Telenav System Outage!!

[rwilliamtaylor]

I've been using telenav with my 8830 with a bluetooth GPS puck for a couple of months and up to now have loved it. Last night I'm in the middle of silicon valley with my boss and board members who were impressed how easily I found the restaurant with Telenav. I go to enter the location to get back to the hotel and I get "Account not found"...

I actually had to stop at a gas station to ask for directions ... F&^k! :oops:

I finally get back to the hotel and phone Telenav support who tell me they had a "system outage".

Anyone else had this experience before?

I need to know if I can rely on this or ditch it and go back to a stand alone GPS.

[Sjjones]

never had an issue with telenav going out. Remember BB has outages also?

[thunder33cat]

I've never had an issue like that, but - that said - you bring to light a big concern with phone/data-based nav: if the network goes down or you lose signal - you're lost.

Many have said it before... the first company to make a GPS program for the Blackberry that uses card-based data will capture the market. (The obvious ideal - the maps. etc. are card-based along with the core POI database, augmented by a more extensive POI and traffic database available via the network).

[JSanders]

Your TN likely communicates via BIS, which was down a few hours last night. Likely that the issue.

[PPCMD]

That is a concern of mine as well with TeleNav. I would actually like to be able to use my memory card to hold GPS related data and I would pay for it and maybe TomTom will do something.

[JSanders]

and pay for the constant updates? Similar discussion going on here:
http://www.blackberryforums.com/gps-mapping/107825-comparison-dvd-nav-telenav-other-voice-gps-systems.html

**moving this to the GPS section**

[cemeterygates]

I was all excited to show off my GPS en route to the mall with co-workers last night (picking up gift drive goodies!) when lo and behold, I came across the same stupid outage. I was pissed! I wonder if they ever give reimbursements if you whine about not having been able to access the network when you really need it. I pay ten bucks a month for it, sheesh.

[wiscaudi]

Not to hijack a thread and bring another question into the mix (luckily I was sitting on the couch last night during the outage), but has anyone run into the situation where they are following turn by turn directions and they drive out of AT&T network coverage? Does TN basically shut down and stop supplying directions? I know the maps load throughout the route as depicted by the network arrows in the top right of the screen (so possibly, one would only lose graphic indication), but will voice guidance still be provided based solely on GPS provided data? Now that I think about it, the voice audio is probably provided over the air too..... which leaves one S.O.L. once again.

I love TN and have relied on it a few times... all within the AT&T network though. It would seem that times when you need it most, out of coverage, ie. in the "back forty", is when the biggest potential exists to lose navigation...

[JSanders]

Wis, I read another thread here last night that stated that TN loads all the needed maps at the outset of the journey. I don't know the actual fact, though.

Last weekend I was in a pretty rural area with spotty BIS coverage from ATT. It comes and goes there. I used TN and GMM to check and view my location and TN worked fine over the period with no visible glitches. GMM was spotty and slow to download.

[wiscaudi]

Hopefully that's true, that'd be a relief. Maybe the network arrows are just TN checking for traffic updates...

I wonder if a good test for this would be to start a route and then half way through or so, turn off the mobile network... I'll have to give it a shot.

[HaTaX]

That's why I keep a few different nav or at least direction capable applications on my BB. I've got Mapquest Navigator, Telenav, Google Maps and BB Maps. Those all will use GPS and at least give you directions to where you're going to.

[cdd543]

I have had some issues with telenav as well the last few days. The same network unavailable message and very slow locking.

[HaTaX]

Funny part is my Telenav subscription expired when I moved from Sprint to T-Mo, and I haven't renewed yet because the older free Mapquest navigator product has worked perfectly for me, and also while in TX recently, Telenav was unable to find a street properly and instead brought me 30 miles in the wrong direction. After I realized this was nowhere near where I should have been I tried the mapquest product and it delivered me perfectly to the front door of the building I was looking for.

It's not as refined or visually appealing, but it does it's voice navigation well and will auto reroute. The night time mode is nice as well.