Stall The Ball

Thought I’d post a couple of observations of AA Navigator running on a Pocket PC with integrated GPS. AA Navigator uses the latest NavTeq maps of Ireland.

Firstly I have played before with a few versions of GPS software including TomTom and Navigon 5.1 so my comments here are relative to these products. If you would like to see screenshots and another opinion try GPSWorld.

The Software arrives on CD and 128MB SD card. A quick perusal of the documentation confirms that you can migrate the maps from the supplied SD card to a bigger card allowing some spare room for MP3s docs other software. And it’s on the CD which begs the question why you have to buy it with an SD card as most people would end up moving the maps anyway.

Install from the supplied SD card is easy and the registration setup was straightforward, enter the product code and your name, visit the website re-enter the product code and name on site and get a confirmation key you input into your Pocket PC. It looks like you can do this automatically if your pocket PC is connected to your PC via USB but I didn’t try it.

The new NavTeq maps are far superior to any other I have seen bar none. We are nearly at the same level of mapping as the UK but there are still some oddities. For example Clonard village on the N4 between Kinnegad and Enfield isn’t listed and the estates are classed as part of Navan town. Weird but this is a feature of NavTeq rather than AA Navigator.

I have had some issues with the internal GPS being detected. Initial detection was fine and worked first time. After powering off the Pocket PC and restarting, AA Navigator decided that the GPS was not there so a rescan was called for. Rescanning for GPS devices failed on the first three attempts and found it on the fourth.

Initial GPS fix is slow compared to Navigon, typically 10 minutes on a hard reboot and 5 minutes on a soft reboot. Navigon was typically 2 minutes on a hard reboot and under a minute on a soft reboot.

The display maps look clunky in comparison to Navigon or TomTom maps particularly when refreshing. Roads are jagged, street names truncated, the whole thing looks sort of like old VGA flight simulators with curved lines looking jagged and blocky.

The voice navigation is very clear and unlike Navigon given on time particularly on motorway junctions where Navigon and TomTom would tell bear left just as you passed the white diagonal stripes separating the slip road from the motorway.

Routing through Dublin seems to be very good, as an example choosing to go to Wilton Place in D2 near the canal from the West. Navigon would have you turn off at Palmerstown, route you towards Bluebell, down to Kilmainham and onto the canal.

AA Navigator was much more sensible saying to stay on the N4 until near Heuston Station, hook around at the traffic lights and straight to the canal.

Other issues I am experiencing are with the follow me map which supposedly shows you where in the country you are without actually requiring a route to be entered. It doesn’t seem to work very well. 3 out of 5 times it doesn’t display anything as though the GPS wasn’t working yet entering a route to be calculated works fine and examining the GPS menu shows the unit fully locked displaying real-time direction and speed. So the GPS is working but the follow me map is borked.

I am sending an email to AA about these issues once I get around to wiping the install and trying out a fresh install to see if it’s just a glitch.

On the whole mapping is superb, interface is clunky but easy to use, actually easier to use than Navigon but less configurable but I suppose you can’t have both. Speed seems acceptable; my pocket PC is like an Acer N35 so not the most powerful. Map display is blocky but does do the job. Voice instructions are very good. With the new maps it is the best available at the moment for Ireland and so the minor niggles are more than compensated by being actually route from places other than main roads as was the case with older NavTeq maps.

However in the future if Navigon produce updated maps using the latest NavTeq maps and I didn’t already have this I’d go for Navigon any day over AA Navigator.

EDIT have mailed about this problem and am waiting on results.