I was a little reluctant to download and try this app when it was first released. For me, and my background with pocket PC’s and PDA’s, I have always preferred the programs that have the maps installed AKA (local) on the device. With the TomTom app still not yet available on the app store with it’s local maps for the iPhone and iPod touch, I somewhat reluctantly decided to download the app, and give it a whirl. After all turn-by-turn GPS application is what I’ve been waiting for. And TomTom is nowhere to be found.

I want to take a minute and explain why having local maps are important. If you are driving and relying on an app to get to an unknown destination, and your maps are being fed to the phone as they are with the AT&T Navigator, and you lose cell service, you lose your maps. Now, having said that. I am sure that Telenav is doing a certain amount of caching of the map data, but it can’t be much as the iPhone when using AT&T Nav, communicates about every 5 seconds or so back to Telenav to update. If you are in a area where coverage is great, it should not be a major concern. But if you are in those areas where AT&T service is “spotty”, well, you get the picture.

[Read more...]