Comments on: Tried Testing MapQuest for iPhone Voice Navigation, Aborted as It Sucked Too Much

By: patrickj

patrickj — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 16:10:15 +0000

Nope – still trapped there, figured I'd just take 1st grade again while I'm here. 🙂

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 16:07:50 +0000

In reply to patrickj. Ydid you ever get home from her school?

By: steve

steve — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 14:19:08 +0000

worst navigation app out there…setup routing to Charlotte, Nc from our home and it had me going on back roads till it finally got me on expressway when it could /should have noted we are three streets away from the expressway..tried it on the iphone's map and it did get the right way…seems like Mapquest has not updated their mapping software for decades..eliminated the MAPQUEST PROGRAM

By: patrickj

patrickj — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 04:07:18 +0000

In reply to Hondamaker. Hope they do.

By: Hondamaker

Hondamaker — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 01:06:53 +0000

In reply to patrickj. I'm sure they'll (try) to fix it with the next update. I'll try it then.

By: patrickj

patrickj — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 15:33:32 +0000

In reply to John Steele.

Thanks for the thoughts John. I really did it give quite a few chances. Exited and restarted the app several times. rebooted the iPhone, flipped Location services off and on. It still had my current location way off.

Oh, and I don't have any other navigation software on the iPhone – Maps is my only other similar app and I hadn't touched that in a couple days prior to trying MapQuest.

By: John Steele

John Steele — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:03:03 +0000

What it sounds like to me (and I am not a developed or a programmer) is that it was trying to use cell triangulation to get your location instead of use the internal GPS. Sometimes (about 10-20% of the time) the first 5 seconds using Maps it shows my location via cell triangulation me before using my actual GPS (on my BlackBerry Bold it was 100 % of the time, and some people called this a "feature"). When it does that, it tends to guess off by about a mile. Now the question is why… I am wondering if you have some location aware app that somehow caused a conflict? Although this seems kind of unlikely as I have backgrounded and made Maps, TomTom, and Navigon, all fight it out simultaneously.

The interface is clunky and the voice is hard to understand if you are not paying attention. It reminds me of that very first voice direction app that everyone used to install right after Jailbreaking, although Mapquest draws maps much smoother than that app did. That said, it matched my Garmin Nuvi for directions and handled me intentionally missing a turn just fine. It also takes me back to simplier pre-iPhone days when internet came through AOL, and online directions were printed out ahead of time using MapQuest 😉 Navigon and TomTom are much better, but I am trying to be patient for Google Navigator to make it over to the iPhone. After all, when I search for something (even something common and easy like Famous Daves) I always use Google anyway (even with my Nuvi on and ready to go).

By: Done

Done — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 04:03:56 +0000

Worked great for me, it asked me if I want to go from my current location. It stayed right on track with me for a hour drive home and when I didn't take the direction suggested it asked if I wanted to re-route. Worked great for a free app.

By: patrickj

patrickj — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 03:35:56 +0000

In reply to sfmitch. Glad to hear you've had better luck with it. It was terrible for me - ditched.

By: sfmitch

sfmitch — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:18:02 +0000

I had a much better experience. I tested it while driving to a frequent destination. It worked fine – the audio worked great – I was listening to a Podcast while driving and the driving directions came through loud and clear.

I am pretty excited over this app. I don't own a GPS nor iPhone App for nav w/ turn by turn directions.