I am a PB advocate and an early adopter with with no major regrets, but am astounded that there is no decent mapping option out of the box. It really weakens the "full web" proposition when something as mainstream as google maps is just broken.
I am a PB advocate and an early adopter with with no major regrets, but am astounded that there is no decent mapping option out of the box. It really weakens the "full web" proposition when something as mainstream as google maps is just broken.
i cant even get GPS to lock on at all,
There are plenty of existing threads on GPS apps.
I do wish RIM hadn't so obviously gotten in bed with Microsoft as to completely preclude any possibility of a real Google Maps (or Google Earth) app on the PB.
That said, Bing Maps is considerably more functional than the GPS Maps app by Skylab. What a colossal waste of five dollars that was. The search function is brain dead. You can't zoom satellite images to any useful resolution. And the latest feature is that every time I pan or zoom, I get an annoying box reminding me that the images are copyrighted by Google. One reminder is enough, for God's sake. Buyer beware: if an expensive app comes with no free trial, it's probably a POS.
I set my PB on the front hood of my car in a parking lot for 20 minutes until it got a good look at the sky. After thatvI installed " What's Up" which is an excellent astronomy app. My PB GPS located my location to within 1 meter. I also downloaded Map App which is Google Maps. It also located me quite quickly and accurately. I then sent a suggestion to Garmin that they should consider making their maps available for PB.
Try magellan compass, there is a free trial. It uses Google maps and yelp for poi.
I agree....One of the main reasons I wanted my PB was to be able to mount it in my car & use as a GPS navigator, so far I have yet to find an app that will let me do that :confused:
They didn't realy have a choice. Google was already dropping support for BB Anyway. Since Android came out There havn't been any new google apps on BB & the ones that are currently on BB have hardly been updated. It use to be that your Google apps were always being updated & improved :()
Also try maps.nokia.com
Seems to work so far. The gps finds me pretty quickly (okay, I may be in my neighbor's home but I'm inside of my home).
Just routed me to a nearby Sushi place. It can save maps but I am not sure where it stores them or how to call them back.
I use MapApp. It uses Google as the map, but I agree all the map apps for PB seem to be lacking.
I use Mapsearch for Google and it works. It apparently can sync the location with your BB as well. I find the generally the gps only works outdoors and very rarely indoors.
I so totally agree...
Bing Maps is so extremely weak for "not so big" areas. Wrong labelled and placed cities.
I once got through via email to the Bing guys - and they wanted Me to sit and put new names on a map for them to do anything. I found a small area and sent them link to a Google map that was correct - but still - they wanted me to sit and make a picture with new labels etc... after a weeks time I did spend almost 4 hours doing corrections - sent them the update,.. and still Nothing has been updated. (about 1.5 years ago)
So - I will now refuse to spend a single minute on helping Microsoft to fix any service - unless they pay me to do it.
In the mean time, why waste time using their product at all - as long as fully functional alternatives exist in Google Maps.
BUT - when it comes down to RIM and Microsoft - i guess RIM had to find a solution for the "even worse than Bing" BB Maps....
Perhaps one day RIM will get through with Google and we can ditch Bing Maps....
+1 on Magellan. The next version will have turn by turn. Check out the discussion thread at
Magellan Compass turn-by-turn voice guidance videos
you can sideload the native android app on the 2.0 beta and that works pretty damn well. i get a full GPS lock in my apartment no problem. some have claimed that google navigation works but mine does not