iPad Navigation Apps

[CZandbergen]

Can anyone comment on tom Tom, Navigon, etc regarding their coverage in rural areas for chasing? I am considering using an iPad for navigation this year as I have an extra one and am a bit tired of Delorme. I emailed the folks at Magellen but didn't get a straight answer. My question is do any of these apps provide Delorme type road databases that include the typical unpaved county roads many of us chase on?

 

[David Wolfson]

I can't answer for the proprietary data, but would imagine they have to be competitive with the free sources.

Go to openstreetmap.org and check the most common iPad free map source yourself. The short answer is, I think, yes. And Google maps is similarly complete, plus you can opt to see the sat image to see if your road is really there and what it looks like.

 

[Jason Boggs]

I have the Tom Tom GPS on my ipad and it's about as detailed as any of the others. I'm happy with it.

 

[MClarkson]

Dangle your ipad from your fingers, so it hangs straight down. Then, at 12 noon, the shadow points north! Thats about what you can expect to work from a mac product, right?

 

[CZandbergen]

Thanks for the info. Google maps isn't really an option as it relies on a data connection that may not always be there. Tom Tom sounds likes plan.

 

[David Wolfson]

Talking about specific iPad navigation apps, NavFree works pretty decently. You can pre-download the Open Streetmaps by state, so you don't load up with areas you don't need. "You Need a Map" is a little quirky but has some nice features. It takes up a few Gb but pre-loads the data for the whole country. Both are free. There are some others that there was a discussion about in another thread recently. I do recommend the Dual GPS or similar rather than using the locator in your iDevice because it pairs using BlueTooth and can be placed with a good view of the sky.

 

[davidkingham]

I'm liking GPS Kit, it can work off of google, openmaps, bing and you can pre download large areas. It's meant for hiking and has no navigation features, but for driving around county roads it works well. For everyday nav I use magellan roadmate but I just tested it on some rural areas and you have to zoom in really far to see the small roads, otherwise it works great

 

[CZandbergen]

AS an update here I tried NavFree and also bought TomTom. I am not sure why I spent the $50 on TomTom as it is pretty much the same as NavFree. As the OP noted you have to zoom into ~2.5 miles to get to county road resolution. It is the same in both apps. FWIW...