I have to admit, I’m admiring the turn-by-turn navigation on my Android phone more every day.

I used to have one of those “traditional” GPS units, and it was a pain… I had to subscribe (and pay) to update its database all the time, and it relied on me to know (and enter) the address every time I went anywhere.

Turn-by-turn Navigation on Android is so well integrated into the overall experience, that none of that matters, anymore.

I can speak the name of a client, the App pulls it from my contacts, and I’m off and driving in the blink of an eye.

Better yet, I can speak the name of any business, and it’s loaded with driving instructions before I turn the key.

Google out-did themselves with this one.

All (US) roads are updated continuously (for free), and the whole thing is built-upon Google’s outstanding map & business search engines.

I have only a couple of “gripes” with the implementation…

1. The synthesized female voice can’t pronounce Spanish words. Here in the Southwest, many street names are Spanish… “Via de la Valle,” “Passeo del Norte,” etc… The Google speech engine isn’t very good at recognizing that “we’ve left English for a moment,” and the results are virtually unintelligible.
2. The documentation is hard to find (and sparse). Something this complex requires some good docs. Please let me know if you find any.

However, I do have to say that having Google’s StreetView as a display option is really nice when trying to locate a specific home, business, or storefront.

Overall, I think this app is a game-changer, and will eventually render traditional, dedicated GPS units obsolete.

Google is way ahead of the curve on this one.

Another really cool feature hidden in this app, is its ability to navigate based on a bar code.

For example, if you’re using an Android device, simply scan this barcode, and you’ll be navigating to the best cheeseburger in Southern California…

The more I play with Android’s GPS navigation, the more I love it.

I’m anxious to hear what others have discovered, and as I discover more myself, I’ll be posting it here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 at 10:32 am and is filed under Android. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.