Mobile Maps US, by Sygic
***, $39.99 (currently on sale)
Pros:
Cons
In the interest of full disclosure, I received a promo code for this app.
In the turn by turn wars, Sygic has entered the fray with their Mobile Maps US. They also have versions for a number of other countries. Like all turn by turn apps, this one allows you to create navigation routes, utilize points of interest (POI), and assists in the actual driving of the route by giving you turn-by-turn directions. So how does it compare? Read on to find out.
First thing I want to say is I love the interface. Probably this was my favorite of all four apps I have tested so far. The buttons are clear and large, meaning they are easy to read and easy to selection. The options make sense (such as ?route?, ?settings?, ?navigate to?). I never found myself trying to figure out what button I needed to hit.
The routing overview options are great ? you can see the instructions, see the route as images, see a summary, see a demo of the route, and even show a large map with your route. Likewise, when choosing a navigation point, there are a number of clear options ? point on a map, GPS position, city center, address, POI, etc. Unfortunately there is no integration with your iPhone contacts ? something that I would consider almost essential for any turn by turn GPS app.
When creating a route, you have some nice options I haven?t seen in some of the other apps. You can choose shortest and fastest (pretty standard), but you can also choose economical, pedestrian, and bicycle. Unfortunately you need to choose these in the settings, and can?t adjust them on a trip by trip basis. You do have the option of requesting an ?alternate route? once your route is created, but it will still use your existing preferences. You can also choose to add an intermediate point (travel via?) if you want to go by a specific city or town. You can also choose to avoid an upcoming segment (the next mile, the next ? mile, etc). Unfortunately, you can?t do this in advance to avoid a specific segment of the trip, it only avoids the next immediate segment. Lastly, you can choose to avoid traffic delays, but I am not sure if this downloads actual traffic data, or bases it on travelling through a city center (or historical traffic data). I tried it a couple of times, but didn?t find any change in my planned route.
When driving, you can have a speed warning option turned on, that will warn you when you are going over a speed limit by a user-defined amount. There is supposed to be an audible warning, but I never heard one. In addition, the speed limits seemed somewhat variable ? sometimes they were accurate, sometimes they were wrong, and sometimes they were missing. You have the option of defining some of the data that appears on the screen ? ETA, distance remaining, speed, time remaining, etc. I like this a lot because it enables everyone to choose what information they would find most valuable. The driving interface is nice, pretty standard with views like ?night time view?, and it can be viewed in landscape mode as well. The turn by turn directions are good, although it doesn?t read the street names (it does read highway route numbers, though). The voice also includes little qualifiers like ?turn immediately? if you need to make a quick turn following another turn. I find information like this helpful when driving. You can also see the POI on the map as you are driving (and can choose which icons you are able to see). Unfortunately, I couldn?t find anyway within the app to disable the screen off function, so my screen kept turning off as I was driving.
So those are some of the good features about the Sygic app. Unfortunately, there were two really big flaws that were glaring. The first is when it comes to routing options ? the routing options make no sense. Just like the other apps, I used this app to plan a route from Edinburg, TX to Terlingua, TX. A trip that I know is about 600 miles. I choose the shortest route, and it had me driving up THROUGH San Antonio ? adding about 100 miles to the trip. I tried to hit ?find alternate route?, and it took me up through Fort Worth?adding another 150 miles to the trip. So if I followed these directions, a 600 mile trip would have turned into a 700 or 850 mile trip. It was only after driving for about an hour on what I knew was the shortest route (or at least a shorter route) that the app finally gave me the instructions I wanted (which was calculated out to be shorter than the 700 miles it had suggested originally).
In addition, if you go off route, rather than trying to calculate a new route based on your current location, it seems to try to only get you BACK on to the previous route. So this app was telling me, at various times, to take a u-turn, drive back another 15 miles to the point where I went off the planned route, then continue from there. If I cancelled that route and created another one, that?s when it would then give me the best route from my current location.
Lastly, the maps seem very out of date. One of the first things I noticed was that the map for my home town didn?t have my street on it. Now, my street is fairly new (within the past 5 years) so maybe that was a simple mistake. But when I was planning my trip to Terlingua, TX, Terlingua didn?t even come up as a town in Texas! So in addition to missing roads, the app is missing whole towns. This may not be a factor if you are living in a large metropolitan area, but if could be a concern if you are living somewhere less developed (or travelling somewhere like that).
Driving around town I had no problems with this app. It seemed to have most of the POI that I was looking for (although the database was a little bit lacking). It also generally suggested reasonable routes to take (even if they weren?t the exact same ones I would have suggested). The real problems with this app came with the long distance travel.
All in all, there are many things I like about this app, but in the end the two glaring problems prevented me from giving it a strong recommendation. This app may be fine if you live and travel only in large, well known areas. But if you plan to go to smaller towns or visit newer roads, you will have a hard time using this app. These facts, combined with a few other flaws (lack of contact integration, poor route planning) leads me to reduce the rating, despite the great user interface and some nice features and options I haven?t seen on other TBT apps. For $39.99, I would expect to get accurate maps and better routing instructions. Three out of five stars. (I welcome and will post any comments from the app programmers in response to this review)
CONTEST: Sygic has generously given me two promo codes to give away for this app. One of them can be won by responding to this review. To be eligible, you must simply respond with a comment about this app. The comment can be a feature suggestion, a funny story about using it, a novel way this app could be used ? anything along those lines, not simply a ?I want to win? type of comment. One entry per person, contest is only open to those people in the USA (due to promo code restrictions). Contest will be open until this Friday at 11:59pm central time. I will then randomly choose a winner from the entries.
The second contest will be during the iPhone Blog live podcast tonight. During the ?pre-game show? I will announce a phrase that pays, and my email address. You must email me that phrase to enter, one entry per person, only open to people in the USA. Once the pre-game podcast is over, the contest is over, so make sure you show up at least 10 minutes before the live podcast today!!
(one of the images is taken from the Sygic app store page)
Rating scale:
* = No redeeming qualities or features, probably not worth it even if it is free
** = Few redeeming qualities, or is simply isn't worth the price
*** = Some good features but also some clear flaws.
**** = A solid app, worth the money if interested, a few flaws or problems or slightly overpriced
***** = Top of the line app, no problems or drawbacks.
Price is factored into the ratings. Ratings are lowered if I feel the price of the app outweighs the benefits/enjoyment/features it provides. Likewise, an app that is a good value for the money will have a higher rating.
***, $39.99 (currently on sale)
Pros:
- Includes nice routing options
- Can avoid upcoming route segments
- Nice interface and customization options
Cons
- No contact integration
- Maps out of date
- Sometimes route choices are questionable
In the interest of full disclosure, I received a promo code for this app.
In the turn by turn wars, Sygic has entered the fray with their Mobile Maps US. They also have versions for a number of other countries. Like all turn by turn apps, this one allows you to create navigation routes, utilize points of interest (POI), and assists in the actual driving of the route by giving you turn-by-turn directions. So how does it compare? Read on to find out.
First thing I want to say is I love the interface. Probably this was my favorite of all four apps I have tested so far. The buttons are clear and large, meaning they are easy to read and easy to selection. The options make sense (such as ?route?, ?settings?, ?navigate to?). I never found myself trying to figure out what button I needed to hit.
The routing overview options are great ? you can see the instructions, see the route as images, see a summary, see a demo of the route, and even show a large map with your route. Likewise, when choosing a navigation point, there are a number of clear options ? point on a map, GPS position, city center, address, POI, etc. Unfortunately there is no integration with your iPhone contacts ? something that I would consider almost essential for any turn by turn GPS app.
When creating a route, you have some nice options I haven?t seen in some of the other apps. You can choose shortest and fastest (pretty standard), but you can also choose economical, pedestrian, and bicycle. Unfortunately you need to choose these in the settings, and can?t adjust them on a trip by trip basis. You do have the option of requesting an ?alternate route? once your route is created, but it will still use your existing preferences. You can also choose to add an intermediate point (travel via?) if you want to go by a specific city or town. You can also choose to avoid an upcoming segment (the next mile, the next ? mile, etc). Unfortunately, you can?t do this in advance to avoid a specific segment of the trip, it only avoids the next immediate segment. Lastly, you can choose to avoid traffic delays, but I am not sure if this downloads actual traffic data, or bases it on travelling through a city center (or historical traffic data). I tried it a couple of times, but didn?t find any change in my planned route.
When driving, you can have a speed warning option turned on, that will warn you when you are going over a speed limit by a user-defined amount. There is supposed to be an audible warning, but I never heard one. In addition, the speed limits seemed somewhat variable ? sometimes they were accurate, sometimes they were wrong, and sometimes they were missing. You have the option of defining some of the data that appears on the screen ? ETA, distance remaining, speed, time remaining, etc. I like this a lot because it enables everyone to choose what information they would find most valuable. The driving interface is nice, pretty standard with views like ?night time view?, and it can be viewed in landscape mode as well. The turn by turn directions are good, although it doesn?t read the street names (it does read highway route numbers, though). The voice also includes little qualifiers like ?turn immediately? if you need to make a quick turn following another turn. I find information like this helpful when driving. You can also see the POI on the map as you are driving (and can choose which icons you are able to see). Unfortunately, I couldn?t find anyway within the app to disable the screen off function, so my screen kept turning off as I was driving.
So those are some of the good features about the Sygic app. Unfortunately, there were two really big flaws that were glaring. The first is when it comes to routing options ? the routing options make no sense. Just like the other apps, I used this app to plan a route from Edinburg, TX to Terlingua, TX. A trip that I know is about 600 miles. I choose the shortest route, and it had me driving up THROUGH San Antonio ? adding about 100 miles to the trip. I tried to hit ?find alternate route?, and it took me up through Fort Worth?adding another 150 miles to the trip. So if I followed these directions, a 600 mile trip would have turned into a 700 or 850 mile trip. It was only after driving for about an hour on what I knew was the shortest route (or at least a shorter route) that the app finally gave me the instructions I wanted (which was calculated out to be shorter than the 700 miles it had suggested originally).
In addition, if you go off route, rather than trying to calculate a new route based on your current location, it seems to try to only get you BACK on to the previous route. So this app was telling me, at various times, to take a u-turn, drive back another 15 miles to the point where I went off the planned route, then continue from there. If I cancelled that route and created another one, that?s when it would then give me the best route from my current location.
Lastly, the maps seem very out of date. One of the first things I noticed was that the map for my home town didn?t have my street on it. Now, my street is fairly new (within the past 5 years) so maybe that was a simple mistake. But when I was planning my trip to Terlingua, TX, Terlingua didn?t even come up as a town in Texas! So in addition to missing roads, the app is missing whole towns. This may not be a factor if you are living in a large metropolitan area, but if could be a concern if you are living somewhere less developed (or travelling somewhere like that).
Driving around town I had no problems with this app. It seemed to have most of the POI that I was looking for (although the database was a little bit lacking). It also generally suggested reasonable routes to take (even if they weren?t the exact same ones I would have suggested). The real problems with this app came with the long distance travel.
All in all, there are many things I like about this app, but in the end the two glaring problems prevented me from giving it a strong recommendation. This app may be fine if you live and travel only in large, well known areas. But if you plan to go to smaller towns or visit newer roads, you will have a hard time using this app. These facts, combined with a few other flaws (lack of contact integration, poor route planning) leads me to reduce the rating, despite the great user interface and some nice features and options I haven?t seen on other TBT apps. For $39.99, I would expect to get accurate maps and better routing instructions. Three out of five stars. (I welcome and will post any comments from the app programmers in response to this review)
CONTEST: Sygic has generously given me two promo codes to give away for this app. One of them can be won by responding to this review. To be eligible, you must simply respond with a comment about this app. The comment can be a feature suggestion, a funny story about using it, a novel way this app could be used ? anything along those lines, not simply a ?I want to win? type of comment. One entry per person, contest is only open to those people in the USA (due to promo code restrictions). Contest will be open until this Friday at 11:59pm central time. I will then randomly choose a winner from the entries.
The second contest will be during the iPhone Blog live podcast tonight. During the ?pre-game show? I will announce a phrase that pays, and my email address. You must email me that phrase to enter, one entry per person, only open to people in the USA. Once the pre-game podcast is over, the contest is over, so make sure you show up at least 10 minutes before the live podcast today!!
(one of the images is taken from the Sygic app store page)
Rating scale:
* = No redeeming qualities or features, probably not worth it even if it is free
** = Few redeeming qualities, or is simply isn't worth the price
*** = Some good features but also some clear flaws.
**** = A solid app, worth the money if interested, a few flaws or problems or slightly overpriced
***** = Top of the line app, no problems or drawbacks.
Price is factored into the ratings. Ratings are lowered if I feel the price of the app outweighs the benefits/enjoyment/features it provides. Likewise, an app that is a good value for the money will have a higher rating.
Last edited:
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