By Jake Richards(JakeRich)
August 27, 2006

Developer/Vendor: iNavCorp. (Review copy provided by buyGPSnow.com (www.buyGPSnow.com )
Price: US$99.95 (Also available in bundles with hardware/mounts)
Rating (out of 5):

Axim X50v with 2 Gbyte SD card, 2 Gbyte CF Card, WM 2003 installed (Dell ROM A06), and multiple GPS receivers including serial, BT and CF card receivers, and an integrated mount with GPS receiver.

I was using a VGA equipped PPC and the screen was beautifully laid out. Here is a sample of the screen, with a route planned. In this image I am stationary, so the upper and lower control bars are visible, but I am off the road. Actually, I'm in a parking lot, preparing for the trip. In any event, the blue line on the map is the planned route. The circle with the green arrowhead in it is my location and current direction of movement. (I have it set for North up for this image.) The voice command is the same as the guidance below the map, "Proceed to the nearest road." I have it muted, as shown by the "X" over the speaker symbol in the lower right corner. The broad yellow bar is showing me that I am near a turn and the box just above it specifies that I have 380 feet to go to that turn. Across the bottom the software is reporting that I will arrive at 7:52 PM, or 34 minutes from now, the trip is 20 miles long and I am not moving.

When you get to a road and are moving the display looks like this:

Now that I'm not near a turn, the turn indications are gone, and the screen has assumed the normal navigation mode. The upper left corner of the map shows that my next turn is to the left, in 1.3 miles. The upper right shows the approximate orientation of the screen (I've changed to "heading up" mode), in this case Northwest. My next road is listed at the top, I-95 South, or the Capital Beltway, and the road I am on is listed across the bottom, South Van Dorn Street. One of the changes on this screen is that the "-" and "+" zoom buttons are moved from the bottom of the screen to the sides of the map, are larger and finger-friendly and are translucent, i.e., you can see the map through the buttons. There is a nice 3D view available for those who prefer that. The color scheme also switches from day to night colors automatically at sunset/sunrise. Here is a 3D night view screenshot of the same location as before:

This is the main menu for iGuidance. The changes from the previous version are that the buttons are larger and more finger-friendly. There is one new button, the Itinerary button, that gets you to a menu to add waypoints to your route. Waypoints are the major new function in iGuidance Version 3, and will be addressed separately later in the review.

The menus are all similar in format, with larger and easier to use buttons. Here is, for example, the destination menu. You may have noticed that the top bar has an "X" on the left and a curved arrow on the right. The X will actually shut down iGuidance completely and is available on a lot of the menus. The return arrow takes you back to wherever you came from to the menu. The only challenge is that when the upper bar is visible, the return arrow is close to the upper right area of the underlying screen that also exits the application. In the screenshot, that is the round "OK" button. It does take a little care not to hit the "OK" instead of the arrow, particularly when moving.

When you get off track the software very quickly determines that fact and displays a box to show you are off track and it is recalculating a route for you. The software can also be set to automatically change the color scheme for day and night operations. You can also disable that feature, as you can most of iGuidance options. The software is easily customizable to fit your particular needs.

The PC interface is essentially unchanged from the previous version. The maps can be downloaded using the PC interface by State, or by radius about a city. You can direct the download to the PPC directly, or to a hard drive for later copy to the PC or to a card reader. The maps I reviewed included the US and Canada.

Installation and operation was fairly smooth. You also get in the package the PC version of the software. In operation it is identical to the screens and options of the PPC version.

Driving Operation

The software calculates and re-calculates routes very quickly, among the best from my observations. There are many options for routing. Here is a screenshot of the routing menu:

The "Method" button has three clearly logical options of Quickest, and Shortest, but the "Major" and "Local" are not so intuitive. In practical use I didn't see major differences between Quickest and Major, or between Shortest and Local. One time I did see that Local option avoided a really small road that Shortest had included, but that was about the only difference I saw. Ferries, Toll Roads, CarPool are all intuitive and worked as you might expect. The Turns option was also subtle, in my experience, but may be more significant in your use. I can imagine that if you are driving a larger vehicle (RV or a large truck) you might find benefit in the Reduced Turns option. As I said, in my use I didn't see any really significant changes for the Turns options.

The voice is clear and clean (in the English language, anyway) and the prompts come with plenty of advance warning. You get a confirming tone when you get to the actual location for the turn. I saw no lag in display beyond that which is inherent in all GPS operations. The screen changing from the Windows bars to no Windows bars is smooth and logical. The options for screen colors seemed logical. I actually liked the default Yellow theme best, so I stuck with it. You can select destinations from the Contact list, recent destinations, intersections, POI or favorites, or you can enter an address. Lookup was very quick and logical.

The new version has the capacity for multiple waypoints. However, I didn't really like was the way it handles Waypoints. When you first plan a route, it only uses Destination and Origin data. Then, once the route is planned, you can add a Waypoint or multiple waypoints. That part is just fine, but when you arrive at the first waypoint on the itinerary, you have to tap the screen to direct it to confirm that you want to continue to the final destination . The fact that you have to tap means that it's not that handy to use to create a route manually when you don't actually plan to stop at the Waypoint. Here is the screen you get at each waypoint (address is smudged, but it would show the address of the waypoint):

Until you tap the YES button, the screen sits there and you don't get further directions. If you have multiple waypoints, it will say so, only showing "Final Destination" on the last waypoint.

Unfortunately, this implementation of waypoints was a bit confusing. The system remembers waypoints from previous routes, so when you plan a new route, you have to delete all previous waypoints. Otherwise, when you get to your destination instead of saying you've arrived, you get the "continue" prompt for the first of those historical waypoints. I also saw one occasion where I had deleted, or thought I had deleted, all waypoints, but it appeared that iGuidance had picked up on a previous destination as the next waypoint. I didn't do any real research into that one instance because I was in a hurry, but in any event the waypoint process is confusing.

Adding to that confusion is that it is not possible to view the entire route if you use waypoints. All you can see is the leg to the next waypoint. iGuidance does not show the entire route, with waypoints highlighted. That is, to me, a major shortcoming and one that I hope iNav corrects in future upgrades.

Final Thoughts
iGuidance Ver 3 is a nice upgrade, or a nice package to buy as a routing package. It works well, has a nice interface and has garnered some nice comments on the Web.

Pros:

• Flexible
• Easy Installation
• Plenty of Options

Cons:

• Waypoint operation requires manual intervention