G-Map: I Love It

[everythingsmores]

I purchased the G-Map East app and I love it.
As with many things, a lot has to do with your expectations.
For 19.95 you have a right, perhaps, to deserve more than what this app provides, but I didn't go into the purchase with huge expectations.

Basically, the major thing I hated about the current Maps app was that it was difficult to use as a real Gps for three major reasons:

1. It didnt count down the miles and feet to the next turn
2. It didnt automatically recalculate a route if you missed a turn or were heading the wrong way
3. You had to hit the arrow (next) button to get to the next point in the directions.

G-Maps East solves all three of my most major aggravations regarding the existing maps function.
And so, for this reason, I love G-Maps and for me its money well spent.

I have a holder attached to the A/C vent in my car which houses my iphone (I use an aux cable to my car stereo to listen to Slacker Radio and Pandora, or the Ipod music I have stored), and now I can use and see the G-maps directions just as I would a regular Gps.

What it doesnt have:
Voice directions
Very detailed maps
As accurate directions as other gps apps

So, really, it depends on what you are looking for.
To me, when I saw the description of what it DID do, it was a no-brainer purchase.

[sleeks]

I purchased this today too and I was pretty impressed. A few shortfalls that could be addressed with updates would have me giving this 5 stars.

1) The app doesn't have the ability to override the auto lock. Unfortunately for me this is a big deal. I can't do auto lock of Never since I get my company email on my phone and the passcode/auto lock options are not as free after I turned on my work email. Adding this as an option would be helpful so I don't have to turn it back on every five minutes.

2) I wish that you could turn off the MPH display on the map. Its worthless it bounces around so much. But this isn't a big deal.

3) How about a mileage countdown of the total trip in addition to the segment.

4) I haven't found an easy way to review the total route prior to starting driving. Would be nice to see what route it planned for you and be able to review it easily. Google maps lets you do this easily by zooming out and dragging around. You can drag, but you cant zoom out far enough to get a quick overall look at the route.


Overall, these are minor points (except for the auto-lock...thats a big deal for me) and the app does a good job. If you don't like the route it calculates, you can enter waypoints to force it a certain way. It recalculates quickly and there are three view methods, its really nice to be able to keep your direction of travel as "up" the iphone.

I'm happy with the $20 I spent on this.

[everythingsmores]

Thanks Sleeks for the tip on the waypoints, I havent played with that yet.

[sleeks]

More info on the auto-lock issue:

First pic is my auto-lock settings on my phone. Note, no "Never"

">http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s129/sleeksb/autolock.jpg (http://s151.photobucket.com/albums/s129/sleeksb/?action=view&current=autolock.jpg)

Next image is a screen shot from one of the alarm clock apps which overrides the phones autolock.

">http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s129/sleeksb/autolock2.jpg (http://s151.photobucket.com/albums/s129/sleeksb/?action=view&current=autolock2.jpg)
The website of Xroad says that you should change your options to Never. I hope someone from Xroad views this to show you that not everyone has that available to them. I left feedback with Xroad as well, so hopefully that will be a future update.

[aknightstale41]

I love G- maps, the best app I bought so far. You guys make some good points with auto lock and the mph.
My minor issue is that the manual I downloaded from thier site says it has a night mode, but there is no such feature in this app, and what is "AI" in settings, I haven't figured that out.
But other then that this app works pretty darn good. I'm sure updates will be coming soon.
Easily worth the 20 bucks.

[Picazzo]

Looking great - for you guys and gals in U.S! ;)

[Napoleon_PhoneApart]

I know I've covered this in another post, but the free app xGPS 1.2 (http://xgpsdev.xwaves.net/) is due out in the next week or so on Cydia, and includes voice turn-by-turn navigation.

And Picazzo, I think it works in Denmark as well.

[redifrogger]

Napoleon

I've seen your posts about xGPS, but some of us don't want to jailbreak our phones. Anyone else want to chime in about g-Map. Looks good so far....

[CBRfanatic]

Napoleon

I've seen your posts about xGPS, but some of us don't want to jailbreak our phones. Anyone else want to chime in about g-Map. Looks good so far....

i have both xGPS and G-maps

While xGPS is nice, i dont like the huge database files you need in order to take the maps offline and that cripples it since you NEED a data connection to load the maps as you drive. What if you go through a mountain pass with no signal....no maps.

With G-map the WHOLE east coast is pre loaded so you dont need any kind of connection, a big plus in my eyes, for now atleast. Once xGPS updates to all those new features and voice turn by turn, i might switch over, hopefully someone makes a smaller east coast database file compatible with xGPS, since the download utility for xGPS takes FOREVER!

[everythingsmores]

Yeah, I use to Jailbreak my phone, but with the addition of the app store, I no longer feel the need to, or the desire to deal with the possible downsides and constant upgrading etc that was a headache in the past.
I'm sure there are good apps with Jailbreak, but there are SO many great ones at the App Store, that I dont want to bother with Jailbreaking anymore.

Sleeks, I've been trying to get an answer for you on your mysterious NEVER option not listed thing.
So far, no luck.

[Napoleon_PhoneApart]

i have both xGPS and G-maps

While xGPS is nice, i dont like the huge database files you need in order to take the maps offline and that cripples it since you NEED a data connection to load the maps as you drive. What if you go through a mountain pass with no signal....no maps.

With G-map the WHOLE east coast is pre loaded so you dont need any kind of connection, a big plus in my eyes, for now atleast. Once xGPS updates to all those new features and voice turn by turn, i might switch over, hopefully someone makes a smaller east coast database file compatible with xGPS, since the download utility for xGPS takes FOREVER!

I"d like to see the new v1.2 of xGPS, not the crippled version out on Cydia right now.

[Napoleon_PhoneApart]

Napoleon

I've seen your posts about xGPS, but some of us don't want to jailbreak our phones. Anyone else want to chime in about g-Map. Looks good so far....

I thought Picazzo was jailbroken...

[Bilal]

You need to understand that jailbreaking with Backgrounder gives you much better use of APP STORE apps. Say you want to use both pandora and g-maps at the same time, well you can.

The key to jailbreak is to limit yourself, only install sbsettings and backgrounder and keep everything else stock.
Couple other jb apps are dtunes(excellent download manager plus alternate ipod app), cycorder off course, etc.

[Napoleon_PhoneApart]

Not to mention copy & paste...:)

[sleeks]

Sleeks, I've been trying to get an answer for you on your mysterious NEVER option not listed thing.
So far, no luck.

Unless you are the developer of G-map, you don't need to be searching for me.

My IT department requires a passcode lock if I am getting my email on my phone. Its not something I turned on myself, the passcode was forced on me as I was activating my work email. Since a passcode is required, it also removes the "never" option from auto-lock. That keeps security as tight as possible. In other words, if someone stole it, they would have to keep using it every 5 minutes to keep it from shutting off. I have my passcode on 1 hour. So if the phone is asleep for an hour or more, you have to enter the passcode lock.

If someone stole it and auto-lock was never, they wouldn't have to worry about the phone going into sleep mode.

Anyway, as I said, its obviously easy enough for developers to get around this as some of the alarm clock apps have auto lock settings in them as I posted. If g-map incorporated that I would be a LOT happier with the app. As it stands now, I have touch it every 5 minutes or constantly wake it up. Sucks.

[Bilal]

Not to mention copy & paste...:)
Crap i forgot. I use hClipboard so much i forgot it was a jb feature.

[everythingsmores]

No problem Sleeks, I thought it was just a strange glitch and didn't realize the never option not being there was something that was instituted by Apple on purpose.

Hopefully the developer will solve that prob.

[Napoleon_PhoneApart]

Crap i forgot. I use hClipboard so much i forgot it was a jb feature.

Aha!

I love hClipboard...:)

[sleeks]

I love G- maps, the best app I bought so far. You guys make some good points with auto lock and the mph.
My minor issue is that the manual I downloaded from thier site says it has a night mode, but there is no such feature in this app, and what is "AI" in settings, I haven't figured that out.
But other then that this app works pretty darn good. I'm sure updates will be coming soon.
Easily worth the 20 bucks.

Night mode can be viewed if you go into the phone's settings and scroll down to the apps. The setting can be changed.