Been using a Nuvi for about 5 years, got a smart phone this weekend

I haven't found a way to do it, yet, I think they have to be converted.

The screen on my Smart Phone is quite a bit smaller than the Nuvi 660 so I still prefer the Nuvi. That makes it a mute point as far as I'm concerned. The GPSr in my phone is handy for quick reference when I'm walking or out some place I don't have the Nuvi. For the most part - I'm going to stay with Jill and my Nuvi.

Check out these apps, which may answer some of your wishes, and then some:

MapQuest

Trapster

Waze

(and of course, GasBuddy).

yes, this would be a useful feature on a smartphone

Even though I have a smart phone, I still use my Nuvi regularly. It is extremely easy to use and see while driving, and I don't have to screw around with starting apps and using the much finer touch screen on the phone.

Detailed traffic is still better on Google Maps though.

Even though I have a smart phone, I still use my Nuvi regularly. It is extremely easy to use and see while driving, and I don't have to screw around with starting apps and using the much finer touch screen on the phone.

Detailed traffic is still better on Google Maps though.

Traffic on the phone is great, but I still prefer a standalone GPS navigator for other functionality.

eat up a lot of your data allotment?

It depends on the application you are using for navigation. Some will cache the route and all needed segments, others use internally stored maps and still others need to be connected to constantly load the next map segment. In any event, using the GPS receiver is often a BIG drain on the battery.

I am not sure of the answer to your specific question, but there are other GPS apps that will allow downloading of POI files, and also have other advantages such as being able to download and save a map file for the entire country, rather than depending upon downloading small map tiles as you drive.

I have CoPilot Live USA on my Android phone, and TomTom has announced an Android app that is supposed to be available in October. Both of these will do what you want, and both of them also save a map for the entire country on the phone. (I have a 16GB SD card in my phone, and the CoPilot map for the entire US is only about 2GB, so storage space is not an issue.)

With best wishes,
- Tom -

Not if you use an app that allows you to download a map of the entire country using a WiFi connection to your computer, and save the map on the phone.

It *might* be an issue with Google Maps, which downloads small map tiles over the phone as you drive and caches them. If you normally stay close to home, it probably will not be a big impact on your data allotment.

With best wishes,
- Tom -

Congrats on your smartphone purchase!

As discussed numerous times on this website that even though the smartphone sounds like a tempting offer some of us are not ready to give up our NUVI's for various reasons.

Here are some of them:

The maps are not always on the phone hard drive so if you loose signal you are lost.

POI files cannot be copied to smartphone.

Traffic relies on being connected to the network and that is not always the case.

GPS chips on phones are battery hogs.

I have had a smartphone for a few years now and currently have a Droid X with unlimited data plan. I have tried the Google Maps app and it works great in certain situations like on foot or in a vehicle without any GPS available. It works OK but still cumbersome, complicated to use and harder to follow but do like the realistic views when navigating with it. Requires me to use Inrix as a second app for traffic.

After using Smartphones, a number of vehicle built in units and a few high end Garmins I would rate the three types as follows for preference and all around Navigation use:

1. The built in GM nav in my car.
2. The Garmin 3790LMT
3. The Smartphone apps

What happens when you get a phone call?

On my Droid X it switches to the call and the navigation and map ceases.

Just find a convenient parking spot, take your call and go on. Of course, most of us don't or wouldn't do that. But as a previous poster has noted, voice direction is suspended until your call is over. Much like using the bluetooth on the GPSr itself.

Most of the time when I'm driving, the iPhone stays in my pocket and I use the Nuvi for nav. My iPhone works very nicely with my Mini Cooper sound system over Bluetooth -- a call comes in, it even displays the caller's name if it's someone I know. The music pauses, I can take the call, and nav is undisturbed.

Over the weekend we took my wife's car for a getaway. I got to ride in the passenger seat! For that, I ran Waze on my phone (plugged in to the cig adapter so as not to drain the battery).

Yes, I can do a lot of gps/nav things on my iPhone, and some times I do, but most of the time I go with the device that has been optimized for that purpose -- my Nuvi.

I commute between Las Vegas and Phoenix and Waze and the iPhone are great around either town. My cellular signal drops near Wikieup and in some of the canyons during the commute, so Waze and the iPhone do not work.

My Nuvi is my backup for the dead spots. I have unlimited data on the phone so as one poster asked, for me data is not an issue as much as the loss of signal.

There are many apps that work great when there is data available, but I cannot rely upon it being available everywhere I travel.

I have a 765t in my SUV, a 885t in my convertible and a 760 for a spare. For all these, when I get a phone call, the navigation screen is briefly interrupted for the "do you want to take this call" screen but once I answer that question, I get the navigation screen back. I do not get audible information during the call but still have the visual information available.

That seems to be a difference versus using the phone as the navigation source.

I find my son's Android to be useful as a navigator but the screen informaiton is just too small to be referenced while driving.

Has anybody tried the Garmin phone app?

Jim

With all of you using apps on your phone I read this in this mornings newspaper The Des Moines Register.
Survey shows cellphone users concerned about privacy issue

Associated Press

NEWYORK— Many U.S. cellphone users say they have decided not to use an app on their phone because of concerns about privacy.
More than half of Americans who use apps say they have decided not to install one once they found out how much personal information they’d have to share, according to a study released Wednesday from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Mobile apps include maps, gamesand other programs that help turn smartphones into portable computers. Some apps, for instance, want to know a person’s location using the phone’s GPS function.
Thirty percent of app users say they have removed an app once they found out how much information it collected about them. Android and iPhone users were equally likely to remove or not install an app because of concerns over how much personal information it collected, according to the study.
In all, 88 percent of adults said they own some sort of a mobile phone, and 43 percent of that group downloaded applications to their phone. That’s up from 31 percent in 2011.

You can use an old Iphone without any service and install the garmin map and use it for your GPS but the signal is not as strong as a standalone NUVI.

will stick with stand alone for now

I have the same opinion. For me, the smallest screen size with which I feel at all comfortable is the 5 inch screen of my TomTom GPS, and even that is marginal. (I wear bifocals, and the only really good location to mount a GPS in my car is too close for the distance lenses and too far away for the reading lenses.)

At the moment, I have installed the CoPilot Live USA Android app on my Nexus 7, and am experimenting with using it as a driving GPS. If the TomTom Android app is released in October as announced, I'll also take a look at using that on the Nexus 7.

Using the Nexus 7 should take care of the "quick glance information" issue for me, but the downside is that the Nexus 7 does not have a phone to receive TomTom's HD Traffic. So my next project will be attempting to get the Nexus 7 tethered to my phone in a way that will let the TomTom app on the Nexus 7 access HD Traffic via the phone.

With best wishes,
- Tom -

Has anybody tried "Garmin Navigator" -- https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.garmin.and...

or

"Garmin Smartphone Link" --- https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.garmin.and...

The screen shots of navigator show speed limit

where it is illegal to use a cell phone while driving other than for calls with a head set, a fixed GPS device or built-in car is a safer alternative.

I haven't tried Garmin Navigator. Since it requires a Telstra account, I'm assuming it is localized to Australia and NZ?

I regularly use Smartphone Link with our nuvi 2595. It's handy sending Google Maps locations to the 2595, having synced copies of Recent/Favourites on my Nexus phone, displaying weather on the nuvi (free service) and finding our way back to where we parked (as long as it isn't underground )

Smartphone Link works together with certain 2012 models, but does not provide maps/navigation on its own. It uses the phone's data connection to connect to Garmin pay services for traffic, traffic cameras and weather.

I agree wholeheartedly with you. I use my iphone for many things but when it comes to navigation I always go with my Garmin even though I also have a GPS built into my Avalon

I tried using my iPhone for nav yesterday. I had a scheduled meeting, which included the address.

The reminder pops up from my calendar.

Tap on the address, which is underlined to show it's a link, and up comes Google with the destination, tap on that, select directions to here, select current location, and tap Route -- very nice, very simple.

It even displayed multiple routes. Nice!

But the size of the screen, and I'm not supposed to be holding the thing, I'll stick to my Nuvi!

When I use my Nuvi 760 to navigate I have to use it in the landscape mode because that's the only way it works. When I navigate with my iPhone, I use it in the portrait mode.

The road ahead screen size on my iPhone when in the portrait mode shows more road ahead than my Nuvi in landscape.

I use TomTom USA mostly but I also have Garmin USA on my iPhone. Both work great and integrate with the iPhone functions great but for some reason the voice on Garmin USA seems garbled.

I know you're not suppose to talk on the phone while you're driving but it's pretty hard to use the map on your smartphone when you need to use the phone. I guess you'll want to buy and stand for it to put in your car as well if you want to use it more or you can get the person next to you holding it for you while you drive.

Been thinking I need an iPhone for Nav, but it sounds to me it's use is best in local pedestrian mode while using a Nav unit for dedicated & far ranging travel.

Thanks
Fred

My Tom Tom died the end of July. Bought another Tom Tom, dead on arrival. Still waiting for a refund.
Tried the Droid X (Google, Waze, Maps), all work okay while data is available. Also tried CoPilot (didn't like it).
Today I bought a Garmin Nuvi 50TM. Much better!

I saw a app for android called "POI Loader Lite" (the free version) and looking at the photos, seems that the dev. had goten the pois from this site, since one of them was mine (the offbeat file) Has anyone tried thgis app.. it is to use the csv file and showe it on a google map?

Anyone seen this?

I did not d/l it yet but did send him/her a message the other day but have not heard back yet.

In fact, while looking at the app, there is a re4soure link and it hase the following:

www.poi-factory.com
http://poi.gps-data-team.com
http://poidirctory.com

anyone know of this?

This came up someplace else. I do not recall where and on what, but I would wonder about the legality of this since he harvested files from this site that are maintained by us.
He also has Starbucks, McDonalds, and Cracker Barrel that he is showing.I don't like it! He/she is making money off of someone elses work.

The new version of iOS for the iPhone (to be released soon/this fall) should step up the game for smartphone-based navigation. I personally am looking forward to that. Not sure if it will do POIs, though. Regardless, some people find the iPhone screen to be too small to be usable. I disagree. Data usage on Google maps is significant and could pose an issue if you have one of the the lower data plans. I don't travel that often so it hasn't been a problem for me. I love not having to deal with aged-off POIs (restaurant that no longer exists).

The creator of the app has not harvested anything, he is not including any POIs with the app, the only thing he is doing is giving you the ability to view in your phone or tablet POIs files that you have created or have yourself downloaded from a web site.

It is no difference from a visitor or member of POI-Factory downloading a file to view in his/her PND device.

If you are going to accuse him of making money of someone else’s work then you have to do the same to Garmin, TomTom, Magellan and others.

BTW. I downloaded the Lite version to try in my Nexus 7, the N7 doesn’t have a card to store files so I took one of my POI files and placed in dropbox (cloud) using my PC, went to the N7 and double clicked on the POI file that I now had in dropbox, it asked what program I wanted to open with and one of the options was POI Loader Lite, it worked like a charm and pinpointed the locations on the map exactly where they should be. I will now delete the Lite version and download the full version for 99¢

After digging deeper and reading what you (flaco) have written, he is just showing what can be done. And after all he is giving links to other sites including poi-factory. Ok so I just smacked myself for speaking to soon.

Actually pwohlrab that is a darn good app for the Android phone and tablets, and is only 99¢

I tried it with my friends.csv and family.csv and it worked as advertised, just wish he can incorporate a different map look (satellite view)

I experimented using my iPhone as a gps instead of the Nuvi with a 5" screen. The phone screen was just too small for me to see. So after this experiment I went back to the nuvi as gps unit and iPhone as a backup if necessary. Plus the iPhone battery drained down pretty quickly.

They can both be useful, depending on circumstances and need. I don't usually carry the Garmin in the car locally, the phone does fine for traffic updates. On a trip of any length I'd take the Garmin.

Generaly the GPRs is charging when in it's car holder. You could do the same with the iPhone so the battery isn't a strong comparison point. Or are you saying the "disconnected" iPhone battery discharges faster than the "disconnected" GPSr? That would be probably true if you are out of telephone service range (your phone keeps trying to connect).

As several have mentioned, the phone's screen is simply too small to replace the Nuvi. But of even greater importance to me, in my experience Garmin's routing is far and away superior to any of the navigation apps I've used.

My nuvi is IMHO useless for traffic. I mounted my Droid X2 in a holder and use Google maps with the traffic layer. So far I like what I see.

Still liking the cell phone navigation. I don't find the screen size to be a problem. The advantage the Nuvi has going for it is the matt screen and no glare. Functionality for me is better on the phone though.

My thoughts exactly. Sometimes I forget to put my nuvi in the car. But now that I have a new smartphone, I don't worry as much. I never thought I would use the internet outside of my house, but the first night I got the phone, we were at a restaurant and I actually needed to look something up.

I'll stick with my nüvi 760. I love that thing.