I've had iGuidance 3 a couple of weeks now. I work at home so I don't drive a lot, and I haven't taken a long trip yet since I got it, but I have been checking it out against my usual routes to the places I normally go. And after a few test runs, I am pretty discouraged with it.
This software may be great for more developed areas, but it doesn't have a clue about my area. Today, after I ignored part of the route because I didn't want to take a dirt road, it wanted me to turn where there was no road (The map shows a groups of roads, but they aren't really there. My husband is a land surveyor and he says these are "paper roads." They are mapped to show road easements but they aren't really roads.) A little later I was on a bridge and it wanted me to turn left. Several times it has routed me to take a ferry that does not exist.
I've tried tweaking the settings but no matter what I set, it's always sending me some wacky way. I think part of the problem is that you can only choose one option between quickest OR shortest OR major OR local.
I also have a problem with searching for POIs. Many of the places I want to go to are outside of the 25 mile default search area. Yes, I know I can search by city, but still… several of the places I have looked up so far are not even in its database.
I bought this because I thought it would help me feel more confident about driving in unfamiliar places, but my experience so far does not install a lot of confidence.
Is there another software package that is known to be better for rural areas? Maybe one that has an option to avoid dirt roads?
__________________ Sue
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So, I'm going to visit my Grandfather tomorrow. iGuidance doesn't have his address. It has the street but not the house number. This is Tampa, FL… He's lived there at least 20 years. Grrrrr.
Edit: Okay, I ended up finding his address by putting in "Fox" for the street name instead of "Fox Trail." It still calculates a lousy route.
__________________ Sue
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You may have to test that address on like GOOGLE. The reason, you may have postal standard issue. ie: 4500 FOX TRAIL, is really 4500 FOX TRL (correct abreivation via post office) or you are being mapped to 4500 FOX DR (correct name but different city).
My quick playing shows that FOX TRAIL in TAMPA is mapping to FOX DR and there is FOX RD in CLEARWATER, But there is a FOX TRAIL CT in SAFETY HABOUR.
I understand that Grandfather has been living there for years, but the map/gps/postal software is only as good as the original data.
I over see address "cleaning" in our database at work (actualy the guy, who wrote part of the logic) and I see problems every day. BATON ROUGE, LA is currently an issue, the are 4 new street NORTHLAKE, EASTLAKE, SOUTHLAKE and WESTLAKE. But the third party address software we are using is mapping them all to LAKE with "directionals removed". Why, the post office does not have them in their database, so the validation software does not have them in theirs. It will clean up in 3-6 months, but until that time, the GPS location to route trucks to those new locations will try to route them 10miles away from the actual location.
So, I'm going to visit my Grandfather tomorrow. iGuidance doesn't have his address. It has the street but not the house number. This is Tampa, FL… He's lived there at least 20 years. Grrrrr.
Edit: Okay, I ended up finding his address by putting in "Fox" for the street name instead of "Fox Trail." It still calculates a lousy route.
You also have to look at how you have the routing set up. sometimes "shortes" isn't the best route.
I'd say that's an understatement! As I said in my first post, the routes iG comes up with for me are lousy no matter what options I choose. Every time I've picked shortest, it has made the route longer. Quickest seems the lesser of evils, but it still puts me going on dirt roads and driving through pastures. It also doesn't re-route properly if you ignore its instructions. It tried to get me back to the original route for about 8 miles when I ignored it.
Anyway, I downloaded TomTom 6 and tried it out today. Seemed to be much better as far as routing goes. Not once did it want me to take a dirt road, non-existent ferry, or drive off the side of a bridge. Amazing! (And the Sean Connery voice is fun!)
The only thing I disliked compared to iGuidance was that some street names were wrong (Aquestrian instead of Equestrian. Rhea Rd. instead of Rhea Dr.) and it forces the backlight on full all the time (as far as I can tell) which drained my battery pretty fast.
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I would suggest you try Mapopolis.
Haven't tried it yet, but I plan to. I just hope the software is better than the Mapopolis Web site — ugly and confusing. It looked like the trial maps were only for a single county, yes? Or can you download multiple counties and demo them at the same time?
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I understand that Grandfather has been living there for years, but the map/gps/postal software is only as good as the original data.
Yeah, that is understandable. I have the same issue with my own address with online ordering… some sites will accept FORT MCCOY and others say it doesn't exist unless you write it FORT MC COY.
But this is another area where TomTom does better, IMO. We also visited my in-laws today (trying TomTom6) and although it had their street name wrong (Rhea Rd instead of Rhea Dr) and it didn't know their house number, at least I was still able to pull up the closest thing it DID have for the house number so I could get close enough. When iGuidance doesn't find something, it just says "no such address" and you're SOL unless you can work out what the other possibilities might be.
Bottom line, I don't think IG is for me. I'm more than annoyed that I paid for it and can't get a refund. There is a LOT of praise for iG in this forum — that's a big part of the reason I went with it — and I just wanted to put my experience out there. Especially for those who live in a very rural area.
I plan to keep trying others and will buy whichever one I choose, even if I have to use a "warez" download to get a decent evaluation. I think it truly stinks that you can't legally try most of this software before you spend $100+ on it. Just think how much better ALL this software would have to be if the companies offered try before you buy... I don't know how long Mapopolis has been offering a trial, but I hope they are leading the way in this and that others will follow suit.
__________________ Sue
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Haven't tried it yet, but I plan to. I just hope the software is better than the Mapopolis Web site — ugly and confusing. It looked like the trial maps were only for a single county, yes? Or can you download multiple counties and demo them at the same time?
Yes, you can try multiple counties and each come with its only 10day trial.
Mapopolis is county based, I like for foot on the PPC, only the local that you need when you need it. To handle interstate, it has highway maps for each state. Again only what you need. The highway maps interlock making trans-state. On the highway map there are county "dots" that can be opened and that loads the county.
I find a little hard to setup, but once you have your common area, it is done. I have 3 highway maps, and 20 county maps load to handle the about 200 mile range around Memphis. My wife is less tech, than me - loves the simpe interface.
OH I AGREE MAPOPOLIS WEBSITE IS A MESS. When I was ordering my copy, I bought the wrong thing! A few emails and all has cleared up. You can only buy the Navgation Maps as a BUNDLE. If I remember correctly it is the GOLD BUNDLE at that.
Even though you are having issues, it is still fun to have some thing that is trying to help. Once you get use to one, it quirks can be helpful. I use IG to get around a wreck on the freeway. I was 10 miles east from freeway that I was needing to take, for 100 southern drive. I switch IG into SHORTEST, and it started to take via old roads/highways to turn me south and west, and meet the freeway about 3 miles south of the wreck. Where QUICKEST (my normal setting) would take me to freeway about 5 north of wreck, since it is quicker to get to freeway first.
Last;y there are times with both IG and Mapopolis will pick a poor road or route. My favour is here where I live. POPLAR AVE is a WNW to ESE running street, still marked on the maps as "highway" and 40MPH. Except it is main drag with a "few" lights. So no one averages 40MPH. When I come on the I-240 loop, it wants to route me down POPLAR versus the 385, because I live just north of POPLAR and it is 40MPH, so quicker to get home. I take the 385, 55-65 MPH though it runs more SE, so I have 3 mile drive north to get home, it is still faster. Both software want me to take every next off of 385 to get up to POPLAR. I just talk about to the software, and smile.
I use Tomtom 5 and overall have been quite happy with it. I've been using gps software for 2 years and have found that you must combine common sense with nav instructions. I've had some of the experiences that all of you have described and it makes me feel great that I'm not alone! Like when the software has a street you need but not the address, or you're on a bridge and it tells you to turn left!
You both are correct, as well, about street spellings. I travel quite a bit for work and I've learned to map everything out on MS Streets and Trips desktop version before I go, just to make sure I know where I'm going.
I also agree that it would be wonderful to try out the software before you buy. I read tons of reviews and chose Tomtom strictly because of that. Luckily they turned out to be good and their customer service has been very nice as well. MeSue, you're one of the very few people who've tried more than one package. I'm possibly going to review iGuidance 3 for www.Justanothermobilemonday.com soon, so I appreciate your input. Also, Bagels and Brew, another user here, has used a few different software packages too.
Just wanted to add that I've been in touch with iGuidance support and sent them a lot of details about the problems I've had so hopefully they will look into them. I took a lot of time giving examples and screen shots, so I'm very interested in seeing how they respond.
Oh, and what I said above about TomTom over-riding my auto-dim setting was an error. Apparently my power settings were changed and I didn't realize it.
__________________ Sue
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I've used most of the routing packages and all of them suffer from "strange route" problems. Most of the problems are not in the logic of the routing, but in the data. One of them wanted me to drive on a road parallel to an interstate highway to get to another interstate highway. The parallel road was 35 mph, lots of lights, so it was clearly NOT the better choice. When I forced it to use the interstate, instead of exiting to the next one in the proper direction, it had me go the opposite way, to the next exit, to exit and return in the other direction again, to get to where I wanted to go. Added about 15 miles to my route. I kept looking at the maps until I discovered that the entrance ramp from the one interstate wasn't properly connected to the next one, so the software didn't know I could actually go that direction! I've seen the same problem with Mapopolis, Destinator, iGuidance, TomTom, OCN5 and PocketMapNavigator. The same problem can also be seen on Mapquest, if you plan the route there.
Bottom line: The software cannot work if the data has an error in it. What I wish someone would allow is for us to be able to edit the data ourselves. If we find a road where the speed is incorrectly set, let us edit it for our driving style/preferences. If there is a road where the map doesn't have it, let me drive it and then establish it in the database. How hard can that be?
Anyway, I downloaded TomTom 6 and tried it out today. Seemed to be much better as far as routing goes. Not once did it want me to take a dirt road, non-existent ferry, or drive off the side of a bridge. Amazing! (And the Sean Connery voice is fun!)
Downloaded Tomtom??? :jd: What site offers a download of this SW? Is this a trial version? I want to try out Tomtom myself but all I find is site that sell and ship. Dont want to buy it without trying it.
JakeRich: You are absolutely right, my problems with iGuidance are mainly due to bad map data.
cdikand: It wasn't a trial version. I can't post where I got it… but it's out there.
I tried Mapopolis this morning and it has the same bad data as iGuidance. The fact that the nearby used-to-be-a-ferry is still shown on the maps in both programs makes me think that NavTeq has not updated the map data for this area in at least 10 years. That's really unacceptable.
Even if the NavTeq map data was good, the Mapopolis UI is… yucky. I want something I can use without a stylus which doesn't seem to be the case with Mapopolis. Mapopolis did come up with a better route than iG for the example I was using for comparison.
So, for me, TomTom still comes out on top and I will probably buy it whenever they make it available for purchase in the US. I am also intrigued by ALK CoPilot, but it's awfully expensive and it looks like the current version is a year old now. If they come out with a new version before I'm able to buy TomTom 6, I might give it a try. At least they have a 30-day satisfaction guarantee.
These software companies should come up with some kind of program where users were encouraged to submit corrections and rewarded for them. Maybe something where users who submit corrections could build up credits that could be used for discounts on updates and so forth. But if a company doesn't even have the faith in their product to offer a trial version or satisfaction guarantee, why should I trust it?
__________________ Sue
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Last night I decided to show off my Tomtom 5 to my Sister-in-law, who lives 2 miles from me. Her street wasn't in the database even though her house is 5 yrs old. So I drove with no route just so she could see the gps follow us along. Anywho, as we got to her house, her street was right there on the map. How can her street be on the map if it won't pull up when I try to put it in the directions?! That was very perplexing.
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