NAVIGON MobileNavigator North America Brings Traffic Live to iPhone Turn-by-Turn GPS Navigation
NAVIGON North America [$89.99 - iTunes link], just let us know that, fresh off adding text-to-speech for street names, they'll soon be adding real-time speed information from actual drivers on the road, traffic messages, road sensors and cameras, and historic traffic flow data to reroute iPhone users around problem areas.
Billed as NAVIGON Traffic Live, it will be available in October and sold as an in-app purchase to existing MobileNavigator users. The added functionality will run $24.99, but go for $19.99 special introductory pricing at launch. And as with the main app, there's no monthly subscription cost.
Will iPhone users be willing to pay more to get more? That remains a question. We've asked before for premium apps, and said we'd pay a premium price for them, and this is certainly an example of that kind of App Store model.
However, by aggressively adding new features so rapidly, NAVIGON is setting the pace when it comes to turn-by-turn GPS navigation on the iPhone. Users of up-front, subscription, and even crowd-sourced mapping apps will all benefit from that.
Editor-in-Chief of iMore, Executive Producer at Mobile Nations, co-host of Iterate and ZEN and TECH, cook, grappler, photon wrangler.
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Under Apple's licensing policy, I paid for MobileNavigator once, and was able to put on both my wife's and my iphones.
If one of us gets this will the other be able to access it?? What about when I upgrade to iphone 4.x next year, will it transfer? Will I have to re-buy?
Any idea how it will work?
I think you can both use it Michael since you already paid for the app and tossing it to her for free. The app was bought under your account and the in-app purchase I think will count once. you did the in-app purchase under your account. anyways. I'm definitely paying for Traffic Live : ) its worth it! what's up with TomTom? They made the stage at the keynote and they're getting beat out in the Navigation category. oh well I like Navigon. TomTom is a low-end gps device that wound up on the iPhone to start fresh I suppose onto the iPhone platform.
I will buy the in app. Traffic. This App is the best GPS Nav app out there.
Navigon was clearly ahead of the pack when it released the lastest update (v1.2), but now nothing is even remotely close to where Navigon is at.
TomTom is way over price in what they offer.
Looks like Tom Tom is getting their @sses kicked in the gps game on iPhone. I am really glad I waited and didn't jump the gun with Tom Tom. Navigon is doing an outstanding job with their gps iPhone software. Well played navigon. Well played.
I bet Tom Tom is shaking in their boots.
The question that I keep asking myself is that should I go ahead and purchase this app? or should I wait to see TomTom's response to v1.2 and Live Traffic?
I have a hunch that TomTom will respond with a big update. Is it worth waiting for or not really?
One more thing, does anyone know how recent is the map for Canada in this app? I know NavTEQ makes the maps, not Navigon, but I still want to know. I'm located in Vancouver, BC if that makes a difference.
Can I play my music from this app? Also does it conect to my contacts? If so I think I just found the GPS app I've been waiting to get. Been waiting to see who would go all out with their app.
@Tj
Yes, there's a little iPod icon in the bottom corner of the map/navigation view. You have full access to your iPod library and can choose by artist/album/whatever like you normally would. It has an iPod view similar to the regular iPod app where you can control shuffle, repeat, next, previous, scrubber, play/pause, etc., and it even shows the album art. After a few seconds of you not pressing anything, it automatically returns to the map/navigation view. You can tap the little iPod at any time to bring up the iPod controls or just to see what's playing, and it will take you back to the map/navigation view after about three seconds of not touching it.
As for contacts, yes, it's one of the main four buttons along the bottom of the main menu when you start the app. Just tap a contact's address (like you would in the Contacts app to open up Google Maps) to navigate to it.
The screenshots in the App Store are old, so if you want to see the stuff I'm talking about make sure you find some screenshots of version 1.2. It really is an excellent app. My only caveat is that if you try max out the hardware by playing music and searching for an interim POI destination while navigating (but honestly, when would you ever really be doing all that?), the iPhone 3G can slow to a crawl trying to do all that at once. I'm sure the 3GS could handle everything without a single hiccup.
@Muero Thank you for such a well detailed response to my ?'s. Very helpfull pretty much made up mine from that and I got the 3gs so I'm hoping it will handle what ever I throw at it. Thanx
I can't believe TomTom is sitting on it's butt for something like this. I expect an update in October when they release their car mount.
Navigon really is ahead of the game with their iPhone app, and TomTom doesn't even hold a candle to it.
To me, live traffic info is totally worth the $25. Once you've got that, the only missing feature is the ability to avoid certain roads when trip planning.
Go Navigon!
I've got co/pilot uk version, I get live weather but Live traffic is more interesting! Is it coming to us? To upgrade to the Europe version am I charged the difference or will I be charged the full price? Thanks if anyone can help.
@Wayne
actually, once you have the route selected and navigation has started, you can go into options and select "block" or so ething along those lines (I am going from memory here) and it allows you to block a certain road or part of the route. A little round about way of doing it but the feature is there.
It is a great app.
I'm glad that I didn't wait for TomTom. Navigon has proven to be a great app and they are moving swiftly to keep the improvements coming to us. Traffic is a great improvement and for a one-time fee, it's a bargain. Somethings are outdated and I wish we could submit corrections so they can update their maps. One that I see almost every time I open the app is a misspelling of a store near my home. It's a picture framing shop where they have it spelled "farming". Oops. Otherwise, it's been a great investment!
Anyone know if Garmin is coming out with a GPS app? I like the idea of TomTom because of the car kit, but it certainly sounds inferior to Navigon.
The only thing that I've heard is that Garmin is planning to release their own phone, bypassing an iPhone app. https://store.garminasus.com/store/catalog/productInfo.jsf?productId=37073
Here's a more current news item re: the Nuviphone
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/09/prweb2861594.htm
@jtz5: I read somewhere (cannot recall where exactly) that the TomTom car kit will in fact work with any other navigation app. It basically disables the built in GPS chip in the iPhone and relies on the chip in the mount. The switching of chips should take place as soon as the iPhone is docked in TomTom's car kit (not from within the TomTom app).
Maybe Navigon with TomTom's car kit = win?
also, if you don't really care about the GPS in the car kit, Navigon did announce a care kit coming in October on their facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4000692&id=51924150929
Would live traffic require iPhone or would it also work on the iPod touch (assuming one has the new tomtom dock that is not out yet). In other words, do you get live traffic via Internet or gps chip? It would be annoying not to be able to have live traffic because I don't have an iPhone. They should come out with alternative way because there are more iPod touch users than iPhone users.
Goddammit that I didnt buy this when it was $70...
I use AT&T navigator and was thinking of going to one of these programs but have a couple of questions. 1. How does this handle phone calls. With AT&T navigator a call comes in goes to your call but while on the call you can relaunch and navigate also. Especillialy when housing the earbud. 2. Even though everybody knocks the paid subscription I pay 99.00 a year and get updates every three months. I need these becuase in the area I live there are plenty of new streets popping up. Even google maps is not that up to date. And I need them becasuse my job depends on me driving a lot. I do pest control. Which leads me to the final question. 3. No one has talked about what it cost to update your maps. With some of my of my co-workers with stand alone GPS the updates can be up to 70.00 a year. For a couple of more bucks I get that without having to wait for a year. Thanks for any help in advance and appoligize for the long post.
I have been thrilled with NAVIGON's performance & features since 1.0. The latest update was fantastic & this new one coming is totally unexpected. I will definitely be adding the live traffic capability immediately. Now, I'd just like to have live weather built in too, so I can know miles ahead if there's adverse road conditions. Great job NAVIGON!!! TomTom may have gotten all the pre-press, but that doesn't equal a great app.
How do yo purchase the Traffic Live feature? I have the North American version of the application (downloaded and installed it yesterday) but cannot find anywhere to purchase the traffic feature! I do love this app! When I used to have Sprint and a Windows Mobile phone (Q9c), I had Sprint Navigator (Sprint's version of TeleNav). Boy, was that pretty inaccurate (I was always way ahead of where my location was showing). Navigon is extremely accurate and the application itself is very easy to use! My only fault with the program thus far isn't even a fault of the program, but of the iPhone itself and that is true multi-tasking (having more than one application open at a time). It would be nice if I could view text messages, take a phone call, etc. without the application closing and then having to go back to the program (the good thing is that the current route is opened by default). Anyway, help on how to purchase the traffic feature would be great! I live in NC by the way...
Douglas, the article said "coming in October". It isn't October yet
.
It is mid-Oct. When will Live Traffic be released?!
They didn't specify which year, so hopefully before October 2010.
Is it possible to use Navigon NorthAmerica in the zone where there is no 3G connection? Do we have to pay an extra fees with our ISP tu use a GPS?? Thanks