1. bintheredundat's Avatar
    So before heading away this week I decided to take advantage of the free trial offer for Mireo. I left my Tom Tom at home and took the risk of depending on the app. Here's my experience as I traveled from North of Toronto Canada to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, USA.

    Pros.
    -the screen is very clear and easy to understand. A very large arrow is pretty tough to miss
    -GPS signal registered right away and as I crossed borders and went through valleys and peaks it stayed on the whole time.
    -a nice feature is a speed alert. As I went through areas with different speed limits, there was a gentle chime to alert me to slow down. Handy since canada uses km/h and the US mp/h.
    - the voice feature is very descriptive, gives ample time and clear instructions to get ready to change lanes etc. Great feature. At points I wasn't even looking at the screen.
    - when you need to take an exit etc, the program shows you which lane you should be in quite clearly. Ie left two lanes of a three lane highway Will be lit up a yellow colour.
    -it even displays a picture of the highway exit on the actual app. Now that's impressive.
    - a nice night mode that automatically turned on for me.
    - I had to stop for fuel on several occasions and on the map there is a fuel icon that updates the distance of gas stations in real time. Pressing that allows you to update your route for a gas stop (also works for shops).
    -placing the screen in horizontal mode makes the map a little wider. Also adds more options to the screen and provides more detailed info to you about your trip.
    -the menus contain 3 pages of diff info, a speedometer, trip info ( time and distance traveled etc), and a list of your route turns etc.

    -i found the map quite responsive when I dragged around on the map. A definite plus over my tom tom. Nice to be able to scroll around.
    -rerouting was flawless. Stopped a few times for food and app got me on track right away.

    -i had music playing from device to the radio via my vm605 fm transmitter. Found that the Gps voice instructions worked well at dimming the music when guidance was bring given.
    -ample warnings about border crossings approaching as well as tolls booths.


    Some cons (although I expected some of these).


    -due to the Gps being on for 6+ hours straight and my music playing, the phone had to plugged in and charging.
    -the hdmi position on the phone made placing the phone on the dash somewhat tricky at times. Think I'll need a dash mount.
    -the poi feature could use some work. Seems it works best with a street name or specific name of place. Searching by "food" wasn't effective at all. Perhaps I missed something?
    -app takes 2 gigs of device memory. Again I knew this. But wish it could use the sd card somehow.
    -the hotel was near some overpasses. Just noticed that when parked under one it does get confused. But again this is to be expected.

    I'll update as I continue home but this app is definitely going to replace my clunky tom tom. Free updates are a plus as well as less accessories to travel with.

    I crossed through one province, two US states, I was given the correct speed limit and route 100%. As well as the estimated time. All worked flawlessly. Kudos to the app dev's

    Posted via CB10 on my Z10 Oreo
    Last edited by bintheredundat; 05-25-13 at 08:01 PM.
    stevepar and rickkel like this.
    05-25-13 07:49 PM
  2. KemKev's Avatar
    No freezing?
    05-25-13 08:36 PM
  3. bintheredundat's Avatar
    Nope. No freezing whatsoever.

    Posted via CB10 on my Z10 Oreo
    BB10QNX and The_Traveller like this.
    05-25-13 10:11 PM
  4. tickerguy's Avatar
    I've been playing with the free trial and will likely buy the map. I had something similar (ALK CoPilot) on Android but this is better quality. My only complaint is that you need to know the state you're traveling into if you look for a POI; keying "Disney World" will not work unless you tell it the state in question first.

    BlackBerry's maps work well but being device-based this doesn't require data to be active in order to function, and the price is reasonable.
    BB10QNX likes this.
    05-26-13 08:36 AM
  5. bintheredundat's Avatar
    I've been playing with the free trial and will likely buy the map. I had something similar (ALK CoPilot) on Android but this is better quality. My only complaint is that you need to know the state you're traveling into if you look for a POI; keying "Disney World" will not work unless you tell it the state in question first.

    BlackBerry's maps work well but being device-based this doesn't require data to be active in order to function, and the price is reasonable.
    I agree. Hopefully they make the poi feature more functional. I also found that it doesn't always search for the closest poi to where I was for some reason. Ie if i searched Starbucks, the first result wasn't the ideal distance from me. Hope they update it.

    Posted via CB10 on my Z10 Oreo
    05-26-13 10:15 AM
  6. bintheredundat's Avatar
    Anyone know how to turn off the voice navigation on this app? I've found that I wasn't able to turn it off and turning it down via the app actually turns down the master volume on the app.

    A separate control would be nice especially if someone is streaming music and doesn't need turn by turn navigation on

    Posted via CB10 on my Z10 Oreo
    05-27-13 06:58 AM
  7. KemKev's Avatar
    Nope. No freezing whatsoever.
    Thanks; this is good to know. I just paid over $80 to update my TomTom maps on my other GPS as Mireo froze on me twice during the trial while I was hiway driving, requiring me to pull off to reset the app. I found that unacceptable. Would still love to have this one on my phone though I am holding off to see what progress is made regarding saving the maps to the SD card instead of on the phone.
    05-27-13 01:44 PM
  8. bintheredundat's Avatar
    So I finally bought the app today - it went on sale so didn't see any reason to wait.

    Two quirks that I've found from my short use.
    1) when I set a route I haven't found a way to shut the turn by turn voice navigation off. Sometimes i just need approx guidance and the voice actually overpowers the music playing on the phone.
    Found that reducing the in app volume actually controls the phones master volume so that's not ideal either. Hope they fix this.

    2) Also I get the need for the dev to make money. I bought the app. Just don't see the need to charge for the traffic updates or sell it as an add on. If I can call it a downside this is one. I'd rather pay a small portion for map updates than $20 for the add on for live traffic

    All in all a 4/5 stars. Worth the purchase.

    Posted via CB10 on my Z10 Oreo
    06-05-13 09:13 PM
  9. npisano's Avatar
    BlackBerry's maps work well but being device-based this doesn't require data to be active in order to function, and the price is reasonable.
    Do you need to have data on in order to use the GPS? I would love to use this app, especially when roaming, but I don't want to be charged roaming rates to use the GPS when the maps are on the phone. Has anyone tried using this while data is turned off? Thanks for any input.
    06-05-13 09:42 PM
  10. myfairkadie's Avatar
    I find this interesting since the North America app is based on TomTom.

    Posted via CB10
    06-05-13 10:03 PM
  11. f_d's Avatar
    The app is entirely data free unless you bought the traffic updates module, in which case it needs a small amount of data for the traffic updates, but other than that it works completely without a data connection-you can turn on airplane mode and it still works, from address lookups to routing/rerouting, it is all done on device.

    The freezes appear to be an OS issue vs an app issue. I had freezes in 10.0 but it has been perfect in 10.1, so update your OS, or download a leak if your carrier does not have 10.1 yet..

    I'm not sure of the actual map origins- I think they are all actually Tele Atlas maps, according to the copyrights that are displayed.. Regardless, they work well and are up to date... I have stopped carrying my standalone GPS for travel because this app works so well..

    Posted via CB10
    npisano likes this.
    06-06-13 01:24 AM
  12. myfairkadie's Avatar
    It tells you right on the download page that most of the maps come from TomTom...

    Posted via CB10
    06-06-13 01:38 AM
  13. bintheredundat's Avatar
    The app is entirely data free unless you bought the traffic updates module, in which case it needs a small amount of data for the traffic updates, but other than that it works completely without a data connection-you can turn on airplane mode and it still works, from address lookups to routing/rerouting, it is all done on device.

    The freezes appear to be an OS issue vs an app issue. I had freezes in 10.0 but it has been perfect in 10.1, so update your OS, or download a leak if your carrier does not have 10.1 yet..

    I'm not sure of the actual map origins- I think they are all actually Tele Atlas maps, according to the copyrights that are displayed.. Regardless, they work well and are up to date... I have stopped carrying my standalone GPS for travel because this app works so well..

    Posted via CB10
    Ditto. Bought it so I could leave my tom tom at home. Cleaned up the amount of accessories I was carrying.

    And yup in my original post I drove with the device in airplane mode to double check it wasn't using data. Worked really well.

    Posted via CB10 on my Z10 Oreo
    npisano likes this.
    06-06-13 05:31 AM
  14. idockter's Avatar
    Does this navigation tool indicate street names via the voice function? I would like it to say, "turn right on Smith Street in 500 yards." Rather than just "turn right in 500 yards."
    07-25-13 06:57 PM
  15. All4BeSpinnin's Avatar
    Does this navigation tool indicate street names via the voice function? I would like it to say, "turn right on Smith Street in 500 yards." Rather than just "turn right in 500 yards."
    No it's generic voice controls...I think BB needs to incorporate Nuance into BB10 like they did with BBOS to get detailed voice controls.

    Posted via CB10
    07-25-13 07:26 PM
  16. docfreed's Avatar
    BB Maps speaks street names.

    No it's generic voice controls...I think BB needs to incorporate Nuance into BB10 like they did with BBOS to get detailed voice controls.

    Posted via CB10
    07-25-13 07:56 PM
  17. idockter's Avatar
    Thanks guys.

    Posted via CB10
    07-25-13 08:00 PM
  18. idockter's Avatar
    It's too bad that BlackBerry maps doesn't have offline ability. Is there a chance that this will come in a future update? It's also too bad that Mireo doesn't have better voice options. If these apps could be combined, it would be great. Is there an application that combines both offline capability with voice activated street names? I noticed there is an app called Navigation for 6.99. There isn't a trial period however. Any ideas what would be best,

    Posted via CB10
    BB10QNX likes this.
    07-25-13 08:30 PM
  19. idockter's Avatar
    A couple more questions before I decide to purchase the app. I have been using Mireo for the past two days and haven't figured out a way to change the 24 hour clock to a twelve hour clock on the Q10. I also haven't figured out a way to delete my history. Are these things that the trial doesn't offer, but the paid version does?
    07-28-13 01:22 PM
  20. BB10QNX's Avatar
    Completely agree, BB maps partnered with Mireo would be perfect. Have tried Navigator, nice application, but Mireo UI is cleaner/nicer, easier to use, quicker and more accurate recalculations also. The only thing with Mireo we found here in the central US zone is some address inputs are not found, and some speed updates were not accurate/on time, more of a TomTom update issue I guess, but their [Mireo] support is very responsive and on it. Once these issues are cleared up, this will be a very sweet application, even better if it had BB map detailed voice .
    08-04-13 10:25 AM
  21. bintheredundat's Avatar
    Ok, so I took yet another road trip South to the lovely U.S. of A - total distance driven was 2000km, total time spent driving was 31 hours (over the course of 5 days)
    This time I think I put the App to the test by traveling to NYC/NJ - lots of turns and traffic chaos...here are my thoughts:

    -Had the app on every time I was in the car, I opted to buy a generic cheap dash mount for a few dollars which came in very handy.
    -A 1amp USB charger came in handy also. I had the phone in airplane mode with the screen dimmed to half and the phone never went below half power during the long portions of the trip.
    -Went from Toronto Ontario to Port Washington NY
    -While there, I made several trips to New Jersey and into Manhattan and back and fourth to other cities.
    -Entered specific addresses for hotels and relatives homes several times
    -Used the POI function to find spots in Manhattan (parking, dining etc)
    -During GPS travel, hit the "gas" icon on the main screen and added the closest gas station as a stop along the route.
    -went through a few tunnels, over some bridges and under more than a few underpasses

    In short - this app did not fail me once. Every direction was bang on, even when I thought the app was leading me in the wrong direction and then directing me to make a U-Turn it was actually due to the app guiding me to legal & safe locations to turn the vehicle around.
    I can't state how great it is to get rid of my old clunky GPS, and use an entirely offline GPS app on my phone. As stated, my phone was in airplane mode the entire time while driving (to save battery & avoid roaming charges).

    The pro's:
    -Got me to every single location in the stated time and with no mistakes
    -Found every location I entered
    -Gas stations and restaurants were located as stated
    -Voice navigation gives ample warning to prepare for upcoming turns - even in Manhattan traffic chaos
    -With the phone plugged into the car charger, I was able to travel 13 hours straight (From Toronto) and not have battery concerns.
    -Travelling in tunnels caused a loss of signal as expected - I was shocked how fast the app was able to reconnect. I was never in a position where I missed a turn because the phone/app was still trying to realign with the GPS
    -Auto dimming is a wonderful feature for the late night driving
    -The breadcrumb feature (leaves dots along your traveled path) comes in handy to quickly travel back along the same route and not have to enter addresses.
    -I counted 14 state troopers with speed traps just on the way there. The app has a nice "beep" feature when it calculates you travelling at a speed higher than what's posted. Yes this can get annoying after 30+hours of driving, but with posted speeds changing a ridiculous amount of times on the same interstate, this feature saved me from getting a few tickets I'm sure.

    The Con's (although I wouldn't even call them that)
    -Non-Generic voice navigation as stated above would be very handy. I get why it's not a feature as pronunciation would prob be tough to implement. So directions are simply given as "take the next exit", "exit on the right in 300 metres". With that said, the app does show a picture of the actual highway signs showing you exactly what you see on the highway. Kind of hard to mess up following pictures.
    -As stated above by another user, to find a POI, I had to enter the state and sometimes the city FIRST, then it would find the location. A little annoying at times - hopefully this can be fixed.
    -If you try to scan ahead to your written route on the app - where it shows a list of turns, it's in generic format. i.e. turn left, take the exit ramp on the right etc. When comparing the routes with someone else or Google to double check, it's pretty tough to do as the app doesn't list the specific street names.

    All in all, I was showing off the app to everyone (we had 3 vehicles traveling together and only I had a GPS) - telling them to buy it. Nobody knew you could buy an offline GPS app.

    If you're on the fence it's worth the cost. Kudo's to the DEV team, I'm super happy with this app. Hasn't failed me yet.
    FF22 likes this.
    08-21-13 08:40 AM
  22. Playbookrocks's Avatar
    I love it too! The best mapping/driving app!

    Posted via CB10
    08-21-13 09:10 AM
  23. FF22's Avatar
    I did download the Trial yesterday. Looks pretty good. I like the extensive reviews - helps appreciate some of the issues and ease of use.

    I'm curious, does anyone know where the map/data is stored - the actual folder or is it hidden. I see two "dontpanic" folders but nothing is in them. I would love to move the data to my sd card - I did not have sufficient room when I was installing it initially.
    09-14-13 07:25 PM
  24. anon(4233493)'s Avatar
    Great review, thanks for taking the time to post.
    09-14-13 10:46 PM
  25. bintheredundat's Avatar
    I did download the Trial yesterday. Looks pretty good. I like the extensive reviews - helps appreciate some of the issues and ease of use.

    I'm curious, does anyone know where the map/data is stored - the actual folder or is it hidden. I see two "dontpanic" folders but nothing is in them. I would love to move the data to my sd card - I did not have sufficient room when I was installing it initially.
    I know it is possible to install on an SD card. Just can't remember how. I'm unable to since I'm on a server.

    I'll try and find the post but I think it involves deleting both folders. Removing the app. Re installing and then when you restore your actual map apparently you are asked to pick the device or SD Memory.
    Might want to make sure you're on wifi as it may take a few tries and the maps are 2 gigs.
    I'll try and find the post from the developer.



    Posted via CB10 on my Z10 Oreo
    09-15-13 03:46 PM
27 12

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