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NDrive Contest!

I think NDrive has some nice features. I strongly agree with others that NDrive should warn you about the size of the download or give an alternate means to download the maps.

With that said, I really appreciate having the maps local to the phone. I've gone off route in one of Verizon's dead zones (West Virginia) a few times. This will be a godsend in these places.
 
Ok commented in the market under turnerw1. and now here.. These maps are taking forever to load... But looks real nice and hope to win.
 

I represent NDrive and am announcing the winners, Thank you to all participants, the comments are well recieved!

Note: the contest is a week long so stay tuned...

Winners for 7/7:

Howie: Confirmed Yesterday, 11:41 AM

JacquesR: Confirmed Yesterday, 01:31 PM

Slosh: Confirmed: Yesterday, 05:29 P.M

Please contact the thread ADMIN to collect your winnings.

Include:

  • Your Location
  • Your IMEI (Phone Identification # located behind battery)

Winners will be announced daily except for weekends
 
To those complaining about the 30mb voice download and the map download, they seamlessly all stored to my SD card so not much to complain about there in my opinion, besides before each download they tell you the size to confirm if you want to DL. Mind you I am in Canada and the map pack for me was 300MB not the 2.6GB US monstrosity, but get a 4GB or larger sd card and you are good to go. Also DL on WIFI.

As for the app itself, it seems great so far. On device no data required navigation is awesome. It seems to work pretty well too, the voice isn't bad, it automatically recalculated my route when I intentionally took an alternate route I knew.

I for one do not have a data plan, so not needing data is awesome, I will buy the Canada map if I am not lucky enough to win it in the next 6 days! Will also likely buy the US map once I get a > 2GB SD card. Speaking of no data plan, I haven't commented in the market yet but will at around 5PM MST today when on my home wireless.
 
Testing it, I like the local idea, but it needs to be in chunks (states maybe?). Or have an online mode and offline optional with a radius from where you are or something.
 
I just downloaded it to my phone and did a test drive, and seems pretty good. Searching for a business was a bit of a pain (why do I have to enter 5 things to do one search?), but other than that it was pretty smooth. I think the app might intercept the volume buttons, which is a bit of a pain since I tried turning up the volume to no avail, and went in later and discovered that my media volume was only 50% or so. The size was quite annoying, as well, with the large download. As someone mentioned before, a State based system would be nice, even if it just downloaded your state first, allowed you to use the app, and then continued to download the rest in the background. That, or allow you to download the map on your computer then transfer it to the phone, since that usually has a faster connection (even vs WiFi), and you don't have to worry about power and such as much.

I haven't given it much of a test yet, but those are my initial thoughts. Here's hoping I win the free map, since having 1.5 is getting tired now...
 
I'm in the contest :)

As others have mentioned, downloading the map over wifi was painfully slow. My download speed was about a third of what it should have been.

Having said that, the software seems really nice.
 
As I stated on my market comment, download sizes are huge but off-line maps is an amazing feature. App has a lot of upside.
 
NDrive is a good alternative if you want to buy an offline navigator app. It has much more setting options then other apps I have tested, for example Navigon. For me, as a Swede it will be impossible to use Google Maps if I go outside Sweden since it will cost too much to download all data via 3G.
The graphics during navigation is not as good as Navigon, but the setting options and price makes it a better choice according to me.
 

The contest is going on, and here're new winners for Thursday, 8/7 (based on comment date at Droidmkt):

xiophyte: Confirmed 07-07-2010, 10:39 PM

pingpongboss: Confirmed Yesterday, 01:31 AM

maciel310: Confirmed Yesterday, 03:05 PM

Please contact the thread ADMIN to collect your winnings.

Include:

  • Your Location
  • Your IMEI (Phone Identification # located behind battery)

For Friday and upcoming weekends, winners will be announced next Monday
 
Just entered myself! Used Ndrive on the iphone for months but just upgraded to the HTC desire!. Heres hoping for a new map!!

Regards

DJ
 
Comment on Market entered.

I found the lack of TTS on the Android platform to be disappointing, but anticipate that this will eventually change as it's already available on other platforms. The volume could also use a boost to overcome background/road noise. I often drive a work van, where road noise is much higher than for a passenger car.

Lane guidance is a great thing (I have it on my TomTom), but the inclusion of opposing traffic lanes makes it a little more difficult to glance at and know where you should be. I already know not to be in the opposing traffic lanes, so I see no benefit to the additional information. That said, I'd rather have it as is than not have it at all.

The map download was excruciatingly slow. The "agent" available for other platforms, that allows you to download via your PC would be a great addition, freeing up your phone during the download. Their web site indicates quarterly map updates. I can't imagine going through a download like this every three months.

Business Search and Traffic info are only available for the Portugal map. Really?? Maybe it's an experimental feature?

Despite the above, I think it's a very good app and gave it 4 stars.
 
Left a review last night:

Nice interface, but the map downloading needs work. The files are several GB big, and bg downloading often fails as the process gets killed. (lvlln)
 
Review is done on Market.

This app really does look like it could be better than Google Maps. I just wish it wasn't so darn big! I do, however, look forward to taking it hiking with me in a couple of days. I'll really put it to the test then.

Kratos
 
Updating it all now. REALLY glad I've got wifi here, otherwise these downloads would just be, um, unacceptable. I'll have some review action up later.

EDIT: Sorry, changed my mind. 2.6 GIGS is just too much. I've got a bunch of videos and music on my phone, and I'll have to remove some of it just for maps. No thanks.
 
The down load may be large nut thats what wifi is for will save on data as maps are on device.
This is a really good produce and the lane assist is the best

Thanks for the heads up on this

Shortarse
 
AndroidProfessor said:

The contest is going on, and here're new winners for Thursday, 8/7 (based on comment date at Droidmkt):

xiophyte: Confirmed 07-07-2010, 10:39 PM

pingpongboss: Confirmed Yesterday, 01:31 AM

maciel310: Confirmed Yesterday, 03:05 PM

Please contact the thread ADMIN to collect your winnings.

Include:

  • Your Location
  • Your IMEI (Phone Identification # located behind battery)

For Friday and upcoming weekends, winners will be announced next Monday
Click to expand...

Lucky! But I'm having a hard time finding my IMEI. It's not listed behind the battery (there's MEID, WIMAX, and S/N)
 
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