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Google Navigation now works in UK (Official)

I used this for a 180 mile journey and was that impressed I am getting shut of the tomtom and giving it to my other half!

Not sure about the data usage though... I had 3G watchdog running and for the entire journey it didnt show any network usage?? Also when I have logged onto my account with Vodafone it didn't show any excessive data usages...

The voice direction are great, the map is great, I didnt lose GPS signal at all, no mistakes in the route were found.
 
I have a built in sat nav in my car so I won't be using this app much but I just noticed the street view feature, I was gobsmacked!

Google FTFW
 
RobDickson said:
The only problem I had was using my cigarette lighter to USB converter. It must be a fairly low power converter, because it didn't supply enough current to power the phone, so the battery drained slowly during the journey. I turned the screen off, and used the voice directions only. This worked surprisingly well, but I'll need to invest in a better charger.
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I had exactly the same problem. My car charger is a generic unit that doesn't list its max output current, so I don't know how much juice it can deliver

Can anyone recommend a good car cigarette lighter socket/USB charger? Or does anyone know how much current the Desire draws when it has the screen fully on, and the CPU working hard? All I can find is that the AC charging adapter is rated at 1A.

regards,
/alan
 
I've also had the same problem. I have gone through 2 Brodit cradles (thinking the first was faulty) and a separate cigarette socket charger. All have the same power specs and none can even keep the phone's battery at a constant level, let alone charge the battery, when I'm using sat nav. This goes for Google Maps sat nav as well as CoPilot Live.
 
I was travelling from Yorkshire back to Gloucestershire and decided to compare Google Nav with TomTom. Google was incredibly smoother and hell of alot more acurate. Brilliant that it names all the roads and junctions, just a shame its a horrible computer generated voice. Visually, Google was easier on the eyes and all round better layout. Great that you can use street veiw too. Very very pleased with it.
 
Desire is my first Internet/gps phone and i am so pleased that i can have this application. It completely blew me away with the quality and its free!!!
I dont actually drive but used it when i was on the bus and its just incredible!
 
One silly thought about navigation...

The AMOLED screen on the Desire is not like LCD displays. The AMOLED display uses considerably less power where pixels are dark than where they are bright.

So... has anyone tried using Night Mode when navigating? Can the mobile charger provide enough juice when the display is dark rather than bright?

regards,
/alan
 
This charging problem needs sorting ASAP
what's the point of having sat-nav if it keeps dying on you in the middle of nowhere
 
Day two of HTC Desire ownership... gave the navigation a whirl on my way home from work today... fantastic!! Except my route home takes me through signal black-holes and results in a lack of direction. But hey, it does the job and still tracks you down the route.
 
FWIW this charging problem exists on my HTC TYTN2 running CoPilot and Sygic just the same. It will be interesting to hear if the night display does improve it.

Does the Google app have the ability to compute a route from B to C when I am actually sitting at A?

I understand that you can compute a route from home , using Wifi, and then when doing the journey it doesn;t need to download the maps since these have been cached. Does this apply to multiple journeys? For example could I plan A to B, A to C and A to D at home and whichever one I finally use will have the maps cached?

Thanks

Roy
 
Just used Google Nav for the first time today on my Desire - absolutely floored by how good it is.

One question - is there a way of storing favourite destinations so I don't have to put the address in again each time?
 
jabtas said:
Long press on home screen > shortcut > direction and navigation

I have one setup for home
Click to expand...
I must be being stupid. The home screen is the map? Because when I do a long press on that, it says 'loading address' and I get the detail of what's below my finger.
 
@jabtas: Have you found any more powerful car chargers? I just use contacts in my address book rather than adding favourites.
 
RobDickson said:
@jabtas: Have you found any more powerful car chargers? I just use contacts in my address book rather than adding favourites.
Click to expand...

I recently bought a car phone holder from ebay, also came with a car charger
Not had chance to test it on a long run yet tho
 
The only issue I have is the voice. Bit too robotic whne compared to dedicated units.

Otherwise, excellent. The street view image at the end is awesome.
 
RobDickson said:
@jabtas: Have you found any more powerful car chargers? I just use contacts in my address book rather than adding favourites.
Click to expand...

I'll try the bookmark idea a few posts above.

I thought I could use contacts as destinations but haven't worked out how to do that. I assume you mean the contacts under the 'people' icon? If not, how do I do it?
 
how do i get it down to street view? i can only see sat layer. I think after Nokia giving free sat nav google had to follow the same way.

EDIT ok found i need a long press on the map and it brings it up :)
 
Had mine on for a trip from Bristol to Exeter and return yesterday. Had the car charger plugged in and also the 3.5 jack going to my aux-in on the car stereo.

The nav voice, tho still naff, at least sounds far better coming thru the car amp and speakers. What was interesting is that the nav over rides the music player to announce turns, or of course you can mute it.

Thought I'd punish the power drain by running several apps at once - sat nav, compass and mp3 music - Wow what a device this Desire is! Anyway the 500ma charger was well able to keep pace with all this lot for the hour and a half each way.

They still need to sort out bluetooth voice activated dialing tho!
 
Interesting that you didn't have any problems with the 500mA charger. Are you sure it isn't a 1A charger?

I might be missing something, but don't we need the robotic voice so that it can read out road names and destinations? I do miss Yoda telling me "turn right at the next junction, you will", but prefer the far superior functionality of having road and place names read to me.
 
Yep says 500mA on the socket end. Bought it from the Orange shop when I got the phone. Brill!

I'm getting used to the lady telling me whats coming up, but she still blanks me when I ask what she's wearing :eek:
 
I'll have to have a look at my 12V-USB converters. I doubt it's a problem with the 12V socket in the car, but I'll try a different car next time.

You'll get a Google Engineer programming her to answer you sometime. I'll have to check whether the directions from New York to London still involve swimming the Atlantic.
 
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