TeleNav and the HTC Advantage save the day

Yesterday was a typically busy day with the added excitement of the delivery of the HP 2710p Tablet PC that I am evaluating.  I raced home mid-day to find that FedEx wouldn't leave the HP because there was no one to sign for it.  The tag he left said I could pick it up after 3 pm at the FedEx depot.  I've been there a few times, it's a good ways from my house in a warehouse district. 

I jumped in my car, turned on TomTom since I didn't know the best way to get to FedEx and started to back out of my driveway when TomTom went dead.  It was totally unresponsive and I had nothing in the car to fit in that little reset hole so I was stuck.  Then I remembered the GPS enabled HTC Advantage sitting in the passenger seat (duly buckled up).  I have been testing the TeleNav service that works with the Advantage GPS but only on short trips where I knew exactly where I was going.  I fired up the Advantage and TeleNav, plugged in the FedEx depot address and off I went.

The first thing I noticed was how TeleNav plotted a totally different route than TomTom had prior to shutting down.  I wasn't familiar with this route at all but figured I'd trust the technology and headed out.  I cranked the Advantage volume up so I could hear the TeleNav voice as she guided me through my trip.  The voice prompts are much more enjoyable on the TeleNav when compared to the TomTom prompts.  TeleNav would dutifully tell me "in .3 miles turn left to West Gulf Bank Road".  The entire trip was prompted just right, not so often to be distracting but enough to make sure I was always in the correct position to make my next turn.  As we neared the FedEx depot, and TeleNav had brought me a back way with no traffic and quicker than the other way, the prompt said "turn right on Emmott Road and your destination is on the right".  The TeleNav route was much better than the one TomTom always calculated for this trip so I am very happy with this.  At certain points in the trip TeleNav also accessed traffic information and would have rerouted me had an impact on the current route been detected.

I am very impressed with the TeleNav service coupled with the HTC Advantage in the role of navigator.  The TeleNav service is not free ($10/ month) but I do believe it is worth every penny.  Note that the TeleNav service I am using is part of the HTC Advantage evaluation and I have not paid for it.

Comments

[Dave Zatz]

I dumped my Mio dedicated GPS about two weeks ago in favor of my Treo 750 and bluetooth GPS puck with Telenav. I like that they keep everything up to date on their end, though I'd prefer a device with builtin GPS (like yours) and a louder speaker phone. I'll try it out on my Blackjack one of these days to see if it's louder.