Review: Nav4All - Free GPS Navigation Software
Review: Nav4All Free GPS Navigation Software
Rating: 
8/10
Link: www.nav4all.com
Cost: Free!!!
Wow !! Free GPS navigation software with voice? Almost sounds too good to be true…. but Nav4All makes the claim. All you need is a BlackBerry equipped with GPS and a sense of adventure.
Is it as good as TeleNav at ten dollars a month ? After testing I have to say it comes pretty darn close. Although the interface is a bit basic it actually has features TeleNav doesn’t have. Nav4All has all the features TeleNav has such as turn by turn voice directions as well as a compass. Points of interest, view route and search address are also in there. Nav4All is international and multi language. You can easily switch between kilometers and miles. The “Navigate to” menu gives you many options including navigating to a GPS position and coordinates.
Features such as “Where am I ?”, “Flag-it” and “Plan from A to B” are nice. I also like the “Remember my location” and “Remember my parking space” features. The adjustable voice volume is a plus.
There is an adjustable light setting for day and night, although the night view is a bit reminiscent of a dumb terminal session it is easily viewable in the dark.
There are nine different driving styles offered. I for one especially like the bicycle route style being a biker myself. The maps are also a bit basic but effective. All said and done it compares well with BlackBerry Maps and Google maps. Google maps do have the satellite views which Nav4All does not.
The turn by turn navigation screen again is a bit simple but decent. Only issue I have here is the time shows in military time and it does not display your ETA.
I do however like the list of quick buttons. Which give you easy access to features.
Nav4All also offers a very nice web service called “My World”. Also free, it allows you to create a profile and share all of your travel information with family and friends, such as routes, locations, pictures and maps. You can send or receive messages to friends and other members, even blog. Create your own maps and store locations. There are widgets you can use to link your profile, blog, pictures, maps and locations from other web pages. “My World” is a very nice freebie.
On the negative side the routes it provides are sometimes a bit dicey but generally pretty good. You can note navigation errors with the “Flag it” option or on your “My World” profile. The never ending scrolling on the menus can get a bit annoying as well. The menus at times can be a bit awkward and probably take some getting use too. Big negatives are it does not use street names nor does it supply traffic updates. I guess that is what you pay Telenav ten dollars a month for. If you were thinking of paying for Telenav you may want to check out Nav4All first. Nav4All also allows you to freely distribute the program even to corporate users. Not many companies do that….Overall I say it’s a bargain, but only until 2010, so take advantage.
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- Nav4All Coverage Update.
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- Review : Nav4All; Free GPS mapping application.
April 18th, 2008 13:20
Excellent article - very well written - great write up! Thanks!
April 18th, 2008 13:39
Awesome! Especially for a free product. Thanks for the excellent review!
April 18th, 2008 13:40
Why can’t I get my nav4all to work? It says no gps coordinates.confused
April 18th, 2008 21:41
Nav4All also offers…
* Unique power-saving: Nav4All turns off the screen during driving, and switches it back on when new instructions are received, whilst allowing you enough time.
* Re-calc route - if you go off-course, Nav4All automatically calculates a new course.
* Minimal data usage - Nav4All uses only a VERY small amount of data.
* Support for both built-in and seperate (eg. bluetooth receivers.
* Maps that are updated almost daily (according to the Web site).
Furthermore, in the few months I’ve been using it, Nav4All has only given me incorrect directions twice, and one of the “test drives” I went on was in a recently-changed area…
I have also found that Nav4All usually gets me to my destination quicker than the commercial application my service provider offers!
They’ve gotta work on that menu though, “cause it is DEFINATELY not driver-friendly… Make sure you pull over when you want to fiddle with it.
Corbin,
Are you using a bluetooth or built-in GPS receiver.
Make sure you switch your bluetooth GPS receiver on before starting the application up, and keep in mind it can take up to 2-3 minutes for the receiver to lock onto a signal… You also need to be able to see the sky.
~ Posted wirelessly from my BlackBerry 8800 ~
April 21st, 2008 08:53
After familiarizing myself with the interface, I gave this program a full test run yesterday. Long story short, I went back to Google Maps.
This thing put me on the wrong side of town when I was trying to get to the Please Touch Museum in Philly (A place where you might not enjoy being on the wrong side of town).
I’m deleting the program today, but it was a nice change from Google Maps with the turn by turn voiced navigation. Shame it can’t get me to my destination when I need it, something that you thing navigation software should do quite well.
April 21st, 2008 08:56
Hey VERIZON, this is the sort of thing we your customers want to be able to try out. We want alternatives to being locked into your feature-poor navigation app. PLEASE, free up our GPS chip so we can have options!