TeleNav launches standalone GPS device, shoots you with a Shotgun

 

Telenav Shotgun GPS

2-way connected GPS may be the wave of the future, but it still have a ways to go.

The Dash Express which became fairly popular is being discontinued and Dash is going into the software business only. This after the company reduced the price from $600 to $300.

The Dash at least would base traffic on other Dash units on the road. I see no evidence that the Shotgun does this. The site says there's incident reports for 50 traffic areas and flow reports for 31. That's not exactly great.

Magellan discontinued work on bringing out their connected GPS. Best Buy has their own brand of Insignia connected GPS, but they don't seem to be exactly flying off shelves.

Add to this the monthly fee is $12 a month, or $129 a year. Besides map updates in which they don't say how often they have updates, this doesn't seem to do much more than MSN Direct service which costs $130 for a lifetime.

Telenav isn't exactly a household word in North America either.

I had Telenav service on my cell phone and while I think they were the best of the cell phone services I tested, and had more poi's than my Garmin, the routing was often way off.

I would definitely wait before buying.

For a connected GPS to really work well, it would have to send traffic data between units like the Dash and be about as popular as Garmin here in North America.

Traffic data, INRIX

grush wrote:

For a connected GPS to really work well, it would have to send traffic data between units like the Dash and be about as popular as Garmin here in North America.

Thats what I was thinking. I don't know if you're familiar with INRIX, but they provide the traffic data feeds for this unit(and they are now also a provider for Garmin traffic feeds. If you've noticed traffic is better thats why.). They also use fleet information and soon to be Tomtom data. If you have a PDA phone Google for the free month of INRIX traffic, it is the most accurate traffic data on the market.

Now this unit, it is $300 so if you pay for data for three years you still come out ahead, unless you are right and routing is crap like on the Dash.

Btw, it also does a lot of other things.

re: Traffic Data, Inrix

I know that Inrix was providing traffic for Dash, and that they seemed to be pretty good.

I didn't know that Garmin was using them. As far as I know the traffic was being provided by Clear Channel, and on the newer units by Navteq. Of course there is also MSN Direct on the x80 units and XM Traffic on some of the older units.

I went to the Inrix website and Garmin is listed as one of their partners as is Microsoft and another is Clear Channel. I wonder if the MSN Direct and regular FM traffic is provided through them? I didn't see Navteq on the list, so not sure about them.

re: Traffic Data, Inrix

Inrix is supplying the data to Clear Channel for the new Garmin $60 lifetime FM program. I have certainly noticed much better and quicker traffic coverage now on mine with the new lifetime service.

The free Navteq ad supported lifetime on the new models is from Navteq's own data from what I have read. Also Clear Channel covers about 50% more cities than Navteq does. Tucson is one of the 30 largest cities in the US now but the Navteq traffic does not even cover it.

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Garmin Drive Smart 55 - Samsung Note 10 Smartphone with Google Maps & HERE Apps

INRIX is a Microsoft spin off.

The whole INRIX thing is interesting. It is a Microsoft spinnoff and like the Navteq map provider it has features that companies can buy. I have found that Garmin didn't go for zip codes because of the cost. The same thing goes for INRIX. INRIX can predict traffic based on history, but hasn't sold it to any PND manufactures that I'm aware of. It also can show traffic compared to normal, witch is very interesting as you can imagine.

re: traffic Data, Inrix

Thanks for clarifying that, rjrsw.

When you're receiving traffic data, the more areas covered definitely the better, especially if you live in one of those areas that's not covered.

I bought my 765T before I really knew what areas were covered, but it's kind of a moot point anyway as I rarely venture to the big cities. I just got it because when I do, I hate being stuck in traffic.

As an example, I was in Santa Cruz, CA years ago. It has a population I believe of about 55k and although I believe it is covered in some of the San Francisco/San Jose traffic areas, it is on the fringe and separated from the Bay Area by mountains and Highway 17 is the main route to the Silicon Valley. Highway 17 is just a nightmare during rush hour-a curvy, mountain road with people going too fast and then hitting patches of totally stopped traffic. Lots of accidents. But even having to go south towards Soquel and Aptos, you either have to take Highway 1 which is jammed, or Soquel Drive where you barely move at all.

It doesn't take that big of a city to have some big traffic problems.

I'm wondering if they will develop a traffic system based on cams from satellites that can cover much larger areas. The day if it ever comes, will be nice when you can be in rural areas and get notifications of slowdowns due to road construction, etc.

In the mean time, I'm hoping that Navteq will increase the number of areas covered.

re: INRIX Is A Microsofft Spin Off.

Thanks for the info, Vic.

It makes me a little more apprehensive about the service knowing Microsoft is behind it.

INRIX is a privately held corporation never a part of Microsoft

grush wrote:

Thanks for the info, Vic.

It makes me a little more apprehensive about the service knowing Microsoft is behind it.

Never was part of the Microsoft Company.

"INRIX is a privately held corporation based in the Seattle area and was founded in July, 2004 by former Microsoft executives Bryan Mistele and Craig Chapman."

http://www.inrix.com/pressrelease.asp?ID=32

http://www.inrix.com/pressrelease.asp?ID=1

http://www.inrix.com/pressrelease.asp?ID=3

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Garmin Drive Smart 55 - Samsung Note 10 Smartphone with Google Maps & HERE Apps

Inrix

rjrsw wrote:

Never was part of the Microsoft Company.

"INRIX is a privately held corporation based in the Seattle area and was founded in July, 2004 by former Microsoft executives Bryan Mistele and Craig Chapman."

Thanks for the info rjrsw.

First Review Is In

This is the first review I've seen:

http://www.gpsreview.net/telenav-shotgun/

Correction.

rjrsw wrote:
grush wrote:

Thanks for the info, Vic.

It makes me a little more apprehensive about the service knowing Microsoft is behind it.

Never was part of the Microsoft Company.

"INRIX is a privately held corporation based in the Seattle area and was founded in July, 2004 by former Microsoft executives Bryan Mistele and Craig Chapman."

http://www.inrix.com/pressrelease.asp?ID=32

http://www.inrix.com/pressrelease.asp?ID=1

http://www.inrix.com/pressrelease.asp?ID=3

I stand corrected, but:

"Inrix plans to rollout its traffic services built from Microsoft Research technology across the country by the end of this year."

grush, how does that make you feel?

re: Correction

VicMatson wrote:

I stand corrected, but:

"Inrix plans to rollout its traffic services built from Microsoft Research technology across the country by the end of this year."

grush, how does that make you feel?

I don't know how that makes me feel. It sounds like MS is licensing Inrix technology for use on it's own devices.

They kind of seem in bed together. Is an MS buyout of Inrix in the near future?

This sounds cool! i hope it

This sounds cool! i hope it will become free.

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hiahia

I love the Shotgun from

I love the Shotgun from Telenav. Their POI database is HUGE. I heard from a gps blog that they now have over 11 million POI. Not to mention that for the most recent update, you can now write/view reviews for the POI that you just visited, directly on the device, which I personally find very helpful.