My cell phone goes off contract this spring and it looks like nobody I want to go with next is going to allow me to transfer my old Verizon Galaxy S3 into their system as a BYOP (each carrier tweeks the guts of the phone to suit their individual systems and can't use somebody else's tweeked set ups).
So, it goes on my handlebars as a GPS unit rather than being a $25 credit for trade in unit.
Most of us are familiar with GPS navigation systems like a Garmin or a Tom Tom. Android systems are different and quite a few are for free now days.
I have weeded out the free OFF-LINE "map in memory" based android nav systems to the top 4 contenders which are Waze, Navfree, HERE and Mapfactor Navigator.
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Waze also relies on a periodic contact through cell towers, which puts it out of the running for mountain trips.Waze has just been bought by Google for
one billion 600 million dollars. Must be some really neat stuff, right? And it is, if you are into social contact while you are driving, spotting speed traps automatically, seeing and avoiding traffic jams and wrecks before you get into them and having a SMART system automatically re-route you to avoid all that nasty bad stuff then Waze is what you want to use. After all, Google didn't just spend a billion six because it wasn't neat nifty neat and ground breaking stuff.
If you live in a big city, Waze is super neat stuff for the urban dweller. Waze loses out in my evaluations because (1) it is too feature filled and gimmicky to appeal to me and (2) the maps lack currency and detail -- they do not show the paved section of Hwy 32 that is over two years old now.
If I visited Washington DC or another major city I would use Waze to get around while I was there. Wazes takes over half a gig to download, but it will default to your main memory automatically if there is room.
Waze will stay on my phone for big city trip uses.
I also expect Google to come out with a future Waze release that uses a Google Maps basis which will be free, totally detail current, and be totally usable sometimes out in the future. However, I fear that Waze may lose their "stored maps" basis at that time and go to a "wireless Google contact" basis at that point in time. If this happens, Waze will become unusable as a mountain blackliner as you got no cell phone reception up where the air is thin. =======================================
Navfree is a freebee version of an old "buy me" program that uses Tom Tom maps --- the download for the USA maps are nearly 3 gigs in size and must go on the SD card that I hope your phone has.
Navfree
FAILS for being ANCIENT, bloated and ineffective.
It is structured like a Tom Tom and that is good as it is familiar enough, but bad because the maps lack fine detail, use state road names instead of what is posted on the street signs and it does not even show the smaller mountain roads. Navfree is a total bust, and has no potential use unless I was driving interstates across the country. It has all the general low detail maps for the entire country, but it couldn't find MM's place because I don't know the state road name for his street (and it is too small of a road to show up anyway).
Hwy 32 doesn't exist on Navfree. Frickn' useless to me. None of the android pinch and zoom and such works on this product at all -- ya got on-screen buttons to push to do the resizing though it will follow your finger around for the main view location.
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Mapfactor Navigator http://navigatorfree.mapfactor.com/en/This is a commercial delivery truck/car payme product with a free version that tries to trap you into upgrading "in app" to get to some "advanced features" that you decide after the fact that you need. Heck, I don't need any of the advanced features, so they will never get any money from me for stuff I do not need.
How long it continues to have the free front end, I do not know, there has been no mention of an ending time so far.
Maps are downloaded by state, so it rests much smaller on your phone than the other products. Because it is a current pay me based product the maps are all current, fully detailed and use the posted correct street names.
It not only shows Hwy 32, it shows the Waterplant Road and the little dirt roads that come off of these same "too small for Tom Tom" sorts of little blackline roads. This is the ONLY FREE PRODUCT that fills the bill for mountain black lining.
Structure is good and simple and you can tell the thing was BUILT from the get to for an android phone as the pinch and zoom stuff is how it works naturally.
You can download new maps for new states from within the program although it starts asking you for money after your 10th map download and I understand that map upgrades in a few years cost money too. You'll have a new phone by then, so just download it again for free. Or delete it and reload it if you have the same phone.
My advice is that you download all the maps you are likely going to need when you install the app. It is the very best functionally out of the free lot, it meets all the needs for a motorcycle handlebar GPS as well as any product out there, free or not free.
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So far, I have discovered Mapfactor Navigator for mountain black lining use and Waze for my wifey city trips. Both of them store all maps on the phone and require no cell phone connection.
Both will likely still continue to work when my Verizon service ends in April. I feel that using the old phone on my bike's handlebars is now perfectly feasible, just as long as the phone can access the stored maps and apps and receive the GPS satellite signals with the phone's internal hardware.
I look forward to Google/Waze becoming much more detailed and
better over time, such that it can do the whole job by itself .... and I can always count on the Google/Waze product remaining
totally free as it does it.
This review was done in October, 2014 and it will be out of date and totally stale and useless by 2016.