily unavailable until RIM sorts an App World installation problem.

[kunamvahees]

When PB has the GPS already, there is no excuse for not having a navigation app. At least one without audio. I wish we have TomTom app on PB but I know I'm asking too much. Also, these will take up too much space on PB as well.

I heard apps selling for $10 in Appworld, are good for viewing your current location and stuff, but we need more than that, way more..

[bbaleno]

Magellan Compass is really good but it costs $4.99 with a free trial and it is does not have audible turn-by-turn navigation. It is also temporarily unavailable until RIM sorts an App World installation problem.

I heard from the developer that audible turn-by-turn navigation is in the plan.

I love the app, the latest update lets you view full screen. I mailed the developer asking him a question and mentioned about taking some things of the screen to get more real estate, and then he came out with that. I can see it overtaking google maps.

it is defiantly useable and in my opinion the best one out there right now for the playbook at this time

[kbsantosh1]

Megallen compass is not able to find the gps location and is continously in the search mode.

Is this hardware limitation on playbook or some setting which needs to be tuned?

Thanks.

[pacoman03]

I've said this before, Google maps, version 5.9.0 can be sideloaded and, although quirky, allows for caching of map areas and has turn by turn voice guided navigation. There are later versions of Google maps available but they tend to crash if you try to go into settings and thus you can't cache maps for offline use. The biggest problem with Google maps is you need to be online to initially map out your directions (but not while you're actually in route).

[wickie]

just tried wise-pilot as free test app available bar-file here

LinkBucks.com - Get your share!

appears to be very promising:

loads on PB, you can download a map, and test the software for 5 days before purchase.

It appears to work fine, when i place the pb on the offices windowsill I get a gps-fix, the route is calculated. I havent tried it yet in the car, but simulation confirms turn by turn voice guided navigation

Looks very promosing an due to the fair license policy 28 EUR lifetime europe or 32 $ north america it would be a very good choice...

May be one should convince them to put it into the regular market that one can profit from updates....

[noelito4three]

I've said this before, Google maps, version 5.9.0 can be sideloaded and, although quirky, allows for caching of map areas and has turn by turn voice guided navigation. There are later versions of Google maps available but they tend to crash if you try to go into settings and thus you can't cache maps for offline use. The biggest problem with Google maps is you need to be online to initially map out your directions (but not while you're actually in route).

my gps almost always drops when using google maps. and yes, while magellan is active as well.

[pacoman03]

my gps almost always drops when using google maps. and yes, while magellan is active as well.

Well I did say that it is quirky and that is the major quirk. But, the last time I used it, it lost the PB gps signal but picked it back up within about a minute and I didn't miss any turns as a result. Anyhow, I do know that's an issue, so what I also did was, when I originally used the app to get directions, I took a screenshot of the written out directions so I had a backup plan in case it lost GPS.

[codezero11]

hey guys, i've had some pretty decent success using my 9900 (mobile hot spot) with google maps through the android player. It does turn by turn since its the release that android phones have.

it doens't seem to work through the bridge, but hotspot works.

give it a shot.
Chad

[chiniki]

I have been using the sideloaded Google maps with turn by turn and it works great bridged to my bold 9780.