This article is written by mick
Review of 3 GPS Software for Pocket PCs
This is a three part series of GPS software mini reviews for the Pocket PCs. These reviews were the results of my search for a suitable GPS navigation software to purchase. I tested 3 such applications - iGo, Mapking and PaPaGo on a WM6 device with an external Garmin GPS unit.
In part 1 (this article), I reviewed the iGo MyWay Plus 2006 GPS navigation. In parts 2 & 3, I shall post my review of Mapking and PaPaGo software. If time permits, I shall present a side-by-side feature comparison of all three software.
These reviews were written from a end-user perspective rather from the normal commercial software reviewer's viewpoint. So these reviews are not an explanation of the user manual but a write up on actual usage experience with comments liberally sprinkled over. In some areas the features are so rich that I could not cover all of them. In which case, I focused on the important and useful features at the same time highlighted the bugs and quirks.
In these reviews I assumed you have a basic knowledge of GPS and are reasonable adept with your PPC. Most GPS software available today will run on your stock standard PPC without any problem. The only thing you should be wary of is whether it will run on Windows Mobile 6 or PPC 2003 or PPC 2005. Also, for GPS application I suggest a PDA with speed of at least 400Mhz or faster and 128Mb RAM. Although most GPS software vendor claims their software will run on your PPC with 200Mhz it will be painfully slow in displaying and panning maps or performing dynamic routing.
iGo MyWay 2006
The software reviewed here is the iGo MyWay Plus 2006 and Malaysia map version 2006.09-061214 by Tele Atlas NV. iGo MyWay was developed by Navngo. The website and documentation does not specifically lists the actual hardware configuration required, but instead it lists the PPC units that its supported. The list is fairly long and I shall not duplicate here. Those interested can check out iGO's website at www.navngo.com.
Program Installation
Program installation was a breeze. Just install your program on the PC and it will install it to your PPC. Do a soft reset and the program will start prompting for a few basic choices such as language, etc. The maps and application as available on SD cards.
Program Startup
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| Starting up | | | |
Program starts up rather slowly - loading lots of libraries. After some 10 seconds or so you will be presented with a start screen:
Program starts up with no GPS detected (if using program for the first time). Clicking on the tiny satellite on lower left corner of the screen brings up the satellite screen from which you can auto detect, or configure your GPS parameters. GPS unit detection is fast compared to program startup. The only problem I had was not recognizing the satellite image was actually a button (a flat one!). Instead I went around the menu system trying to locate the satellite settings menu! It would be nice if the satellite and exit buttons be made into a 3D button so that it will be easily recognizable at first glance.
The software automatically accepts all incoming NMEA/SiRf data. There is no option to turn on/off the WAAS feature. You have to disable this at the GPS unit itself.
The description of satellite signal accuracy is less than desirable. It either shows "poor" or "good" - Its anyone's guess what is poor and what is good? It would be better to display a quantitative measure such as X meters accuracy and leave it to the user to decide if its good or poor. With a proper numeric measure we can tell how much error our current position is.
There is also a TMC (Traffic Management Channel) setting here. It allows the user to receive traffic information from the internet. Unfortunately this is not applicable in Asia.
Features
iGo is a very well designed application and has a rich set of features. The PDA can be used in either landscape or portrait mode. The software supports this natively and does not require any external utility program. VGA screen size of 480x640 is fully supported too, natively. If you run in landscape mode - it even supports left-hand and right-hand mode! Wow.
The application was designed to utilize the PDA hardware keys to the full extent, making it extremely easy for the user to switch between modes, change screen views and display contents without resorting to lots of tapping via menus. Some of the hardware keys are context sensitive - which means it performs certain functions depending on which part of the program you are currently running. The main use of the hardware keys are changing the map displayed - between 2D, 3D, tilt and orientation. If your PDA is a smart phone, it will leave the green and red phone buttons unmapped so you can still make and receive calls when the program is running.
Overall the menu system is very logical and well organized. There is no clutter and the menu buttons are large enough for operation with the fingers. The menu buttons lights up to denote that the option is active. The amount of user controls available is truly remarkable.
The application is very flexible. Where similar GPS applications such as Mapking requires you to switch off or disconnect the GPS first in order to display the map in certain manner or change certain settings, iGo does not. You can display the map in various format - cockpit mode, map mode, 2D, 3D, tilt and pan while navigating. You can access any menu option anytime from anywhere in the program. Most functions can be accessed with approximately 3 keystrokes! That's a very well designed user interface.
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| A 2D map | Same map in 2.5D | 2.5D Tilted | |
The 3D mode is a recent phenomena and the majority of newer GPS software supports either 2.5D or 3D display. Although iGo claims to support 3D, the software actually only supports 2.5D display. A proper 3D displays also shows buildings in 3D together with road ascends and descends (elevation data). A 2D map is a flat view map. In the case of iGo no buildings were displayed - at least not for the Malaysia map. Perhaps there were no building information on the Malaysia map so I am unable to say if iGO does truly support 3D. Maybe for the USA maps, but I do not have a copy to verify. However, I shall accept that it does 3D.
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| Track Up (3D) | North Up (3D) | Aerial View | |
There is also another additional map mode - the cockpit mode as shown above. The cockpit view is rather a gimmick - its actually a 2D display with associated routing/navigation information and menu. This screen allows you perform routing a little more easily. The cockpit mode will be described below under navigation and routing.
The standard package comes with a poor quality Basemap of the world which is of little use for the navigator. This software is aimed at the USA and European markets for which it has abundance of and frequently updated maps. Maps of Asian countries - Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong are also available but less updated. These maps are provided by Tele Atlas NV and are supposed to be updated every 6 months according to the website. In this review, there were lots of errors in the map of Malaysia.
Settings
The software is very well organized except for a couple of misplaced menus. From the start up screen, one can access the main settings menu. The Main Menu comprises - General Settings, Map, Sound, Route Parameters and Language selection.
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| Main Menu | Main Menu - General Settings | Main Menu - Map | Main Menu - Sound |
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| Main Menu - Route Parameters | Main Menu - Language | | |
The menu system uses 3D text buttons which is very readable. It is non cluttered and fairly logical. I find that I can move to a required menu option with an average of 3 clicks only. Each option is a text button with a small rectangle on its left. This rectangle if lighted (bright) indicates the option is selected (turned on) and if it dark, its off. Just click on the option item to toggle on/off.
Looking at the menu options, it is appears to be quite a complete GPS application and its features matches some of the other commercial laptop applications! The user can select the color mode, routing mode, routing calculation type, adjust the voice navigation aid, etc.
Under the Sound settings, the user can select Dynamic Volume. which means that the voice navigation will increase in volume when the vehicle reaches a certain speed - this is to counteract higher vehicle noise at higher speeds.
Advanced Settings
There is another set of menus - reachable from Main Menu->Advanced.
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| Advanced Settings - Main Menu | Advanced Settings - Display | Advanced Settings - Display cont'd | |
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| Advanced Settings - Backlight | Advanced Settings - Smart Zoom | Advanced Settings - Smart Zoom 2 | Advanced Settings - Route Options |
The application is very user friendly and extremely configurable. The user can choose what data fields to be displayed in the routing and navigation screens.
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| Advanced Settings - User Data Mgmt | Advanced Settings - Startup | | |
The "Clear Data" appears mislabeled - it should be "Reset to Factory Default". I tried clicking the button and there was a warning that all data will be cleared. It actually does it and reset the application and all your configuration is lost. Even the GPS com port is lost and you have to re-detect the GPS again.
Maps
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| About Screen | Map selection screen | | |
The software is not intelligent enough to select the correct map. You have to do it yourself. It took me a while to figure where to select the map. After a few moments, I found it located under the About Screen! What a place to put the map selection! The map selection should be located under main menu under map option.
There is a bug in this version (June 2006) of the software - Sometimes the program will refuse to detect all the maps. At the moment I have loaded Basemap, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand. Thailand is not shown at all for some unknown reason. It baffles me since the maps exists only in storage card and does not require ram for storage. I suspect it a bug in the system.
There is an abundance of errors in the Malaysia map (version 2006.09-06124). A typical error is show above images. I created a pin at IOI Mall. Then hover around the pin and click on it. The program then pops up a few interesting POIs near/around the pin location. (the type of POIs to be displayed can be selected via the Main Menu). Clicking on the 1st item on the popup list shows the 2nd screen above. IOI Mall is not located along Jalan IOI Mall in Telok Panglima Garang! In fact quite many places including Mandarin Oriental Hotel, KLCC was show as located in Telok Panglima Garang. This is real strange. This is really unacceptable.
Map Views
Maps are well rendered by iGo. In fact, majority of GPS software renders maps very well indeed.
There is a handy button to switch between aerial view and a map view of the current location. Clicking the compass icon (small hollow triangle with a N - see 1st image above) will display the 2nd image. The compass now turns into an airplane denoting aerial view (zoomed out). This is an extremely handy feature and saves a lot of zooming in/out during navigation. The solid blue triangle indicates your current GPS position. It rotates slightly to indicate the north direction. The rotation is due to satellite drift/positioning errors typical of all GPS systems.
Clicking the satellite icon on either of the screens will bring up the satellite screen showing the number of satellites in view (above 3rd image) and the accuracy and location. You can always go back to the previous screen by clicking the large left arrow. The main map screen does not have a back arrow but a menu button instead. The choice of the horizontal bar icon that looks like a battery indicator (above leftmost image, between the satellite icon and the speaker icon) is a little misleading - it is actually a menu and it opens up the Main Menu screen which was discussed earlier in this review.
You can tap on the main menu button at any time to popup the screen as shown by above rightmost image. There you can change the map view options or find and display a POI or start routing. Tapping the 'Main' button on the lower left of the screen will bring you right back to the startup screen, from which you can go into settings, etc to reconfigure any of your program's options.
Under Manage POI menu, you can also nominate what categories of POIs to be displayed on the map to reduce clutter.
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| Navigation Menu on top right | | | |
The Find button on the same menu allows selection of POI and displaying it on the map, jumping to a specific coordinate or searching for an address, or locating previously searched, pinned, or saved POIs. With the click of the History button you can view a list of locations which you have previously explored and can select to go back to that location.
As I was reviewing the software, the Sun just set and the program automatically turned to night mode (above right 3 screens). In the standard package, there is only one day and one night color mode. It is simple to disable night mode - click Main Menu->General Settings->Automatic Night Colors to toggle it off. There is no other option at the moment. Perhaps themes will be released in due course. At the time of this review, iGO has already released the iGo 2007 version which has quite a lot of improvements.
Clicking the Coordinate Input screen on the Main Menu brings up a large screen which allows you to enter the coordinates to go to. Just enter the coordinates and hit done and the program will go to that location. The coordinate is displayed in the format set at the Main Menu. Regardless of the display format, you can enter the coordinates in any acceptable format.
When you pan the map away from your current GPS position, a large flat semi-transparent Follow button appears. You can always return to your current GPS position by clicking on it. The wording "Follow" is little misleading. What it means is that iGo is following you as you pan the map. Clicking on the Follow patch, will "disable" Follow and brings you back to the current GPS position and the button disappears. Although its a handy feature, the placement of the Follow patch is less than desirable - it should be place nearer the bottom edge of the screen so that it will not obscure the map. It would be desirable to have an additional GoTo (current GPS position) button on the satellite screen itself.
Favorites and POIs
iGo has implemented a very handy function - the pin. Instead of creating POIs every time, you may wish to just pin a location - for temporary use. It saves you the hassle of entering a name for the POI, selecting the icon to represent it, selecting what group it belongs to, etc. You just pin it. This leaves you free to concentrate on your track and navigation. Of course if that position is interesting enough you may prefer to save it as a POI instead.
Above leftmost image shows a red radiating dot as a result of tapping at that location. That red radiating dot is called the Cursor location. The next image above shows the position was pinned. To recall pins, just tap on the menu->history tab. After you're done for the day, just tap clear history and its all gone. It won't mess up you POIs. Alternatively, you can save it as a POI which will be more permanent that pins.
You can also mark positions of speed cameras, direction of the camera and the speed limit. You can then activate the speed camera alert function by toggling enable safety camera button. Not many applications have this feature implemented explictly. SOme software implements this via alert POIs.
In spite of the generous options available, there is a nasty implementation problem. After creating a POI and entering information/description - there is no button to allow you save the data. The only option is the large back arrow - which does save the POI and brings up a POI screen listing your POIs. Clicking back arrow one more time will bring you back to your original map display. I found that this applies not only to POI data entry but to many other edits as well. The use of back arrow is counter intuitive - majority of software uses it to mean 'go back' or start again. So iGo's usage of the back arrow is poor programming. They should have a save button instead, while the back arrow should bring you back to the previous screen for correction.
Searching
Under the same Navigation Menu screen, you can elect to find a POI in any/all categories of POIs. This is fairly typical of most applications. But what is interesting is iGo has enhanced this find by allowing you to select the approximate area for which in concentrate the find - around cursor position, around current GPS position or even around a specified coordinate. All you do is tap on the change ref. button on top right of the screen (1st image above). Very neat!
Under Transportation category, you can even locate Car Parking areas! That's handy! The Cursor position is the point on the map which you click and got the red the radiating circle (already discussed earlier in this article).
You can also go to Home or Work locations from the Navigation Menu. If you have not set the coordinates, you can set it here and give it a name too. This is again a handy feature.
Routing
Based on the menu options available it appears you can route from any start location to any final location. But this is not so! Both the route generation and the simulation is incorrect! Regardless of your choice of starting location, iGO insists on generating a route starting from your current GPS position. Even though you delete the current GPS position from the route list, it automatically puts it back in! The above images illustrates this bug. I started off with an empty route list. Then I added a starting position at IOI Mall and save it. Automatically it places an Unnamed Road as the starting position. This Unnamed road is a proper road with a name (iGo map error) and its my current GPS position! This is another map bug. I could pint that road and save it - iGo recognizes the road name and displays it - but in routing, was unable to detect the name of the road and calls it Unnamed road instead.
I deleted the Unnamed road and added the destination POI to the route leaving only the start and finish POIs (3rd image above). Then I generated the route. Not only did iGo insisted on starting the route from my current GPS position, it also ignores IOI Mall from the route altogether. It ended up routing from current GPS position to only the destination Jln Helang. IOI Mall was ignore totally! After 5 minutes of trying using various style of routing - by coordinates, history, etc, I gave up. It does not work! Due to this, I have not attached any routing images as they are totally meaningless. I shall also not discuss the cockpit mode as mentioned earlier.
While some users would just be contented to route from current GPS position to a target destination, there are many occasion that routing between selected positions with via points (intermediate points) is useful - especially for trip planning purposes. For example, if you are about to go on a holiday location where there are many tourists spots scattered over some distance around your hotel, you may want to investigate which places to visit on which route - starting/ending at your hotel. You need to check on the distance and estimate travel time so that it can fit into your limited time stay at the hotel and also the place's opening/closing times, etc. You need to do forward planning so you won't miss out on the "must see" places. Because iGo can only route from current GPS position you have to do you planning only when you reached the destination thus severely limiting its functionality. iGo 2006 appears unable to perform route planning.
This is indeed a very serious bug. In my opinion, this one bug alone could almost disqualify it from being a called a GPS navigation software. There are many software in the market that allows you to route from one location to another - bypassing the current GPS location. Many GPS software developed for PDAs do not allow you to save the list of points of your route. This I feel is a shortcoming. The list of user selected route points is not huge and does not take much space on the PDA and I believe the option to save route points should be made available.
The color of the generated route is sometimes dark green and sometimes bright green and cannot be changed. Sometimes it blends so well into the surrounding greenery that the route is not quite evident. I am still trying to figure why is it bright and sometimes dark green. There is no option to change the color of the generated route.
You can also create a route with via points using the Navigation Menu. Selecting add and then address will bring up a smart spelling screen which will show available letters applicable to the current country map. The first screen shows almost all the alphanumeric characters available that could be used to spell any location. On clicking K, the select screen then blanks out all other alphabets that could not represent any location that begins with with K as the starting alphabet. Again a very neat feature but a pity the routing is buggy.
The roads to avoid is selectable after the route is generated.
On the rightmost screen above, you will notice a "Change Country" option. You can actually find a location down to the house number and street in that country. However I was unable to create a route to Thailand from Malaysia as there is a bug in the iGo software. I removed all other maps and left Thailand and Malaysia but it fails to detect the Thailand map. Deleting the Malaysia map and leaving only the Thailand map will allow iGo to detect Thailand map. This is another bug. In any case I doubt that cross-country routing is implemented at all! If so, this option button should be removed.
There is also no option to save your track log.
Find & Go
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| | Find & Go Menu | POI around Cursor | POI around a selected coordinate |
From the Startup screen you can immediately find and go to a specific location - POI, address, coordinate, historical search locations, home and work. You can find POIs around cursor, around current GPS location, around a nominated coordinate or search for a POI via a pull-down list. The Find & Go button allows you to quickly find a location - POI, history, pin, etc and immediate start routing from current GPS position to that location.
Summary
iGo MyWay Plus 2006 is feature rich and the menus are logically organized. The menu comprises simple 3D buttons with crisp text. You can get to almost any screen from any screen with approximately 3 clicks in almost 99% of the time. GPS unit detection is extremely fast although the startup time is a quite long. The wide range of viewing options available is commendable. The back arrow is used to save data edits and after saving will bring you to another screen which can be frustrating at times. The program really requires a 'save' button.
Although the application fairly very well designed overall, there were a number of bugs. It appears iGo and a few other software relies heavily on the SD card folder 2577. For some unknown reason, the iGo today's screen application shortcut entry and the program execution icon disappeared after I installed MobileXT software. I had to use the explorer to open up the iGo program folder in order to run the iGo application again. It appears that iGO relies on the 2577 folder for auto execution. This is lame programming as many other applications also makes use of this folder for installation purposes.
There were bugs in the map and routing routines. Most GPS applications are used for navigation and routing purposes. The routing bug seriously degrades the usefulness of this software. Lets hope this and other bugs will be corrected in the 2007 version.
Stay tuned for the next part....
Author: Michael
2007-11-02
p/s I wish to thank all my friends who assisted in loans of software and hardware which made this review possible.
