TeleNav sits down with us
We recently had a chance to speak with TeleNav’s Communications Manager and self-proclaimed "best publicist in the world," MaryBeth Lowell. The conversation moved from TeleNav’s software (and it’s rapidly expanding features) to their plans to support the iPhone.
Additionally it seems that the have added a Quasi-Helio Buddy Beacon feature that enables users to broadcast their location to friends and even supply directions on how to get there. Our big question was in regards to the BlackBerry 8820 GPS locking and if TeleNav played a role in that. TeleNav agreed to give us (5) 3-month licenses for any device for 5 of our lucky readers, so if you would like to be included just leave a comment on which feature you would like included in a future version of TeleNav and we’ll pick the 5 people with the best ideas. Hit the jump for some highlights of our conversation!
- Did TeleNav know that the BlackBerry 8820 would be GPS-locked to only TeleNav ? We were advised to contact AT&T, which we did, but for the most part, TeleNav had no knowledge of this.
- They’ve added a new feature that allows users to broadcast their location to friends and provide directions as on how to get there as well.
- TeleNav is making a big push to bolster and create additional features instead of just straight real-time GPS navigation. One such feature is Biz Finder which provides a search feature to find nearby restaurants, movie theatres and more. The "Reviews" feature is one of the coolest components of the technology….Say you’re in Los Angeles and search for "sushi". When the results come back with the nearest restaurants, you will have access to reviews for the specified restaurant, and can even add a review right there from your phone.
- We asked TeleNav what they thought of InfoSpace’s FindIt! program. We were told the difference is that FindIt! doesn’t provide turn-by-turn directions and real-time navigation. (They do, however, provide turn-by-turn directions by voice)
- TeleNav would love to support the iPhone, but obviously at this time there is no internal GPS, and an external Bluetooth device won’t work either. They’re hoping an upcoming iPhone will sport internal GPS and therefore make compatibility and integration more feasible.
- TeleNav offers software on every national wireless carrier in North America except for Verizon (due to Verizon’s notorious stranglehold on GPS and other features). However, strangely enough TeleNav does function on some BlackBerry devices on Verizon as long as you buy the software directly from TeleNav.
Want to get your real-time GPS on? Hit us with some ideas to improve TeleNav, and we’ll pick 5 winners!
Can they add a street view option just like on Google maps. It would help so much by having a visual of where you’re heading to.
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How about a speed,mileage and altitude record like a bike computer. I take my BB with me to make phone calls while I’m riding and I would love to have the trip data recorded with all the details. (Like Bones In Motion)
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Of the features requested, a couple sound really useful:
1) Location stamping of camera snapshots.
2) “BreadCrumb” report, where TeleNav would save the actual route taken, with data about speed and location at regular intervals (might be a drain on battery)
3) “Family+Friends”, if granted permission, allow family and friends to see where you are plotted live on device or web.
One that I’d add; If enough people have TeleNav in a particular city, they’d opt-in to share their current location and speed, and feed that data back to both TeleNav and other traffic services to give better data about realtime traffic conditions.
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I flew into JFK today and tried to use Telenav on my Treo 750 with Bluetooth puck and failed. The application kept saying it couldn’t find the network though web browing, emailing, and SlingPlayer worked fine. Second time this week Telenav failed me. Maybe Mary Beth can talk to her customer service team about comping me this month. Though I think I need the reliability of a dedicated GPS…
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I would like to see a night time mode on the moving 3-d maps…
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One basic feature that I would like is the ability to get change mapsets and use telenav to provide real-time topographic map information. Usseful when you are hiking in an area with celphone coverage.
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How about…
Allowing a user to save a route–ie, a jogging route.
Then allowing a user to export that route via some sort of XML.
Then allowing a user to upload it to some sort of community site so that…
If I travel to Chicago, I could get online and find a suitable 5 mile jogging route for me, and also be able to “race” against that person’s ghost (time) or my own best time.
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I am not sure if TeleNav has this, but if it does not, it should have an “Emergency” feature that will provide directions and phone information to the nearest hospital, police station, fire station, and auto mechanic (in case of car problems).
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salesman routing, routing optimization for scenic routes, toll fees(how much in tolls will i pay on a certain route)
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Show all nearby strip clubs as I am driving with a link to strip club list reviews, prices for lap dances, hours of operations, cover charge and user ratings
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allow for export of routes taken and/or other information pertinent to your trip via pc. or be able to email directions/log of trip. Or provide updates to, via email i’m guessing, to someone else about your trip. Say i’m driving cross country and i want moms/wife/dad to know where i’m at. Thats probably a lil big brother-ish but it would be nice to have AND turned off if needed.
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Can you ask your engineers to fix the problem with BT headsets? It cuts off the first part of the message, so instead of “0 point 5 miles,” all I hear is “5 miles” — big difference!
It also would be great to have the application cache the entire path in case I get a call while driving. That’s the only reason why I haven’t completely moved to it.
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i like GEO-CACHING. can we do this?
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MaryBeth:
I’d like to hear if TeleNav has any plans for a SD form factor receiver/map data/memory module that would allow a user to receive GPS signals, store map data and offer seperate memory in a form factor that can plug into a miniSD card slot? Something like this device from Spectec http://www.spectec.com.tw/sdg810.htm
This way users who are outside of cell coverage or who do not want to pay for a monthly service fee could purchase the device and get GPS reception, have all of their maps onboard and not lose their SD cardslot memory capacity. I am frequently in places with no cell coverage and those are usually the places where I’d like to have GPS, so your current offerings are not useful to me and I have to use a seperate GPS.
Thanks and best regards,
John
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I would love Telenav to have the capability of adding addresses through the Blackberry calendar through use of the voice dialing features.
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The single relevant feature I would like to have is the gps tracking feature to work with or without a connection to the cellular network. As I drive heavily through many areas where I cannot get cell service, the ability to still know where I am going without the use of an additional gps device would be key.
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This may be more for the email/device providers, but I could see mapping integration within the native email/pim applications, specifically on a blackberry since thats what i use these days.
One scenario would be a meeting invite via email. You have each particpant addresses in your adress book, so the meeting invite contains personalized directions to the address specified in the calendar appointment.
If you are introducing some sort of location sharing, then i could see the meeting address showing up in your recent addresses list so you could access it from anywhere for other telenav users.
Every meeting in a calendar that has a location specified should be a few clicks to get directions.
It would also be interesting in the mail client to do gmail style address recognition and allow text matching an address to be highlighted like a hyperlink currently is straight to telenav. Or at least an entry in the context menu to “Get directions” for whatever text you select. Its a pain to have to copy and switch windows and paste all the time. The software could attempt to parse it out correctly but at least bring the user straight to the search screen with hopefully the hard bits filled in.
Also interesting would be a way to embed a hyperlink of your current location in any email that the recipient could use to get directions. the above button could probably toggle from “Insert location” to “Get directions” based on highlighted text or lack of.
Obviously there is plenty of stuff to do from the address book, send current location, map from their address, etc, looks like thats already covered.
Most of this probably would be too hard as its just calling a bunch of stuff that already exists, just doing it from within the pim app.
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A voice activated with voice prompt navigation will be good. Say if I want to find local restaurant, I would say “Restaurant”, Telenav would respond the number of restaurant found in that area and read me the first restaurant on the list and I can go through the list by saying next or previous or select. Furthermore, a filter option like “Restaurant – Italian” or Restaurant – Along the way, etc. would be great.
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my idea is to integrate with beyond411 or some other GPS based 411 application (or better yet integrate a 411 app into telenav) which could then at the click of the button give you turn by turn directions and information (yelp reviews/etc), basically combine beyond411 and telenav into one user friendly program
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Integration with existing in-car GPS maps would be a plus, though probably a pretty big tech hurdle.
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could you please pick me because i NEED to pay with that buddy beacon feature!
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also i would be a good tester in that i pretty much do nothing but study GPS now a days
chizzy58@gmail.com
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Most people made comments on new features for Cell+GPS gadget. As a telenav user, my view is from a different angle.
For 3 months usage, I concluded few cons to share with.
If you have frequent incoming calls, while driving and using GPS for direction, forget about it. After you pick up the incoming call, you have to reset your destination, and sometimes need to restart SW.
If you use it around downtown high rise buildings, the direction can easily off by couple hunder feet or blocks.
If you go to remote location without data network coverage, Telenav went blind.
If you forget to bring phone charger with you, battery will out of juice very quick.
If you use it for a longer route (>1 hour), you will experience application bounced or Cannot connect to server.
Some of points were also mentioned by other users in this discussion.
Before ask for fancy features, make sure it will fit your usages. Gadget consolidation is a trend. It does not mean Cell+GPS is for everyone.
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My comment my be a little technical
it would be nice to have telenav know when it has rerouted you and not reroute you back to the previose route. (suggestion: maybe have your previous route set to (1) if rerouted. so when i’m rerouted and have to be rerouted from that route it will not give me the previous route b/c the program will check all values !not == to 1, thus knowing it is a fresh route…
and another feature i believe would be helpful and cool. If we got a voice prompt on ETA and MTG. That would be pretty cool.
That’s my 2 cents
Luv the service. Keep up the good work
my phone: 8830 blackberry (sprintPCS)
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I wish TeleNav would buy Vindigo, they have the best interactive map around for Manhattan (even if it does look a little old) and their subway and walking directions are great.
Too bad the company is tanking and not supporting the software very well anymore.
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