NAVIGON AG

There are plenty of weather apps, and lots of navigation apps, but there are few apps that allow you to plan a road trip taking current conditions or forecasts into consideration. Road Trip Weather does that. The US $0.99 app allows you to input your current location or starting point, a mid-point on your trip, and your destination. After some quick calculations, a map will show your route and some color codes will show good weather, bad weather, and weather that is worth noting. If you click on a point on the map, you'll get some details about conditions. This app is not a navigation app, just a quick way to get an idea what to expect. You can set it for a start time on the current day, the next day, or the following day. I found the information accurate and a good place to turn if you are planning a road trip. The app points out some issues I'd love to see others tackle. Most navigation apps have no built in weather. Both Garmin and Navigon, for example, do have some bare bones weather data, but I think there is a need for more information in navigation apps. Why can't a severe thunderstorm that crosses an interstate I'm on get noted? How about tornado warnings along my route? Many nav apps include traffic warnings, but in-depth weather warnings don't seem to be widely available. Road Trip Weather is a nice little app, that serves a good purpose. The app is universal, and works fine on any iOS device and requires iOS 5.0 or later. Some screen shots are below. Read More

During December and January, The Unofficial Apple Weblog is soliciting your nominations and votes for the best products for Mac, iPhone/iPod touch, and iPad. We'll start with nominations in a category, and then tally your votes for the top-nominated products a few days later. The winner in each category receives the highly-coveted title of TUAW Best of 2011. Today's category for nominations in the TUAW Best of 2011 awards is iPhone navigation apps. These are the apps that give you turn-by-turn directions as you make your way around town, and they've been getting better as time goes by. Perhaps you are a fan of the free crowdsourced nab app Waze, which has a 4 out of 5 star rating on the App Store with over 29,000 user reviews. Or maybe you love the TomTom U.S.A. app ($39.99) with its ability to guide you with celebrity voices (Homer Simpson, anyone?). GPS by TeleNav is another popular and free navigation app, and there's always the MotionX GPS Drive app ($0.99, with one year of Voice Guidance for $9.99). Maybe you're a geocacher who doesn't care about getting from point A to point B, but you do want to find all of the caches in your area with the official Geocaching app ($9.99). And then there's always Navigon, with a host of features like in-app purchases of Zagat information. TUAW wants to hear from you -- what's your favorite iPhone navigation app? Leave your nomination in the comments below. Voting will start soon! Nominations close at 11:59 PM ET on December 22, 2011. Read More

NAVIGON updated its Windows Phone 7 app, allowing users to download maps by state, while also including other features to the mix. Here’s what’s new: In related news, NAVIGON and its parent company Garmin are slashing down prices of their onboard navigation apps and Traffic Live in-app purchases across platforms by up to 40% for the holidays until January 5: NAVIGON for Android USA & Canada ($39.99 instead of $49.99) NAVIGON for Android USA ($29.99 instead of $39.99) NAVIGON for Android Traffic Live in-app purchase ($14.99 instead of $19.99) NAVIGON for iPhone USA & Canada ($38.99 instead of $59.99) NAVIGON for iPhone USA ($29.99 instead of $49.99) NAVIGON for iPhone MyRegion ($19.99 instead of $29.99) NAVIGON for iPhone Traffic Live in-app purchase ($14.99 instead of $19.99) Garmin StreetPilot iPhone USA & Canada ($49.99 instead of $59.99) Garmin StreetPilot iPhone USA ($39.99 instead of $49.99) Garmin StreetPilot iPhone Traffic ($14.99 instead of $99.99) NAVIGON for Windows Phone 7 (USA: $29.99 instead of $49.99) Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis. Read More

Posted 11/18/2011 at 4:30pm | by J Keirn-Swanson We're moving into the thick of the holiday season with Thanksgiving just around the corner, so get your fat pants ready. But before you can find yourself in that sweet couch food-coma, you're gonna have to make it to your dinner destination, and we've got some cranberry-jam-sweet deals on apps this week. Okay, so this one you'll want to use before you tuck in. Getting to Grandma's house for the big holiday feast means either some creative back road driving or getting up at 3am before everyone else is on the road. CoPilot Live wants to make things easier for you with their maps and real-time traffic condition updates. Find your fastest route, and do it cheaper with 50% off the usual price. USA maps for only a tenner and the full North America down from 25 bucks to $12.99. Tighter belt? Go CoPilot Live Standard for just $2.99 instead of $4.99. Navigon's throwing their nearly half-price hat into the ring as well for the holidays, with NAVIGON USA down from $49.99 to $29.99 and their North American variant down from $59.99 to $39.99. With spoken announcements of turns, route planning, day and night modes and more, it's a full on competition with CoPilot for best map app and best navigation deals. While you're trying a back road to avoid all the congestion, your kids are in the backseat taking turns at this traffic flow game. You've got cars, buses, and public transportation trains rolling through and it's up to you to keep it all moving. While you're avoiding the speed traps, they'll be avoiding full on collisions. Plus, it's totally free, so you save a buck on their entertainment. In the old days, you'd navigate celestially. We've got GPS, but that doesn't mean we can't appreciate heavenly bodies. So you made it, you've eaten, you're stuffed. Whether or not the moon is as fat around as you after two plates of mashed potatoes we can't say, but we can tell you that this gorgeous app is on a diet, swinging way down from $9.99 to just a measly $0.99. Now that's a nice peaceful app after the hectic drive. Tags: Read More

NAVIGON launched the second generation of its iPhone navigation app, which “completely redefines core elements of iPhone navigation,” including a new map management function and an in app purchase option for quarterly map updates. As a result, users will be able to choose which map regions to download to their device, thus saving some storage space of their iPhone. Moreover, separating the app and maps also simplifies future updates, as users can update the app (about 40MB) without reinstalling the maps multiple times. For instance, users who own the USA version can pick the states they want immediately and download additional regions at a later time. NAVIGON 2.0 is also the first iPhone navigation app to offer quarterly map updates. The FreshMaps service uses map and POI database from NAVTEQ to ensure the most accurate data possible. In addition, this release of NAVIGON also comes with some UI improvements. It is now possible to access the start screen during navigation to enter a new address without having to first stop the current route. Furthermore, NAVIGON separated the app options into two menus, differentiating between settings and actions. The NAVIGON 2.0 upgrade is available at no cost for all existing customers. NAVIGON’s North American apps and selected in app purchases are up to $25 off until November 30, 2011. NAVIGON North America ($39.99 instead of $59.99) [iTunes link] NAVIGON USA ($29.99 instead of $49.99) [iTunes link] NAVIGON Canada ($29.99 instead of $49.99) [iTunes link] NAVIGON East, Central or West ($19.99 instead of $29.99) Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, Read More

Updated to include force-quit fix for missing favorites. If you're already a Navigon GPS app owner you'll find a significant free update at the app store today. If you haven't chosen a GPS navigation solution yet, Navigon has given you good reason to check the product out. Navigon 2.0 is a complete rethink of the app, with new GUI elements, and the ability to selectively download just the states you want maps for. Never get to the West coast? Save space by not putting those maps on your iPhone at all. Users of the North America and USA versions in particular will benefit, so map storage can be measured in megabytes rather than gigabytes. Even owners of the regional versions can save a lot of storage space. The result is a lot of extra room on your iPhone or iPad for music, movies, or apps. Even better for fence sitters, Navigon has reduced the cost of the North America version to US$39.00 until November 30, which is $20.00 off. Navigon USA drops $20.00 to $29.99. Navigon Canada gets a a $20.00 discount too, so it's also $29.99. The regional US apps drop by ten dollars to $19.99. The new user interface is much easier to use, allowing you to switch between different pages with animated menus and new multi-touch gestures. It is now possible to access the start screen during navigation to enter a new address without having to first stop the current route. In addition, NAVIGON separated the app options into two menus, differentiating between settings and actions. The new settings menu allows users to easily customize functions and change preferences, for example when to receive speed warnings, while the new Actions menu lets you use functions that are needed while navigating such as points of interest search and social network postings. NAVIGON 2.0 for iPhone also has a new look that displays the map in the background even when accessing menu pages. Furthermore, it is very easy to rotate and zoom maps in any direction when in 3D mode and tap points of interest on the map to instantly add them to a route. When you update the app you'll get a first time user page that asks what states you want to download. You can download them all, or be selective. I downloaded Arizona and a couple of surrounding states I travel to, and that totaled about 100 Read More

Since its release, Navigon’s MobileNavigator has been at the forefront of the Navigation category in Apple’s iOS App Store. It was the first of the name brand apps to be released for the iPhone, and it has stayed ahead of the pack, at least as far as features were concerned, ever since. MobileNavigator has also lead in another respect that isn’t so positive- size. The country and continent versions of the app come in well over the competition, which aren’t exactly small themselves. Sure, you’ve got all of those wonderful features, but when you only have 8 or 16 GB of space on your iOS device, giving up over 2 GB to one app is a hard pill to swallow. Well, Navigon is out in front of the pack again with their latest upgrade to version 2.0 of MobileNavigator. Now, you can add or subtract individual state maps at will so that you only carry what you need in memory at any given time. This also clears the way for easier iCloud backups of MobileNavigator, since the map database no longer clutters up your backup file. I’m usually carrying 2-4 GPS apps on my 32 GB iPhone at any given time, so this update is big news for me. Now, if other navigation app developers will follow suit, then I will be a VERY happy man. The app update, which is free for existing users, is already available in the App Store. Check out the press release below for the details, including the rest of the new additions in MobileNavigator 2.0. Navigon’s MobileNavigator North America can be found in the App Store here. The Next Generation of Onboard Navigation Apps: NAVIGON 2.0 for iPhone Lets You Download Maps by State Map Management Capabilities Prolong Internal Phone Storage, New Version also Includes an Option for Quarterly Map Updates and a New User Interface Hamburg, Germany, November 17, 2011—NAVIGON GmbH, a leading provider of mobile phone onboard navigation, today launched the second generation of its award-winning iPhone navigation app, NAVIGON 2.0 for iPhone. The new version completely redefines core elements of iPhone navigation, including a new and unique map management function and an in app purchase option for quarterly map updates, both not found in any other onboard navigation app. Also included is a very simple and intuitive user interface. Existing NAVIGON for iPhone users receive the update to the new version at Read More

It's much harder to put together a 5 Apps post for the Zombie Apocalypse than you might think. Do we focus on serious topics like first aid, or do we try to inject a little humor like Plants vs. Zombies for "training skills"? In the end, we came to the conclusion that this was simply too complex a topic to limit to just five app titles. We give you five app topics instead -- and we've skipped the entertainment component. In that spirit of deadly serious preparedness training, we give you "5 App Categories for the Zombie Apocalypse." First Aid The app store is brimming with first aid applications. We liked the free Know-it-All First Aid refresher app, which seems to have plenty of good reviews and cover the basics. Other well-reviewed apps included Pocket First Aid and CPR ($3.99), and Emergency First Aid & Treatment Guide ($0.99). Emergency health response is a vital component of survival during the apocalypse. Maps During the Zombie Apocalypse, you'll want access to a navigation application that uses cached maps. These apps tend to be quite large (typically over a gigabyte) but when the zombies are after you and the Internet is dead, cached information may be a lifesaver. We recommend Navigon (various prices based on region) and TomTom (ditto). Survival manuals The App Store is home to any number of survival manuals. You may wish to check out iSurvival ($1.99), iSurvive ($1.99), the Army Ranger handbook ($2.99), Wilderness Survival ($3.99), or Survive It ($1.99). TUAW recommends against Zombie Apocalypse-specific titles (e.g. Zombie Apocalypse Manual, $0.99) as they do not provide as balanced coverage as the general topic apps. Flashlight apps There are a bajillion free flashlight apps on the App Store, many of them that can enable your built-in LED like this one. Flashlights can help you find your way through the moonless night as you run across the gravel pits. Be careful though. They can draw more attention to you by the hordes of the undead, who can see just as well as the living (especially when their glazed, bleeding eyes chance upon warm prey). You can use a free Safety Flasher to signal your compatriots once you know they haven't been infected. TUAW recommends against picking up multitool versions of flashlight apps. You don't want to be measuring shelves or using a level at the same time you're fleeing for your life. Read More

By Rob LeFebvre on September 6th, 2011 GPS app provider NAVIGON announces a significant update cum redefinition of their already popular GPS apps. NAVIGON AG, one of the big navigation companies out there, announced this past THursday not just an update, but a full re-definition of their smartphone navigation software, available for the iPhone and other smartphone platforms, including Android (now) and Windows Phone 7 (later this year). “Over the last two years, we’ve continuously added new features to our navigation apps, transforming them into the most feature-rich smartphone GPS apps available,” said Gerhard Mayr, NAVIGON vice-president of worldwide mobile phones and new markets. “For our new generation of apps, we went back to the drawing board to see how we could elevate smartphone navigation to the next level. Feedback from our users suggests that a better way to manage and update maps and a more intuitive user interface are top priorities.” Sounds good, right? What does it boil down to? Here’s what we’re seeing: New map management and update abilities are in the update, allowing users to download regional maps on the fly. This could allow users to have, say, only the maps of the states they travel in most, rather than an entire United States or pre-defined region sitting on their iPhone taking up space better spent on new ringtones. The maps themselves will be updated from NAVTEQ on a quarterly basis, ensuring the freshest maps available to users for a one-time fee, good for the lifetime of the software. The user interface has also been updated to more easily match the iOS environment in which it is running (or the platform on which it is running, if not iOS). In addition, NAVIGON includes a speed camera warning feature and a cockpit function that displays real-time driving data, allowing those enthusiasts to monitor their driving behaviors right from the app. NAVIGON AG was founded in 1991, and operates out of Hamburg, Germany. They were recently acquired by Garmin, and current offer smartphone apps for on-board navigation utility. The new update will be available free to current NAVIGON app users sometime this fall. $39.99 $59.99 Released: 2009-07-22 :: Category: Navigation Read More

I've looked at Where To? before and found it to be a handy, easy to use local guide when I'm looking for anything from Art Galleries to the Zoo. It has info on nearby food, shopping, health care and attractions. The latest version of this app has added improvements to the animations in augmented reality mode, a new direction indicator, and support for Google Earth. It has connectivity to the Motion X GPS program for directions in addition to the existing TomTom and Navigon apps. Where To? also adds store hours when provided by a business. I found that many entries had that information. There's no shortage of these local info apps, and I've always liked Around Me which has some similar capabilities but without the links to nav apps. I like the improvements in this version of the Where To? app. It is an 11 MB download, works in 10 different languages and requires iOS 3.0 or later. I think it's a worthwhile addition to your basket of travel and information apps. Check the gallery for some screen shots. Where To? is available for US$2.99 from the App Store, but is on sale for $0.99 until Sunday August 21. Read More