Voice Navigation Round-up: GPS Voice vs. Turn by Turn Navigation

Voice navigation has landed on your Windows Phone by fashion of apps such equally GPS Voice Navigation, Argent Navigator, aSpass and Turn by Turn Navigation. These navigation apps bring the spoken word to your travel directions, But which is better?  Prices range from $2.99 to $six.99 but which are worth the price of admission and which aren't?

Nosotros decided to do a head to caput comparison of the various vocalisation navigation apps available for your Windows Phone.  Showtime up, we take a look at GPS Vocalization Navigation and Plough by Plough Navigation.  They are the heavy weights of the grouping (both in price and features) and we'll turn our sights on Silver Navigator and aSpass next.

We recently took both GPS Voice and Turn past Turn out for a road trip to come across how well both performed. Did GPS Voice Navigation out perform Turn past Turn or did it land us in the heart of nowhere? Did Plow past Turn steer us into a cow pasture or did was information technology the shiny coin between the 2?

You know the drill. To find out how these 2 navigation apps shook out, navigate your mode past the pause.

General Advent

A navigation application tin accept pivot bespeak accuracy but if the layout of the application is poorly designed, you lot might as well stop at the local seven-eleven and ask for directions. Fortunately, both GPS Vocalism and Turn by Turn Navigation are well laid out apps.

GPS Voice Navigation utilizes a combination of Bing, Google, Yahoo and MapQuest maps and supports both route and hybrid views.

Your GPS signal indicator and speed are displayed at the top of the map with a small compass located in the bottom left corner. Buttons to search for addresses, follow me (centers the map on your location), create directions and look-upwardly (finds the closest address to the center of the map). The three-dot menu has controls to clear the trip/route, view the route/trip details as well every bit access the settings, help and about features.

GPS Voice'southward map is touch zoomable and lists a limited number of businesses. In that location is as well a slide scale to the right of the screen yous can employ to zoom in/out. GPS Voice does not accept the power to save destinations every bit favorites merely will display your almost recent address searches when you pull upward the search field.

One time a route/trip is established a scale volition announced to bespeak the altitude your route has and the time the app is estimating it will accept to achieve your destination.

Plow by Turn Navigation is laid out in a like fashion. Turn by Turn utilizes BING maps and also supports road and hybrid views. To the peak of the main page is your navigational displays (speed, estimated time of arrival, altitude, and side by side plough). There is also an icon to the left of this panel that will give you a visual of your next turn and how far you are from it. Down the right side of the screen are controls to follow your position, zoom in/out, and mute the aural directions.

The map on Turn past Plough is as well touch navigable (compression to zoom, etc.) or you can use the "+" and "-" buttons to zoom in and out.

Push controls are located at the bottom of the screen that control search, favorites, settings and the nearly screen. The three dot carte du jour pulls upward controls to toggle between street and hybrid views likewise as stopping the navigation.

Both GPS Voice and Turn past Plow support both vertical and horizontal orientations. Additionally, both tin can take the map rotate with your movement or be static with directional north ever existence at the top.

Interface

Both Plow past Turn Navigation and GPS Voice Navigation accept search features to locate destination addresses. In one case y'all've found your destination, with GPS Voice you have a "directions" push button at the bottom of the screen you can push button to generate your driving directions.

With Turn by Plough you tap on the accost flag on the map to pull upwardly information on your destination. From this window y'all can rate the address, add it to your favorites, and (for some locations) call the location or cheque out it's web site. Near importantly, from this window you lot tin tap the "Get" push and generate driving directions.

I take to give the nod to GPS Voice for the easier interface to generate directions but Plow by Turn makes up for it by providing more information on your destination.

Oh... another plus for Turn by Turn is that you can search for business names. GPS Voice will only search for locations by address.

On the Road

In testing out both GPS Voice and Turn by Turn, I took a 45 mile road trip (perfect excuse to get fishing) to my parent's lake firm. On the trip to the lake, I used Turn by Turn and on the return trip, I used GPS Phonation.

The biggest hurdle both navigation apps have to overcome is the data dependence. Both apps struggled to redraw maps while on the open road (traveling at interstate speeds) and at times, could non download maps at all. Plow by Turn performed the best, re-drawing maps faster but I even so had periods where the re-draw charge per unit couldn't match my speed (resulting in blurry roads) and there were empty voids on the map when a stiff data connection wasn't nowadays.

The accuracy of my location was displayed inside anxiety of my actual location with both apps. Travel speeds were within 3mph or my bodily speed and while there was a little lag in displaying my movements, it wasn't enough to cause problems. Even when the maps struggled to re-fatigued, the piddling cursor represnting my location moved forth nicely.

In choosing a familiar road, I was able to deviate my travels to test the route re-adding feature on both apps without risking getting lost. GPS Voice Navigation re-calculated my road the quickest but both took a dreadful amount of fourth dimension to detect an alternate route. I also noticed that both plotted a grade that really wasn't as straight every bit it could be.

I liked the larger header on GPS Vocalisation Navigation. It displayed my speed, how far until the adjacent plough and a large road sign to betoken the nature of the plow. Plow past Turn has a like layout simply the print is smaller. Turn by Plough does have a nice characteristic where a blood-red dot blinks on the map at your next turn. Both, in their ain perspective, fabricated it easy to pick upwardly on your adjacent turn but I have to give the edge to GPS Navigation.

Plough by Turn ran smoothly during the 45 minute bulldoze but GPS Vocalization crashed twice generating an "unknown error". Luckily, when I re-started GPS Vocalization it resumed my road. Yet, the instability could crusade you to miss a turn.

Lastly, both GPS Vocalism and Turn past Turn take their price on your Windows Phone battery. From keeping the screen on to the data connection, either tin suck the life out of a battery rather easily. A motorcar charger is a must for either.

Conclusion

While both GPS Voice Navigation and Turn by Turn Navigation are nice travel apps for your Windows Phone, I have to requite the nod to Turn by Plough.

Turn by Turn offers more features such every bit favorites, keyword searches for businesses, and the ability to admission websites and make calls from inside the app. I call back the cistron that pushed Turn past Plough over the acme was the instability experienced with GPS Voice. Information technology was nice to run across my route was saved when I re-started the app but once again, the delay was long enough where I could have missed a turn.

I do like GPS Phonation'due south header a niggling improve for it'southward simplicity and ease of reading at a glance. Both, and I don't know if this is possible, really needs to detect a way to load maps to the phone to prevent any data lag that slows downward re-draw rates or loss of maps completely. The route re-calculation needs to speed up besides. I sympathize this issue could be caused by a poor data signal and not a flaw in the app. Still, had I not been traveling on familiar roads, I would take had to pull over to avoid getting lost while the road was re-calculated.

Another gene that might enter into the equation as to which vox navigation app is the best would be the cost. Plough by Turn is running $4.99 while GPS Voice is $6.99.

Luckily, at that place is a trial version of both to allow yous to try before you buy. Each trial has a limit of a 12 mile road but otherwise is fully functional.

As far every bit ratings go, I'd give Turn by Turn an 7.5 and GPS Voice a 6 (fix the stability issues and then it's a 7). You lot tin observe GPS Voice Navigation here (opens Zune) and Plough by Turn Navigation here at the Market.

Updates for both in the works

And you thought we were done....

We mentioned this a few days ago that GPS Vocalisation Navigation is due for a major update. Well, Plow by Turn Navigation is also slated for a major update. I was able to take both updates out for a test drive (post-obit the aforementioned route) and here's how they break downwards.

GPS Voice Navigation

The updated version of GPS Voice Navigation, version 2, was recently released on the Marketplace and brings the following improvements to the app.

• Added multi-language support for both UI and routing for all currently supported WP languages (EN, FR, DE, IT, SP)
• Significantly improved voice guidance beliefs on the road including small features such as roundabout support, composite directions such equally Turn left then turn correct, timing, etc
• Improved numerous layout features including ameliorate landscape view, smoother animations, more stable behavior of the map
• Improved searching and favorite destinations functionality
• Significantly improved map loading operation
• Addressed a common issue with non being able to detect a route in situations when the GPS is not set yet, or there is an internet connectedness effect
• Improved overall stability of the app.

In taking version (v2) out for a test drive and the updated version does address many of the bug I constitute with v1. Maps loaded smoother and I didn't have the dead spaces when data reception became weak. The app seems every bit if when the app downloads maps, it downloads a larger overall map for your route. There was nevertheless a piffling lag fourth dimension when traveling interstate speeds (as if the map could re-depict fast enough) but noticeably better with version ii.

Where v1 crashed during my travels, v2 ran smoothly with no glitches, bugs or crashes experienced.

GPS Voice Navigation still doesn't back up keyword searches but the updated version does bring these two app closer.

Turn by Turn Navigation

Plow by Turn brings the following features to the tabular array with version 1.ane:

• Map download feature to minimize data roaming where just the road planning requires the data connection (smaller amount of data transferred)
• Itinerary/Turn List feature
• List view of search results that can be sorted by Proper noun or Distance
• Option to avert or minimize Price Roads/Highways
• The customary bug fixes, functioning enhancements.

The downloadable maps is a nice feature. Just utilise a brush tool to paint the area of the map y'all desire to relieve that encompasses your route and hit save. The salve process does take a while but even the smallest maps are xxx-40mb in size. This feature helps accost the lag fourth dimension experienced with map re-draws that the electric current version possesses. Every bit with GPS Voice, at that place is a little lag time present but not every bit noticeable as with version ane.

The Itinerary list is a nice improver equally well. GPS Vocalism has had this feature and it'southward a prissy way to review your turns before getting behind the wheel.

Turn by Turn version 1.1 is in the final testing phases with the developer and is expected to exist submitted to Microsoft for certification soon. Additionally, the developers are already working on version 1.ii that will bring High german, French, Italian, Castilian and Portuguese linguistic communication support into the mix.

Conclusion Function Two

Overall, both updates heading to these voice navigation apps improve both apps tremendously. I'll stick with my recommendation on Turn by Turn Navigation every bit having a slight edge over GPS Voice Navigation but the gap is definitely narrowed with these updates.

Again, the biggest weakness of both navigational apps is the dependence on information. Plow by Plow is improving things, in function, by having the downloadable map pick. GPS Voice also takes a pace in the right direction by downloading a larger portion of the map involved in the route. But if y'all're in a weak signal expanse, route calculations (or re-calculations) are still laggy at times.  Not sure how to fix that data dependent feature and information technology simply may be one aspect we'll have to alive with.

Speaking of which, both update recalculated routes noticeably quicker than the previous versions.

In one case both updated versions are bachelor at the Marketplace, these two apps may be so close it will accept downloading the trial to see which one meets your personal tastes and needs all-time.  Here'southward how nosotros'll rate these apps taking the updates into consideration.

GPS Voice Navigation: 7.5 (update really helps overall functioning)

Turn by Turn Navigation: viii.five (keyword search and downloadable maps give it the edge)

A Buyer's Guide

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/voice-navigation-round-gps-voice-vs-turn-turn-navigation

Posted by: bellewliselther.blogspot.com

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