VZ Navigator
badgolferman
the VZ Navigator instead and must say I am NOT impressed with this
application. It frequently can't find legitimate addresses, it's
Search function isn't very good, and worst of all it becomes confused
very easily and tells you to make U-turns a lot. If I use it to take
me somewhere I must recharge the battery of the phone immediately upon
return. My Garmin is far better, faster and more accurate than this VZ
Navigator.
Hachiroku
Wow, BGM, I don't know what you were using it on, but I had it on a VZW
LG VX8630 and found it to be fantastic! True door-to-door directions.
(Wait till he gets the bill and sees the $15 'download' charge! $9.99 for
the app, $9.99 a month, AND they charge you for the download at $1.99 a MB...
unless he has a per-month web package, that is...)
I used it for three months, and then said "$9.99 a month...~$120 a year"
and bought a TomTom on eBay for $32...
And when you cancel it, they WIPE THE APP FROM YOUR PHONE! So if you want
to get it again, you have to pay the charges all over again!
--
It says Last...In...Kadora
Gimme that! "La Stinkadora"
Janet Wilder
I have it for free on my HTC Incredible Android phone and I find it is
quite accurate. My son has a Moto Droid and he loves the app, too.
Since my son, a grown man with an important job for which he has to
travel considerably, can't find his way to his own front door, knowing
that he has this app with him all the time makes his wife and mother
feel more secure. :-)
BTW, I have a Magellan GPS in my car which doesn't think my home address
is valid. The Phone does. Go figure.
--
Janet Wilder
Way-the-heck-south Texas
Spelling doesn't count. Cooking does.
AJL
>On 10/18/2010 7:42 PM, badgolferman wrote:
>> I'm on vacation and didn't bring the GPS with me. Decided to try out
>> the VZ Navigator instead and must say I am NOT impressed with this
>> application. It frequently can't find legitimate addresses, it's
>> Search function isn't very good, and worst of all it becomes confused
>> very easily and tells you to make U-turns a lot. If I use it to take
>> me somewhere I must recharge the battery of the phone immediately upon
>> return. My Garmin is far better, faster and more accurate than this VZ
>> Navigator.
>I have it for free on my HTC Incredible Android phone
After reading this I tried VZ Navigator on my HTC Incredible phone
(same as yours) and it brings up a "Purchase Offer" screen for
$9.99/month. I declined as that seems a bit expensive to me. So this
app being free is apparently plan dependent. I'm on a very cheap
legacy plan ($14.99/mo for 100 min) with only data ($29.99/mo) extra.
Josh
<kellie...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>On 10/18/2010 7:42 PM, badgolferman wrote:
>> I'm on vacation and didn't bring the GPS with me. Decided to try out
>> the VZ Navigator instead and must say I am NOT impressed with this
>> application. It frequently can't find legitimate addresses, it's
>> Search function isn't very good, and worst of all it becomes confused
>> very easily and tells you to make U-turns a lot. If I use it to take
>> me somewhere I must recharge the battery of the phone immediately upon
>> return. My Garmin is far better, faster and more accurate than this VZ
>> Navigator.
>
>I have it for free on my HTC Incredible Android phone and I find it is
>quite accurate. My son has a Moto Droid and he loves the app, too.
You may be confusing Google Maps Navigation (which is likely what
you're using on any Android 2.1 or later phone) with VZ Navigator,
which I believe is a proprietary app that runs on some more basic
"feature phones". Never used the latter, so I can't comment on it
(but as someone pointed out, if you really use it at $9.99/mo for a
couple years, you could just buy a standalone GPS)
Google Nav is, indeed, quite nice, especially for free, within the
limits of the maps themselves and the need to be data connected (it
caches the route, so you can continue out of a service area, but can't
reroute or plan without a connection)
Josh
Hachiroku
> Janet Wilder <kellie...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>>On 10/18/2010 7:42 PM, badgolferman wrote:
>>> I'm on vacation and didn't bring the GPS with me. Decided to try out
>>> the VZ Navigator instead and must say I am NOT impressed with this
>>> application. It frequently can't find legitimate addresses, it's
>>> Search function isn't very good, and worst of all it becomes confused
>>> very easily and tells you to make U-turns a lot. If I use it to take
>>> me somewhere I must recharge the battery of the phone immediately upon
>>> return. My Garmin is far better, faster and more accurate than this VZ
>>> Navigator.
>
>
>
>>I have it for free on my HTC Incredible Android phone
>
> After reading this I tried VZ Navigator on my HTC Incredible phone (same
> as yours) and it brings up a "Purchase Offer" screen for $9.99/month. I
> declined as that seems a bit expensive to me. So this app being free is
> apparently plan dependent. I'm on a very cheap legacy plan ($14.99/mo for
> 100 min) with only data ($29.99/mo) extra.
You can also pay for it per diem, at $2.99 on the days it is used, IIRC.
>
>
>
>>and I find it is
>>quite accurate. My son has a Moto Droid and he loves the app, too. Since
>>my son, a grown man with an important job for which he has to travel
>>considerably, can't find his way to his own front door, knowing that he
>>has this app with him all the time makes his wife and mother feel more
>>secure. :-)
>>
>>BTW, I have a Magellan GPS in my car which doesn't think my home address
>>is valid. The Phone does. Go figure.
--
AJL
>On Tue, 19 Oct 2010 10:26:05 -0700, AJL wrote:
>> After reading this I tried VZ Navigator on my HTC Incredible phone (same
>> as yours) and it brings up a "Purchase Offer" screen for $9.99/month. I
>> declined as that seems a bit expensive to me. So this app being free is
>> apparently plan dependent. I'm on a very cheap legacy plan ($14.99/mo for
>> 100 min) with only data ($29.99/mo) extra.
>
>You can also pay for it per diem, at $2.99 on the days it is used, IIRC.
Thanks, but even that seems way too expensive for what you get.
However people must pay it or they wouldn't keep it so high. I can't
imagine the cost to Verizon is even a fraction of that. The profit
made must be very generous. I could certainly afford the 3 bucks (or
$10) but I just hate paying something when I feel I'm
being screwed... ;)
Janet Wilder
I guess I have the Google Navigator. I was not aware that there were two
programs.
I had a complimentary VZW navigator on my last phone for about 2 days
and it stopped my phone from ringing so the tech support guy and I got
rid of it.
Hachiroku
Precisely why I bought a Tom Tom on eBay for $32....
Jeffrey Kaplan
> Thanks, but even that seems way too expensive for what you get.
> However people must pay it or they wouldn't keep it so high. I can't
> imagine the cost to Verizon is even a fraction of that. The profit
> made must be very generous. I could certainly afford the 3 bucks (or
> $10) but I just hate paying something when I feel I'm
> being screwed... ;)
That's why I use a "real" GPS. Currently a Garmin, my next one will
likely be a TomTom. Also because I'm often enough where there is no
cellular coverage, and also where I need it most is while driving and a
cellphone display is just too frelling small, even the DroidX, to be of
use for nav while driving.
--
Jeffrey Kaplan www.gordol.org
Double ROT13 encoded for your protection
"Kid, at the end of a wormhole jump you're either in the right place
or you're a bucket of quarks smeared between Antares and Oz." (Meyhew
[Lois McMaster Bujold, "The Warriors Apprentice"])
badgolferman
>That's why I use a "real" GPS. Currently a Garmin, my next one will
>likely be a TomTom.
Why the change?
George
Companies tend to duke it out on "base" price of services or goods
because customers have been trained to shop on initial price. Companies
depend on other things to make money.
I worked for a large manufacturer in a responsible position for many
years and we made nothing on the original sale of equipment. The only
thing that kept the doors open was spares and repairs (pay me now or pay
me later).
As far as VZnavigator the target audience is the road warrior who isn't
going to be dragging along a GPS on a trip. But smartphones with built
in GPS chipsets are rapidly negating the value of VZnavigator.
Hachiroku
> Previously on alt.cellular.verizon, AJL said:
>
>> Thanks, but even that seems way too expensive for what you get. However
>> people must pay it or they wouldn't keep it so high. I can't imagine the
>> cost to Verizon is even a fraction of that. The profit made must be very
>> generous. I could certainly afford the 3 bucks (or $10) but I just hate
>> paying something when I feel I'm being screwed... ;)
>
> That's why I use a "real" GPS. Currently a Garmin, my next one will
> likely be a TomTom. Also because I'm often enough where there is no
> cellular coverage, and also where I need it most is while driving and a
> cellphone display is just too frelling small, even the DroidX, to be of
> use for nav while driving.
I have a Tom Tom, and the other guy who covers my territory with me has a
Garmin. My Tom Tom will occasionally send me down a decent dirt road as a
short cut.
His Garmin has sent him up logging roads... ;)
Hachiroku
See my answer to him...
Jeffrey Kaplan
The feature set. TomToms provide more nav features for the money than
Garmin.
--
Jeffrey Kaplan www.gordol.org
Double ROT13 encoded for your protection
"I think anybody who doesn't think I'm smart enough to handle the job
is underestimating." George W. Bush, U.S. News & World Report, April
3, 2000
badgolferman
>(Wait till he gets the bill and sees the $15 'download' charge! $9.99
>for the app, $9.99 a month, AND they charge you for the download at
>$1.99 a MB... unless he has a per-month web package, that is...)
Yes, they charged me $3.98 for the app download. Not only is the VZ
navigator a mediocre program compared to the Garmin GPS, but they also
charged me to download it. I called customer support to ask them to
remove the download charge since I fully expected to pay the $9.99 for
the use of the program but didn't realize I would be charged for
installing it on my phone. They told me it is in the fine print and
they won't waive the data fee. They offered to give me some free
minutes instead but I have no need for more minutes. I tried several
ways of asking them to remove the charge, but no luck. I left my
dissatisfation remarks on the customer survey message that followed.
Moral of the story: Instill blocks on all unused features of the phone
in order to have another layer of ignorance protection.
badgolferman
The rest of the story:
VZW customer service called me today about the survey I answered
yesterday. They agreed to remove the data charge associated to the VZ
Navigator download. It seems the version that was already on my phone
from the pre-installation was outdated and it automatically downloaded
the newer version when I signed up for it. They also warned me to
remove the application before my billing date in order to prevent
getting charged $9.99 for another month's worth of subscription. I
installed it on the 17th and must remove it by the 4th. That was a
short month!
Hachiroku
I made them remove the charge and give me some free minutes (I need them!)
and had them chop another $25 off the bill! But my bill was $175, when the
average monthly bill was ~$68. I was also a former Unicel customer, and
expressed my dissatisfaction of Verizon taking over Unicel. "My bill with
Unicel was a rock-steady $58 a month for three years!"
Hachiroku
LOL! Like I said, $30 TomToms on eBay!!!
Engineer@pnb.retired_1987 Don Schmidt
"Hachiroku" <anon...@not-for-mail.invalid> wrote in message
news:ia4ism$s3b$4...@tioat.net...
:-)
--
Don
Vancouver, USA
Hachiroku
Yeah, but look at the case it came in! ;)
mikeyhsd
mikeyshd
Justin
IME, GPS that comes in vehicles is years out of date and costs thousands
AJL
>IME, GPS that comes in vehicles is years out of date
They can be updated with an optical disk. Course they want an arm and
a leg for the disk...
>and costs thousands
Maybe. On mine that large in-dash touch screen doesn't do just GPS. It
also controls satellite radio, local radio, cell phones, DVD, stereo,
climate control, and much of the other gadgetry on the car. So which
part is the GPS price? Who knows, it wasn't listed separately on the
sticker... ;)
Justin
> Justin <nos...@insightbb.com> wrote:
>
>
>>IME, GPS that comes in vehicles is years out of date
>
> They can be updated with an optical disk. Course they want an arm and
> a leg for the disk...
The display can? Can an inbuilt GPS from 5 years ago that had compare
to an off the shelf Garmin?
AJL
>AJL wrote on [Tue, 26 Oct 2010 12:09:02 -0700]:
>> Justin <nos...@insightbb.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>IME, GPS that comes in vehicles is years out of date
>>
>> They can be updated with an optical disk. Course they want an arm and
>> a leg for the disk...
>
>The display can [be updated]?
No, but why would you want to? The display just shows what is
programmed into the software. New software (the optical disk update)
brings new maps, new controls (on touch screens), or most anything
else new the manufacturer wants to add.
>Can an inbuilt GPS from 5 years ago that had compare
>to an off the shelf Garmin?
Dunno. I get a new vehicle about every 3 years so the problem hasn't
occurred for me yet. But if I had to live cheap (again as I did for
many years) I might have gotten a portable GPS unit, but more likely I
would have just used a map (as I did for many many years). Different
strokes for different folks...
Justin
> Justin <nos...@insightbb.com> wrote:
>
>>AJL wrote on [Tue, 26 Oct 2010 12:09:02 -0700]:
>>> Justin <nos...@insightbb.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>IME, GPS that comes in vehicles is years out of date
>>>
>>> They can be updated with an optical disk. Course they want an arm and
>>> a leg for the disk...
>>
>>The display can [be updated]?
>
> No, but why would you want to? The display just shows what is
New features...
> programmed into the software. New software (the optical disk update)
> brings new maps, new controls (on touch screens), or most anything
> else new the manufacturer wants to add.
Funny, I look at the most recent iterations of GPS software in cars
and still find it dated compared to a dedicated portable unit
mikeyhsd
mikeyshd