Not all iPhone turn-by-turn navigation apps are created equal

I guess I’m a man of Faith after all. I gave away my Garmin Nüvi GPS navigator earlier this year. I’d lent it to my sister for a 1200-mile road trip with the kids. When the time came for her to hand it back, she dropped a lot of hints about how grateful she was and how indispensible the GPS had been and how she’s always getting lost, particularly when driving her children to get their educations and their occasional medical checkups and ...

So I told her to just keep it. At that point in Mankind’s evolution (March of this year) turn-by-turn navigation apps for the iPhone were still a myth. But Apple had indicated that they’d start allowing that category into the App Store in a few months’ time. I had an abiding faith that these apps wouldn’t suck.

I’ve spent the past couple of months trying out each one of the App Store’s major GPS turn-by-turn navigation apps. My first reaction? Thank God I write about this stuff for a living and was out-of-pocket on only one of these things. Navigators are expensive apps.

A sore spot of the App Store continues to be the lack of “try before you buy” editions. How can they expect you civilians to gamble $99 without really knowing how good the app actually is?

And it’s impossible to make a pick based solely on the writeups in the App Store. The same cluster of features are present in all of these navigators. Turn-by-turn navigation with voice cues, a library of points-of-interest (to help you find the nearest gas station or Croatian-Italian restaurant), dynamic re-routing (insert a stop at a gas station or re-route me around this traffic jam); and integration with your iPhone’s built-in address book. Tap on your Aunt Estelle’s name and your phone will take you right to her condo.

But this review is less of a collection of feature lists and more of a Usability Pageant. I found that by far, the things I valued in a nav app were simplicity and quick access to the information I needed.

Ideally, a GPS should be no more complicated than a rearview mirror. You should be able to get answers from it with just a momentary glance, and its user-interface should be so well thought out that on those rare times when you do interact with your iPhone while driving, it’s no more distracting or time-consuming than simply reaching over and pushing a button on your radio.

I navigated with each app exclusively for about a week. The most telling part of my testing came at the very end, when the roundup was complete and I was then free to just launch whatever app I wanted.

No contest: one app stood head and shoulders above the rest.

G-Map

First up was G-Map. The US and Canada edition is $109.

My first round of testing (back in August) ended about three minutes after it began: seconds after launch, the iPod app stopped playing music. Unlike third-party apps, Apple’s music player can run happily in the background ... so there really wasn’t any reason for this.

That’s a dealbreaker. Frankly, I’d rather be lost with my full media library then be led unerringly to my destination in silence.

But a new edition of G-Map came out that handles the iPod app the same way as most of the navigators: start something playing before you launch the app and it’ll just keep right on going. Double-click the Home button to bring up the OS’ built-in next/previous/pause track controls. Exit the GPS app to select some new music. When you relaunch the navigator, it’ll quickly resume navigation from your updated position.

It’s a drama-free operation. That said, it’s the classic illustration of the iPhone’s “only one third-party app at a time” limitation. A phone call came in while I was navigating and oh, bloody hell: Magic Voice was no longer there to tell me when or where to turn Right. I had a meeting in Cambridge and could have wound up in Nashua, New Hampshire.

(Well, it’s a nice time to be in New Hampshire, with the fall colors and whatnot.)

G-Map’s listing on the App Store fills you with optimism. Its most eye-catching feature presents you with 3-D videogame-style renderings of confusing highway intersections as you approach them. In theory, it could be a godsend. In practice, I never saw a single one of these special renderings during a full week of highway and city driving.

It’s a fine little app. But G-Map falls far short of its competitors.

Its display is spartan. I’d say that 80 percent of a navigator’s function is the answer to a simple question: “What’s my next turn, and how soon is it coming up?” G-Map tucks this away at the bottom of the map, practically in parentheses. It uses the amount of discretion with which a doctor phones to tell you that your rash was most likely sexually-transmitted and that you’ll need to apply a special cream twice a day.

That is: G-Map is clear, useful, and it’s on your side. But discretion isn’t what you want in a navigation app. Its user interface also hews far too closely to classic iPhone guidelines. It’s a great set of design rules in general but a bad choice for an app that should require minimal focus and attention.

CoPilot Live

GPS iPhone Copilot Live from pressecitron on Vimeo.

ALK’s CoPilot Live is a big step up. Starting with the price, which is a big step down: just $34.99 for the North American edition.

As with a box of Q-Tips, a car navigator app comes with a very sensible and emphatic warning to its users: do not operate this application while the vehicle is in motion. At the same time, they must acknowledge reality. Seconds after reading this warning and tapping the button labeled “I Agree,” the driver is definitely going to insert his iPhone as deep inside his ear canal as he can possibly reach.

CoPilot seems to be dedicated towards saving the driver’s life despite his reckless disregard for his own safety. Its map is as colorful and dramatic as a cartoon for preschoolers. Every app’s live nav map tells you “it’s not this next street, but the street after it.” CoPilot seems to add “Here! Let me spell it out for you, you big dope!!!”

Which is precisely what you want. The street’s coming up and you’re confused. You will take your eyes off the road and glance at the map, just as you will take your eyes off the road and check your blind spots before changing lanes. CoPilot’s map puts your eyes back where they belong after an instantaneous glance, not a full second of squinting. It’s quite a pretty display. Every menu button is huge — about a full square inch — and clearly labeled. You will have absolutely no trouble finding a decent Indian restaurant nearby and plotting in a detour before the traffic light changes from red to green.

CoPilot’s live map display is at the top of the class, and the app is affordable. It wasn’t my favorite overall app. But if these sound like good features to you, it demands your consideration.

There are two big names in car navigation. Garmin isn’t getting into the iPhone app market. Apparently, they’re putting their eggs in a silly phone/navigator of their own.

TomTom

Which only leaves TomTom . Their iPhone app was one of the most anticipated apps of 2009. At the very same Apple keynote event, iPhone users learned that they were getting TomTom turn-by-turn navigation, system-wide cut-copy-paste, and a $99 iPhone. It still doesn’t make up for the inability to run third party apps in the background, but people at the keynote were pleased enough to postpone a pre-scheduled seat-throwing riot until the first quarter of 2010.

TomTom is a $99 app. You can buy an actual, standalone TomTom for no more than $69, with better models features available for just $109-$149.

And hell, those things come with a dash mount and a GPS receiver that’s much better than the iPhone’s. TomTom sells a separate iPhone window mount for $119 that also includes an improved GPS receiver and built-in speaker. At $219 for the app and the hardware, the price enters the Borderline Silly range.

I tested the TomTom app without the $119 add-on and (like all of the other apps) my iPhone could find the sky just fine. But do note that I don’t do a lot of navigation in big cities. The kit should be a big help if you’re routinely surrounded by tall buildings or trees. If you travel to city destinations exclusively, this feature might make TomTom the best choice. No other navigator supports an improved GPS receiver.

Overall, the TomTom user interface was a cheerful middle-ground between the Teletubbies-style friendliness of CoPilot and the conservative iPhone-ness of G-Map. Its developers clearly studied iPhone user interface guidelines closely. But its familiar menus and controls are bigger and friendlier.

The map display suffers from the same pitfall as G-Map, though: “What’s my next turn, and when is it coming?” information is squirreled away inside a black bar at the very bottom of the map screen.

I don’t think any of these apps make the full range of its features as clear and as “discoverable” as TomTom does. You begin at the very top of the app and “drill down,” never losing a mental picture of what you’re trying to achieve. The most useful features are right at the top, too. In every GPS app, “Go Home” should never be more than a couple of taps away.

The true draw of TomTom is its expertise in navigation. Of the four apps, TomTom was the only one that never evoked that Cautious Conversation that I’ve been having with various editions of the Magic Voice since I tested my first car navigator.

“Really, Magic Voice?” I say. “You want me to drive to Brookline via Mattapan instead of just taking the Jamaicaway practically straight through?”

Magic Voice is silent.

“Because, I mean, I’ll do it. I don’t believe that your way is faster. But I believe that you believe it’s faster. So I’m willing to at least take a leap of faith to avoid hurting your feelings, Magic Voice.”

And of course, Magic Voice’s bizarre new idea added ten minutes to the travel time. I drive to Brookline regularly and I know that it only takes me 37 minutes via my usual route.

But TomTom never made those kinds of mistakes. I was pleased to see that its travel advice changed depending on the day of the week and even sometimes the time of day. One of my regular routes takes a wide detour around a downtown area. When I’m driving very late in the evening or on a Sunday, TomTom takes me straight through.

Later, when I sat down to read the manual and TomTom’s press releases, I learned that the app has something the company calls “IQ Routes.” Real-world driving data is factored into to the route plan. They can call it what they like. It seems to work.

I have all four apps on my iPhone. G-Maps is a clear miss. TomTom is tops at the fundamental nuts-and-bolts of getting you from Point A to Point B efficiently. CoPilot is great if you want a cartoonishly-clear map display and a big user interface. It’s especially great if you want TomTom but you’re thrown by its price tag.

Note also that CoPilot’s spoken prompts go beyond “In 250 feet, turn Right” and include street names.

Motion-X GPS Drive

But later today, when I climb into my car and pick up a friend for a 75-minute drive to a dinner party, I’ll be launching Motion-X GPS Drive. It’s hands-down my favorite navigator for the iPhone. In category after category, it offers exactly the solutions I want.

Starting with its price tag and its system footprint. All of the other apps come with an onboard map database that takes up more than a full gigabyte of storage. Oh, and it gets worse: when they add a new feature or a bugfix and go from Version 1.1.4 to 1.1.7, you’ll need to download the whole 1.2-gigabyte app all over again ... even if it’s a free update.

Motion-X 1.2 is 8.9 megabytes.

Were you thrown by TomTom’s $99 price tag? Were you only grudgingly willing to spend $35 for CoPilot?

Okay. How does $2.99 sound?

The company made some very interesting choices. Instead of installing a complete road atlas of the entire USA and Canada on your iPhone, it uses your wireless connections (WiFi or cellular) to download atlas data as needed. When you punch in an address and ask Motion-X to plot a course, it talks to the Internet for a moment and downloads the data it’ll need for the journey.

This does slow the app down a little. But the delay is marginal compared to TomTom and CoPilot. Your route data is downloaded to the iPhone and stays there at least for the duration of your trip.

I have a lot of questions about how this mechanism functions, but Motion-X refused to furnish details. For instance, what happens if you’re stuck somewhere without a cell signal and you need to plot a new course, or find a gas station?

Answer 1: Obviously, the app won’t work.

Answer 2: Andy, when was the last time you found yourself without a signal?

In a month of use I’ve never had the app give me an apology instead of a point of interest or a route. Still, technology serves as the porchlight to the moth of Murphy’s Law. Word to the wise.

I admit that I balked at the app’s pricing structure when I first heard about it. $2.99 gives you a basic (if nifty) GPS road app. If you want navigation features that actually go beyond the iPhone’s built-in Google Maps app, you need to “buy” additional services. Sacrilege! Petty scoundrel bait-and-switchery!

Well, no. Access to voice navigation costs $2.99 a month and the first month is a free trial. You can pay as-you-go, or buy a year’s subscription for $25.

Still! This is an outrage! I am offended to my very core! I incapable of adding $25 to $2.95 and appreciating that this is still cheaper than 13 months of using CoPilot, to say nothing of the $99 TomTom app!

So I’m cool with it. I like the idea of breaking the app apart from the map data. It makes for a lighter load on my iPhone and it opens the possibility that Motion-X could get access to a broader range of data sources in the future.

Onward to the app itself. Motion-X Drive isn’t “the iPhone edition of a popular mobile or dashboard app.” It was conceived from the ground up as iPhone software and boy, does that pay off for the user.

The user interface threw me at first. Such tiny buttons and menus! It’s a challenge to make a complex change to your route before the lights change and horns start blowing behind you ... tougher than TomTom and CoPilot, at any rate.

Also: the “front page” where Motion-X presents its full range of navigation tools is pretty lame. I’m part of the final generation who grew up with a rotary telephone anywhere in the house and even I think a “dial” configuration is clumsy and confusing.

Fortunately, I got over it. The overall interface is fairly brilliant, focusing your attention on the things you want to see, and holding other clutter and functions at a discreet distance.

Take the familiar live map display. It’s a bright, daylight display. But your driving cues (distance to the next turn, and its direction) are right up at the top, on a black background.

Motion-X uses Bing! maps, interestingly enough. Satellite maps are one of the view options. While you’re stopped at the light, you can easily scroll ahead and verify that yup, there’s a diner-like building two blocks ahead on the left. And the button for switching map views is a popup sited right on the map page. Other apps bury it inside menus.

The map is just a little smaller than the image on the other apps. It’s a price worth paying: the smaller map makes room for a button bar at the bottom of the screen. You can zap straight to the “Find” feature without wandering through a menu structure.

Maps, schmaps. The true star of the show makes its appearance when you tap the “iPod” button.

I suppose now I’ve put my foot in it and must talk about the app’s iPod integration features. It’s not the true star of the show, I should stress.

But it’s a killer feature. I complained earlier about how the iPhone’s lack of background apps makes it damned inconvenient to change music while you’re navigating. The best that the other apps can do is simply not interfere with playback. When it’s time for a voice prompt, Magic Voice will mute the sound temporarily or talk over your music.

Motion-X understands the importance of music while driving. It incorporates a complete iPod playback interface. A strip at the bottom of the display shows you the currently-playing track (with album art) and a full deck of transport controls.

As if that weren’t enough, you have full access to your library as well. Tap a button and you’re presented with an content interface that’s practically identical to that of the iPhone app. Tap the items you want to hear, tap Done, and your selections become your driving playlist. And you did it all without leaving the app.

Even Magic Voice doesn’t want to compete with your iPod. When she has something to tell you, she pauses the music, speaks her piece, and then resumes playback.

But most users would assume that this “iPod” button is just for accessing the music features. I assume that’s the company chose that label because “It’s the best mode of the entire app and you’re likely to prefer it to the Map mode” wouldn’t fit.

A live map is useful. But no matter which app or dashboard navigator you use, you need to watch it closely. Because either the “next turn” info is a tiny part of the overall screen, or because the live map info is only as valid as its most recent update. Even a full second is a long time to take your eyes off the road if it’s 3:05 PM and kids are being let out of school.

Motion-X has a great map display but I keep the app in iPod Mode. It has three pages to it. The first page contains non-route-related GPS info: the name of the town you’re in, your speed and heading, your coordinates, and the strength of the GPS signal. The third page contains a complete list of directions. Look here if you want to take a peek at what’s coming up after this next turn.

You’ll probably keep Motion-X on the middle page most of the time. On this page, the answer to the question “What’s my next turn?” is shouted at you in the form of a huge orange turn icon and the name of your next street or exit in enormous letters. The distance to the turn is also big and bold.

Underneath that enormous billboard is a small table showing your remaining time and distance and an ETA. Truly, this one screen effectively billboards all of the information you want when you’re hauling down a highway at a speed that the state police would describe to as “jaunty.”

Wow! Lots of different data pages there. Switching between them must be impossible!

Nope. They’re like pages in a book. Swipe a finger left or right to rotate through them. You don’t even need to take your eyes off the road.

The iPod control panel can be slid up or down to cover the bottom third of any of these pages. If you keep it up, the most important data is still in view.

More praise for this set of views: the information is presented on a black background. The display is minimally-distracting when you’re not looking at it.

Truly, this comes asymptotically close to the “rear view mirror” ideal.

Sure, the app has other features. It has both Driving and Walking modes (if you’re walking, it won’t send you down the highway), and a page that just displays the iPhone’s built-in compass. A basic compass is more handy than you might suspect, given that you’re armed with a smart GPS navigator with full access to the Internet.

Negatives? Only one: when I missed a turn, the app was the slowest to realize my mistake and offer me an alternative. I’m guessing that it needed to ask the Internet “He drove right past Harvard Street. Now what?”

It’s not a fatal problem. It was only a frustration in seriously congested areas. I missed the turn and it wanted to put me back on course by taking a right at the next street, forty yards away. But by the time it told me, I’d already passed that street, too. Ultimately, I pulled over and allowed Motion-X (and myself) to catch its breath.

It’s certainly not a serious enough annoyance to invalidate all of the app’s other advantages. Of these four apps, I dismissed one, I liked two, but in the end, there was never any doubt as to the supremacy of Motion-X Drive.

There’s a finer point to be made. A navigator is indispensable when you’re trying to find an unfamiliar address 52 miles away. But it should also help you during your regular commutes.

My Dad lives more than an hour away from me and I try to visit him two to four times a week. I know the way by now. Motion-X’s nav page still earns its keep. It’s like a third rearview mirror that tells me “Sit tight; you won’t be turning off the highway for another 22 miles yet; and despite this traffic, your ETA is still well before the time you told him you’d be there.”

Maybe Motion-X’s best feature is indeed its price. If you don’t like it, don’t buy your next month of live turn-by-turn guidance and you’ll only be out $2.95. Not $99, and not even $35.

The only nav app that can possibly beat that value is Google’s new turn-by-turn mobile Maps app, which was just announced on Wednesday. It makes its debut in beta form as part of the Android 2.0 operating system shipping on Verizon’s Droid phone. Google has told AppleInsider.com that there’s nothing stopping the app from being delivered to the iPhone…apart from Apple’s approval process.

(I’ve only seen videos of the new Google Maps app. But it doesn’t appear to contain any of the features that sets Motion-X above its existing iPhone competitors.)

I’ve been using Motion-X almost daily for two months. By now, I don’t even really think of it as an app on my iPhone. I think of it as part of my car’s instrumentation.

In many ways, it’s even better: unlike the “Check Engine” light, I actually do what Motion-X Drive tells me.