Best offline navigation app for the US

[prakash99]

I use navigation apps a few times a week. Google nav is good but needs data coverage which can sometimes be iffy in areas of low or no coverage. Besides, the routing can sometimes be inaccurate or even imaccessible. Naturally rerouting is slower than offline navigation apps.

I have been using Copilot but I wonder if there is a better offline (maps on phone) app for the USA.

Sent from Verizon Samsung Fascinate using Tapatalk

 

[sukjeffrey]

It will probably be even more expensive, lol.

 

[baseballfanz]

iGo motonav is another off line system you can use.
It's simple and does what it's supposed to. It's not as "fancy" as the CoPilot but work pretty well.
No TTS if that matter to you

 

[know1]

Google is now basically offline as long as you load up the route when you are online.

 

[prakash99]

iGo motonav is another off line system you can use.
It's simple and does what it's supposed to. It's not as "fancy" as the CoPilot but work pretty well.
No TTS if that matter to you

Yeah, I would love TTS but Copilot's TTS voice is too robotic while downloaded voices don't have capabilities. At least on eclair that my Fascinate is running on. Maybe with Froyo it will change.

So, it would suffice to say that as song as on screen displays are good (like Copilot's) I don't mind not having TTS.

 

[prakash99]

Google is now basically offline as long as you load up the route when you are online.

Yes, it does. But I still prefer nav apps with downloaded maps.

Has anyone used Ndrive 10 in the USA? I wonder how it is compared to Copilot. Navigon seems to be too expensive.

 

[kenyee]

Navigon is now available

NDrive is also pretty good (competes w/ Copilot for least number of presses to get something done).

Neither are cheaper than Copilot unfortunately, but both have better looking nav screens.

TTS has never really worked well for me...it's either too late or is useless when you're at a complicated intersection. Mounting the phone on a dash holder so you can glance at the picture to see which road fork to take is a lot more useful.

I've used these to remap me when I've had to take a detour from road construction or heavy traffic in areas w/o any cell signal. That said, a standalone GPS has a much better GPS antenna...

 

[prakash99]

Navigon is now available

NDrive is also pretty good (competes w/ Copilot for least number of presses to get something done).

Neither are cheaper than Copilot unfortunately, but both have better looking nav screens.

TTS has never really worked well for me...it's either too late or is useless when you're at a complicated intersection. Mounting the phone on a dash holder so you can glance at the picture to see which road fork to take is a lot more useful.

I've used these to remap me when I've had to take a detour from road construction or heavy traffic in areas w/o any cell signal. That said, a standalone GPS has a much better GPS antenna...

Navigon is too expensive. So is Destinator. I'd rather buy a standalone GPS than spending so much on the app. Ndrive's USA maps is 20 euros ... not too much more expensive than copilot. (Surprisingly Ndrive's website only offers North America map and not the United States map - whereas it is available on the app itself ... I have not made the purchase, still thinking about it.)

I like the state-by-state (or region) map download option on Copilot (also on Sygic Aura) since I do not venture out of the New England area (I have not in the last seven years). So I do not have to download the entire USA or entire North American map on my SD card.

 

[UncleMike]

I have both Copilot Live USA and NDrive installed. I prefer Copilot because of the available traffic service; NDrive's traffic service in only available in Portugal.

NDrive uses TeleAtlas maps. The current US maps are from March 2010, making them 9 months old. I have no idea if/when an update will be available. Despite this, NDrive's maps are much more up to date that Copilot's, which I received an update for about two weeks ago.

I don't really use NDrive (I was using a dedicated TomTom prior to Copilot), but I do have both Copilot and NDrive, and I can check things out if you have a specific question.

** somewhat off topic **
While no traffic service is perfect, I compared Copilot's traffic information to my TomTom Go 740 Live traffic for almost two months side-by-side while driving, and found Copilot's traffic information to be closer to reality. Because of TomTom's IQ Route technology, traffic congestions that's considered normal for that time of day and day of week isn't shown, as it's built in to the estimated travel speed for the roadway. This makes it difficult to compare traffic info, but despite this, TomTom still had a lot of false positives (indicating traffic where there was none) in areas where Copilot did not.

 

[takeshi]

I have been using Copilot but I wonder if there is a better offline (maps on phone) app for the USA.

Navigon is too expensive.

Always clearly define exactly what you mean by "better" whenever you use the word. Budget is one example.

Yeah, I would love TTS but Copilot's TTS voice is too robotic while downloaded voices don't have capabilities.

I'd be surprised if it had its own TTS engine and didn't use the default on your device. There are other, more natural sounding TTS engines out there such as SVOX and Loquendo.

TTS has never really worked well for me...it's either too late or is useless when you're at a complicated intersection.

Odd, I've never had that issue. It's probably more your GPS app than the TTS engine though.

That said, a standalone GPS has a much better GPS antenna...

Also never an issue for me (with 10K+ miles logged on smartphone GPS solutions). YMMV, of course.

 

[Zorro1]

I still use Maverick from time to time when I can't get 3G...it's free, and there's another one you pay for.

 

[kenyee]

Also never an issue for me (with 10K+ miles logged on smartphone GPS solutions). YMMV, of course.

That's my observation from driving through city canyons (downtown skyscrapers)...

 

[UncleMike]

I like the state-by-state (or region) map download option on Copilot (also on Sygic Aura) since I do not venture out of the New England area (I have not in the last seven years). So I do not have to download the entire USA or entire North American map on my SD card.

Just be aware that with Copilot, you can't route between map sets. So if you download a map of Maine, and then download a map of New Hampshire, Copilot won't be able to route you from a starting point in Maine to a destination in New Hampshire. The start and destination must be part of the same map.

 

[prakash99]

Just be aware that with Copilot, you can't route between map sets. So if you download a map of Maine, and then download a map of New Hampshire, Copilot won't be able to route you from a starting point in Maine to a destination in New Hampshire. The start and destination must be part of the same map.

Thanks for the info. I did not know that. Since I downloaded the Northeast package instead of individual states, I did not have any problems driving to NYC a while ago.

Meanwhile, has anyone tried Destinator? I just found they have a 14 day trial which I am going to go for but I may not purchase the app that costs $70 unless it does something very impressive that other apps don't.

There is one thing I keep wondering. I don't know if any of these nav apps allows full customization of the route I want to take.



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[djturnz]

Ive been trying to use cached google maps. I can bring up my correct location on the map, but it wont find "directions" to anywhere.