The Telenav GPS Navigator for the T-Mobile MyTouch 3G was released yesterday alongside the nationwide roll-out of the device. The Telenav GPS Navigator service provides turn-by-turn directions using a combination of the built-in GPS and the T-Mobile cellular data network. I decided to give it a thorough test this afternoon, and here are my thoughts.
After signing up for the free 30-day trial through the Telenav website, I proceeded to plug in my home address, my office address, my wife’s office address, and my parents’ address so I wouldn’t have to manually type them in on the MyTouch 3G. The service will synchronize favorite places and addresses over the air upon launching the application. I selected “Home” from the navigation menu and was on my way. The Telenav service picked the exact same route that Google Maps chooses to get from my office to my home. On paper this looks like a great route although it really is not with the way traffic flows and all of the traffic lights in between. About 30 seconds after calculating the route, I was notified that there was bad traffic approximately 12 miles into the route. I chuckled because that is exactly why that route stinks. It is no fault of the service, there’s just no way to study traffic patterns for every city in the USA.
One thing that I found slightly annoying was that my Garmin Nuvi 660 GPS quickly reroutes if I miss a turn and rarely ever suggests that I make a U-turn unless I really NEED to make a U-turn. The Telenav GPS Navigator repeatedly for over a mile told me to make a U-turn when I did not heed its directions. I understand that this is probably the fastest way for the service to operate, but it is not quite a real-life scenario that works well. It finally recalculated a different route for me that would have been acceptable. Since I know traffic better than the device, I digressed from its path once more. Again, for nearly a mile it kept telling me to make a U-turn. Once it realized I was hard-headed, it conceded and plotted the rest of the course which was acceptable to me.
One complaint I have about the iPhone is the inability to run applications in the background. When I was about 5 minutes from home, my wife calls to see where I am. The Telenav GPS Navigator was running when I took the phone call. About 2 minutes into the phone call, the voice from the navigation played during my phone call and said, “Turn left on Main Street in 1/2 mile.” It was definitely cool that it was working in the background, but I could not hear a word my wife was saying (maybe not such a bad thing to use as an excuse later). You may like or dislike that feature, but I do like the fact that I can multitask and run several applications at the same time using Google Android.
Overall I would have to say that I am very happy with the service. It costs $9.99/month after a free 30-day trial period. If you do not already have a dedicated GPS unit in your car, I would say that it is definitely worth the cost. A dedicated GPS will generally always be a better overall GPS unit, but the luxury of always having up-to-date maps and the latest traffic reports on such a small, mobile, pocketable device is very nice.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Would be nice if you didn't have to pay 10 bucks a month for Telenav. Add that to the cost of the entire phone service and starts getting expensive. I'd rather them charge a fee for the application and then small subsequent fees for updated maps, whenever the user chooses to update. That would be better (for the consumer), obviously not for Telenav. Alas, I'll just get a separate GPS system…
The cost of Telenav for the MyTouch 3G is expensive over the life of the phone, but it has some advantages. You never have to pay for map updates. My Garmin Nuvi 660 is a little over two years old. Garmin wants $99 to update the maps for it. That's ten months of service for Telenav. In ten months, my maps and points of interest will be outdated again. I haven't committed to keeping the service as of yet, but if I didn't have a dedicated device and traveled for business on day trips where packing a full-sized GPS unit in a laptop bag would be a pain, I really like the thought of having all of that functionality right in my pocket. Thanks for the comment!
Well, the only reason you never have to pay for map updates, is because, technically, you're already paying for them over the month-to-month fee. I mean, if you don't think Telenav factored in a portion of that fee would be devoted to the map updates then… lol.
I actually would rather pay for map updates, so long as I could choose when I do the update in other words, if I buy the device and two months later, they update the maps and I don't want to pay, then let me continue to use what I have.
Not a problem for the comments. I like the site!
There is always a cost associated with having the latest and greatest technology. Only you can make the choice if designed obsolescence with the ability to update for a cost later or having cutting edge, always up-to-date technology is right for you. I will probably discontinue Telenav before the 30 day trial is up, but that is because I already own a dedicated device. If Navigon decided to port their excellent GPS software to Android, that would probably be a whole different story.
You and I are in agreement there. I prefer Navigon over the others. Their software and setup is much cleaner.
We need to lobby hard to get Navigon to port over to the Android platform. There will be so many Android devices on the market by the end of the year. They could make a killing and please a lot of customers doing it.
Question: does the Touch 3G(I'm leaving off the silly “my”) have a speaker phone?
The MyTouch 3G does have a speaker phone, and it works quite well. The device is also easier to hold to your ear with just your shoulder than an iPhone.
Does it support tmobile family locator which can be used to tracking cell phone locations?
Does it support tmobile family locator which can be used to tracking cell phone locations?
GPS navigation systems have soared in popularity over the last few years,I love the idea of putting a GPS in our vehicle, thank you for sharing and GPS reviews, have a great day!