Comments on: Poll: Do You Want a GPS App With On Device Maps?

By: hitman36

hitman36 — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 02:05:28 +0000

I would pay 500 USD for a program with an offline built in map! I love Garmin so much when I had my WM6, since I changed my religion to Blackberry I had no more fun with Garmin. Changing the religion back to WM6 is just not possible.

By: Samuel

Samuel — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:06:53 +0000

Yes, I agree with you Nikolaus Walch

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 06:33:05 +0000

Only if it was free.

By: RedNightHawk

RedNightHawk — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:57:08 +0000

Ditto the often out of coverage part. I use trekbuddy so I have maps, but that doesn’t give the directions that typical GPS programs give, just replaces carrying a paper map.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 21:21:33 +0000

Given the fact that my country is super small, and that I pay gargantuan roaming charges as soon as I cross the border, on device maps are the only form of navigation that I will ever use! TeleNav, Garmin and all that other OTA drivel will never see a single cent from me!

By: ShvartzBerry

ShvartzBerry — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:36:09 +0000

I wouldn’t jump to such conclusions. The rollout of Google Gears has been for the most part, to access YOUR data offline. The maps are not yours. That’s Google’s data. I can tell you that I am involved in projects using the Google Maps API commercially and they explicitly forbid any caching of their maps. So if someone comes out with GPS with on-device maps – don’t expect it to be Google.

By: Stefan

Stefan — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:35:52 +0000

If just free maps (any of your choice that are available online, e.g. Google Maps, Yahoo Maps and many others) on the BB device are needed, you should take a look at TrekBuddy – http://www.trekbuddy.net

Have fun!

By: topoExplorer

topoExplorer — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:35:33 +0000

What about TopoExplorer? They have map packs that you can download and save onto your SD card.

By: DavidB

DavidB — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:47:41 +0000

Losing their nav plans? There are free apps that do all that the pay nav apps do know and GPS is slowly but surely becoming unrestricted by carriers.

I would never pay a monthly fee. No way. I sure as heck don’t see the utility of paying Infiniti $200/year for updated DVD’s for my car, that is plain robbery! The make the price $39/year or so and for sure they would sell FAR more copies.

By: MH

MH — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:11:13 +0000

I suggest everyone reading this to vote for this feature on Google Product Ideas
http://productideas.appspot.com/#9/e=cf&t=cache+maps
As you know, Google has been rolling out “Google Gears” on various products to work offline, so there’s no doubt there is willingness on their part to bring it to Google Maps.

By: Nikolaus Walch

Nikolaus Walch — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:04:47 +0000

What I’d like is an app that I can use when in a plane to see where I am flying passed. I’ve tried this, but without data no worky. Maybe someday I’ll have wifi on a flight I am on, but until then I’d like a GPS app that does not need a tower connection to tell me where above planet Earth I am. I assume that should be possible.

By: AdamG

AdamG — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:02:45 +0000

I’d love it. But one thing I know appeals to Garmin, et al, about the current BB setup is that they have more control over having only paying customers use their product. There are certain unnamed websites that distribute key generators for all of the Nav company’s products. You literally can just plug in your device I’d or IMEI and pull down an unlock code for all of their maps. These guys crack the new codes about an hour after the nav companies change them. Consequently, a good number of PPC/Symbian users are running around with free maps for practically the whole world. With BB, your PIN goes through the Garmin Servers to approve you to use the service. So, the BB method might be the way of the future.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:40:15 +0000

I’d be all over that. I use Telenav on my BB because I have to (Garmin won’t work since my GPS is locked by Alltel unless I have Telenav) but there are times when I am out of cell and data coverage. So I am about to dump handset GPS altogether and just buy a new standalone.

By: Nikolaus Walch

Nikolaus Walch — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:36:35 +0000

Looks like TeleNav is an orphan