Reviews
1 Introduction
1.1 Product
Overview
2 Summary
2.1 The Bottom Line:
2.2 WishList:
1 Introduction
This is a review of Maptech's new Outdoor
Navigator program for the PocketPC. Initially, Maptech released
a
version of the program for Palm devices. Now there are versions for
both PocketPC and Palms.
1.1
Product
Overview
Maptech's Outdoor Navigator:
(sign
up for a free demo)
is a moving map program that uses subscription based raster maps from
Maptech's mapserver web site. The product only support these maps, and
only via their webserver (no CD). Their server
provides access
to 60,000 maps and charts covering the entire
continental United States.
The initial cost is $99.95 USD for a one year subscription with the
following year's cost of only $29.95.This is the initial release of a version (v1.2) for the PocketPC and only has very basic functionality. Maptech rumors are that more features are in the works. So for those looking for a full-featured program you'll have to wait.
The product seems to support a number of GPS devices as the GPS Type field shows NMEA, Navman, and Radio Shack for selections. What is obviously missing here are choices for Magellan and Garmin units. But they will work with the NMEA setting and until more features are added there's nothing to be gained.
Presently you can set waypoints by a tap and hold on the screen. This brings up a menu that allows Select Map, New Waypoint and Deactivate Wpt.
Selecting New Waypoint brings up the
Waypoint screen,
which allows you to set a name, Activate and Lock the
waypoint.
There's no auto-naming of waypoints (i.e. WP1, WP2, etc.).
Once you have waypoints created you can then make ONE active, which means you can get information on how to get to that waypoint. There is no auto-advance to next waypoint; you'll have to make another waypoint active. This is pretty much the navigation capability the program has now. You can easily image what the next version will do.
| For
information display there is a Data Box
line. The Data box line has 3 sections. In any section you may
select
any one of 10 parameters to display in the box. Not bad, but if you
display a
position (lat/lon) info, the font is a bit small. The data box
line is
fixed at the bottom of the screen and can't be sized or repositioned
(boo). The following parameters can be chosen: PEN POS (the lat/lon of the point on the screen you touch) PEN RNG (the range/distance to the point you touch) PEN BRG (the bearing to the point you touch) GPS POS (the lat/lon of the GPS position) WPT RNG (the distance to the active waypoint) WPT BRG (the bearing to the active waypoint) WPT TTG (the time to get to the active waypoint) SOG (your current speed over ground) AVG SOG (your average speed) COG (your present course over ground) |
 |
The position-tracking indicator is a black arrow when tracking with the GPS. Not the best choice of color. It turns red (as shown above) when there's no GPS, just like the info in the data box so it's easy to tell when you lost lock or have stale information. The position indicator will have a red ring around it if you didn't select to lock it on the display. A nice feature that reminds you the position indicator may travel off the screen. And of course, you not only can prevent the indicator from leaving the screen, but you can set a mode to look for a better scale map as well. These are very nice features.
|
The software programs your hardware buttons
to activate the
Data Box display, scale in and scale out and lock
the
position indicator to the viewable screen (Follow function). The
cursor
keypad (and scroller/jog side button) allows you to zoom in
or zoom
out (5 levels). But they didn't make use of the Action button,
which would
have been nice to be set to scale in and out as this makes for good
one-handed
operation. At any time you can drag the map with your stylus around the
screen.
No need to stop your GPS to use any features. |
 |
Image processing is an important element when displaying maps and charts on tiny PocketPC screens. Having blurry images of a navigation chart isn't something you want. Seems like Maptech with Outdoor Navigator has taken the lead in this area. Take a look at these compatible screen shots with other programs...
| Outdoor
Navigator |
Memory-Map
Navigator |
OziExplorer |
 |
 |
 |
As you can see the Outdoor Navigator has more contrast, a significant factor when viewing your PPC outdoors. The differences above only hints at what you actually see on your PocketPC outdoors as these are screen captures, not actual photos of the PPC. I tried blindly selecting between the three images and every time could easily distinguish the Outdoor Navigator display. It's seems clearer, cleaner and certainly has better contrast. Also note the color shift too. It’s hard for me to verify the color shift as I'm referencing an old paper chart, not the save revision as the one in the screen shot. But I believe the true color is somewhere between ON and OE. What's important is what you see on your screen outdoors. I guess we digressed a bit here as we are planning a comparison of these programs in the future, but this is one feature that you might not notice right off unless you do the comparison.
2 Summary:
As
you can see, the program gives you basic navigation capabilities. Not a
lot of
whistles and bells here yet. The ease of use is very good. I really
like the
use of hardware buttons and the user configurable data box.
There's no
need to have a bunch of tool bars to do things as just about everything
is a
simple tap (or tap and hold) on the screen. Also note this same
functionality is available to the Palm users too.
If
you want quality software with basic navigation features backed by a
very
credible company with access to a large database of high quality maps
and charts
(for the US) this program could be for you. To get a good feel
for the
program's capabilities down load the manual and full function demo
software. The demo only allows 30 programs starts but you get access to
all the
charts on their web site. Be forewarned, doing so may just suck you in
to a
full subscription. And, when your paid subscription runs out? Well,
everything continues to work, you just can't get access to any more
maps or program updates from the Maptech server.
Jeff Siegel, the designer of Outdoor Navigator, has been sharing some of what the future might bring in this thread in the Moving-Map Forums
.2.1 The bottom line
+
A great way to get started with "All-Terrain" GPS on PDAs - "Download
and Go"!
+
Very responsive, very fast screen redraws
+ Image processing which yields a clearer view with
better contrast
+
Simple to use, install and understand
+
Easy to add
waypoints
+
Good use of hardware buttons to perform basic
functions (zooming, scaling, position tracking)
+
Flexible, customizable "Data box" which allows 3
of many parameters to be viewed
+
Allows use of some of the best marine, aero and
topo maps/charts (via subscription)
+
Very well written documentation manual
+
Reasonably priced ($99.95 USD) and considering the map
database
you can access for one year there's
no comparison
(with other programs like this, maps and charts alone could
easily run you 2 - 3x this price).
-
No desktop version
-
Maps only cover the continental
US (Europe in the works)
-
No routing features (except go to a single
waypoint)
- No tracks
- No voice prompts, or proximity
alarms