*Updated 6-8-2010*
The App Store is cluttered with iPhone GPS apps, and sorting through them is a daunting task. This guide is designed to cut through the clutter, gather all relevant info in one place, and aid you in making the best choice. We also take a look at the strengths and weaknesses of iPhone GPS vs personal navigation devices, and examine the new elephant in the room, Google Maps Navigation.
The eagerly anticipated car kit to for TomTom’s GPS iPhone app (iTunes link) has been given a price, a rather substantial $120. While earlier rumors leaned toward the GPS bundle including the $100 application, the official announcement says otherwise. This brings the overall cost to $220, beyond the cost of many dedicated GPS units.
TomTom Car Kit
The kit provides a suction cup to allow you to attach the iPhone on the car windscreen, and also a power adapter that plugs into the car’s cigarette lighter. That said, you can get kits similar kits from Amazon for less than $30 (although TomTom claims their kit provides “enhanced GPS performance”).
If you’ve got an iPhone but don’t want to shell out the cash for a Garmin or Tom-Tom GPS navigation unit, you may want to take a look at the XRoad G-Map apps. The Kicking Tires auto blog recently reviewed the XRoad G-Map US West ($19.99, iTunes link) and US East ($19.99, iTunes link) apps, using the same review criteria they would for a Garmin or Tom-Tom device. Overall, they found the apps to be a good value, noting some lacking features and assigning them an overall rating of 80 out of 100.
Due to the size of the apps–almost 900MB–they had to be split into two separate applications. It may leave Midwesterners out in the cold, as Illinois is split in half. It also lacks voice navigation, an important feature for anyone who doesn’t want to take their eyes off the road.
In terms of maps and directions, Kicking Tires found that XRoad delivered some impressive performance:
Very clear, accurate and understandable directions were displayed on the screen. Best of all, when coming to a highway interchange G-Map displays a 3-D rendering of it. In all the GPS systems I have used, I have never seen such an accurate depiction of the road. In a few instances, this was able to route me into the lane I needed to be in to head the right direction, averting one of those scary moments you sometimes encounter when traveling somewhere new.
They also liked the accuracy of the iPhone’s GPS:
This app is as accurate as the iPhone can be, and therefore it’s just as good as most TomTom and Garmin units I’ve tested, but not in line with automakers’ own navigation systems
At only $20 a piece, the apps provide a pretty good value over buying a separate navigation device. But there are a few other downsides noted in the review, such as some missing street names and lack of integration with the iPhone’s address book.
Review of XRoad G-Maps at KickingTires.
Official XRoad G-Maps website.
Download XRoad G-Map US East in iTunes.
Download XRoad G-Map US Westin iTunes.
There are several radio apps for the iPhone, both free and pay, but WunderRadio ($6.99) is currently the best of the bunch. It offers a massive collection of radio stations (thousands according to its official app description) and also weather radio stations from Weather Underground and local emergency scanners from ScanAmerica.us.
WunderRadio gets its terrestrial radio feeds from RadioTime, which features thousands of US radio stations as well as stations from around the world (I enjoy the London, England stations). You can check out the RadioTime website to see the stations you’ll have access to and give them a listen before you buy.
The app uses the iPhone’s location hardware (GPS and cell tower) to pull up a list of local radio stations. For me, it brought up dozens of local Chicago stations, many I didn’t know existed. (The location awareness works with the original iPhone as well).
WunderRadio also features weather stations and emergency scanners. The Chicago scanner stations had the Chicago fire department and the northern suburban police (no city police though. Also, there are no NYC emergency channels, which would have been interesting). To browse the list of available scanners, check out ScanAmerica.us.
There are also some nice touches. The list of stations displays the name of the current radio show playing (eg, All Things Considered, America’s Top 40 with Ryan Seacrest, Rush Limbaugh, etc.). The list of stations also displays a symbol for EDGE, 3G, or WiFi to let you know what stations are available for your connection. The bitrate is also shown.
My biggest complaint about the app is that it requires a strong connection to work properly. Anything less than 4 bars on EDGE and stations will not play. So if you’d like to use the app to listen to radio at work, you should confirm your signal strength first before you buy. I compared WunderRadio’s ability to overcome poor signal strength against the AOL Radio app, and it basically failed while the AOL Radio app performed admirably. Perhaps future updates will enhance the app’s buffering capabilities.
Pros: Massive collection of radio stations from the US and around the world, some available in very high bitrates. Offers a good amount of information, including names of currently playing shows and a sound-level meter. Multiple bitrates available for some stations. Weather stations and emergency scanners.
Cons: Requires a good signal for flawless play. Costs $6.99.
RunKeeper, formerly $9.99, is now free in the app store. RunKeeper is an exercise app for the iPhone 3G that keeps track of GPS data for outdoor fitness activities and syncs them with the RunKeeper.com website. You can check out your run on a map later along with other stats.
While you run (or bike, hike, etc), Runkeeper will track:
The main advantage of Assisted GPS (AGPS) for the iPhone is that it will allow the iPhone’s GPS to operate in weaker signal conditions and determine positioning quicker than most standalone GPS receivers. AGPS also helps save battery power by handing off some computational duties to an assistance server and by allowing iPhone users to turn GPS off and on with less inconvenience.
How does it work? From a cold boot-up, a regular (non-assisted) GPS receiver requires a strong signal in order to search and discover satellite signals, decode information relating to satellite positioning, and then calculate its position. This process can sometimes take up to several minutes depending on initial signal strength. This startup time is why GPS users don’t like to turn off their GPS receivers. However, an always-on connection is a major problem for battery life in a cell phone.
AGPS discovers its position with the help of GPS equipment at cell phone towers, which maintain a constant strong connection to GPS satellites. The cell phone towers use approximate positioning of the iPhone, similar to the first-gen iPhone’s My Location, to send pre-decoded ephemeris satellite positioning and clock information to the iPhone. The result is that the iPhone will discover its position quicker, and thus be more conducive to having its GPS turned off and on to save battery.
Helpful Links:
Assisted GPS at Wikipedia.
