Originally Posted by PanEuropean

Joe:

I took a good look at the Sygic website today. Overall, I'm quite impressed with what their product appears to be able to do - provide route guidance with lane direction, provide traffic (though not by FM RDS, they use the cell network), identify speed limits on roads, support and use road attributes, and provide speed camera warnings.

I have not downloaded the application (at $70 for world coverage, that's a bit too expensive to download strictly for 'try-out' purposes, although it is certainly a reasonable price for the application and cartography). So, I have a few questions for you, as I presume this is the application you use.

1) What about the 'waterproof' issue? Are any of the Android smartphones waterproof (for example, IPX-7 rated, as most motorcycle GPS navigators are)? I use an iPhone, I know it is not waterproof.

Michael ,,
Many many waterproof Android phones, a dozen or so ,, 30 minutes guarantee in one meter deep water,,, it will survive toilet ,, wash machine ,, creeks etc, Please go see the urls ,, few posts up. You can also waterproof your iphone via this company,,
Liquipel the Alternative to a Waterproof Phone Case
They have outlets in big malls or you can send your phone in.

If one puts the phone inside a waterproof case, is it still possible to control the navigation application via touch?

Ram mount has waterproof boxes with finger contact.
RAM AQUA BOX® Pro 20 Case, CRADLE CLIP, BELT CLIP, BELT CLIP BUTTON and LANYARD for the iPhone 5, 4 & 3 WITH OR WITHOUT CASE, SKIN OR SLEEVE
My Review of the RAM Aqua Box. ( Medium Size ) - YouTube
I use it and it works. They have many models

2) I note that Sygic states that their cartography comes with a lifetime licence for the Android platform. But, their application runs on both the Android and iPhone operating systems. Do you know what the cartography licence (and availability of free updates) is for the iPhone? I couldn't find that information on their website.

You sign up with an EM account,, via google play helps. It stays in their corporate and google play store memory,.. legacy forever. You can download as many times as you wish ,, in as many machines as you want! I have downloaded over 12 times. You've paid for it,, you own it!

3) How much space does the cartography take up? My iPhone has 64 gb of storage (it is an iPhone 4S), of which about 30 GB could be made available for storing maps. Typically, there is a direct relationship between population of an area and map size for the same area. By way of example, how much space does it take to store all the cartography for South Korea (population 50 million, roughly the same as Germany)?

Germany is around 500 mb ,, Albania is 23 mb ,, UK is 800 mb , Russia is 500mb ,, dependes on the country size and their historical sophistication of their infrastructure. S. Korea is only 45 mb ,, a small shit little country. Has nothing to do with demographics,, it is a map of the road after all.
You can download entire world for arounf 2gb ,, still you will not have the garmin slow down on the sd card stress ,, since smartphones comes with minimum 1.4gb processing power. Also ,, you should only download the ares you are using. Then during the trip ,, record your waypoints,, and make a nice map of the journey for the posterity.

4) How does one cope with the cartography storage limits when moving from one country to another, or when traversing a large country such as the USA? Can zones of coverage be removed and added from the phone at will, using a Wi-Fi connection, or is computer support needed for storing all the cartography that won't fit on the phone?

No ,, it's all offline. You would start the trip with the maps already loaded ,, for the updates ,, you will be using hotel wifi or data provided by your carrier. If you are overseas and do not want to use data ,, shit any starbucks has free wifi.

5) I was a bit surprised to see that Sygic claims (on their Apple App Store website) to use the same cartography as Tom Tom. Is this commercial or open source software? I'm not familiar with Tom Tom cartography. Do you know who the major provider is, for example Navteq, Magellan, Nokia, OSM, etc.?

I am told OSM ,, but I also belive since their frequent FREE updates,, they use several formats.

6) It appears that if one buys world coverage ($70) plus most of the bells and whistles offered as options (traffic notification, speed cameras, HUD, etc.), the full initial purchase cost will be about $100 to $130. Nothing wrong with that. But, how does this company generate ongoing revenue? Do they charge for application (software) updates? Or is it truly a 'pay once, use forever' service?

It's on sale ,,, for 40 euro for the whole world ,, grab it ,, I paid 70 euro ,, as you can see after 62 million downloads ,, price is coming down ,, imagine,, 30 bucks profit per download x 30 million(not counting freebies) nice little internet business. This is the idea ,, soon it will be 5 bucks. Price two years ago was 110 euro for the world. They don't have much overhead either. Free maps,,,Many countries if they find that you have speed camera warnig waypoints,, you will be fined heavy,, also unless you use your bike for commute ,, why bother with traffic congestion warning ? PS. I am not a paid tout by Sygic.

7) How is route planning carried out? Can it be done on a computer (rather than the phone)? My experience with route planning for aviation done on phones is that the phone is a lot more difficult (cumbersome) to use for route development and route planning than a traditional computer application, followed by transfer of the route to the phone.

Yes ,, you can plan the route via your phone or using google map or earth ,, attch your phone to the pc as a storage device ,, then find the sygic directory ,, map or route file ,, use mouse to transfer ,, boot up the sygic , voilla !
https://www.google.co.kr/webhp?sourc...+sygic&spell=1

Based on my initial review of the product, conducted by only looking at their website and app store entries, it is attractive. The only significant negative I can see (aside from relying on the phone itself for processing power and speed) is that they don't offer comprehensive coverage of many lesser developed countries (e.g. the Balkans), only 'major transit routes'.

I have answered above,, smartphone processing power is perhaps 5 times greater than garmin. I enjoyed Balkan very much ,, came out of Rostov into Odessa ,, Melitopol first ,, great Ukraina ,, then to Albania,, via Romania,, Bulgaria ,,Macedonia ,, Sygic on my Galaxy 3 ,, was simply superb ,, turn bu turn ,, POS,, thousands of them ,, Croatia ,, SLovenia ,, Slovakia , Hungary ,, Poland ,, Austria , Italy ,, Germany , France,, Spain ,,,Luzumburg ,, Belgique ,, ah ,, miss it !
Not a single problem with Android and Sygic !

Would appreciate whatever answers you can provide.

Michael

Originally Posted by tmotten

Ok, I think I get it, but isn't that 1990's use of a GPS?

Originally Posted by tmotten

Wouldn't it be "better" to see yourself projected with an arrow symbol on a topo map that you use to find waypoints?

Originally Posted by AliBaba

It's less necessary then it used to be but it's still handy if you:
-Go off-road
-Travel in areas with bad map-support
-Travel in areas with no map-support
-Ytavel a route which is not on the map
-Get waypoints from other sources

I would say that if you only go places which are supported by routable maps you don't need the navigation-functions. (That's why my Nokia fits when driving my car)



You still do that when you ride after an off-road route. (If there is a map for that area)

If you have a good topographic map there are no use in projecting waypoints, but features like off-road routes are still nice. I would say that a good navigation system, and the skill to use it, increases your safety a lot in rural places, it even makes it possible to stretch your limits a bit further.


As I said earlier all of this are software-issues and might be solved.
I briefly checked some of the links seouljoe posted, but most of the apps didn't fit my phone and there was hard/impossible to find any documentation concerning what the different apps can offer (beside fancy displays).
I can't see myself start to buy apps to find something that fits my need, unless I know that the products have the functions I want I will not be a customer.

Sorry for a late reply, the next will be even later because I'm going to a place where Nokia maps sucks and the price of an excellent map for garmin costs 300€....

Originally Posted by Threewheelbonnie

Has anyone tried noise cancelling headphones? The sort that subtract noise a microphone on the cord picks up should work well...