Rand McNally "Good Sam" RVND 7725-LM GPS - First Impressions

I just received my new Good Sam RVND 7725-LM GPS powered by Rand McNally. I am going to share some initial thoughts and first impressions with you today. After a road test in a couple of weeks, I will post some more impressions after that longer use.

The 7725 is a new model, sold through Camping World only, as far as I can tell. It is branded as Good Sam on the bottom left of the GPS, but otherwise seems nearly identical to the Rand McNally branded 7720.  Whether there is any advantage to buying the 7725 over the 7720 remains to be seen. The fact is, in the online forums at least, no one seems to know. The 7725 curiously, is no where on Rand McNally's website, even in the support section. That is a little disconcerting.

I have a long history with personal navigation devices.  A long one. I also travel a lot, both for business and pleasure. I estimate approximately 25,000 miles per year on the road in some form - almost of all of which is with some sort of navigation device (or smartphone software) running.  I have a GPS on all the time, especially in later years as solutions like Google Maps, TomTom and Waze use my driving to feed its predictive traffic database. Over the years, I have owned and used the following products: Garmin SP III, SP 2710, SP 2730, Garmin i5, Garmin c330, Garmin 760, Garmin 885T, Dash Navigation, TeleNav for Sprint, TomTom 740 Live, CoPilot Live v8, Navigon for Android, Navigon for iPad, Google Navigation, Waze, Garmin Nuvi 3490LMT, Garmin 3590LMT, Scout by Telenav, TomTom for Android, Rand McNally 7725LM.  I've used each of those over the years, at least for one trip at a minimum. eBay is a wonderful thing!

I guess you could say that I am still searching for my perfect solution - no one has nailed it yet. The RVND 7725 will NOT be that perfect solution, but I knew that before I ever bought it. I purchased it with my expectations in check.

This blog post is not going to walk through each screen or explain the use of each feature in detail. Rand McNally has a very good user guide (use the one for the 7720) that does a great job of explaining everything this unit does.  I'll focus on what is not written and share my initial impressions.

Branding of the 7725 on the box

The 7725 is packaged in a solid box with a premium feel to it - no rattles or other signs of unsecured parts flying around in there. Immediately upon opening the box a "quick start" guide is available. Nice approach. There is a thick layer of Styrofoam before you reach the GPS itself, which is then packed inside of a thin Styrofoam bag within a form-fitting egg crate type shell.  Well packaged and presented.  Underneath the GPS itself is another egg crate with preformed areas that house the windshield mount, AC power cord, DC power cord and USB cable.

This is a big device. I knew that. I knew I was buying a 7" GPS but when I opened it I still laughed a little about how big it is. This is also a rugged looking device. This is not going to win any beauty awards in the design department. It isn't an elegant 7" tablet. This device is bulky, thick and somewhat gaudy, down to the bright orange power button, a color which seems totally unnecessary given how obvious the button is to begin with.  The average consumer knows how to operate those little smartphone and tablet power buttons. Certainly they can operate this massive power button without it being bright orange.

The actual GPS material is nice. It is that cross between rubber and plastic that will immediately be familiar to anyone with lots of experience in smartphone cases. It is hard to explain to those unfamiliar with it, but I like the texture.

Size comparison to standard office pen

Yes, this is one thick GPS

I also ordered the Rand McNally 7" GPS case. It gets the job done and looks decent. No issues with the case at all. Below is the 7725 mounted inside the case.  There appears to be room for the DC adapter. Putting the AC adapter in this case is not going to happen.

Rand McNally 7" GPS accessory case (sold separately)

I find the screen to have a good level of brightness when mounted in my car. Our RV is a Class C so with the cab over, I can't imagine having any concerns with the screen at all. I have not owned a previous Rand McNally GPS so I can't compare this to others. I have read complaints though, from owners of previous models. All I can say is that I don't have any concerns.  The picture below does not do the screen brightness justice. The screen is brighter than in the photo below.

Screen brightness in a car

I experienced no technical issues with the startup or setup of the 7725. Rand McNally doesn't do a good job of explaining whether to connect the GPS to the computer before installing the PC Dock software or after. However, when installing the PC Dock software, if the GPS isn't connected to the computer, eventually the installation will tell you that a GPS must be connected to continue. There was a small update available that took 10 seconds to apply to my newly shipped GPS. However, the area within the Dock software that is for update release notes simply said "this is the area where update release notes will be displayed."  Not helpful for the update that was just provided.

When I registered the device and connected it to the Dock software, the Dock software knows the content and version numbers of what is on my GPS. It would be nice if Rand McNally associated that information with my registration email address to proactively notify me every time there is something new in the Dock software to update. However, I have seen no evidence that this is the case, so I will plan on blindly connecting the 7725 to the Dock software periodically and certainly before every trip.

OK - let's talk about shortcomings.  All of these items are things that I knew about before buying so I can't complain. However, based on my previous GPS experience I miss them and the 7725 not having them caused me to think long and hard about buying it.

1. No voice recognition.  It seems like a premium GPS sold in 2013 ought to have this.  I knew it didn't. I bought it anyway. But I find it annoying that it doesn't come with it, especially for use in a RV.
2. Lack of traffic included. I knew this too, but I find it petty that the 7725 doesn't come with the lifetime traffic receiver. The Magellan RoadMate RV9165T-LM includes lifetime traffic at this same price point. Rand McNally should have included traffic at this price point.
3. Lack of Bluetooth  The weather feature is nice and it seems well implemented. What I find incredibly shortsighted is that this feature only works over WIFI. The fact that it does work over WIFI is great, don't get me wrong. The issue is that it doesn't work over Bluetooth. It seems clear that many PND's such as Garmin Smartphone Link and Magellan SmartGPS, and many telematics solutions like Toyota Entune and others have gone the route of sharing a smartphone's data connection over Bluetooth  This costs the customer nothing and it supplies a robust pipeline of data to the GPS. Rand McNally not including this functionality was almost a deal breaker for me.

Immediate Dislikes

First of all, I hate the mount. I mean I despise it.  The mount itself is sturdy, built decent (as far as plastic builds can go) and is fully adjustable for any conceivable mounting situation.  However, when it comes to usability, it earns an 'F' and almost earned a chuck out the window on my first day of ownership.  Now, to be fair, if you want to mount this GPS and never move it again, then this mount is just fine.  In fact, it probably works well for that. However, I do not ever leave my GPS device visible on the windshield when parked (even when going into a restaurant or truck stop).  Once I get the mount set in the perfect position and angle I want to leave the mount alone. I will remove and replace the GPS from the mount when I park and leave the vehicle unattended.  This mount is a disaster if that is your mode of operation.

The 7725 mount. Well made and sturdy.

Here is the problem with the mount. The mount itself uses a large flat plastic "plate" which slides into a mating "slot" on the GPS. You have to line up the plate with the slot perfectly, in two planes, then slide the GPS down onto the plate and lock it in place. It is a nice secure fit. However, this is not a task that is easy to do blind. If the windshield mount stays on the windshield such that you can't see whether you've got the plate lined up with the slot (in two planes) then good luck trying to remount the GPS onto the windshield mount.  In addition, this is not a powered mount. The USB power cable plugs directly into the GPS itself, directly out of the back of the unit. Again, it is not easy to plug in the power cable blind.

Mate the GPS slot to the mount's plate. Don't try this without a direct view.

Removing the GPS from the mount requires some force. You must break the GPS free from the mount by sliding it in the reverse direction such that the GPS slot disengages from the mount's plate. It takes some force to overcome this tight fit and requires two hands. It takes a force such that a few times I've broken the windshield mount's suction from the windshield.

I've owned this device for one day and that is all it took to know that this mount isn't going to meet my needs. There is no way that I am going to fight with trying to attach the GPS to the mount blind every time I go into a store or truck stop. Nor am I going to remove the suction cup mount in its entirety from the windshield every time.

So, I added to my purchase cost and purchased a RAM Mounts X-Grip mount for tablets.  I already have this mount for my smartphone and it is stunningly awesome.  I look forward to using it with the 7725, despite the fact that it increased my purchase price by $45.

RAM Mount X-Grip Tablet mount

Some First Impressions

Having to acknowledge the Warning and Legal Consent screen every single time I turn the device on is lame.   The lawyers from Garmin, Google and TomTom don't seem to think that this is necessary.  Someone needs to go slap the Rand McNally attorneys upside the head and remove this annoyance in a future update.

I love the fact that this device has predictive traffic. It remains to be seen how robust this traffic content is compared to TomTom IQRoutes. Navteq is definitely in catch-up mode on this. However, predictive traffic is a crucial feature for a modern GPS and I am glad to see it in this device.  I was surprised to see that the predictive traffic slow downs appeared on the map by coloring coding the roads. This is a nice touch.  I will combine my use of the 7725 with a more robust traffic solution (either Google Navigation or TomTom for Android) while on the road. The 7725 will use its predictive traffic for general route planning purposes while Google Nav or TomTom will assist with the real world live traffic should something develop en route. I think it is a good combination.

It is extremely annoying that my selection of turning predictive traffic on doesn't stick through a power cycle. Every single time I turn on the device I have to turn predictive traffic back on. Annoying and unnecessary. Please fix this Rand McNally.

I like the layout of the screen. The screen is huge and there are a lot of pieces of information presented around the screen, but there is still a massive amount of screen left for the map.  I don't share the complaints others have voiced online about the busyness of the screen or the map being too small.  I've also found that the autozoom function works well so far in my limited use of the device today.

The male voice is significantly better than the female voice in my opinion. The female voice is too robotic but the male voice improves on that significantly.  I find the speaker to be a very good quality sound with a volume range that is more than adequate.

We know that this device has Navteq for the maps. As far as quality, it doesn't get better than Navteq for built-in maps. What we don't know is what vintage these maps are. Additionally, Rand McNally's only releases one map update per year so maps will remain 18 months to 2 years old on this device at best. Quarterly map updates should be provided on this device like most competitors but I knew that wasn't the case when I bought it and I still bought it.

I was really surprised to see the way Rand McNally implemented WIFI. If I have WIFI on and connected to a WAP, when I turn the GPS off (or let it turn off when turning the ignition off), they do not enable WIFI and reconnect to the WAP when power is restored. What? EVERY time you turn the device on you have to enable WIFI again in the settings and reconnect to the WAP. That is unbelievably annoying. WIFI should stay on once I turn it on and it should reconnect to the WAP when the GPS is turned back on.  I hope that there is not a technical reason that this cannot be changed by Rand McNally.

Concerning the WIFI, it is used for the weather content. I really wish Rand McNally would have used the WIFI for more robust traffic content as well. The separate, external Rand McNally traffic receiver gets slammed in online reviews. Plus, it is old school RDS traffic anyway. I find it frustrating that this device isn't being supplied traffic content using HD Radio or better yet online through WIFI. Let's hope that a future update brings us more robust traffic through the WIFI connection.

I like the fact that the device announces whether your destination is on the right or the left.  Navteq data makes this possible.  Nice touch.

I like the easily accessible slide-out menu that shows you an overview of your route. There is an option button at the bottom of this screen that shows you your route in different ways including an overview map. I wish Rand McNally would allow us to set one of these views as a default for the slide-out menu. I always check an overview map on any GPS to ensure the route that the device picked passes the smell test. I wish that this overview map could be set as my personal default for the route detail slide-out menu.

I like the fact that this GPS has packed in a lot of little niceties such as warnings for state line crossings, speed limit changes, time zone changes, curves and more. My family loves to take pictures of state welcome signs as we travel, so this will be a nice feature to have. I've read some online reviews about these features having inconsistent performance (alerting on some curves but not on worse curves) so it remains to be seen after more extended use how well this is implemented.

The RV database seems pretty robust and is likely the reason most people buy this unit. It contains a wealth of information about each location. One disappointment is that it doesn't seem to have local, city camping locations, even those that have hookups.

I like the inclusion of a directional compass on the map. This is something that I think Garmin is insane for never including on their GPS devices.

I've run many test routes from my home. In every case so far the 7725 has selected the "right" route as I see it. This is especially true for one of my big "test routes" which separates the men from the boys for PND routing. That route is the route from Des Moines, IA to St. Louis, MO.  I've written an extensive blog post about why this route is a great test route. I am glad to see that the 7725 nailed this route, both in the route selected as well as the ETA.  That is good news.  In other tests where I personally feel a non-interstate route is best, but an interstate route is also available as a close temptation, the 7725 seems to be more in line with my thinking by picking the non-interstate route. I've always felt like the Rand McNally website does a good job with route selection and ETA so I am glad to see that the 7725 behaves much like the website in this regard.

While I appreciate that the 7725 has route preferences to avoid things like tollways and gravel roads, I wish that it would give you these options on a route-by-route basis. I hope that Rand McNally will change this feature to act more like TomTom. After TomTom calculates a route, it prompts you with "This route contains a tollway (or dirt road). Would you like to use it or avoid it?"  When I am familiar with the route, there are times when I want to avoid a tollway and times when I want to take the tollway.  I'd like to quickly tell the unit my choice on a route-by-route basis instead of having to change a preference setting.  For example, if I am traveling from Indiana to the east coast, I may desire to avoid the Ohio turnpike. Upon route calculation, it would be nice to be asked whether I want to avoid tollways or not and have the unit recalculate taking US-30 instead.  Other times, say if I am using the device in my car and driving from the KOA West Chicago into downtown, I'd answer "yes, use the tollway" in that scenario.

Navteq data has car pool lanes available in the dataset. Garmin uses that data. Since the 7725 has a car mode and can be used in a toad or rental car, I wish that it also had car pool lane information. When driving in a major city using or avoiding car pool lanes can produce a major change to the route selected and the ETA, especially when the unit already has predictive traffic.  I hope the Rand McNally adds this feature.

Conclusion

I am looking forward to getting this device out on the road in a couple weeks on our first RV trip of the season. I am glad that when I do, I will have the RAM Mount X-Grip to replace the awful mount that comes with the 7725.  I will be glad to have route planning that is using predictive traffic content as well as (what appears so far at least) to be Rand McNally's pretty good routing and ETA algorithm that is similar to my positive experience with their website directions. I'll be happy to be able to advance plan my trip in the multi-stop route planner. I'll be pleased to execute the trip with a unit where the volume level will easily overcome all of the road noise of a RV.

I will look forward to having a weather overlay on the map while I navigate but be cussing Rand McNally every time that I have to enable WIFI and reconnect to the WAP when the 7725 turns on. This frustration will be equaled only by the frustration that I'll have as I start out on my journey only to realize that the map isn't being shown yet because I haven't acknowledged the legal disclaimer every time I turn the device on.

I'll drive down the road wishing that I had Bluetooth and wishing that my wife had a Rand McNally Android or iPhone app so she could be searching the POI database while I drive and pushing a stopover or destination to my 7725 over Bluetooth while I drive.  I won't regret not buying the Magellan SmartGPS for this feature but I will wish that my 7725 had it.

And I'll be using my 7725 with my smartphone running either Google Navigation or TomTom for Android to ensure I have more current maps and the most up-to-date live traffic to augment what the 7725 thinks it wants me to do.  Current maps and live traffic content will not be a strength of the 7725, I know that and I'll work around that until / if Rand McNally decides to improve that for us.

When I return from my trip in early June, I'm sure that I'll find that the 7725 worked pretty well, with a few drawbacks - much like my feeling about the device when I decided to buy it.  We'll see!

These retrans disputes are so confusing. I've asked Sinclair and the NAB for help!

Another day, another retrans dispute using customers as pawns in the chess game played by corporate conglomerates.  Since these retrans disputes are so confusing, I've reached out to Sinclair and NAB and asked them for their assistance.  I really hope they help me!

I need some assistance from you in determining which cable provider to use. You see, in August 2012 Sinclair indicated that I should switch from Dish Network because they were treating you bad. Since there is nothing more important in my life than the Fox programming that Sinclair provides, I listened! Thanks for being my guiding light. I switched from Dish Network that day and went to DirecTV, because in August 2012 they were apparently being nice to you. But now I read in February 2013 that DirecTV isn't being nice to you anymore. That stinks because I just switched to them 6 months ago when they were being nice to you and Dish wasn't. But hey, I guess it is cool that Dish is being nice to you again now. I'm glad you guys made up in these last 6 months because things seemed really bad in August 2012 between you two.

But now I am so confused!  I am just not sure who to switch to now. Can you please tell me who is being nice to you so that I can switch to them? I also have an option of Mediacom in my area.  But I read that in 2006 AND 2009 they weren't being nice to you either. That agreement will probably be up soon and I am afraid that when it is up THEY won't be nice to you either. This is all so confusing. I don't have access to Suddenlink, Time Warner or Comcast, but even if I did I probably shouldn't pick them either because I've read that none of them were nice to you in 2006, 2007 and 2010. Darn it all.  All of these providers are so mean to you guys. I just don't understand it. And it is so confusing to me because I just don't know who to select as my provider now. It is clear to me that since you have been involved in at least 8 retrans disputes in 6 years that the providers must be colluding against you. Clearly all of those companies are bad and you guys are good. I just need some help from you to determine which of those companies are "less bad" so that I can watch TV. Thanks Sinclair. You guys are awesome!

Copy2Contact's Ridiculous Apple vs Android Blog Post

I was pretty surprised today to see a blog post today by Copy2Contact with a 5th grade playground "my Dad is bigger than your Dad' post taking sides in the iOS vs Android debate.  I mean, really?  What kind of business potentionally alienates, on purpose, half of their customer base with nonsense unrelated to their core product? Choice can't be left to choice? 

But as I read their post by an unnamed author I was stunned at the amateur arguments and opinions-disguised-as-facts approach to the blog post.  As a personal customer of Copy2Contact back when it was Anagram (and still a customer today), I found myself, for the first time since they acquired me as a customer, thinking "who are these boneheads?"  And for importantly, would I give them any more of my money with this kind of amateur nonsense?  That is a bit harsh, but seriously, read their piece and decide for yourself.  I HOPE that this was a bait piece, in an attempt to simply draw traffic to their site.  If they actually employ someone this void of deductive reasoning skills then heaven help them.

My house has the following: 5 iPods (1 original and 4 Touch's across 3 generations), an iPad 1, an iPhone 4S, 1 Android tablet and 3 Android smartphones, plus two laptops and a desktop. I get technology.

So forgive me while I roll my eyes at an author that admits just starting to "dabble" (his word) in Android this year and then goes on to lecture us about the two platforms and superiority of one of them.   Reminds me of the 50 First Dates mentality.  Live with both options for a couple years and then come back to us with an opinion that is relevant.

Now, let's dissect this blog post piece by piece and decide for yourself if you want to do business with a company this insanely shortsighted about their opinions on technology.

This author believes in being "open-minded when it comes to technology." And then he proceeds to use his experience in "dabbling" in one type of technology as the basis for his self-important declaration about the superiority of the one he prefers. Pure nonsense.

He compares using Android to using Windows (vs Mac) and reinstalling the OS countless times or tinkering with anti-virus software. Well, I get to live with 4 post-iOS5 devices that WILL NOT upgrade the OS via USB on an Intel i5 with 8 GB RAM. They won't. They wipe the devices, then fail, all of them (WIPED), EVERY time, with a USB error that Apple swears is the computer's problem. Nevermind the GPS devices, Android devices, printers, external drives, my Fitbit, 2 digital cameras, and my kids talking donkey toy, all of which don't seem to have a problem with that same computer and that same USB port. But you are probably right. It has to be my computer's problem. Sure. And I am sure it was user error when I had to put my iPad and 2 different gen2 iPod's in airplane mode and back to get the WIFI to work after the device was dormant for awhile.

"For users that want to have the best phone possible, Android’s deals with half a dozen different manufacturers makes that impossible." I simply cannot make sense of that statement. I have no idea what that is supposed to mean. Here is my sentence: "For users that want to have the best phone possible the user walks into the store and buys the best phone possible." Manufacturers make cheap garbage phones and they make rock stars like the Galaxy S3 or Galaxy Note 2. If you want the best phone possible YOU BUY IT. If I want a Galaxy Note 2, the fact that there is a cheap Chinese android phone for sale in the next aisle MEANS NOTHING TO ME. This is just a bonehead comment.

Then he follows it up with this whopper: "there is a good chance a better version of your Android phone will be released by a different manufacturer within weeks or months of your purchase." Um, no, not really. There was 1 year between the original HTC EVO and the Samsung Galaxy. It took 2.5 years to get from the original Galaxy to the Galaxy S3. Several high end Motorola devices came out in that year (YEAR, not week). The Galaxy S3 has been out for 10 months now and there is no apparent successor yet. The Galaxy Note 2 came out 10 months after the S3 and 1.1 years after the Note 1. This comment is factually inaccurate and ignorant.  What was the lifespan between the iPad 3 and the iPad 4 by the way?

"Want to upgrade your iOS 5 to iOS 6? No problem." Oh really? Want to explain to us how to upgrade my iPad 1 to iOS6? Please. Hear that? It is called fragmentation in iOS. Now, without question fragmentation in Android is more robust but spare us the idea that it is non-existent in Apple land.  Oh and thanks for the iPad fragmentation too, otherwise known as the "press this icon to blow up your app 2x because we don't have another strategy until the developer writes a different app specifically for this device."  Fragmentation.  Look it up.

I love this one. In his discussion comparing app stores, he says "But when you go into the Apple store, you never get malware." Really? http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/07/first-ios-malware-found/   What is that you say? Yes, it is malware in the app store. Yes, real, factual, credible information FROM JULY. More flat out factual inaccuracies from this writer.

"I’m big on securing business data and the lack of checks in the Android environment simply puts your data at too much risk." What an amateur. First of all, connecting an Android smartphone to a corporate Exchange server gives the Administrator complete control over the device. Has this author even READ the permissions that are granted when an exchange server connection is initiated on the device for the first time? Obviously not. But let's not stop there. Here is a cute article *FROM 2010* about the Device Policy feature set added to Android in version 2.2 (yeah, 2.2). (http://www.addictivetips.com/mobile/administer-control-android-phones-with-google-apps-device-policy-app/). Let's also not forget about one of many third party security solutions that can be added on top of these other two things AT THE USER AND COMPANY's DISCRETION. Do you understand the word discretion? It means the USER AND COMPANY get to decide - not Apple.

Next, on to the rant about the "junk" in the app store when entering a search by app function instead of app name. For kicks I entered the search "take notes by hand." I searched the Google Play store. I got 1000 results and the first ten were: Handrite Note Free, Antipaper Notes, ListNote, TT Note, Free Note, Jotter, Note Stacks, My Script, Jot It and Notebooks. But it really does piss me off that I had to jump over all of that garbage to find the few apps that were really relevant to what I wanted to search for.  Damn you Google.  And I am just SURE that the first 3 of 4 of those are actually Chinese hackers that will steal my thumb print from the phone the next time I touch the screen.

In the Apple store I got "No results for "take notes by hand."" But I am sure that I just didn't "search right." At least Apple was there to protect me against downloading a non-approved app for taking notes by hand. I feel protected now.

"Every phone is also preloaded with a ton of bloatware from whatever manufacturer you chose." Um. No. Try this press release from *A YEAR AND A HALF AGO* when Sprint announced removal of preloaded apps on current phones and no more preloaded apps on future Android phones. http://community.sprint.com/baw/community/sprintblogs/announcements/blog/2011/07/08/did-you-know-sprint-allows-removal-of-most-preloaded-apps-on-htc-evo-3d But, I am sure that in a year and half you just didn't have time to read that press release. You likely were still pondering the deep thought that went into this blog post.  This is a CARRIER decision, not Google's decision.  Really? Are you that uninformed?

And I LOVE this one: "Searching for ways to get my Android phone to work the way I wanted, I headed straight to Google, where the only suggestions were that I “root” the phone. Is it too much to ask that the phone be ready out of the box?" Notice no examples were provided? Hey uninformed blog author: give us three example of ways you can make your iPhone "work the way you want" without jailbreaking that you cannot do on an Android phone without rooting? Just three. Go.

Then we get to the "iOS is far more intuitive" comment. You know, an opinion that is stated as a fact without providing any examples? Here is an example of that intuitiveness. Just suppose I want to do something nuts like send an email to someone and attach any file on my phone, whether in internal memory, or the SD card and send it to someone. I know - that is far out. How is that working out for you on your iOS device? Just browse to the SD ca.....oh, yeah, nevermind. Well, browse on your internal memory for the file that you transferred to your iPhone by hard connecting it via USB and performing a full phone synchronization (you know, like you did on that Palm Pilot device in 1994). Oh, I know, you didn't want to transfer the 1GB movie from iTunes right now in order to transfer that 50KB work related file, but iTunes knows best, right?. So go ahead and open your email program and attach that document. What? You mean that document type isn't one of the Apple sanctioned document types that you can attach to an email? OK. Well Apple must know best. That can't be an important file type to begin with then. Go ahead and change what you needed to do because it was clearly wrong. See how intuitive that was?

And then he closes with the predicable "battery life and speed" comparison. Except that the two blogs referenced were written in September. Better recheck the phones that are referenced as the "fastest" and the "most battery life" since it is almost three months later.

This Apple vs Android war perpetuated by these ridiculous bloggers is nonsense. To each his own and that is why we have personal choices. Imagine the ego that it takes to declare one's personal technology choice as superior to anothers. Add to that the factual inaccuracies noted above and you've got a bad case of a guy that seems to be trying really hard to find an audience for attention.

Garmin Smartphone Link v1.3 - More problems

If you spend a few minutes reading my past blog posts, you'll see a history of documented problems with Garmin Smartphone Link. Unfortunately, tonight, with the v1.3 update, it is more of the same from Garmin. 

The phrase that ought to strike fear in every Garmin executive (and shareholder) is "good enough." In other words "Google Navigation is good enough." Or "Waze is good enough." You could even preface the comment with "It's no Garmin, but..."

Those apps move closer to be "good enough" for mainstream consumers in the following ways:

1. Garmin continues to try to sell a dedicated navigation device for the same price as a Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone or for MORE than a Google Nexus 7.
2. The features of Google Navigation (or Waze or others) continues to improve while Garmin continues to artificially restrict software features on existing models to protect future hardware sales. 
3. Garmin becomes a pain in the ass to deal with.

Tonight, I have arrived at #3.

I've moved on from the Smartphone Link problems that I've described in detail in my blog. I've moved on from the ridiculous amount of effort it took for me to spoon feed the details of their problems to someone at Garmin that actually knew what Smartphone Link was. I was willing to forgive and forget. Then they do it again. They release v1.3 tonight and what do you know - more problems.

Smartphone Link v1.2 worked fine for me today on 3 different occasions. I updated to v1.3 tonight while enjoying the pot roast sandwich at Culver's (you should try it - it is good!) I jumped back into my car and the little Smartphone Link icon turned blue, the Smartphone Link icon on my Nuvi appeared and I was off - driving home.

Except....the temperature on my Nuvi was listed as "--" instead of the ridiculously hot 99 degrees that it is here. I went to the weather app on my Nuvi and I was greeted by an advertisement telling me all the great features of Advanced Weather. I know. I already bought it (twice actually).

I go to the Smartphone Link services icon on my phone and low and behold, all 4 services that I own and already used today are now shown with a price tag. My "subscribed services" are blank. As is typical with an in-app purchase, sometimes you have to let the app and the server communicate so that the server can tell the app "hey, app - this guy already purchased this feature - light it up for him chief." Except, I couldn't find a way to do that in the app.

I picked the cheapest service: "Advanced Weather" for $4.99 and selected purchase. I figured that I'd get into the process deep enough that at some point the server would inform the app that I purchased it already. Then I see the email notification from Google. I got a fresh, new, shiny $4.99 in-app charge.

I decided that I'd uninstall the Smartphone Link app and reinstall it. Maybe it was just a glitch. Upon reinstalling it, now I find even the $4.99 that I just purchased 2 minutes ago is no longer listed as subscribed. It too now shows up in services that I can purchase.

Since this is an in-app charge, there is no 15 minute return policy. I have to deal with Garmin. Well, I've been down that road before. Garmin, to this day, has never responded to double billing me. NOW, they have triple billed me.

So I call Garmin support on the phone. Guess what. They are only open from 8am - 6pm Monday through Friday. I'll be damned if I am going to take time off from work to sit in my car to trouble shoot their sloppy software development.

So for me, tonight, Garmin has officially fallen into #3 above - being a total pain in the ass to deal with.

I bit the bullet on #1 above - buying a $399 Nuvi after not owning one since the 885T. I've lived with my 3590 rebooting multiple times per week (yes, even after the latest firmware). Now I officially regret my purchase. Tonight it just crossed the threshold into "not worth it" territory. Google Navigation became "good enough" for me. Tonight I can see myself looking back on this day referring to the last Garmin I ever purchased.

Garmin should be better than this. Their products are priced at a premium. They are the world leader in consumer navigation. These sloppy problems should come from the #3 or #4 company in the industry, or the free app guys - not the supposed top player. Garmin should quit using their customers as beta testers. And they ought to try providing a 2012 level of customer service. Social media can be used for more than promoting your racing team you know!

Mapquest for Android - How does it stack up?

In my never ending quest to find the right navigation solution for my needs, I've been spending some time with the Mapquest app for Android.

The map has a lot to offer as well as some things that it needs to improve on.  Here is a quick look:

1. Full voice guidance including text-to-speech, auto-reroute, auto map rotation.
2. The use of your own TTS engine rather than a lower quality bundled TTS engine like you'll find in Waze for example.  For those of us that have purchased a higher quality TTS engine like SVOX, we can use our SVOX voices within Mapquest.  This also allows you to benefit from the pronunciation correction features of SVOX.  If a street name is pronounced wrong, just change it's pronunciation in SVOX!  Thanks Mapquest!
3. Voice search is provided, using the Google voice input feature.
4. Multi-step routing.  This is a great feature that is missing from Google Navigation. You can enter multiple stops in your route.  Mapquest needs to take this to the next level and allow us to save, edit and recall planned trips.
5. A robust traffic feed is in the app and comes from Inrix, a respected name in traffic content.  In my mid-market region of 500,000 people the Inrix feed is by far the most robust content of any traffic source on any device.  The traffic feed includes incident & flow data updated every 5 minutes.
6. The map is interactive meaning that you can long-press anywhere on the map and route to that point or save it as a favorite.  But unfortunately, it doesn't appear that the map has any auto zoom capability based on the distance to the next turn.
7. Mapquest has included a great use of Android shortcuts.  This allows you to add a one-touch icon to your home screen (or within a folder on your home screen) that is "pre-configured" to a specific destination address.  When you press this icon, Mapquest opens and begins navigating to that destination without further user intervention.
8. Android calendar and contact integration. When you press an address in your calendar, contacts, a 3rd party app or a website, if you have your navigation default preferences cleared in Android then Mapquest is one of the options to receive the address.  This passes the address directly to Mapquest from the source app without requiring the user to enter it or copy and paste it.
9. Mapquest's ETA seems very good.  My biggest complaint about Google Maps is their very conservative ETA's.  Mapquest seems to be right on with their ETA calculations.

The Mapquest app has improved greatly from its initial launch but it still has a ways to go.  Here are some things that need work in this app.

1. Voice search requires an extra step that shouldn't be necessary.  When you speak a search the Mapquest app uses voice recognition only to populate the search box with text.  It doesn't actually execute the search.  Therefore, the user has to touch the search button.  This is an unnecessary step while driving.  Contrast that to Google Navigation. When you speak a search, Google receives your voice, translates it to text and automatically executes the search.  If it isn't sure or there are multiple options, you are presented with a "Did you mean:" box of options.  Mapquest needs to remove this unnecessary step from its voice input workflow.
2. The text size used for street names in the Mapquest app is simply unusable and I have a 4.7" smartphone screen.  Both Google and Waze do a much better job with the readability of the street name text.  This remains the biggest downfall with the Mapquest map in my opinion.  When I navigate in an unfamiliar area, even though there is turn by turn guidance, I like to compare the street signs with the streets I see on the map to get a better feel for how many more blocks I have before my turn. This is impossible with the Mapquest app because of their problem display the text of street names.
3. Despite having a robust traffic feed from Inrix in the app, and despite Mapquest telling us that they use that data in determining routes and ETA's, to date, I have not found any evidence that Mapquest ever shows the user any indication of the impact of the traffic.  In other words, if there is traffic and it is impacting my ETA, Mapquest should tell me that.  Google does this by a simple black, red, yellow or green light.  ALK, in their CoPilot product, also using Inrix traffic, has perhaps the best implementation of this with their traffic bar on the side of the screen.  Not only does it tell you the traffic situation but does so graphically in a way that represents the distance the traffic is away from you.  If Mapquest is going to use this traffic content, I want to see how it is using it and impacting my route when I use the app.
4. The Mapquest app has no ability to show you multiple route options.  Everyone: Google Navigation, Waze, Telenav, Navigon and ALK has this now and it needs to be in the Mapquest app.
5. While the Mapquest app is integrated with contacts and calendar, it is not integrated with apps like Vlingo.  Mapquest can do this by themselves without Vlingo's cooperation.  On my Android home screen, when I long-press the search button it starts the Vlingo recognition app.  I can then speak "Navigate to 123 Main St, Anytown, USA."  Since I've cleared my navigation defaults, I am prompted by Android to pick an app to carry out my navigation request.  In that list is Google Navigation, Telenav and Garmin Smartphone Link (used with my Nuvi over bluetooth).  Mapquest needs to register this app within Android in a way that puts it on that list.  For the record Waze hasn't figured this out yet either.
6. Mapquest, like Telenav does, needs to leverage their online website and link it to their navigation app.  We should be able to define favorites, search and select destinations and create routes on the Mapquest website, all of which we should be able to send to the Mapquest app.  Mapquest is behind Google and Telenav in this regard.

Here are some questions that I'd love for Mapquest to answer:

1. Is Inrix used for real time traffic only or do your ETA's take historical traffic into account?
2. Does the use of the app send data back to Inrix for purposes of real time flow determination?
3. How does the deal with TomTom for map data impact the ETA?  Are you getting only raw map data from TomTom or does the data include IQRoutes data which then impacts the Mapquest ETA?

I like the Mapquest app.  It has potential to be a good app, especially given its quality ETA calculations and great Inrix traffic feed but it has some things it needs to improve on.