Anyone tried Navfree?

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xpd

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#79609 19-Mar-2011 18:34

Anyone tried Navfree ?

Free GPS software inc voice instructions etc, had a quick play with it on way back from a friends, seemed to work quite well.

Will test it some more tomorrow and see how it goes.....

XPD / Gavin

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#449940 19-Mar-2011 19:44

Does it store maps locally? I'm too lazy to read their website..

EDIT: Disregard, I read it and they are stored on the device.

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#449941 19-Mar-2011 19:49

I think I got this the other day. haven't used it as of yet.

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#449943 19-Mar-2011 19:55

I used it "successfully".

We're in a new subdivision in wgtn and all the immediate streets are *not* on it.

We wanted to go to somewhere in Lower Hutt and the street was *not* found (so off to a bad start)

Anyway - I found the street in google maps (on a PC, I think there is a link to this in the app as well) and then compared it to the nav free app. I saw that the street I wanted wasn't there but the one adjoining it was so I simply selected that as the destination.

So off we go, starting off in nowhere (as our subdivision isn't there) but it was intelligent enough to know where we were in "nowhere" with relation to the first known street (where the arrow was positioned).

As soon as we hit that it started following our journey.

The prompts were pretty good, the update frequency was good. During the journey I switched to settings to change from imperial to metric and it kept telling me the prompts in the background and when I switched out of settings it was still running fine with our correct current location.

It chose a good path and did have the new offramp/overpass at petone which it used to guide us to where we were going.

So not too shabby.

sarg

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#449962 19-Mar-2011 22:20

downloaded NZ version today will try it during the week, also in Oz at the end of the week. Will provide feedback shortly

that would be an ecumenical matter

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#450346 21-Mar-2011 12:33

I downloaded the US version a couple of weeks ago as I am off to LA and Vegas in June. I haven't been able to use it for navigation yet, but I have set up a bunch of favourite locations for all the places I will be visiting. I have to say that it is quite slow to navigate around, and it doesn't seem to have any of the POI's I'm going to (such as Seaworld in San Diego). But hey, it was free.

I noticed a few days ago that they released a NZ and Aust version, but as I already have Sygic Mobile Maps, I didn't bother downloading it.

xpd

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#450350 21-Mar-2011 12:44

Tested it yesterday while escaping the house during the open home..... found that it dosent seem to like Link Drive on the Shore for some reason :) Trying to route to/from Link drive fails. Will check on the OpenMaps site to see if i can figure out why....

If you miss your turn, it dosent ask you to perform a u-turn - it instead gets you to go down a dead end street and come out again and gets you back on track that way, thought that was amusing, but safer than a u-turn.

Otherwise seems to be reasonably quick for re-routing etc.

Lot of people complaining "My street isnt on it, what a POS" - well duh, its a open project, some poor guy doing mapping in Germany isnt going to add your street in new Plymouth is he ? Go add it yourself... same witht he POI's...as more people use it, the more useful it will be.

XPD / Gavin

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sarg

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#450381 21-Mar-2011 14:03

Used it twice today within Auckland city. Went off suggested route several times and it recalculated new route reasonably well.

that would be an ecumenical matter

Satch

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#450697 22-Mar-2011 12:13

xpd: Lot of people complaining "My street isnt on it, what a POS" - well duh, its a open project, some poor guy doing mapping in Germany isnt going to add your street in new Plymouth is he ? Go add it yourself... same witht he POI's...as more people use it, the more useful it will be.

Hold on. Don't forget that POIs are not only for places you already know exist. They are also used to find places you DON'T know exist. Such as services stations in the area etc. So it is not always as simple as getting off your butt and adding it yourself.

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#451080 23-Mar-2011 11:43

I've been hankering for turn-by-turn navigation on the iPhone, so I liked the idea of this free version. But so far it's been a bit of a let down. In Palmerston North, it's missed off some central streets (neither new nor minor). I've sent feedback through the app noting the missing streets, but I would have thought, even being open source, that it would have had these streets already...

xpd

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#451085 23-Mar-2011 11:52

Im going to stick with it for now, it seems to get confused easily around my area for some reason, but will have a go at editing the maps etc to fix it myself.

For free, Im not complaining :)

XPD / Gavin

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#451215 23-Mar-2011 20:14

Looking through the wiki pages it looks like they have a LINZ data set but need to create the tools to import it in:

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_Wellington

"The LINZ import.

We have a data set from LINZ, but need volunteers and web tools to import/merge the data

If you have skills in developing web applications, please come along and tell us what you can do."

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#451491 24-Mar-2011 15:18

I took this for a spin today, and was pretty impressed. It performed favourably when compared to my Navman C40, and the map was even more up to date. It still had its quirks though. For instance, the map data didn't know you could turn right from Te Atatu Road to take the Northwestern Motorway (heading westwards), and instead had plotted a route which involved overshooting the intersection and performing a u-turn.

The other thing I missed from the Navman is the pronunciation of street names for the spoken directions. Instead of "Turn right Te Atatu Road", you simply get "Turn right".

All that being said, I was still very impressed with the functionality on offer, and will definitely be using it more in future.

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#453680 31-Mar-2011 05:04

I used it a few few times in Central Melbourne last weekend. It worked well in the central city.

that would be an ecumenical matter

sarg

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#453681 31-Mar-2011 05:05

I note the country coverage is expanding. Will be trying out Canada and USA maps in a few months time.

that would be an ecumenical matter

eracode

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#453728 31-Mar-2011 10:01

I gave it a test run on my new iPad over the weekend, driving from Parnell to Greenhithe.

First off, it wanted me to get on the motorway (heading for the harbour bridge) at Gillies Ave, Newmarket. No way that is the fastest route from Parnell so I took my usual route - up Stanley St and Grafton Gully and onto the motorway at spag junction.

Going up Grafton Gully it re-routed but it seemed totally confused by Grafton Gully/spag junction and tried to get me to go up Grafton Road and to join motorway at Wellington St i.e. not use the spag junction on-ramp. It was as if spag junction didn't exist (even though it was visible on the screen). Anyway the Wellington St on-ramp has been closed for quite a while due to the construction of the new tunnel.

Once we got on the bridge approach near Westhaven everything seemed OK from there on.

I'm not sold on NavFree yet - it's precisely around motorway on- and off-ramps that you need and want to rely on a GPS and if it's flakey in that department, not so good.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.