AT&T Navigator Brings Turn-by-turn Directions and More to the iPhone

Price: iPhone app is free. Use of Navigator costs $9.99 per month, rolled into your AT&T wireless bill.

Pros:

• Real turn-by-turn, text-to-speech navigation for iPhone.
• No need to buy map/database updates. The app pulls down the
  latest information from the network.
• Traffic detection and avoidance and gas prices search are included in the Navigator service.

Cons:

• No landscape mode.
• Purchase a car mount and power port charger to make it really usable in a vehicle.

A large gap in the iPhone's app selection has been filled with the introduction of AT&T Navigator by TeleNav for the Apple iPhone 3G and 3GS. The iPhone operating system OS 3.0 or higher is required to run the app. Navigator has been available for a range of smartphones for several years, and this is a review of the iPhone-specific version.

It's time to reset expectations about the quality of turn-by-turn navigation we can get from smartphones. They are becoming more like dedicated GPS devices, and AT&T's Navigator has been a pioneer in the category. Navigator, and the coming wave of advanced nav apps blow away the simple direction cues and maps with pins that iPhone users have been relying on.

I'll be evaluating the latest generation of smartphone nav apps based on a wider feature set, including how well they play with other phone functions. My star ratings for smartphone navigation apps will reflect the higher expectations for this generation of apps.

One safety note: Makers of dedicated car GPS devices have worked for years to provide interface designs that minimize distractions while providing you with clear directions as you drive. Smartphones, including the iPhone, require more attention to use while you drive. My tips on how to be a safer driver while using GPS are worth reading.

You will need an iPhone3G running operating system 3.0 or higher, or an iPhone3GS to use AT&T Navigator for iPhone. Navigator is available for many other GPS-enabled phones, also. Check your carrier's site, or the compatibility chart link below.

Navigator does not interface with the iPhone's contacts database, a common sore point in user reviews. That feature would be nice, but I don't see it as a deal-breaker. If a person or place is in your contacts list, it's likely you know how to get to the address without navigation assistance, although I'm sure there are expceptions to that assumption.

Navigator's opening screen includes a five-item menu, including: Drive To, Search, Maps & Traffic, and Tools and Extras. Drive To presents a familiar (if you've used a dedicated car GPS) set of options including favorites, recent places, by address, and business, airport, intersection. The "search" option behind these includes a broad set of categories (food, gas stations, etc.) and the general search option worked well. Points of interest database information is pulled down over the data network, so is always the most recent available through AT&T partner TeleNav.

Routing options include fastest, traffic optimized, shortest, street type preferences, and pedestrian option. Routing includes a nice summary feature that lets you view route, traffic, and map summaries before you depart. These preview features are easier to access than most I've seen on dedicated car GPS devices, a real plus for AT&T Navigator.

On the road, Navigator works well overall. Customer reviewers complain of the lack of volume and weak sound quality of voice directions over the iPhone's speaker, and those are legitimate concerns. However, I found that I could hear the directions most of the time, even with low-volume music playing, so sound is not a show-stopper. Good ways to boost sound include plugging the iPhone into the car's aux jack, if you're fortunate enough to have one in your vehicle, or using a product such as the Griffin Roadtrip, which charges the iPhone, and smart-scans FM bands to transmit sound to your car's FM radio and speakers.

A mount should definitely be used in the car, whether it's a Roadtrip, or a simpler mount or mount/charger combo. There's really no good way to hold or position the iPhone for navigation without a mount.

AT&T Navigator for iPhone is powered by TeleNav, a company with years of experience in navigation systems and databases, so I expected good directions and routing, and generally got them. The system calculates routes and route-recalculations about as quickly as a dedicated GPS. However, it did lag a bit immediately after a turn, compared to a dedicated GPS.

In order to prevent the iPhone from going into sleep mode while directing a route, I set the Navigator backlight preferences to "always on."

Navigator downloads maps on the fly, which saves storage space on the iPhone, and assures that you get the latest maps. This worked well within 3G service areas. However, if you are out of cell tower range - no maps.

AT&T Navigator for iPhone includes traffic detection and avoidance, and this worked well in my tests. No traffic detection system is perfect (yet) but the system correctly highlighted traffic trouble spots, provided delay information, and picked smart re-routes. An itemized traffic summary for your route shows specific hotspots, and another touch shows specific problems causing the bottleneck if available. Impressive.

A "search along route" feature lets you find, for example, gas stations by price on your route.

Another nice feature: You may research and upload new addresses to your Navigator favorites file from your PC or Mac by using Navigator Preplan. This is great for pre-researching a business or vacation trip and automatically syncing all of you must-see destinations to your iPhone wirelessly before you depart.

Other on-the-road notes on AT&T Navigator for iPhone:
-An incoming call suspends navigation. Navigation resumes when you end the call, or if you decline the call.
-iPhone screen brightness is acceptable for windshield-mount, on-the-road use.
-Navigator will run simultaneously with iPod or iTunes. iPod sound automatically fades when Navigator directions are given.
-Use with a charger. This app uses battery quickly, especially if running iPod simultaneously.
-Runs only in portrait mode - no landscape. Sounds like a good addition to a future Navigator software upgrade.

Overall, AT&T Navigator for iPhone goes a long way toward fulfilling the promise of turn-by-turn navigation on the iPhone, but there is work to do, as the 3-star rating indicates.