Finding My Way With TeleNav

This is not meant to be an in-depth review as we have linked to an in-depth review of TeleNav 5.2 for AT&T Tilt here. That being said, as a TomTom Navigator 6 user, I was very skeptical of TeleNav and haven't used it for several reasons, until my trip to Tucson, Arizona last week. Fortunately, and pleasantly surprised, I was proven wrong as TeleNav is a wonderful travel companion.

Maps loaded quickly, although in comparison to navigation programs that are loaded into the device's memory or storage card memory like TomTom the navigation seems less smooth but yu won't get lost because of this. For users who have never used another GPS solution before, this will not be as big of a deal. The voice guidance was clear and I was impressed that TeleNav could pronounce the names of streets.

The thing that I was impressed by mostly with was the ease of use of the application. Unlike other software-based solutions, TeleNav takes up little memory footprint. Moreover, the user interface was intuitive and there wasn't layers and layers of menus to navigate through. On the front page, there were four intuitive options with about one level of menu underneath that. This makes for driving to be safer, although a warning screen pops up everytime the program is started warning against driving and navigating at the same time.

The thing that TeleNav does well is provide you with a points of interest (POI) database that is extensive. The database may be extensive enough where I would be willing to forego the installation of Microsoft Live Search and Google Maps to explore food, restaurants, and nightlife. I can just quickly startup TeleNav and find the nearest post office, coffee shop, and local shops with just a simple search. Through the POI database, I could also click a number and TeleNav will call that business. In an instant, I was able to make reservations to a restaurant and navigate there with ease.

However, my experience with TeleNav didn't go without some minor glitches. There are two. First, signing up with TeleNav was a bit cumbersome through AT&T, my wireless service provider. I would recommend signing up with TeleNav directly through their website. TeleNav requires a PIN to activate and although AT&T will sign you up for service, they make you place a second call to TeleNav to acquire the PIN. That may be more of a thing with AT&T than with TeleNav.

My second minor quibble is that TeleNav updates their software revisions periodically, and not just the maps. However, they do not notify customers when a new version is out so you'll have to log in to their site and see if a new version has been released.

By far, the most impressive features of TeleNav are: the business database, the easy to use user interface, and the automatic re-routing based on up-to-the-minute traffic conditions. These time saving features coupled with a local gas search to find not only gas stations in the area, but also gas stations by price, makes the monthly unlimited $10 subscription fee pay for itself.