With the already launched TeleNav, Navigon, and iGo navigation applications for the iPhone, there is bound to be some need for a good mount for the iPhone while driving and navigating. The TomTom solution will offer a mount with integrated charger, but for others there is a need to find an aftermarket source. I have used and reviewed several Arkon mounts in the past for regular GPS mounts, as aftermarket offerings beyond what came with the unit and found them to be very good. One that I did not necessarily like was the one for the vents. I couldn't get a confident mount of the GPS to the vent when I was putting it on, and felt like I might snap vent louver. They offer several for the iPhone to suit your needs, and I would offer the ones other than the vet mount as good places to start your iPhone navigation journey.

At Arkon for the iPhone 3G Generation   

More at MapMyRide.com

The android based MyTouch from T-Mobile is coming out fully supported with the TeleNav Navigator available on day 1 as a free trial. The eagerly anticipated phone is the latest salvo in the hip-cool smartphone wars, and by many accounts, it is a powerful little device. The GPS capability enables the TeleNav Navigator to offer automatic re-routing, Says Street names, voice based destination entry, traffic feeds, and gas prices. One interesting aspect is that the TeleNav service will also coordinate to email you current traffic conditions on set routes at set times so you know what traffic will be like before you head out to work.

The MyTouch from T-Mobile is available tomorrow.

Full TeleNav press release below.

TeleNav announced today that TeleNav GPS Navigator will be one of the first turn-by-turn GPS navigation services available to run on the T-Mobile® myTouch™ 3G with Google. TeleNav GPS Navigator will be available for a free 30-day trial beginning tomorrow, August 5, when the device goes on sale in retail stores and online. To sign up for the free trial, T-Mobile MyTouch 3G customers should visit TeleNav's website.

"TeleNav GPS Navigator on the myTouch 3G turns the phone into a powerful GPS device," said Sal Dhanani, TeleNav's co-founder and executive director of marketing. "We invite all myTouch 3G customers to take advantage of the free trial and let us know what they think."

TeleNav GPS Navigator on the T-Mobile myTouch 3G includes full-color 3D moving maps along with voice and on-screen turn-by-turn driving directions. Navigation is available in both landscape and portrait mode. If drivers miss a turn, they will automatically be rerouted. TeleNav GPS Navigator also includes speech recognition for both address entry and business search. On the T-Mobile myTouch 3G, customers simply press one button and say the name of a business or the address and TeleNav GPS Navigator will provide directions. Subscribers can also preplan trips online by accessing their account through My TeleNav. TeleNav GPS Navigator includes listings of more than 10 million businesses and services, including restaurants, hotels, shopping malls and movie theaters - providing users access to restaurant ratings and reviews as well as phone numbers for business listings.

Once on the road, TeleNav GPS Navigator monitors each specific route and will proactively search for known traffic congestion or incidents. Customers will be alerted to traffic problems, both audibly and on-screen, and can choose to find another route to their location by just pressing one button. TeleNav customers also have the ability to set daily traffic commute alerts. At the requested times, TeleNav GPS Navigator will send an email alert with a summary of current known traffic conditions and delays for their routes, helping users decide when to get on the road in order to avoid traffic congestion.

The service also includes frequently updated gas price listings so drivers can look for the cheapest gas in their area or along their route. Additionally, TeleNav GPS Navigator includes location-based weather information. Customers can see current weather conditions as well as a five-day forecast for their present location or for a destination of their choice in the U.S.

Finally, with advanced preference enhancements, TeleNav customers have the flexibility to choose whether to avoid high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes and toll roads. In addition, subscribers can pause and resume the navigation at any time they choose, as well as set the map display colors to a 'nighttime' mode for easier viewing at night.

To sign up for a 30-day free trial of TeleNav GPS Navigator, T-Mobile myTouch 3G customers can visit TeleNav's website or contact TeleNav at 1.88.TeleNav.4 (1.888.353.6284) or at care@telenav.com.

To subscribe to an RSS feed of TeleNav press releases, please go to http://feeds.feedburner.com/telenav/press-releases/. To follow TeleNav on Twitter, please sign up at http://twitter.com/TeleNav.

Inrix has launched a direct to consumer application for the iPhone that will have you checking what the traffic is like now, and what predicted traffic will be in the near future. The free application allows you to take a look at the high quality traffic feed data in your metro area on the iPhone and then if you want, click on the "Forecast" button to peer into the future to see what's coming. It might just help you solve the "Should I leave now or wait it out?" question.

The interface is clean and comes with incident reporting. The data comes from their broad "Smart Driver Network" or GPS probe vehicles and road sensors. They claim to have the largest crowd sourced network in the world with over 1 million vehicles on it. TomTom just recently tied up with Inrix for work with their LIVE devices (think GO 740 LIVE and/or the coming iPhone application). No word on exactly how and where the data will be used, because TrafficCast is still part of the deal. The iPhone application is interesting and certainly fills the gap that they have in getting their name and high quality data out there. What it may also be coming is the ability for you to become part of the million+ strong army of GPS probes, reporting back to them the traffic status too. Pure speculation, but the ability to ingest the data and process it in a quick fashion to understand the very dynamic traffic situations, make them strong.

at iTunes - Inrix Traffic (iTunes Link)

More at InrixTraffic.com

Garmin is late to the party a lot with product technology leaps, but they sure know how to make an entrance. I suspect that this will again be the case with a strong Garmin Nuvi 1690 that was recently posted to the FCC site. Rich over at GPSTracklog posted this from the FCC website, and this always foretells an imminent launch. The wide-screened Nuvi 1690 will of course come with Bluetooth, that much we know, and a GSM module for connectivity. In the ever expanding Keeping-up-with-the-Jones battle, one would expect a strong traffic capability, internet search, gas price service, and potentially some other features that are rolled into the MSN products - weather, movie times, flight tracking, etc.

Bing? - Maybe Garmin's tie up with Microsoft brings Bing to the connected Search module on the new Garmin 1690, which would present both companies with the opportunity to talk a lot about the product. Only time will tell.

When? - I expect that this could be announced in the coming days to weeks; solidly in time for the recession to end, consumers wade back into the market for a high end device and of course the holiday season.

Navigon has launched their $70 Navigator for the iPhone in the US, with map coverage of the US and Canada. There have been a few stories posted with feedback on the performance; bottom line is that it works well, when compared to a basic navigation device standard. At this writing, it's #2 in the paid Applications list for navigation at iTunes.

Assuming that it needed to strip features for price or for size of the application, Navigon did not include Text to Speech capability, or phone numbers in the database. They may have just run out of time; there is a free update on it's way to help you out with new features including: Phone Numbers of POI's, Navigon's Advanced Route Planning feature, Additional map view options, and something that they are referring to as optimized volume control when using the iPod function and the navigation device at the same time.

I know that you would need to shut off the auto-dimming capabilities for the iPhone in the settings area to keep the device lit up while using it. Trust me, this will be a battery sucking device if you are driving around with the backlight and the GPS blazing away - not unique to the Navigon MobileNavigator though.

One commenter here at GPSLodge also noted that the phone got pretty warm while crunching away on all of that work navigating him around.

CNet has a quick article posted about the Navigon capabilities which is worth reading. I'll continue to add more as I see good ones pop up.

At iTunes - Navigon Navigator (iTunes Link)

Yes, the Garmin Nuvifone G60 is shipping in Asia this coming week, and will be the first launch of many, I would assume, for the long awaited phone. The touchscreen phone of course also doubles as a Garmin navigator, and runs on a Linux OS. No word on US launch, we'll keep you posted.

Via CNet

The Battle Royale of traffic providers continues to drive interest amoung our readers, and Airsage just made a big deal to add Verizon wireless handsets to their list of providers who offer anonymous mobile phone movement data to help understand traffic flow patterns across the nation. Airsage has been providing this information to outlets like Google Maps, where you can see their coverage down to secondary roads around major cities. That coverage is impressive, which will now extend to "200,000 centerline miles of roadway" by quadrupling the number of traffic status information bursts from these handsets. The concern is and always will be quality of data; let's face it, coverage doesn't mean anything if the data is inaccurate. With the Verizon Guy behind Airsage, one has to imagine that the quality will take a big jump on these covered roads.

Inrix, Traffic.com and TrafficCast are other major traffic providers in the space that use various data gathering techniques to capture, analyze and even predict traffic patterns around you. See more info on traffic providers in our Traffic Section.

Press Release Below - Thanks Jim or sending in.

Verizon Wireless, the nation's leading wireless provider, and AirSage, a world leader in using wireless signaling data for value added applications such as traffic information, predictive analytics and location services, have entered into an agreement where non-identifying data from Verizon Wireless' network will be used to help AirSage provide real-time traffic information.

Signaling data from use on Verizon Wireless' network will be made anonymous and integrated into AirSage's patented Wireless Signal Extraction (WiSE(TM)) Technology platform, helping AirSage solidify its position as a leader in the real-time traffic market with capabilities to enable live traffic monitoring on major interstates, highways and arterials.

The agreement will significantly enhance AirSage's traffic coverage and accuracy by quadrupling the number of signaling messages; when the data is fully integrated, more than 12 billion signaling messages across more than 200,000 centerline miles of roadway will power applications for government agencies, businesses and consumers.

"Adding signaling data from Verizon Wireless' network is a huge win for anyone interested in avoiding traffic and getting reliable, current and predictive travel times between multiple locations," says Cy Smith, chief executive officer of AirSage. "Millions of people are already using our traffic and travel insights through applications such as Google Maps, Real Traffic, and our AirSage Real-Time Traffic product so we're thrilled at the opportunity to expand our coverage and enhance our accuracy with the addition of non-identifying location information from Verizon Wireless."

AirSage's patented, real-time traffic data service uses the anonymous location information derived from wireless carrier data. While current applications center on real-time traffic conditions and travel times, AirSage is also building out location-enhanced services for the retail, financial and emergency management industries. All of the new services will incorporate AirSage's core technology which allows customers to realize distinct and immediate value from the anonymous and aggregate location and movement of people.

The TomTom GO 740 LIVE marks the first entry to the US market of a connected service by TomTom, one of the top names in personal navigation devices, making a strong step into the next generation of devices with its access to better traffic alerts, Google Search, gas prices and more. At the base, the TomTom 740 is a fully functional navigation unit offering a top of the line approach to TomTom's version of features, **lane assist, Bluetooth handsfree capability, Help Me!, MapShare, and IQ Routes - a way of learning about travel times based on other people's read world experience.

With a strong base, the TomTom GO 740 LIVE adds on a nice set of features allowing the connected device to help make your commute easier, a search for a destination more straightforward and and overall more informed traveler when you decide to use the connected features as part of your planning process. The ability doesn't come free through, as the connected plan essentially has you paying about $10 per month for the connected services. Don't want to pay the fees? The GO 740 LIVE becomes a regular old GPS, that still allows you to navigate to an on-board set of POI's, with a strong feature set and solid navigation. If you are not in the market for the LIVE connected capabilities, look elsewhere, as there are cheaper ways even within the TomTom line to get a full complement of features without paying for the LIVE capabilities that TomTom includes. As I came into the testing of the TomTom GO 740 LIVE for this review, key in my mind were the question son how well do the connected features work, how are they integrated into the regular GPS navigation capabilities and the bottom line or is it all worth the extra $10 a month for the subscription.

Design

The TomTom GO 740 LIVE follows the design cues of it's TomTom lineage, with a nice improvement on the mount and a fair amount of newness under the hood for the operating system. The EasyPort functionality is here, in a much improved way; the mounting can really be handled with one hand, and offers a confident grip on the windshield. The base is a meaty feeling rubberized dial that is easy to grip, push up to the windshield and twist to adhere; the first non-cam lever mount that is easy to use one-handed that allows for a confident grip. It's a simple, often overlooked feature that can really make a big difference in the quality of the overall experience.   Clearly TomTom did their research, and the result is that they designed a winner mount.

The EasyPort mount receives the power cable, supports the GO 740 Live with a larger than average cradle/saddle that the 740 LIVE partially sits on, powering the unit while in the cradle. The raised shiny button on the front of the mount offers an easy release for the GPS. These days I recommend taking the entire unit off the windshield to protect against theft. Nothing says "My GPS is under the seat or in the glove compartment - break in a steal it," like an empty GPS cradle sitting on the windshield in the parking lot or garage at the airport or mall. The quick EasyPort mount makes removing and protecting the GPS easy and straightforward.

The Go 740 LIVE itself has simple clean lines with the 4.3-inch screen framed by a thin silver border. the rear firing speaker is plenty loud, overcoming any road noise I could gin up. The only button is the power switch on the upper right corner, ample in size and offering good feedback when it is depressed enough to turn the unit on. The bottom of the unit has the data/power input along with a micro-SD card slot for map expansion. To the right of the screen, there is the microphone to "better hear you with" when using the using the Bluetooth handsfree capability. There is also a light sensor below the mic which auto-dims the unit keeping it a good brightness (there are also internal settings for overall brightness control).

Navigation with the TomTom GO 740 LIVE

Basic navigation is easy by tapping the "Navigate To" button on the main menu, you are able to navigate Home, to a list of favorite locations, an address, a recent destination, a Point of Interest, a Point on the Map, LAT/LON, and the position of your last stop. The Google button is also prominently displayed here which makes the most sense for searching. The POI menu is fairly full featured with the ability to get at POI's near you, in a city, along a route, at a destination, or simply search for one. So while the POI menu has a vast database of POI's, the Google button did come in handy a few times when I could not find a business around me - "Men's Warehouse" for instance was tough to find, but Google was able to grab a location for me and I was able to easily navigate to it. The connectivity was not lightning fast on the search results, but adequate to kick off a search and keep driving, getting results while I sat at the next red light.

Navigating with the TomTom is very good and very easy; I have long trusted their navigation routing, and noticed that with this iteration they offered some slightly better routing around my town and region where I regularly test the navigation capabilities of GPS units that I evaluate. More intuitive routing, and closer to what I might recommend as a local; not perfect, but good.

Traffic Updates - TomTom GO 740 LIVE

Navigation with the TomTom GO 740 LIVE is really all about the traffic capabilities, isn't it? The TomTom GO 740 LIVE is one of the next generation GPS units that offers connectivity in order to provide the best granularity of traffic congestion so that you can make a better decision. I typically travel up and down the Southeast Expressway heading north up into Boston, which is one of the tougher roads for traffic congestion in the area; pales in comparison to others across the country, but it gives me a good chance to test out the accuracy, the helpfulness and the overall usefulness of the LIVE services.

The Basics

When you turn on the GO 740 LIVE, you capture traffic information in about the first 2 minutes, offering you insight into the traffic situation. a quick shortcut feature in the TomTom is to program in Work and Home locations then use their "Work-Home" routing features which include fast access to the route along with its traffic situation. You can do this regardless of where you are right now - kind of a modified A--> B routing capability. By tapping the right side of the screen where the traffic indicator is, you come up to a menu of traffic options including picking the Work-Home routes, as well as macro functions like "Minimize Delays" and "Show Traffic on Route". Here there is a setting that will allow you to choose how you want the TomTom to react in the case of a traffic issue: Always Switch to the faster route, Ask you, or Never switch - I like the second one, where you get the option to choose your own destiny. The TomTom is smart enough not to ask you every 2 minutes if you want to choose a different route when it checks for traffic news, nor does it alert you every time there is a traffic incident half a state away, like I have seen in some other less professionally developed traffic solutions.

Dealing with Traffic

The TomTom was trustworthy when dealing with the Southeast Expressway's traffic, and offered accurate times for travel up to Boston. The delay time is shown up in the right corner of the map, with major incidents shown in a slider bar that let's you understand roughly where they are along your route. for a while I let the TomTom automatically change routes for me when it found a better route, but that was a bit unnerving for me not realizing that I was supposed to be heading in a different direction that I expected, and not expecting a change in the route. Thus, as mentioned above, I set the unit to ask before it changed the route. While using the TomTom GO 740 LIVE I was on the TrafficCast dataset, and found the resolution and overall accuracy on the highways good. The recent move to include Inrix data apparently will improve the overall quality of the data as a whole. Like when I first used the Dash Express, I found that the data was very close to reality when traffic was in a highly dynamic state in predicting the start of the back-up. You know these, when you go from 60 MPH to about 10MPH on the highway in about a quarter of a mile? Yes, the TomTom was off by about a tenth to a quarter of a mile on reporting the start of the back-up, which is pretty good considering the task at hand. These situations change in less than 10 minute's time, and I think they had a pretty good handle on the traffic issues.

The criticism that I have is that when you want to "Show the Traffic on the Route" you run into a situation where you are looking at a map that is cluttered and not easy to always see the relative shades of traffic severity; the difference between pulsing Orange and pulsing Red when it's sunny out and you are traveling 65 MPH down the highway is really tough to discern. Yes, the arrows to the right allow you to scroll through the tough spots, but I found that I wanted to see at a glance where the big issues were. Some of the detail screens feel too zoomed in to really get an idea where the issue is.

Dash Express vs. TomTom

I didn't explicitly test the Dash versus the TomTom GO 740 LIVE, but there are some choices made by both that make the overall experience different. Being the pioneer with some amazing step-changes, Dash got some things really good and some things not so good. One aspect that inspired confidence in them understanding the traffic issues at hand was the fact that they left road traces where they had data, giving you a green, yellow or red trace on a road when the traffic was thought to be a certain traffic severity. Surface roads showed traces where other Dash users had been and left tracks. This functionality is commonly referred to as being a GPS Probe; investigating traffic and reporting it back to the central traffic servers (all done behind the scenes of course). On the Dash, while highways offered historical data on top of the probe data to give you a picture of what was in front of you.

The TomTom service uses external report feeds that utilize various methods to get a picture of traffic right now (their own GPS probes, road sensors, mobile phone speed reporting, etc). TomTom then layers on top of that GPS Probe data from other GO 740 LIVE users to get a more accurate assessment of traffic right now. This layering of information is important, and can build overall accuracy. I would argue that when TomTom folds in Inrix data (which was used for Dash), and the TomTom 740 LIVE probe data, it will be as accurate as the Dash data. My point here is that it may not FEEL as accurate without the visual representations of road tracings left all over the place by other users. It is not obvious that TomTom has any traffic data on secondary roads which limits the impression that it is all-knowing. TomTom's IQ traffic is yet another layer of historical TomTom data that it pulls in from users to help it assemble its own historical assessment of traffic patterns and trip durations, especially helpful where there is not as much probe or road sensor information like secondary roads. I can't say that I was in love with the Dash interface, but in hindsight, this road tracing, while still a little bit of an annoyance, offered a confidence that isn't always there with the TomTom GO 740 LIVE unless you just put your faith in the unit and drive. After driving for several weeks with the unit, I can say that I saw smart re-routes onto secondary roads that did offer a better travel time, and I grew to trust the routing and re-routing around traffic.

Aside: If you think about the coming launch of the TomTom product for the iPhone, and the sales potential of the software into the tens of millions of iPhones out there, one could imagine the significant increase in TomTom based GPS Probes, driving the accuracy and coverage significantly higher.

Other Features

TomTom has folded in Weather forecasts under the "TomTom Services" button (three menu screens later), that let you access a weather forecast at locations much like you pick a destination to navigate to: "Home", at an Address, at a recent destination, etc. Once it retrieves the weather forecast, the report for today is read to you while showing the weather for the next several days.

TomTom's Fuel prices capability is fed by OPIS and offered up in a flexible way; Cheapest on Route, nearby and in the area. the latter searching in about a 20 - 30 mile radius for cheap gas. I like the fact that TomTom allows you to change the fuel type quickly and easily: Regular, Mid-Grade, Premium, diesel and E-85 Ethanol. Once you find the gas, tap on the name to see a map, get a phone number, and then navigate to the station. I also like the fact that the icons on the menu display the price of the cheapest gas

.

Bluetooth Handsfree is included on this TomTom, and performs well. It can be unnerving when you make a call, have the volume turned down on the TomTom, and don't really expect the person to be talking to you out of the GPS. Set-up was a breeze to my iPhone and allowed me to dial anyone in my phonebook on the phone. depending on road noise, I decided to use the wired earbud on occasion.

QuickMenu is a way to put a quick little swish semi-transparent icon on the screen where you can access a few of the important functions of the device; I added Work-Home traffic and the Gas Prices button. Very nice touch; easy and unobtrusive.

Review Summary

The TomTom GO 740 LIVE offers a very compelling package of features in a high end device, that is now selling for a price that a year or so ago represented the middle of the line. The overall device is a solid TomTom, with a slightly updated interface that is a bit confusing to the user who may be used to the older TomTom interfaces, as there are more subtle icon differences that slowed me down a bit. The functionality of the Google Search was solid, and offered the ability to search for "Chinese Food" instead of POI's that have "Chinese" in the name. The GO 740 LIVE offers Bluetooth Handsfree, Gas prices, phone listings in the POI listings, sophisticated routing options, pre-trip route planning, and others, but let's face it the reason to get an internet connected GPS is the traffic capability. TomTom's traffic quality is very good, and they clearly have the infrastructure and partnerships to continue to develop a better service. Your choice is to decide if the service is worth enough to fork over about $10 a month for the subscription.

At Amazon The TomTom GO 740 LIVE connected GPS

Navigon is about 2 weeks away from launching their full US iPhone Application and as a little teaser, they have launched a LITE version to let you see how the full version will work.

To be clear this FREE lite version is not a fully working GPS navigation software Application; it is a demo that let's you see how the interface works, the map quality and what the overall system can do for you. Don't download the thing thinking that you are going to navigate to grandma's house for dinner. At 1.3GB, the application is pretty substantial, and you probably want to do it down to your computer and then sync it. I pulled it down over WiFi directly to the phone and it took quite a while.

In order to use something like this, you'll want to go and change the "Auto-Lock" feature to "Never" so that the screen won't go blank when navigating. Settings--> General--> Auto-Lock.

Navigon feels that the price in Europe of about $99 worked rather well to drive volume, according to TWICE. I would expect a similar price for the US. The concern twist will come when TomTom announces their application and hardware suite pricing this Fall, giving Navigon some well-known brand name competition. The price for these two applications will be paid upfront while TeleNav's solution through AT&T uses a monthly fee structure for their fees.

Navigon LITE at the iTunes APP Store (iTunes Link)