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Team GpsPasSion
154 Posts |
 Posted - 25 oct. 2009 : 20:24:20
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 News Item on the portal.
Rounding up an "iPhone News Week", here is NDrive (website), another "turn by turn" navigation system for the Apple iPhone but with a "twist"...
The newly launched NDrive USA version is similar to the other apps out there in the sense that is uses Navteq road maps (in Europe NDrive use TeleAtlas maps). More unexpected is the London version with its "oblique" views (provided by Norwegian company Blom), first seen on the Microsoft Live website a few years ago. Unlike satellite pictures they can be used for road guidance on the fly. They are planning to roll out more towns in the future.
In the meantime you can check out kyteflyer's opinion of the software below after some testing in Autralia and ze're also planning some testing of the USA and European versions so stay tuned for more.
Original Post by kyteflyer :
First look, sitting at my desk.
1. Only one English voice, but its quite pleasant.
2. You set up an account with the NDrive community from within the app. Apparently that's how you'll get access to additional community POIs etc but I cannot see how to add to it. Currently the only thing in there is a demo of some Portuguese POIs. Well, its new... reserving judgement, the idea is very good.
3. Speed cameras, speed zones and also a speed limit (I've set mine at 100) you don't ever want to exceed
4. No connection to the iPhone's phonebook/contact list, you have to make your own, manually...but when you do its very complete including phone numbers and fax/email details.
5. A couple of different colour scheme choices, and day/night, of course.
6. Schools and Universities are listed as POIs but I don't know if there is an audio warning, there does not seem to be the capacity to warn when near POI
7. Keyboard is quite large and you can choose between qwerty and abc.
8. Screen light can be always on, or just uses system default
9. Listening to some music and playing with the app, it seems that it cuts the sound of ipod when an instruction is given and then cuts it back in. Its not too unpleasant. When you set the ipod going and then start the app, it throws up a little message that its starting the media player. It uses doubleclick home button to access standard controls but will exit the app if you want to access full iPod controls.
10. Traffic: Not available anywhere except Portugal at the moment
11. It can record your GPS tracks and I guess store them somewhere.
12. The interface is quite pleasant: easy on the eye
Second look, out on the road.
All comments MUST be taken into account with regard to the fact that the review is taking place in regional Australia. European and USA users would have a more full experience. For whatever reason, Navteq maps are pretty much crippled in Australia (Navigon and Co-Pilot don't perform a lot better than NDrive in many areas)
The interface is, as already said, quite pleasant. I like the fact that the road instruction (arrows) is contained in a very large light blue circle, makes it easy to see at a glance.
NDrive, like Navigon, does NOT give warnings, either audible or visual for overspeeding or for speed cameras. The Navteq maps used for this (and other) apps have very little road speed information except in metropolitan areas... and I hear from another user that this is patchy, to say the least
On one occasion, it got so lost it was stuck and was unable to recalculate a route at all. This happened when I decided to test it out by deliberately taking a completely different route. Initially it tried to correct me but when I persisted, it got hopelessly lost, and I had to restart the application *and* reset the destination.
The maps, in spite of being dated June 2009, are outdated by ~ 2+ years. An interchange with overpass, underpass etc on a major road outside the city simply doesn't exist on the map. Tested at other times around town, it coped reasonably well, except once, when it directed me to turn left then immediately turn right... something which has not been possible due to road changes, for around 8 years.
I still haven't worked out tracks, I think you have to set the record and maybe then stop it at some time and its supposed to save the route... but I haven't managed to have any success.
The app has a LOT of potential and given that its a dev build, I am going to await updates and see what kind of improvement might ensue.
With regard to audible warnings etc, this is definitely a a Map issue rather than an issue related to the software. Navteq seems to be missing the information required to trigger the warnings. If they would use Teleatlas/Whereis instead, I think the experience would be a lot better for Australia.
Conclusion:
For very basic navigation its adequate, but not startling. Nice interface, nice map colours, nice voice. Will perform better in the Northern hemisphere.
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Team GpsPasSion |
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gpspassion
93402 Posts |
Posted - 30 oct. 2009 : 14:52:40
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Thanks for sharing, looks like an interesting contender but largely "unconnected" at this point like the other iPhone GPS apps...puzzling for "THE" connected device ;-)
Someone mentioned in the FRA forums that you couldn't switch to 2D mode when navigating ?
Have you figured out how to add your own POIs and/or speedcams ? |
Discounts and Assistance/Réductions et Assistance (Club GpsPasSion) / Où commencer? |
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gpspassion
93402 Posts |
Posted - 14 nov. 2009 : 03:06:55
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You've got "company" as seen in the first message above ;-) Paul will be testing the US version and a couple of us will be looking at the French version.
Have your opinions on NDrive changed since you got it ? |
Discounts and Assistance/Réductions et Assistance (Club GpsPasSion) / Où commencer? |
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kyteflyer
13 Posts |
Posted - 17 nov. 2009 : 20:05:28
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There's been an update since I first posted, but no, my opinion hasn't changed much. Tracking seems to be a bit more accurate and I have been unable to make the app get lost, but nothing else has changed.
The issue of POIs: cannot add them via a jailbreak and SSH, because I cannot find where to do so. The developer said that at this stage we need to be sending to them in .kml format and they will add them to the in-app listing. Its a clumsy way to deal with it.
For the time being I have deleted from my phone. I'll be interested to read about the US experience, I'm expecting it will be much better than that in Australia. |
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gpspassion
93402 Posts |
Posted - 17 nov. 2009 : 22:13:54
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Yes I asked them about POIs too and it can't be done at this point. I've installed the European version and I find it quite good, very quick route calculations, accurate directions ans quite "fluid". They use the proven TeleAtlas maps here. Only slight odditty is that there is no button to switch from 2D to 3D, something that can come in handy. Paul loaded the USA version on his 3G + TomTom Cark Kit and will be reporting back this week.
One of the GpsPasSion Team Members from France has reported delayed instructions on his 3G, even after rebooting his iPhone, no such problem on my 3GS. |
Discounts and Assistance/Réductions et Assistance (Club GpsPasSion) / Où commencer? |
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paulkbiba
USA
5064 Posts |
Posted - 18 nov. 2009 : 06:41:54
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| Hope to do a drive with it tomorrow. |
Don't forget the GPSPassion Club! |
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paulkbiba
USA
5064 Posts |
Posted - 19 nov. 2009 : 02:48:58
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I got to use NDrive today on one of my usual test routes and must say that I was very impressed. NDrive is on sale for $30 until 11.27 and for a $30 application it is a great buy and may end up being all most people ever need. The App Store does not say what the "regular' price will be. There are a few rough edges and I'll mention these later. I tested the program on my 3G (I don't qualify for upgrade pricing to a 3GS until next month).
Here is a typical guidance shot
You'll see that everything that needs to be there is there. The ETA computations were spot on and the routings it gave me pretty much matched those given me by Navigon, TomTom, etc. Route recalculation was as fast, if not faster, than on my other programs. I didn't see any lagging, even on my plain 3G, but the display was a bit jerky - moving in little bits rather than as a smooth glide. This might very well be different on a 3GS. Voice guidance worked well though it was a bit odd in that it says "In miles 2 turn left" rather than "In 2 miles turn left". You get used to this after the first couple of times. I did notice that the voice was a bit uneven at times, as if the processor was having a bit of trouble keeping up. However, it was perfectly usable.
There are a couple of localization problems (NDrive is from Portugal) as you can see in the screen above. I presume the icon is a common one in Europe, but I have no idea what it was trying to tell me. There are a number of different color schemes you can choose and the graphic terrain display is actually richer in terms of map elements than some more expensive programs, such as iGo for the iPhone. I didn't have any of the problems that kyteflyer, above, encountered, but I did come across a couple of glitches. Every once in a while a gray square would blank out the screen for a very quick flash, not too often but it did happen a couple of times. Also, on at least one occasion it stopped forcing the backlight on and the screen went blank. When I started up the screen it was still working in OK, but then it happened again and I had to shut the program off and start it again and it worked fine.
By the way, NDrive has a satellite status display (it's the green bars on the upper right of the pictures). I used the program both with and without my TomTom cradle and the status display didn't change at all, even when it tried it in marginal areas. This means that either the display doesn't work or NDrive doesn't recognize the cradle. I have no way of telling which.
Search was extremely fast - very well done! and it was the only program that could locate my usual ferry into New York. I saw no evidence, however, of any of the 3D landmarks they talk about. The application does not have a lane assist display, but as I drove through intersections it told me to keep left or right and accomplished pretty much the same thing without the graphics. Speed limits worked will on the interstates, but did not display warnings on smaller roads. Navigon is the best one at this so far. One of my pet peeves in navigation programs is not having full control over routing, and here I must say that NDrive is right up there with the best of them:
[ed - picture to be added later]
Above you can see that you have lots of options and the one I want the most, and is often missing even on the high end, is present here - the ability to avoid a particular street or intersection:
You can also get a complete turn by turn listing of your route. Here you see it with that strange icon again:
To sum up - I think this program is a great buy for the price. There is an update promised in mid-December which will include text to speech, GPS improvements, search by state and improved iPod integration. It's closest price competitor, at the sale price, is CoPilot for the iPhone which costs about $5 more. NDrive, however, uses Navteq maps and they are dated 10/23/2009 v.2.15. CoPilot is still using their proprietary map data in the US and last time a looked at it, about a month ago, the data was still was far inferior to Navteq in any of the areas I compared. Given the sale price I would be tempted to snap up NDrive as a backup program even if I owned on of the big boys. Sometimes, given the way search algorythms work, one program will find a place that another one can't. Also, if you have a program with TeleAtlas data it can't hurt to have another one with a Navteq data set. Both data providers have their strong and weak areas in the US.
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gpspassion
93402 Posts |
Posted - 29 nov. 2009 : 12:48:29
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Yes that icon is for "motorways" in Europe so it probably means you would were going to be exiting an interstate or freeway. By the way I think there is a problem with one of your pictures above, the one to show the routing options ;-)
I must say I quite like Ndrive too, very fast route calculations on my 3GS and clear guidance. They use TeleAtlas in Europe interestingly enough. Too bad traffic is limited to Portugal now and I'd also like to see a 2D/3D switch. |
Discounts and Assistance/Réductions et Assistance (Club GpsPasSion) / Où commencer? |
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paulkbiba
USA
5064 Posts |
Posted - 01 déc. 2009 : 04:53:43
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| I don't know where that picture came from as I can tell you for sure that it was NOT what I posted. I checked the article several times and that was never there before. Odd. I'll try to replace it when I re-load the program on my 3G. |
Don't forget the GPSPassion Club! |
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gpspassion
93402 Posts |
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kyteflyer
13 Posts |
Posted - 04 déc. 2009 : 20:01:35
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Yes, Paul's experience was exactly as I expected... I notice in his screenies that road speed is available, as well as car speed. Navteq in Australia simply does not have this information.
There's been no more updates since the one I spoke of, above, and the NDrive guy who was hanging about in the mactalk.com.au forums has not been seen for some time. Perhaps they won't be developing much more for Australia, because to make any real inroads into the market here, you would pretty much have to use Whereis. [OT] That said, the tomtom app still manages to cripple much of whats available [/OT].
Its a real shame because I actually like the software. I just hate the map provider. |
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gpspassion
93402 Posts |
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[TOPIC] NDrive for iPhone: User Reviews
