[midazolam]

Hi everyone.
I wanted to ask if we can use GPS coordinates and home addresses to get a route information on MMI GPS devices?
As this is not possible with the Google maps on android.

[vibbs]

Originally Posted by amalji

Point 1 ( phone going out of the car ) - silly, not at all an issue
Point 2 ( alerts becoming a nuisance ) - again not valid especially on today's android phones. It silently handles alerts without popups
Point 3 ( network range ) - it's an issue on certain parts of the country. But, in the last one year, I've never been caught without maps . so Google maps does seem to do the caching intelligently.

In addition, no maps can ever give the kind of detail that a Google maps
can especially in rural areas.

Agreed 100%.

But even if the points are valid google maps still trumps.
Get a dedicated tab. You get galaxy tab 2 for close to 16k. Other makes even cheaper.



So, point no 1 doesnt happen.

Ditto with point no 2. Get a dedicated sim with the cheapest rental and 3g connection. Or turn your phone into wireless hotspot and connect the tab to net through that. (no need to spend on additional sim)

Install map my India sygic maps as standby for cases where u may run out of signal. Or cache maps of such areas beforehand. You ll not get navigation, but you do have the maps.

Plus not everytime you need the maps. On those occasion you can probably find a way to use the tab as an augment to the in car entertainment system. A storage option may be?

[mpksuhas]

Originally Posted by midazolam

Hi everyone.
I wanted to ask if we can use GPS coordinates and home addresses to get a route information on MMI GPS devices?
As this is not possible with the Google maps on android.

Yes it is possible with sygic MMI android application

[iVento]

Originally Posted by msdivy

Garmin has launched marketing campaign highlighting the benefits of PND.

Good to know that the Navigator market is getting hotter in India.
I use Sygic & it is serving me very well.
Just got an update last week.

[ampere]

Finally the desktop versions of new Google maps get the all too important multi-point routing much like the old one. Good they fixed this basic goof-up.

[Fillmore]

Originally Posted by midazolam

Hi everyone.
I wanted to ask if we can use GPS coordinates and home addresses to get a route information on MMI GPS devices?
As this is not possible with the Google maps on android.

Both are possible on Android Google Maps.

1. Search by Lat,lon : In the search box just enter the lat lon
eg: 12.929489,77.615079

2. Searching for Address i found Google Maps to bring up the best results and the fastest. Ps: I compared only with Sygic, and was not impressed by the latter.

[srikanthp3]

I have been using both PNDs (MMI + Garmin) and Google Maps for years.The one thign to be scared about with Google Maps is what my family calls "Google Map roads", which are small, frequently unpassable by cars, but those that it thinks are perfectly navigable. This is because a lot of it crowd-sourced, and people who put mark the roads dont know the difference between a 30' and 60', and whats speeds it can handle (which are items in MapMaker).

Heres where PNDs score:

1. Take you through roads that can handle cars
2. No heating issues, will keep running
3. Single-function device, so you dont get interrupted by calls (which can still interrupt phone navigation)
4. Navigation in remote places

Heres where Google Maps scores:

1. Uptodate maps, keeps getting updated constantly
2. Traffic info is still useful when planning, if I need to go to the station, I can look that up and decide what route to take
3. Far more accurate ETAs to destinations, which is not dependent on road max speeds (PNDs wont calculate more than 80kmph on highways, even if you could more - their ETA update is also slow)
4. Single device to carry around, and if you need to navigate while walking, what better than your phone.

Other than that, today, despite the silly arguments over Android market share and local knowledge, both PNDs and Google Maps have made huge strides. I definitely find Google Maps today to be on par or better in terms of routing.

Again Garmin is much better in the US, in India native maps are iffy, MMI ones seem to perform better on the MMI devices. Heard though that Satguide is pathetic, cant confirm.

[binand]

Originally Posted by srikanthp3

Other than that, today, despite the silly arguments over Android market share and local knowledge, both PNDs and Google Maps have made huge strides. I definitely find Google Maps today to be on par or better in terms of routing.

I think the point of the argument is this: Given that several people already own a mobile phone that can also do maps & navigation, will they spend additional $$$ on purchasing a PND, or is their mobile "good enough" for them?

[srikanthp3]

Originally Posted by binand

I think the point of the argument is this: Given that several people already own a mobile phone that can also do maps & navigation, will they spend additional $$$ on purchasing a PND, or is their mobile "good enough" for them?

Hmm...a via media then would be something like Sygic with MMI maps which is now available for free on Google Play Store (https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...aura_mmi&hl=en).

Another note of caution on MMI devices - they are China-made, and the quality is poor compared to say a Garmin. Once my screen broke on its own, and the next time stopped charging.

Also, you use MMI maps with Garmin, you'll have to load it in the SD card, and there is a definite lag when using that, as compared to the one loaded in the main memory.

[Arch-Angel]

Currently, i am using Gmaps and sygic mmi application on my phone. For city based driving, i use the gmaps since it has far more accurate information regarding traffic and routes. For out of city travel or driving, mmi comes into play.
One annoying thing many users of google maps may have found is that it sometimes takes one through bad roads or sometimes, roads so narrow that the orvms will touch the sides of adjoinig buildings or lamp posts.

[DerAlte]

Got a chance to simultaneously compare Google maps v/s MMI maps (Sygic app on Android) over the last 2 weeks deep in rural India. That is where the failings show up!

I was in rural Bihar, near Madhubani. The village I had to go to - Koilakh - is fairly well known. It appears on Google Maps as a dot near SH52 - BUT WITH NO ROAD LEADING TO IT! :O A local guided me to the turn-off from the State highway (near Rampatti) - to a smooth though narrow road, partly concrete, partly tar. Smooth as a baby's bottom, as they say. No potholes, no 'metalled' stretches, no mud stretches. Decent traffic - anything from 2 wheels to 6 wheels. Just a nice narrow rural road. My jaw hit the floor when I drove on this road - I am used to barely-existent rural roads in most parts of Karnataka etc. Yet this - in Bihar of all the states? I am VERY impressed. (I went by NH104 to Nepal from near Madhubani. 40' wide moonscape for 30Km! Will describe that horror some other day)

So this had me piqued. I had searched for Koilakh on MMI maps, had drawn a blank. Then I had searched and found it on Google maps. But asking Google baba for the route was leaving me in the middle of the State highway in the general longitude of the village about 5Km away. When I reached the place, I checked again on MMI map. Lo and behold - the village is very much there, and so is the road leading to it. I can touch the road and it highlights the road tells me where it is going (wrongly says 'Madhubani District' though) Yet, neither does the place show up in search, nor does it reckon with the road in finding a route. That left me flummoxed. Didn't have my Garmin unit with me this time - must check in it whether that road exists or not, and whether I can navigate to that village.

Imagine. If this is the state of mapping of India, one can't be sure if one can rely on these maps when one really needs it - in places where one doesn't find anyone walking on the road after 8PM. And yet we are overjoyed at finding our destination in cities - where one can find someone to ask at all hours??? We must be deluding ourselves!

In all my travels in other countries, I have never found roads missing in their maps. Even roads that, as @Arch-Angel describes, "so narrow that the orvms will touch the sides of adjoining buildings or lamp posts" (plenty of these in Europe)!!!

[binand]

Originally Posted by DerAlte

Imagine. If this is the state of mapping of India, one can't be sure if one can rely on these maps when one really needs it - in places where one doesn't find anyone walking on the road after 8PM. And yet we are overjoyed at finding our destination in cities - where one can find someone to ask at all hours??? We must be deluding ourselves!

Survey of India is the only agency allowed to conduct cartography in India. It is illegal for anybody else to do so. Presumably they have not come round to mapping the road you took.

(The road you mention is visible in Google's satellite view but not in the map view.)

[amalji]

In other states I'm not too sure. But, in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, google maps is much better than any offline navigation systems in having roads covered on all kinds of terrain.

The mapmyindia and garmin offline maps at times completely misses some of the main roads in Kerala!

[anuragn]

I use both, Google as well as Sygic maps on my Android device. But as DerAtle has pointed out, you cannot depend on it when you need it the most. Thats it!
To give an example of how bad Google could be: I once invited a friend to my new house and texted him the coordinates from gmaps application. My house is situated very near to a highway in a prominent locality of Navi Mumbai. But my friend missed the exit road from highway because google showed no road there and instead took him beyond and showed some imaginary road. And had he followed it blindly, his car would have fallen in the creek . And its not funny, because it was night time and was raining heavily.
In short, for India, these are only good enough for playing map-map or showing off to others

[HillMan]

If you have not tried Waze. You should try it. The good thing on Waze is, it has now updated with Google maps. Where it shines is that it will show you clear roads and dotted lines. Dotted roads are the ones that has not been driven by a Wazer.

The ETA calculation is the best I have seen on Waze, atleast in Bangalore.

The more the people using Waze, the better will be the map. This is because it is community driven and updates every week with map changes.