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google navigation needs downloadable maps
- Thread starter richkaos
- Start date
Downloading a route will only work if you don't deviate from the route during your trip. You'll be screwed as soon as you hit one detour, side trip, or potty break.
Sprint Nav is the same way. Better make sure you can get some sort of data connection to handle the re-routing. A re-route shouldn't be too much data.
I don't think you can change the voice in Google Nav, I certainly wouldn't have picked the one I've got on my phone if I had a choice.
On a side note, I thought you Euros were supposed to become one big transparent country (open borders, unified currency, VAT, GSM, etc.). What's up with the data roaming charges?
-Mike
Sprint Nav is the same way. Better make sure you can get some sort of data connection to handle the re-routing. A re-route shouldn't be too much data.
I don't think you can change the voice in Google Nav, I certainly wouldn't have picked the one I've got on my phone if I had a choice.
On a side note, I thought you Euros were supposed to become one big transparent country (open borders, unified currency, VAT, GSM, etc.). What's up with the data roaming charges?
-Mike
Szadzik
Extreme Android User
Do people in the States get free calls to every single state or do you have zones?
EU is still comprised of 25 INDEPENDENT countries and thus every country has its own carriers.
There was never any talk of having the same GSM carriers everywhere, ever.
captaincanada84
Member
We dont have zones in the US. And we're able to call anyone in any state across the country.
Szadzik
Extreme Android User
Sorry about the OT.
So when you get a calling plan it always allows you to cal anywhere in the country? I am probably out of date on this and still thinking you have calling plans for just specific regions as it used to be like that in the past.
No, we can pretty much call everyone in the country. With Sprint, every call to every other mobile (regardless of network) doesn't even count against your minutes.
Just seems odd that Europe has so much economic cooperation that the telecom companies wouldn't have devised some sort of mutual roaming agreements.
Even in the US (arguably the world's epicenter of greed) people on Sprint can roam to Verizon and T-Mobile can roam onto AT&T (and vice-versa) without incurring any penalties. You may perhaps get a slower network than your native carrier, but you can still get data (up to a limit) without getting charged anything extra.
In the US, we still get hosed on landlines though (non-VoIP).
I thought that was the whole point of GSM (Global System for Mobile).
Just seems odd that Europe has so much economic cooperation that the telecom companies wouldn't have devised some sort of mutual roaming agreements.
Even in the US (arguably the world's epicenter of greed) people on Sprint can roam to Verizon and T-Mobile can roam onto AT&T (and vice-versa) without incurring any penalties. You may perhaps get a slower network than your native carrier, but you can still get data (up to a limit) without getting charged anything extra.
In the US, we still get hosed on landlines though (non-VoIP).
I thought that was the whole point of GSM (Global System for Mobile).
jev
Well-Known Member
Unfortunately, in Europe, we do have to pay extra for inter-state roaming. OPTA is fighting this but it isn't there yet. How expensive that is depends on your carrier.
OTOH, we do not pay for incoming calls and have 100% signal coverage.
Landlines are cheaper here but not free within cities. Thus, pricing and packages are different on this side of the pond, not necessarily worse or better.
Anyway, as for the original post: it is common knowledge that google maps are loaded on the fly, that's why you don't hear much about it. If you don't want to get hit for roaming charges, get yourself a dedicated navigation application like CoPilot, Navigon or Sygic mobile maps.
OTOH, we do not pay for incoming calls and have 100% signal coverage.
Landlines are cheaper here but not free within cities. Thus, pricing and packages are different on this side of the pond, not necessarily worse or better.
Anyway, as for the original post: it is common knowledge that google maps are loaded on the fly, that's why you don't hear much about it. If you don't want to get hit for roaming charges, get yourself a dedicated navigation application like CoPilot, Navigon or Sygic mobile maps.
KlaymenDK
Android Expert
A bit late to the party, but just wanted to say that there are mapping apps that use pre-downloaded maps. MapDroyd is just one example. It's free, and requires the (also free) ContentDroyd to grab the maps.
If you want maps stored on the SD card then you need to find a GPS nav app that does so. I wouldn't bother waiting on Google Nav to change as Google will always favor a cloud-based approach given their line of business.
You can't. It's TTS (text-to-speech synthesis) so there's no library of sound clips to replace, as there is with many other GPS nav solutions. Again, find a GPS nav app with that feature if you need/want it.