Best Windows Phone 7 Apps » Navigation

INRIX Traffic: avoid traffic jams with WP7

bestwp7apps — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 05:20:22 +0000

INRIX Traffic (Free)

Get There, Faster. This is the motto of INRIX traffic, recently released for Windows Phone 7 and already receiving a warm welcome from the marketplace.

The service is easy enough: watch the map of your neck of the woods and see how bad the traffic is, if there are constructions or accidents along your route and plan around it.

The nice about INRIX is that provides info for both the highways and the main roads, as well as pinning your location on the map to show around and allow you to take decisions. This is not a turn by turn navigation app like the ones we reviewed a while back, and does not provide directions, but if you know where you are going, INRIX will give you the best tips on how to avoid traffic.

We tried it for a few days and it worked really well, the information were accurate both in the case of no traffic as well as in the case of heavy traffic – our suggestion: try it, it’s free!

Genre	travel+navigation	Rank	371
Rating Avg.	4.5 Stars	# Reviews	16
Price	Free	Version	1.0

Top 3 Turn by Turn direction apps on Windows Phone 7

bestwp7apps — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 00:56:06 +0000

Windows Phone support for turn by turn navigation has definitely room for growth. As we wait for the Mango version coming out this fall, announced to support native voice narrated directions with the Bing Maps app, we have to settle for a limited selection of such apps on Windows Phone 7 today. Luckily in this case limited does not mean none.There are currently only three generally available apps that provide turn by turn directions, if we exclude carrier exclusive apps like AT&T Navigator or TeleNav GPS Navigator for T-Mobile – which usually require an expensive subscriptions on top of your data plan anyways.Drive On, Turn by Turn Navigation and Silver GPS Navigator are the only options on our Windows Phone 7, NoDo edition today.Yeah – our job in selecting the top 3 was easy enough: we found only three that support turn by turn indications. Note that there are much more that show you the direction on the screen, including the default Maps app and the new great gMaps app, but that defeats the purpose of driving from point to point without looking at the screen to figure out where to turn next all the time.

Drive On (Free)

Drive On by NuTech is free, but marked as beta version. This is a basic turn by turn navigation app; the UI is somewhat confusing, though: there are a lot of icons but it’s not clear what they do (after you find a place, what should you tap to get there ?). Also when you search for places it is not apparent that you need to wait (the blue dots in the center of the screen are just not visible enough over the satellite image).Finally Drive On got stuck a few times not showing our progress, so it’s hard to recommend. You should try it, because it’s free, but beware this is a beta, so results are not guaranteed.A recent update is improving things slightly but the new control in the middle of the screen is too big and hard to tap. If you remove some clutter, then Drive On has potential to be a good app.

Silver Navigator ($ 2.99)

Silver Navigator by GraphicDNA is another basic navigation app. Search is ok with clear indication of the destination and the options of walking or driving. Directions volume is too low though, it’s really hard to hear where you need to go next, even at full volume.Another problem is the route on the map gets redrawn continuously and so it happens often that you can’t even see where you need to drive next. The app supports landscape mode, which is nice, but the indications cover most of the screen making it almost useless.Even at $ 2.99, given that you cannot hear the indications and sometimes cannot even see them, Silver GPS is no better than gMaps or the regular Bing Maps app, which we would recommend over it.

Turn By Turn Navigation ($ 4.99)

Turn By Turn Navigation by GPS Tuner is a new addition to the strict circle of voice directed navigation apps. This is a promising app, the best reviewed here, but it does not mean it has no room for improvement.Search is good with results shown on a map – a different approach than other GPS apps – interesting. But also sometimes annoying: if I enter the name of a place and the city where I want to go, why is the app showing similar places 20 or 30 miles away? We need to zoom to select what we already entered..not good.Selecting the destination will give you clear options to “GO” there (yeah!). The indications over the map are good with ETA, distance, speed and next turn.Navigation is just ok, though. The map is over the top rather than in prospective and the car seems to never be on the road: a little to the left, a little to the right.. A voice telling us that the GPS signal was lost is not providing additional confidence. Finally the app did not selected the best/shortest route in a couple of tries.Again, this is a promising app, and the best one available, but at the moment – especially at the price of $ 4.99 – it’s a bit of a stretch (maybe for 2.99?).Try it with the free trial that will allow you to plan trips of 12 miles or less.
UPDATE: We recently tried the most recent version of Turn by Turn (1.3 at the moment) and found it improved a lot. Now the navigation and planning works ok, bringing it at pair with some of the most expensive and popular navigators on other phones. The search could be improved, but the price tag is definitely enticing, and with a new rating of 4 out of 5 is worth a try.

Closing comments:
Overall, we have been somewhat let down by the turn by turn navigation apps on WP7, we believe the best option at the moment is the basic Bing Maps app available on every phone, with gMaps as a great (and free) alternative.Later this year the Bing Maps app will also get voiced directions, making it even harder to top.Silver Navigator and Turn by Turn Navigation by GPS Tuner are example of promising first steps towards good third party navigation apps on WP7, though.Keep following Best WP7 Apps for updates on this popular category.
UPDATE: Turn by Turn is now a viable option and our navigator of choice for WP7, you can use it for your daily trips.

gMaps: navigate Google maps on WP7

bestwp7apps — Sat, 28 May 2011 04:26:49 +0000

gMaps (Free)

GMaps is one of the top map apps on Windows Phone 7, with a very clean and responsive interface, good navigation and search capabilities, it has reached the top of the charts in just a month (number 10 as we write).

The feature set is impressive: GPS tracking with over the top Map Navigation, Traffic and Public Transit overlay, roads, terrain and satellite views, gMaps has it all, and more.

You can start from your position, search for your destination and then decide whether to go there by car, foot, public transportation or Segway (!). The maps are very clean and detailed with indication of parks, schools, shopping centers and so on. Maps updates are also quick and allow easy navigation while you driving, but remind that this is not a turn by turn navigation app, so you have to understand where to turn next looking at the map from top.

Search results are ok but not great. The feedback on the app marketplace is mixed some users report better search results here others on Bing. Personally we found Bing superior. Entering the name of a school nearby Redmond, WA; gMaps returned a school in Scranton, PA (!). Also Bing auto complete is a great help as it return things before we even finish typing.

Extra features like “Where is here”, which gives you the address of your location are a nice touch, but we wished there was a favorite places feature (or a go home type of thing).

Overall gMaps is a clean and fast app that rivals the default Maps app that comes with Windows Phone 7; we think that the research of a place is still better on the Bing maps, but this might be subjective. gMaps is free and should not be missed in your collection – tap it with confidence, it has the BestWP7Apps seal of approval!

Verdict (version reviewed: 1.4.0.0)

Walgreens and YP Yellow Pages: mainstream apps growing on WP7

bestwp7apps — Thu, 12 May 2011 03:59:32 +0000

Walgreens and Yellow Pages are the latest two big names that recently launched their clients for the WP7 platform. Just released last week, the two apps are a sign that the audience for the Tile-centered Phone OS is growing in mainstream interest.

Like Amazon and The Home Depot before, YP and Walgreens’ are also an example of how the standard Metro UI helps building an intuitive experience for users that can familiarize themselves with the basic controls and reuse the knowledge across multiple apps.

YP is the client for the familiar service, and has an interesting twist: consider this app as a mix of regular Yellow Pages search by business name, Yelp’s search by category with reviews and Groupon list of deals around you. The value of this app is in combining all these services.

Walgreens is more the regular app from the pharmacy chain that you would expect: find a store, what’s in the store, order pictures prints. Interesting twist here? The Refill by Scan option, which allows you to take a picture of the barcode on the drug box and order a refill.

Both apps mix Metro panels with the use of mobile web pages rendered by IE inside the app (Walgreens uses it more than YP). But overall this is not very apparent or really annoying.

Both apps are free on the Windows Phone 7 App Marketplace, and we believe they are worth your taps. Check them out.

Walgreens (Free)

Walgreens allows access to classic and new pharmacy features like refill by scan.

YP Yellow Pages (Free)

A mix of yellow pages, Yelp and Groupon, worth your taps.