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Hows google nav for uk users?

Its no where near as good as the free Sat Nav included with Nokia's phones. I find it a pain to use.

Can't select a point on the map and get it to take you there. You have to input a location or post code.

You have to pay for voice navigation too.

About the only think Nokia have done right for a while with their modern phones. HTC/google got a little way to go yet.
 
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i havent managed to get a gps lock on it yet though i have tried a few times with and without agps. on my n900, lock is within 5 secs with agps, and around 30s-1min without and works like a charm. i am not impressed with the dhd, nor with the fact that maps are downloaded on the fly instead of being able to download offline. unless i am missing something...
 
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i havent managed to get a gps lock on it yet though i have tried a few times with and without agps. on my n900, lock is within 5 secs with agps, and around 30s-1min without and works like a charm. i am not impressed with the dhd, nor with the fact that maps are downloaded on the fly instead of being able to download offline. unless i am missing something...

First time lock can take a while, but that's the same for many phones. I know it was with my E71. As for downloading on the fly, that's how Google maps (mobile) works I'm afraid. The HTC mapping (actually route66) has local maps but I'm not impressed with that (nor are a lot of people). I have a 32GB card coming soon so will look at Co-Pilot8 which does everything locally and can use speed camera locations.

Dave
 
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Can't select a point on the map and get it to take you there. You have to input a location or post code.
Not true - go into Google Maps, hold down yer thumb on a place you wish to navigate to and after the location appears simply select 'Navigate'. As simple as that.

You have to pay for voice navigation too.
Again untrue - Google Nav has free voice navigation, however the instructions suck, e.g. instead of saying: 'Take the third exit on the roundabout' it says: 'Take the exit towards the Berwick/Something/Something/Something'. It's quite confusing. Plus the accent sucks as well.
 
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I really like it, all the above said, with the funny accent and lack of speed camera reports, its a bloody good Sat Nav considering its free!

Remember there's always CoPilot, but I'm failing to see why I should splash out when the Google version is working so well..

The only thing I have yet to figure out is one of the HD's "main selling points" advertised (i.e. go to the HTC site) that maps are auto cached so you don't have to download them on the go / when you don't have signal, can anyone confirm this working, or if its a specific app or what?
 
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It took me a while to realise `footprints' was the Sense name for saved personal destinations, but i really can't be bothered to type in all my contacts addresses again.
The `Maps' app (google's one i believe) uses your starred locations from your google account, so that was cool, but being an android (essentially Google) phone, I'm surprised it also doesnt use m starred locations. Surely there's some way of converting them to footprints?

For the record, i found CoPilot to pick up the GPS signal the fastest, it also stayed locked on, even when i had the phone quite low down in the car (the little tray in front of the gearstick). In the past, other devices had sometimes lost the signal down there. Not sure if the credit goes to CoPilot or the phone itself for that.

Untill getting my HD, i was a Nokia user and had used Ovi Maps a lot. Yes it was great for a free satnav, but i tested it a lot with destinations i already knew, and found it chose very strange routes that often took longer, dispite which style of route i told it to use. I'm yet to test CopIlot as thoroughly, but i will as soon as i get a car holder.
 
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... Untill getting my HD, i was a Nokia user and had used Ovi Maps a lot. Yes it was great for a free satnav, but i tested it a lot with destinations i already knew, and found it chose very strange routes that often took longer, dispite which style of route i told it to use. I'm yet to test CopIlot as thoroughly, but i will as soon as i get a car holder.


Me too on the Nokia/Ovi Maps front. I'd be interested in what you think about copilot as that's the one I'm thinking of getting. Neither Google maps nor HTCs version *do it* for me as I want a totally off-line system and copilot seems to offer that. Plus I'm getting a 32GB microSD card for Crimble so need to fill the space I'll have over and above the 22Gb of music I need to fit on ... :D

Dave
 
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Ok. I gave Locations a go. Surprisingly bad!
Being on a phone that's so intuative in all its functions, i was very disappointed in how this worked.. or didnt as the case may be.
For starters, it couldnt find my house. I searched by address and by postcode, with no results. I live within the M25 area, it's not as if i'm very remote.
Secondly, getting a gps lock wasnt easy, and when it eventually did, it didnt like to stay locked when i moved the phone within the car. (CoPilot has no problem with this)
And then whats with all the various UI? Is Car Panel the same app with a different front end? or is that part of google maps. if so, why is it on a seperate shortcut to the other satnav apps?

As i mentioned in my earlier post, CoPilot was very pleasant to use. It found a signal fast, and stayed locked. Easy and logical settings and controls.

Now it is possible that i've missed something in Locations, or am using it wrong. If so, please correct me. But i like to think that i'm quite a technically minded person, so if i did use Locations wrong, it's further proof that it's not intuative.
 
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As I see it, Car Panel is a `folder' which is giving access to a number of things. In particular, when you open it, in Footprints you get a list of addresses you have saved. Pick one of those, and it gives you the option of opening Google Maps or Locations.
I've put it on my front screen and it works for me.
My only gripe with doing a search when in Locations is it doesn't like to use the postcode - it needs more of the address.
Anybody worked out how to get a better voice on Google yet, it really is awful?!
 
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Nope, I'm afraid we're stuck with that crappy-droid-ish voice on the Google Nav.

I'm just wondering if that coalition between HTC and TomTom will work out and hence there'll be a major update to the Navigation software which is clearly based on the Route 66 (whatever that is). I love the features it gives incl. the voice navigation but the postcode thing is way too annoying.
 
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So to create your personal set of `Footprints' for Locations, i can see three ways. All of which are a big hassle.
1. Try to use the search. When you're looking for a new destination, 90% of the time somebody will give you a postcode (every other satnav works this way). It's the shortest and usually the most accurate way of finding the place. Yet for some reason this feature is omitted from the search function leaving the cumbersome and unreliable method of typing in a whole address. So many roads in UK have the same name. Good luck with that.

2. Adding footprints on your computer. Seems the only way to do this is via the HTC Sense website. Go to `Footprints' and at the top of the list on the left is a black button labelled "Add Footprint +". When clicking that you are presented with a small window, and a TINY little map, in which you have to scroll around the country manually searching for your location by eye.There is no search. As you have to be at a heavily zoomed in level to see the roadnames, it could take a very long time to build up your personal list, or even find that one place you are trying to get to.

3. Physically being at the destination, and save a footprint using the `save current location' function. So to do this you would have had to have found the location via some other means in the first place. Hmmm.

Have i missed anything? Is there a better way? Please add to this list or correct me if you know the preferred way of adding a footprint or finding an unknown destination in `Locations'.
 
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