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iPhone online GPS navigators: MapQuest vs. Gokivo

You have two main options when it comes to GPS apps for the iPhone: apps with offline maps and apps with online maps. Examples of apps with offline maps are the Navigon, the iGo My Way, TomTom, or the recently added Magellan RoadMate.

These apps are excellent for frequent users as they don't require a live data connection to work. All the maps are included with the app and downloaded to the phone. However, they tend to require gigabytes of storage space and take a long time to install. If you plan on going on a long road trip, they are good fits.

If you are a casual user, however, it's better to use an online GPS application. These applications are just a few megabytes in size and therefore take a few seconds to download to the phone via a 3G connection. This means you can immediately get one the moment you suddenly need turn-by-turn directions.

The first online GPS app for the iPhone is the AT&T Navigator, which works pretty well. Unfortunately, it's only available to AT&T customers and is rather expensive ($10 per month) for what it offers. The good news is, you now have other and more flexible choices. … Read more

So-so iPhone navigator

Gokivo seems to do it all: search for destinations, pair with Bluetooth, play iTunes songs and fade out and in when dictating directions, and deliver turn-by-turn navigation. In our road test, it just didn't perform all these functions uniformly well. The app possesses the navigation basics, plus those one or two surprises with iTunes and shaking the app to get alternative routes. You can switch between map, satellite, and hybrid view thanks to Google Maps, and can specify your route preference, like fastest, and variables to avoid, like carpool lanes. We like the address book tie-in to get directions … Read more

Road test: Gokivo iPhone navigation app

We expected a slew of turn-by-turn GPS navigation apps when Apple's iPhone 3.0 software emerged, and we'll get it--slowly. AT&T's Navigator app entered the App Store today, preceded almost a week ago by Gokivo. We're still waiting for TomTom's offering.

Gokivo is made by Networks in Motion, the same company behind AAA Mobile, Verizon's VZ Navigator, and AT&T's Yellowpages.com, so we expected a little sophistication. It has been in our testing queue since last Wednesday, but some technical difficulties impeded our progress. Mainly, a possessed in-app purchase … Read more

Brightkite app for Windows Mobile in the works

Three hundred eighty-five development hours, 3.5 median hours of sleep per night, 265 pounds of food, and roughly 4,000 cups of coffee. That's what it took for five teams to compete in last week's Microsoft's Mobile Incubation Week, an intense five-day hustle to create the best Windows Mobile application, from concept to finished product.

In the dark auditorium at Microsoft's modest Mountain View, Calif., offices last Friday, the breakneck development rate showed. Two bleary-eyed developers stepped onto a dark stage before a smattering of peers, press, and judges to present their showing: a Windows Mobile version of Brightkite, a location-based social network that lets you create a photo journal of your day that friends can track.

While Brightkite founder Martin May and his co-developer, Brady Becker, were the only team to take the stage without a finished application to demo, their mobile social networking application has two distinct real-world advantages over most of the other competitors--Brightkite's established user base and existing applications for iPhone, Google Android, BlackBerry, and the Web. All that's missing from the Brightkite lineup, May freely admitted, is a Windows Mobile app--even more essentially, the know-how to develop for Windows Mobile. Although Brightkite's Windows Mobile presentation consisted largely of prototype slides, the team is hoping they'll have a Windows Mobile client ready by the time Microsoft launches its Marketplace for Windows Mobile in the second half of 2009.

The cohort

Brightkite wasn't the only established company in the field. Networks In Motion, the brawn behind Verizon's VZ Navigator, AAA Mobile, and Yellowpages.com, was also there, introducing a first peek at Gokivo Navigator for Windows Mobile. It's the first NIM-branded turn-by-turn navigator that is already available for a subscription fee on AT&T phones, including the BlackBerry Bold.… Read more