Google Navigation now in the UK

[smilodon]

Yup at last we have a free turn by turn voice navigation on our 1.6+ Android phones. In the US it's been around for a while and Tom Tom, Garmin etc have been feeling the pain as a result.

As of today Google have activated it for the UK as well. I've tried it and it works fine, although the voice is a bit mechanical. As far as I can tell it's pretty basic, although you do get to overlay the live traffic service onto your route map. There are also Apps for fuel price checks and speed cameras is required.
My Tom Tom has the Live Service but the traffic information is notoriously unreliable, the fuel price accuracy is a joke, and the Google Local Service completely redundant now I have a smartphone. The annual Tom Tom renewal is up at the beginning of June and guess whether I'm going to pay for another year at Ã,£79.99??

I suppose the only downer is that Google Maps isn't downloaded to your SD card so if you loose your network you loose your map. I'll keep using it and decide if it's enough for my use or if I'm going to try Copilot at Ã,£26.00

Oh and here's a linky as well
http://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/mobile/navigation/

[T-Bag]

If you use your sat nav a lot I'd get copilot anyway, it's Ã,£50 for the all singing all dancing version with the Live stuff. Or Ã,£23-26 for just the maps. I wouldn't want to rely solely on streaming data if I used it for business.

Having said that I haven't used turn by turn for ages, so when I eventually get v2.1 on my phone I'll make do with this.

[smilodon]

Quick update: I'm going to start sounding like one of the ghastly Google Phanboys which I'm not. If however I do start using photos of Eric Schmidt as my desktop wallpaper someone please shoot me OK.

I've had a bit more a play with Google Navigation and it's actually pretty solid. I discovered that you can skip to Street View and check real photos of upcoming turns and junctions. My Tom Tom has a feature like this but it's not actually a photo, just a simple graphic representation. In fact you can set the display to just show you a street view of your route as you go along. One day this will be a heads-up display on your windscreen, but for now it's a cool gimmick that does have a practical application when you approach unfamiliar complex junctions.

Also I've realised that when you put in a route it is cached in memory so it doesn't matter if you loose network coverage. However if you loose your network and take a wrong turn you could be in for a problem of course.

Lastly the navigation has the power of a proper Google search. So if I am looking for a Thai restaurant in Windsor but cannot remember the exact name of the place I can put in something like 'Thai Restaurant in Windsor' and Google shows me a list plus a map of every Thai Restaurant in that area. I tap the one I want and I get a route planned straight to the door. My Tom Tom was always a bit of a pain as if I didn't know the postcode or couldn't spell the street name exactly right it threw a fit and refused to play.

Negatives are that I cannot find a guide to using it so you sort of have to sit at the side of the road hitting buttons to see what it does. Also when in street view Google sometimes forgets I'm in the UK. In Street View the image of the road is overlaid with a blue line that shows your route through the junction. roundabout etc. Occasionally the blue line is on the right hand of the street as if I'm driving on the right (like in the USA... and most of the rest of the civilised world). Still this is beta, plus it's already in Google's bug tracker.

So unless you're a cabbie or a delivery driver this might be worth a close look. It's certainly worth having if you need it for occasional trips and you don't already have a SatNav.