7. Navigating With the S700

Figure 29: Main Menu

The first step in entering a destination address is to tap on Find from the Main Menu.

Figure 30: Find Menu

The Find menu presents you with six available options for entering a destination address:

1. Address - is used to enter a street address
2. History - allows you to select a previously entered address
3. Coordinate - lets you enter longitude / latitude coordinates as a destination address
4. POI - allows you to search the Points of Interest database for businesses, such as restaurants, hotels, gas stations, etc.
5. Home - routes you to the saved "home" address
6. Work - routes you to the saved "work" address

In this example, I'll be routing to a street address, so I'll tap on Address to continue to the next step.

Figure 31: Recent Cities

After you tap on Address, the Novogo defaults to a screen showing a list of recently entered cities. You can either choose a previously used city, or tap on "Other City" in the upper-right corner to enter a new city.

While I agree that having a "Recent Cities" feature is a valuable time saver, I don't think the Recent Cities page should be the first page to appear in the address-entry process. I'd prefer to see the Recent Cities as an optional button on the city entry page.

Figure 32: The Novogo Crashed on Me

Whoa! When I tried to choose another city by tapping on "Other City" in the upper-right corner, the S700 crashed, and displayed the "Fatal error occurred" screen shown above in Figure 32.

Well, that's not good at all. It's true that a GPS is a complex piece of hardware and software; nevertheless, consumers have come to expect "dial-tone" reliability in these devices - especially given that they are intended to be used in motor vehicles while driving. What if the S700 had crashed while navigating through a complex highway interchange? My confidence in Novogo's software was somewhat shaken after this crash.

I tapped OK on the error message and the unit reboot.

Figure 33: Select State

Tapping on "Other City" from the "Recent Cities" page brings up a list of all 50 U.S. States. From here, you can narrow the city selection down to a particular state, or search all the states by choosing "All States". Notice that the upper-right icon has changed from "Other City" to "Other Country". Tapping on Other Country allows you to choose Canada or the United States.

Figure 34: Select City

Using the on-screen keyboard, you can input either the city name or a zip code (pressing the "Keys" button brings up the numeric keys so you can enter the zip code).

Note that pressing the "Keys" icon will cycle through the various available on-screen keyboards: numeric, QWERTY, and the keyboard shown in the above figure.

Figure 35: Select City, Text Entry System

In this example I'm entering an address in New York City. Notice that as I start to spell out N-E-W, the unit blanks out keys that would not spell a valid city name.

Figure 36: Select City

I really like text-entry systems that only allow you to enter letters that would spell a valid city name. The Novogo does this, but only if the city name is a single work. If you press space, for example to spell out N-E-W Y-O-R-K, all keys appear selectable again. Even stranger is that even though you can press on any key, only valid letters will actually appear in the name field. So, in other words, if you press the space key, all letters appear selectable, but actually only the valid letters can be used. This isn't a huge issue, but it's definitely a bug I'd expect Novogo to have ironed out by the time the product goes to market, and doesn't inspire confidence about the rest of the software.

Notice also that in the upper right area of the green street name field, the GPS displays the number of cities currently matching the letters you have entered. As more of the city name is spelled, the number of matching cities reduces.

Figure 37: Search Results

Once you've spelled out the city name, Novogo presents a list of possible matches. In this example, I've told the GPS to search all States, so every possible "New York" appears in the list. I'll select "New York NY, United States" and continue.

Figure 38: Street Name Search Results

Street selection functions identically to the city selection process. As you type out a street name, only valid letters can be selected (also like the city selection page, pressing space makes all letters appear selectable, even though only valid ones can actually be used). Once enough of the street name has been entered, the Novogo produces a list of possible matches.

I'll choose my desired street (Central Park West) and continue.

Figure 39: Entering the House Number

With the city and street name entered, the GPS asks for the house, or building, number. Notice that the Novogo displays the valid range of house numbers for the chosen street. In this case, numbers 1-498 are valid house numbers on the street Central Park West.