Google Turn-by-Turn Navigation

[techiej]

I recently upgraded my cell phone on Verizon to the LG Revolution. Since you’re forced into a data plan with these phones I thought that it might be possible to offset the cost by not subscribing to the Verizon Navigator application.

Since I was trying to keep costs down, I also didn’t want to pay for a GPS application or service but did want turn-by-turn voice navigation so that I wouldn’t have to divert my attention from driving. I came across the Google turn-by-turn application on the Android Market and installed it on my phone (runs Android 2.2).

While I have only used it for a few hundred miles, I was able to use it in rural and city environments and I have to say that I’m very happy with the results. The directions were clear, I could use my phone contact list for the source of the desired address and it locked in quickly. The maps are nice and with just a couple of exceptions everything worked not only as expected but with better performance than the Verizon Navigator application.

The exceptions were 1) there were 2 cases where the voice guidance & map indicated where to turn correctly but incorrectly listed the name of the street; and 2) the voice is very mechanical and not as nice or smooth as other GPS applications.

Bottom-line is that I will be using the Google navigation now exclusively for both daily driving as well as RVing.

[w7ts]

I have experimented with Google Nav.

I am glad it is on my phone, because I always have that with me.
However it is no replacement for my Garmin.

One big problem: It can not calculate a route when you have no data connection. So get out of cell coverage and you will find it fairly useless if you need to modify your route at all.

I do think the satellite map and the fact that it is does integrate with the rest of google's apps are neat features.

Regards,

Ken

P.S. - I used the barcode reader app on my android phone on your Avatar. It read it instantly