Google Navigation now works in UK (Official)

The_Verse · Apr 27, 2010

Lucky, I have 500mb FUP. Stupid Orange.
If I'd known before about the differences in FUP I would have gone with T-Mobile.

Anyway, that sounds awesome! Thanks!

Mizer · Apr 27, 2010

I'm impressed with it as well, drove out to a couple of places, probably an hour's drive there, and just had the phone in the car in its case, listening to the directions. It got me where I wanted to go using the route I would usually use, the notice before turns I needed to make was very good, and although the voice might annoy some, reading out road and village names was very useful, especially if you aren't looking at the screen. The most impressive thing was on the way back, which was about a 30 minute drive, there was an accident at a junction I needed to take, and the road was closed just before it. I turned around fairly quickly, and literally as soon as the car was pointing away from the junction I was given rerouted instructions. I stopped to check that it wasn't my imagination!

The_Verse · Apr 27, 2010

Impressive. The Satnav I have in my car would just tell me to turn around, repeatedly.

fido1357 · Apr 28, 2010

tbl said:
What package are you on? I dont think Nav will use much data, but I'm going to keep an eye on it once I get a car dock (might even bin the TomTom )

Does anyone know if the Car Home app can be ported to Desire from Nexus One?

I've just installed the car home app on my desire and seems to work perfectly.

Instructions are here (not my site or files so use at your own risk!)

HOW TO: Nav Launcher (CarDock) On Your HTC Desire

justinbrett1975 · Apr 29, 2010

I have found no problems installing google navigation and it works really well. But I can't work out how to do voice search? I have looked on google's website and it doesn't really explain. Can anyone help?

Tye · Apr 29, 2010

I too have just installed the CarDock that fido1357 posted the link for and it works perfectly, quite a pleasant interface if you realise you need to start up the navigation on the fly.

bakleth · Apr 29, 2010

hocturnalsoul said:
Maybe Google could consider updating the voice to a "friendlier" person. Possibly muliple voices? Celeb voices? If TomTom can do it, so can Google!

Annoying or not, the major benefit of a computer generated voice is that it can say the road names which I've found really useful as I'm usually drinking coffee or rolling a *** (no, my American friends. Just no) instead of concentrating on directions.

That said, I do miss Joanna Lumley on my old TomTom

EDIT: can't believe that gets buggered by the profanity filter!

bakleth · Apr 29, 2010

fido1357 said:
I've just installed the car home app on my desire and seems to work perfectly.

Instructions are here (not my site or files so use at your own risk!)

HOW TO: Nav Launcher (CarDock) On Your HTC Desire

***CAREFUL***

Just fired up the download site and Kapersky picked up a trojan within seconds. Might be nothing major, but beware if your virus detection's not up to date. Shame, would like a nav launcher.

webrosc · Apr 29, 2010

Good to see it doesn't use up too much data. I like the voice, made me laugh when it said 'Hell' instead of 'Hele' (said like the part of your foot

) That area is like hell at times

And i swapped away from orange due to the 500Mb FUP, the guy at retentions claimed he'd never seen anyone go over 250Mb in a month

lekky · Apr 30, 2010

webrosc said:
the guy at retentions claimed he'd never seen anyone go over 250Mb in a month

Lol, this really really annoys me, i can easily get through that in a couple of days (im on orange too so hes blatantly lying)

RobDickson · May 1, 2010

I used Google Nav last weekend and it worked fine. It didn't pronounce Reading or Nottingham correctly, but that's to be expected.

The only problem I had was using my cigarette lighter to USB converter. It must be a fairly low power converter, because it didn't supply enough current to power the phone, so the battery drained slowly during the journey. I turned the screen off, and used the voice directions only. This worked surprisingly well, but I'll need to invest in a better charger.

Deleted User · May 2, 2010

Thought I'd say that I used this from london to glastonbury and it worked a treat...have been using this for a few weeks now and think its an awesome FREE app from google...possibly the most used app I have on my desire! Updates quickly and reroutes perfectly. Love the close ups when changing lanes and annoying voice was muted within seconds. Only thing I would say is that there are shorter routes available than the ones it offers you....for a beta version though its awesome!

RobDickson · May 2, 2010

Unless one selects otherwise, SatNavs will give the quickest route, which often isn't the shortest route. Google Nav gives cycling directions in the USA, I hope it will offer them in the UK soon.

hamdroid · May 2, 2010

I tried this today for the first time and I'm extremely impressed.

In the past I've used Tomtom and Garmin software on my Symbian handsets and that was decent, but the price wasn't cheap and I found with those handsets that the GPS wasn't quick enough or reliable without an extrernal Bluetooth GPS receiver. However the HTC Desire has shown me a new way

I was on the train and activated Google Maps. Within seconds I had a satellite view and a blue dot showing me where the train was, with incredible accuracy from the train's carriage. This made me quite excited about the potential with the GPS capabilities.

When I got to my car I turned on Google Maps again, entered my home address and activated the routing part. Again, within seconds and without a Bluetooth receiver or anything else, I had a perfect GPS signal and voice routing all the way home. It was incredibly accurate and quick and I liked being able to switch between map view and satellite view.

The Desire appears to have incredible GPS capabilities compared to previous GPS enabled handsets that I've had in the past. This could really replace my dedicated GPS device without any trouble if it keeps this up

ParaSitius · May 2, 2010

I'm hoping that they'll bring out an option to be able to amend the route rather then having to stick to the one that it comes up with.

Also found that the GPS isn't too great when it's lashing down with rain, did a journey last night and my Desire kept losing GPS connection. This is one place where a bog standard GPS unit has the advantage methinks.

hamdroid · May 2, 2010

ParaSitius said:
I'm hoping that they'll bring out an option to be able to amend the route rather then having to stick to the one that it comes up with.

Also found that the GPS isn't too great when it's lashing down with rain, did a journey last night and my Desire kept losing GPS connection. This is one place where a bog standard GPS unit has the advantage methinks.

It almost has the amend option in that if you go down another street it will recalculate and offer you a new route if required. While not a user selected option, it does mean that you can deviate and have the route altered to where you've just gone. And it's quick

Phileas · May 3, 2010

I've been playing with navigation.

How do you remove the navigation route (blue line) from the map? It just stays there regardless even after forcing Maps to close or doing a reboot.

NineToTheSky · May 3, 2010

Menu/more/clear map will do that for you.

Phileas · May 3, 2010

NineToTheSky said:
Menu/more/clear map will do that for you.

Ah. Thanks. Don't know how I missed that!

RobDickson · May 3, 2010

@ParaSitius:It is possible to select another route. I can't quite remember how it's done, but it's something like clicking on route details, and three alternative routes are shown at the top of the screen. I think it's also possible to press on the traffic light icon at the bottom left hand corner to bring up this screen (at least it is when it's amber or red).

fridgy · May 3, 2010

I too have tried and am impressed by the nav.

However does anyone elses back of phone (simcard/ sd card area) get worryingly warm when using this. Mine seems to heat up really quite quickly and I'm wondering if it's a problem related to gps.

jaz5100 · May 3, 2010

Superb app! for something thats free i can't complain at all!

Not had a chance to use it properly yet though, does anyone know if voice directions will output to bluetooth? (as i intend to use this on my motorbike if possible!)

RobDickson · May 3, 2010

@fridgy I think it's more likely to be the charging and being in the car on a hot day that's causing the heating, rather than using the GPS.

oldnick · May 3, 2010

jaz5100 said:
Superb app! for something thats free i can't complain at all!

Not had a chance to use it properly yet though, does anyone know if voice directions will output to bluetooth? (as i intend to use this on my motorbike if possible!)

Can't get mine to output to BT, but that would make a lot of sense, oh and of course BT activated dialing would also make a lot of sense, but we don't have that either!

jaz5100 · May 3, 2010

oldnick said:
Can't get mine to output to BT, but that would make a lot of sense, oh and of course BT activated dialing would also make a lot of sense, but we don't have that either!

Bummed! nevermind! maybe thats something for a future update then!

Google Navigation now works in UK (Official)

Well-Known Member

Lurker

Well-Known Member

Newbie

Newbie

Well-Known Member

Newbie

Newbie

Newbie

Lover

Android Enthusiast

Deleted User

Guest

Android Enthusiast

Lurker

Newbie

Lurker

Newbie

Android Enthusiast

Newbie

Android Enthusiast

Lurker

Lurker

Android Enthusiast

Well-Known Member

Lurker

BEST TECH IN 2023

Smartphones

Best Android Phones

Upcoming

Best iPhones

Upcoming

Tablets

Best Tablets

Upcoming

Laptops

Best Laptops

Upcoming

Televisions

Best TVs

Upcoming

Game Consoles

Best Game Consoles

Upcoming

Wearables

Best Wearables

Upcoming

Smart Home

Smart Home Tech

Upcoming

Similar threads