Blackberry 8800 GPS navigation
Feb 14, 2007 gps navigation, phones
In case you haven’t heard yet, the new Blackberry 8800 from RIM has integrated GPS capabilities. Today we know that the on board GPS software is from Telenav.
What makes this BlackBerry unique is its GPS capability. We were very impressed with the bundled TeleNav GPS Navigator. For a reasonable $9.99 per month, you get spoken turn-by-turn directions (including street names), 3D maps, and local search via the Biz Finder tool. We tested the system by asking the 8800 to get us home from a park-and-ride using local roads. The very natural-sounding female voice told us the distance before the next turn and alerted us at just the right time before the turn itself. TeleNav also pulls up addresses from your contact list. The local search function worked well, too, allowing us to map a business address, navigate to it, or dial the number.
This review from Laptop magazine gives the Blackberry 8800 3.5 stars out of 5 – but calls the GPS navigation feature “surprisingly good” and the GPS system “excellent”.
Blackberry 8800 will be available from Cingular for $300 with a 2 year contract.
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May 26th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
WITH THE TELENAV WILL IT GET THE ADDRESS BY TYPING IN THE PHONE NUMBER?
June 5th, 2007 at 2:53 pm
yes, telenav will get the address from the phone number.
August 9th, 2007 at 11:08 am
do you need to use a paid service before GPS will work? blackberry maps is free
October 15th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
To use GPS and googlemaps, you will need to have a dataservice plan enabled. But, assuming you already have a dataplan, you don’t have to pay anything extra to have GPS features with googlemaps. The googlemaps program is not as good as the telenav in that there isn’t voice directions. But, if you don’t mind reading the directions (and seeing the route on the map) without voice then googlemaps works just fine.
November 9th, 2008 at 1:09 am
Too bad when you loose your cell signal you can’t use google maps even though you GPS has a signal.
Yikes 9.99 just to have a voice tell you where to go.
So can you use the Telenav/map/software to route but with out the voice and not pay the 9.99/Mo. ?
June 23rd, 2009 at 2:43 am
Good job! Keep going.