Navigating with TeleNav

On the Sprint phone I was loaned, TeleNav's application is launched by pressing the down arrow to access the "Downloads" page. From there, selecting "Applications" brings up a short list of available application, including TeleNav Navigator.

TeleNav's Navigator allows you to enter a destination address using any of the following methods:

• Enter an address using the city/state or ZIP code
• Enter an address via the voice recognition system
• Select a previously entered address
• Find an airport using the airport code option
• Select a previously recorded waypoint/landmark
• Find a business using the Biz Finder

The text entry method varies from phone to phone, but in general TeleNav allows you to enter an address either as an exact street address, such as "123 Johnson St" or as an intersection, such as "Johnson at Main." Unlike some other GPS units, TeleNav's Navigator requires that you enter a valid City and State or ZIP code before you can search for an address. Some GPS units will allow you to search by any of these variables.

Using Voice Recognition to Enter A Street Address

If your phone supports it, TeleNav allows you to use your voice enter a destination address. When using this method for address entry, TeleNav will say "Welcome to TeleNav. Say the city and state you want, like San Francisco, California." From here, you can say the city and state of your destination address, such as "New York, New York." TeleNav will respond by confirming: "I heard New York, New York. To change this say GO BACK. Say the street you want." Essentially, the cell phone places a call to TeleNav, performs voice-to-text translation, and then sends the route to your phone. I found using my voice to enter a destination address only worked when there was little or no background noise.

Using Biz Finder to Find A Business Address

TeleNav calls their POI (points of interest) application "Biz Finder." The silly name notwithstanding, TeleNav's massive, 10+ million POI database is one of it's major strengths. Most GPS units have, at most, around 6 millions POIs. TeleNav is able to offer virtually unlimited POIs thanks to the network. Unlike traditional GPS units that must store the entire POI database locally, TeleNav is able to send the lookup query via the network to TeleNav's central server, and return the result back to the cell phone requesting the lookup. This process is lightweight and fast, especially where there is a strong cell signal (the process gets noticeably slower when cell phone reception is marginal).

Finding a POI with the Biz Finder involves the following 5 steps:

1. Specify the search point
2. Decide whether you want to search by Business Name or Gas By Price
3. Navigate through the categories if you selected Business search until you have reached the list of matching businesses
4. Select a specific business
5. Use MENU to display a list of options.

You can then either save the address, or use it in the current application context. For example, if you are trying to get a Map, you can use Finder to get a business address, and then get a Map around that address

TeleNav Navigator includes a unique "Fuel Finder" application that lets you search for the cheapest gas in town.

Another unique TeleNav application: "WiFi Finder" lets you search for available WiFi spots.

Address Book

TeleNav Navigator includes an address book that allows you to save addresses, but it also offers some cool pone-integration features: if your cell phone's address book includes address information (such as on a Blackberry device), TeleNav's application will recognize that address and allow you to select the contact's address as a destination address to route to. So, for example, you could locate a contact name in your address book, then press Menu and have TeleNav Navigator route you to the address.

The Map Screen

This is TeleNav's 3D map view. Overall I liked the way TeleNav designed the map view. The zoom buttons are placed at top left and right of the display, the map is rendered in 3D (although you can also select a 2D view if you prefer), your current position is represented by the red arrow in the center of the screen, the highlighted route is shown in green, the turn maneuver is shown in orange on the map and red in the lower half of the display. The map view also shows the total remaining miles to your destination.

My only real complaint about TeleNav's map view is that the cell phone's display is so small and dim that I found it difficult to read while driving.

The destination address is indicated on the map by a red flag, shown in the figure above. I was surprised at how good TeleNav was at tracking the vehicle's position on the map. Scrolling was smooth and the car's position on the map was refreshed promptly. I noticed no more lag in tracking sensitivity than on dedicated PNDs.

Routing Engine Performance

Routing engine performance was surprisingly solid, although not quite as good as Garmin or Magellan's routing engines. Still, TeleNav Navigator produced routes that were, for the most part, on par with Google Maps or Yahoo Maps. Routing and re-routing was somewhat slow. I found I needed to pull over and wait for the route to be downloaded from TeleNav before I could start driving.

My biggest complain with TeleNav Navigator is the fact that navigation hinges on cell phone reception. This was one of my main concerns early on, and to test it out I intentionally drove into areas where I know cell phone reception is spotty. In my testing, when the phone lost signal, it would simply hang and display a message stating the phone was awaiting cell reception. The maneuvering list was not displayed, nor the map view. Nothing. Once cell reception was restored, the software would promptly update the route and show the map view again. When traveling on back country roads where cell reception can be tricky, navigation can be less than reliable with TeleNav since you need cellular reception in order to navigate.

Mapping Data

TeleNav Navigator doesn't actually store any maps on the phone locally. Instead, the phone requests the maps for the active route from TeleNav's server over the network, and TeleNav sends the required maps to the phone. In theory, this would allow TeleNav to always server the most current and up-to-date mapping data. TeleNav doesn't say how often they update their mapping data (provided by NAVTEQ), so there's no way to know for sure if TeleNav's maps are any more current than the maps that ship on some other PNDs. However, unlike the mapping data that's pre-installed on a dedicated GPS, TeleNav can update their maps centrally, effectively updating all the clients at the same time. By comparison, upgrading mapping data on a stand-alone GPS tends to be expensive, making it core cost effective to just replace the unit every few years.

It makes a lot of sense to serve maps from a central server, and I'm sure this will be integrated into GPS devices in the near future. Serving maps from a central location means the mapping data is up-to-date, and you don't have to worry about constantly upgrading the maps installed on your GPS. Moreover, mapping errors/omissions can be corrected in one place, and all the clients get the corrected data immediately. By contrast, many GPS devices have mapping data that's years out of date.

What, No Traffic Data?

Surprisingly TeleNav's offering does not currently include real-time traffic data. Traffic data integration seems like a perfect way to utilize the "always on" network of a cell phone. A TeleNav representative said the company is planning to offer traffic data in the near future, but would not specify any additional information on the service (although I'm willing to bet it'll be Clear Channel's traffic data offered at an additional monthly cost).

Pros

• NAVTEQ Mapping Data
• Huge, up-to-date, POI database (+10 Million)
• Using your existing cell phone as a GPS means you don't have to buy a dedicated GPS device
• Nicely designed map screen
• Unique Fuel Finder and WiFi Finder applications
• Turn-by-turn voice navigation with text-to-speech
• Solid routing engine performance

Cons

• Cell phone display too small for in-car navigation
• Navigation dependant on cellular signal
• Routing/Re-Routing Can Be Slow
• No integrated real-time traffic data
• No support for multi-destination routing
• Seemed to be no way to cancel an active route. I had to exit the application and re-launch it in order to stop routing to an address
• Slower CPU than dedicated GPS devices
• Cell phones' built-in GPS receiver not as strong as SiRF's receiver
• Most cell phones have poor quality speakerphones
• TeleNav application drains the cell phone battery quickly (you'll want to use the DC power cable to avoid draining the cell phone battery)
• Service is still relatively expensive at around $10/month
• No way to add maps for Europe, or outdoor trail maps

Conclusion

Although TeleNav wasn't able to make a total believer out of me, their software is surprisingly good at GPS navigation and offers an easy way to get basic GPS navigation on a device you already own. Moreover, by using the network to perform POI lookups, TeleNav is able to offer a massive points of interest database with over 10 million entries. NAVTEQ mapping data seemed current, and routing engine performance was surprisingly good. Still, at around $10 per month the service is relatively expensive.

Thanks to the current pricing war between Garmin, TomTom, and Magellan, it's now possible to buy an excellent GPS for well under $300. Considering that 2 years of service with TeleNav would cost you around $240, I think you're better off buying a dedicated GPS for around $300. TeleNav's Navigator application is well designed, but suffers from some limitations inherent to cell phones: the screen size is too small for every day use in the car. The speaker quality is insufficient for GPS applications (when driving at highway speeds, the speaker wasn't loud enough, distorted at high volumes, and sounded tinny). Most alarming, however, was the fact that all navigation stopped when cell reception was lost.

Still, even with all its limitations and drawbacks, I couldn't help feeling a little more secure knowing that my cell phone had a working GPS on it -- I found myself wishing that the service cost closer to $5/month just so I could keep TeleNav on my cell phone as a backup GPS in case I found myself without my GPS. TeleNav does a good job making GPS on your cell phone a reality, but I'm not quite willing to trade in my dedicated GPS unit just yet...