Ok, so today I went to Yorkshire and back with Navicore guiding me in the car - a round trip of about 330 miles. For what it's worth, here's my opinion.
Car Setup:
Bluetooth MP3 CD Player - This handles all sound inputs and outputs for the N80 and is seen by the phone as a bluetooth headset. Sound from the paired phone overrides the stereo output on the front 2 speakers as required.
Car cradle - Just a cheapie air vent clip mounted centrally.
GPS Receiver - Holux GPSSlim 236 SIFIII chipset purchased separately via eBay.
Navicore
A couple of general points before I get into navigating with Navicore.
Installation
The UK & Ireland (TeleAtlas supplied) maps and Navicore itself took up less than 200MB on my 2GB miniSD and installation was a breeze using a memory card reader and the downloaded installer. Initial configuration was very simple.
Route Planning
Basic route planning (from A to B) can be done by entering / finding a destination address, selecting / finding a city, selecting a POI, selecting a pre-entered Favourite, or selecting a contact address from the N80's contacts database. The last option seems a bit flakey, either working properly or failing to find the address completely, but this may be down to the mailing / default address flag on the original Outlook contacts.
Safety Cameras
Everyone's favourite - I know I love 'em 🙄 Navicore's supplied POI database includes a fixed speed camera database updatable over the air (using the Navicore's set default access connection. Updating is done manually through Navicore's services menu.
Navicore can be instructed to sound an audible warning when you are a user-selected distance from a fixed speed camera.
Update subscription is free of charge (excluding data charges). Current database size is 59kb but the database is only downloaded if out of date, so this should keep data costs down.
Traffic Info
This was a new bit of functionality for me (never used the TomTom version), but I've been pretty impressed with it so far. Traffic updates are automatically downloaded at a user-set interval (10, 30 or 60 minutes) over Navicore's set default access connection (manual update can be set if automatic update is not required). I set this to 30 minute intervals and saw an average data transfer of 1 Kb sent and 7kb received each update.
Traffic Information is overlaid on maps and can be used in routing calculations (dependent on settings).
Update subscription is free of charge (excluding data charges).
The Navigation Experience
Once in the car I paired the phone with the stereo, fired up my GPS receiver and then launched Navicore. I then plotted a route to my destination via Favourites (I'd added the address in the previous day). I did discover a bug in the software which I'll be passing to Navicore support once I've finished writing this post (see summary below).
By default Navicore plots the fastest route for a car - this can be altered using quick menu functionality but was ideal for today's trip. Throughout the trip I found that the traffic information and (fixed) speed camera points were spot on.
A minor irritant is that, of 4 possible navigation screen displays (2D, 3D, Safety and Compass) there is no way of configuring a user-preferred default). I did experiment briefly with the 2D and 3D screens, but preferred the Safety screen which gives all the necessary driving information (including scrolling traffic alerts) without the distracting 'eye candy' of the maps; I suspect that I'd be more likely to use the map views when navigating on foot.
Spoken instructions are given as necessary, and Navicore have got this functionality absolutely spot-on IMHO. My setup means that I lose my music as voice prompts are given and I found Wayfinder Navigator's repeated prompts irritating. With Navicore you get less prompts, but they are staged at reasonable intervals (more warning given on motorways etc) and you receive confirmation where appropriate (eg on roundabouts).
Safety camera warnings I found to be a little patchy - this may have more to do with the tone set by Navicore for the warning and my setup, as it's quite short and can get lost in the music (particularly when listening to Orbital 😃)
Using the safety screen and voice prompts I did get lost in Huddersfield town centre a couple of times in heavy traffic, however Navicore rerouted me very quickly using side roads without issue - no "make a U Turn" warnings for me 😊
Pros
- Free updates of Traffic Information
- Free update of speed camera database
- Usable without GPS as map system.
- Timely voice prompts without overkill.
- Fast rerouting on driver error.
- Safety screen navigation option.
- N80 Battery usage seemed reasonable (3 hour journey from full charge dropped one bar.)
Cons
- Map updates are chargable.
- N80 screen means 2D and 3D map navigation view are difficult to read when driving (this is probably true of all GPS software for the N80).
- No configurable warning tone for speed cameras (my personal preference would be for a longer tone).
- *BUG* Using the slider on the N80 whilst Navicore is calculating a route causes the phone to freeze (something to do with the "Lock Keypad" prompt I think). This can only be fixed by pulling the battery on the N80 leaving for several minutes and rebooting the phone (sometimes repeatedly).
Overall
I bought the N80 with the aim of convergence. I've tired of carrying an MP3 player, a PDA and a phone around with chargers and accessories. With this in mind I'm very pleased with my purchase of Navicore, as I've been able to put my TomTom Go up on eBay and make my N80 a truly multifunctional device.
Anyways I hope this is all of some use to people - I'll keep checking this thread if anyone has any particular questions. I'm off to email Navicore Tech Support now with the bug info.