Review: Nav4All Free GPS Navigation Software
[rating:8] 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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