[nobody7290]

I thought, what I need is simple, but, it turns out, it is not:
- I want a real Sat nav, I dont care if online or offline
- I want a service without ads, without social networking etc.
- I want to pay a monthly price for the Usage
- I want Map coverage in the whole world (at least: Europe +US)
- I live in Europe/Germany
- I have a 9700

now, is there any navigation software I can just go and buy ?
seems, there is none.

anyone here with a good idea/link ?
thanks.

[aiharkness]

Wirelessly posted

My opinion: mapping and navigation software on smartphones is not meant to replace a dedicated gps unit. If that is what you are really looking for in terms of features and functions, I don't believe the software exists for blackberry.

But, have you browsed down through the gps/mapping forum to see what has been discussed wrt to your issues?

[nobody7290]

There is software, but,
The manufacturer refuses to sell because I am in europe, or they only sell it rebranded via a mobile provider.
Examples: telmap or telenav.
(Telenav would be ok, but this is not sold in my country, only US)


Most other have only europe maps.
Then you have strange licensing like only for 1 device, you can change one time but next time you have to buy a new license.
Or, the services are bundled with ads.

I googled myself to death

[Dubdub]

Check the yellow sticky at the top of this section. There are reviews of most of the BB GPS apps. There are one or two stand alone apps, but they are expensive and I do not know their coverage areas or how easily you can update them.

However, in your situation, I would highly recommend a stand alone GPS device which is not dependent upon a cell connection and is easily updated. If you go with one on your BB, the map app would usually depend upon having a cell signal since, in most cases, only sections of the map are downloaded as needed, not stored on the device.

[nobody7290]

Dubdub,
Thanks, but, I want something for the BB.
If i am somewhere, i have internet, its unlikely, i go somewhere else.
And, i do not want to carry another item with me.

[Dubdub]

Keep in mind, if you travel, you may not have BB Internet access everywhere you go.

I can understand your desire for just one device, but IMHO, there is not a one device for every situation solution. it may be good for one place and not so good for another.

[nobody7290]

right, I know that internet is not everywhere, therefore I do not go to those places, or if it accidentally happens, I leave.

Now in a second attempt I downloaded a demo version of Telenav, dont know, why it worked this time - the first time it recognized my BB as a 9700 connected to T-mobile, and asked for a 10digit phone number.
This time, It did not recognize the device, and I was able to manually choose a download for the 9700.
But: Maps for USA are missing - only Europe.

I gonna stay with BB-Maps.
Coverage: worldwide
Datausage: minimal
Price: 0
no voice directions, no automatic route recalulation. But, I have a map everywhere I go.

[Dubdub]

Same with GoogleMaps

[nobody7290]

Google maps uses more data then BB-maps (Bitmap maps instead of vector based information - please correct me if this is wrong).
Google does not tell you what they do with the data gathered from you - Rim doesnt also, but since their business is not advertising centered my trust in Rim is greater.

Google is much better in finding wrong spelled addresses. This is something which should be improved, also POIs are unknown to BB-maps.

[BUC]

I understand (a little) your paranoia with google, but I have Google Maps and I am not tied to use any of their products (I have a gmail which I only use for latitude, that most of the time stay off)...
On the other hand, Google Maps is a very very superior software than BB maps, even so that I uninstalled the later.

Having to allow all interactions with the app is a bit suspicious but what exactly do you think its the use they give to them?

I rather lose I little privacy in exchange of whats arguable the best app for any BB...

Street View, Navigation, Latitude (I share this only with family), Layers and now with terrain view and more...
BB map its very archaic. period.

[nobody7290]

My data plan is limited to Germany (which is a rather small place). If I travel somethere else I have to pay romaing charges of about $1.50/MB (not long ago, it was $10/MB). I could add an international plan, but that will be $50/Month, which makes only sense If I would do international travel every month.

BBmaps has the advantage of less data usage, and I think it is faster when I do things like zoom or pan.

Otherwise, yes, google maps is nicer.

Regarding the paranoia, I cant give you a good reason. The worst scenario would be that the data or the computing platform availible to google gets in the hand of some bad guys or even worse, the governement.

I love the Blackberry Enterprise solution, because all my (mobile) information stays at my office, at a place under my control, and not in some Ad-sponsored cloud, which might vanish in a black hole or is open to everybody thanks to some programming error.

[BUC]

You are right. Well I can't say how much data BB maps used but I just made a little test.

When I first start google maps (no matter the view) if its already preloaded in ram it will use 20 kb
When I swipe the map to a location not in cache it will consume:
- Satellite view: 289kb
- map view: 102kb

And if I zoom out so it will have to render the whole screen:

- satellite view. 376
- map view. 455 (not sure why)

Anyway this is just a random test that show how big the data use happens in just 5 seconds of map.