Ran across MapQuest Navigator on the MapQuest Site a couple days ago.

Anyone have any idea when they are going to be releasing the BB versions?

THX

It's available right now for the 7100i and 7250. I'm downloading it right now. I'll let you know how it works. I have TeleNav and I'm not very happy with it. BB Maps is good but no voice. I want to see if Navigator is any better. Same price as TeleNav but there is supposed to be a 30 day free trial for BlackBerry users

Walt

Also the 7130 version works on the Pearl 8100.

And works quite well.

~MrKyoo

Cool! I'll have to give it a shot.

Has anyone had MapQuest Navigator stop navigating? I have a 7100i and can't figure it out. I like MapQuest Nav but it's useless if it stops navigating. Looks like I'm stuck with TeleNav.

Did you move out of coverage area? Did your trial exprie?

Mine stopped a couple days into the trial (7520). There is a free one at mobile.blackberry.com that seems to work pretty well (assuming you have a strong enough battery).

I think the problem was my phone software. I updated the 7100i and now I'm downloading MapQuest again. I'll let ya know if the problem is solved. The new software update solved a similar problem I had with BB Maps.

Tried both Mapquest Navigator and TeleNav today and BB Maps previously. Admittedly I've only tried for a short period but Mapquest wins hands down on my Nextel Blackberry 7100i. It is easier to use, better display as you go directions, easier to understand voice, seems a bit more accurate on points of interest/businesses, etc. Guess only time will tell.

Jim

Okay I tested MapQuest Navigator now that I've updated my handhelds software. It worked great. It navigated the whole trip without locking up. I guess the software update did the trick. I too like MapQuest Navigator better than TeleNav except that you can't pull addresses from your address book. Another pain is that you have to click twice for every selection which seems silly. Like Jim said, it has a nicer display and the voice is clearer. If I had to choose (which I will when the free trials run out) I think I'm going with MapQuest Navigator.

Just to clarify for those following this thread. This product is supplied by www.telmap.com. They are developing it for other BB's too. Maybe in the spring.

Just downloaded for my Sprint 7130e. It is very easy to download. It doesn't ask any of your information, you just have to give your phone number. The front page said it is free for 90 days. When I got to the download page, it just said (Free). :p

The first thing I noticed is that the voice is very loud and clear. It is clearer than Telenav. I tried to do a navigate, but I couldn't find a way to preview the turn-by-turn voice prompt. I can see the route and iternary, but no voice prompt preview. Maybe I should read the manual. The other thing I found is that I cannot see the address of the point of interest. I searched for Blockbuster and a bunch of them came out. The only difference I see the distance from origin. It won't let me see the address.

I will play with some more and use it to navigate home tonight.

Played with a little yesterday on the way home. It takes a while to fix your location if you are driving on the freeway. The navigate map doesn't show any street names. There are plenty of spaces on the map to display them, but it doesn't. Unlike Telenav, the voice prompt does not pronounce the street names. :( It just tells you to turn left in 0.2 miles, turn right here, you get the idea...

Another thing I found different than Telenav is that it realized that you went off route very quickly. On Telenav, sometime it took 1/4 to 1/2 mile before it realizes it. With MQ navigator, it started to re-calculate route about 100 to 200 feet after I passed the intersection. On a few occassions, it even told me to do a U turn at the next cross street. The voice prompt said, "It may be safe to do a U turn here" or something similar. I don't remember ever seen Telenav did that.

I still found the lack of addresses showing on the POI search extremely annoying. I was really trying to go to a Blockbuster video, but I have no idea which of the 5 or 6 Blockbusters showing up is the one I want to go to. Is it the 1.3 miles or the 1.4 mile or the 1.5 mile is the one I need to return my movie to? I guess it would be useful if I just want to search for ANY blockbuster.

UPDATE: I found that I can get the address, phone, and description of the business by clicking and select "Details". This is nice, but I still wish they would display those on the search result screen. They made the font so big, they could have fit the address in the same space if the font is smaller. Maybe it was design for phone with smaller screen or lower resolution. But on the good side, it is very easy to read while driving... not that I recommand you play with the phone while driving! :p

Really usefull feedback. Thanks

In MapQuest Navigator to view the addresses in the POI, highlight one of the desired POI xxx8211; click the menu button xxx8211; click details.

~MrKyoo

Hehe thanks. I found that out and then saw your post. It is quite nice now that I can see the details including phone number.

I tested the MQ navigator some more yesterday and I found out why it offers so many U turns as a direction prompt when you go off the route. It seems like the software does not just download the route alone but also the streets around the route. This is also explained in the user guide which I read yesterday. This is why the re-route is so fast. Whenever I miss a turn, it knows really quick and tries to turn me around without having to download more data. This way, you can still get minor re-route direction even if you don't get any wireless signal out in the middle of somewhere. Where in Telenav, if I miss a turn, it does a full re-route and download data using my current location to recalculate route.

The MQ's way of doing the minor re-route may be a good idea if I am in some place that doesn't get wireless often, but not good for me in LA. What happens to me is that if I purposely go off route to take a short cut, I get about a dozen of U turns prompts trying to get me to turn around at every street. When Telenav did the full reroute, it is smart enough to know that I am running parallel to the freeway, and it will tell me to take the next entrance back to the freeway. It is not the case with MQ navigator. If I exit at Street A and head toward Street B freeway entrance, it will keep trying to turn me around back to Street A to enter the freeway again.

Also there seems to be a side effect of loading the streets around the freeway to do fast re-route. Very often, I would be driving on the freeway 65 to 70 mph and it would, somehow, thinks I teleported to a street next to the freeway. It would try to re-route me back to the freeway. This could be the result of that the freeway was recently expanded and added 2 more lanes, or because GPS data was not very accurate at some places, but it never happened on Telenav. It is very annoying when I am in the middle of the freeway and it tries to tell me to bare left, turn right, make U turn to get back on the freeway every 5 mintues.

i have tried it and like it pretty well i too notice the "going on the offramps" thing too but ignore it as a very minor glitch occasionally... the part i hate the most is.. when using navigator my phone itself becomes useless as a phone as all my calls go directly to voicemail. i like how after it tells you to u-turn that it will after a couple of minutes reconfigure your route.
However i am afraid how much it will cost to use after the 90 day trial period

Would love to try this program out,but after its completing the installation and it starts to register,it keeps popping up "Network Timeout. Please check your network settings"
But my network is running just fine. Any way to solve this?

++EDIT++

Nevermind,popped the battery out,working just fine.
Havnt gotten the chance to test it with the GPS.As far as POI's go,its defenitely ahead of Telenav and Wayfinder for me.It seems like everytime i try to look for a business with BIZ FINDER on TN,it keeps telling me there are no searches within 15 mi. and then just stops searching! With MQ i enter the same information and I get exactly the result im looking for.

Non-GPS directions with Telenav are so beyond me.It sends me to these completely OUT of the way streets,which i KNOW take much more time to travel through then the ways i usually go.
Have tried "Fastest Route","Shortest Route","Prefer Streets-Highways" and it still sends me these BIZARRE directions

With Mapquest, they make the route's MUCH simpler.
A factor to this though might also be because I have used the MapQuest site quite often in the past to get directions, so having it integrated on my phone just makes sense now.


So far its ahead of the game.
Hopefully I will get to try it out with my puck tomorrow when i head upstate.
Get a better idea of how the voice commands compare and the rerouting.