Pocket PC Thoughts: Routing the Competition... a review of Pharos' iGPS-BT and Ostia 6.0.2.51

Maps
Before you can use the iGPS-BT, you must install one or more maps on your Pocket PC. You do so by running the MapFinder software on your PC. It displays a map of the entire US, including Alaska and Hawaii, broken up into 327 sections. As you move your mouse over the maps, a box displays showing a description of the map, the CD that the section can be found on (there are three), and the size of the map. Double click on a section to select it. You can also drag the mouse to select multiple maps.

An alternative is to enter a city or zip code, allowing the software to select maps within the number of miles you specify from that city or zip code. This worked OK, with one downside... it selected only maps that are completely contained within the radius specified. The result was gaps between some map sections... smaller maps at the edges of the selection area were selected, but some maps between those smaller maps and the maps at the center of the selection area were not selected, because part of those maps extended outside the selection area. It would make more sense to me to have it select all maps that were within the selection area, either partially or completely.

Once you've selected the maps that you need, MapFinder can copy them to your Pocket PC through ActiveSync, or directly to a card reader. For convenience and speed, you can also copy the maps to a hard drive so that you don't need to swap CDs.

These maps are not small... if I select all maps for my entire state (Wisconsin), the total space required is 98 MB. This does include a little bit of neighboring states. But if you're going to take a long trip, you may need multiple memory cards to hold the maps. Which also means that you can't plot an entire long route in one shot, a shortcoming shared with other products, and mostly a factor of memory limitations rather than design issues.

Routes
To set up a route, load all maps for the origin, destination and all maps in between. Ostia can load up to 10 maps at a time, but they recommend a maximum of three for optimal performance. One of the options allows you to set this maximum.


Figure 2: Find Menu

A route is started by using the Find menu. Here you can set your origin and destination, or set up a Multi-stop route.


Figure 3: Origin and Destination selection options

The same selections as shown in the above figure are offered for origins, destinations, and multi-stops. You can enter addresses directly, or specify intersections if you don't have the exact address handy. To make things a bit simpler, Ostia can provide locations through addresses in your Contacts, or by selecting a Point of Interest (POI). In addition, recently used locations can be displayed and selected. And finally, you can save a location as a favorite and select it from your favorites list.


Figure 4: Find By Address - enter street name

Recent locations, contacts and favorites are simple selections from lists. Addresses require multiple steps. First, you enter the address number. Then begin entry of the street name or number. As your street name becomes more distinct, the list box below will list matches for street names that contain the address number. Select the correct street and tap Next.


Figure 5: Find By Address - select city

Cities that have that address will be displayed. Select the correct city and you're done.


Figure 6: Points of Interest - categories

Points of interest also require a couple of steps. First, select the desired category and tap Next.


Figure 7: POIs for selected category

Matches for that category within the loaded maps will be displayed for selection.

I found the basic POI functionality in Ostia to be a bit disappointing compared to some of the competition. The main issue that I have is that the base categories don't include restaurants. When I'm traveling, restaurants are key POIs for me, since many highway exits offer little more than fast food. If you want something a bit more substantial or healthy, you have to search. And Ostia falls short here. The Smart Finder feature (more on this later) is a great solution for this, but it requires an Internet connection. So if you aren't Internet enabled in your car, I guess it's Burger King or nothing. By contrast, PowerLOC's Destinator 2 software provides an extensive list of restaurants and doesn't require Internet access to display them.


Figure 8: Multi-Stop Route

Multi-stop routes are a welcome addition to Pocket PC GPS software. This is the first program that I've used that has this feature. To use it, select your origin and destination normally, and then use Multi-stop to select up to 10 intermediate stops. When you tap on New Route in the Find menu, the dialog box in Figure 8 is displayed. Check the Multi-stop Route box and Ostia will start at the origin, route through the intermediate stops and then route to the destination. Even if you don't have multiple stops, this feature can also be used to "nudge" a calculated route to a favorite highway by creating a stop nearby. A very useful feature.


Figure 9: Smart Finder search criteria

Smart Finder is one of two Internet enabled features of Ostia, collectively called Smart Navigator. It can find POIs within a specified radius from your current GPS location, your destination or your origin. It includes a much wider range of POI categories, including restaurants. You can also specify keywords, if you're looking for a steak place, pizza, Chinese, etc. And the lists can be more up-to-date due to the Internet access to more dynamic lists.

As with the standard POIs, first you select the desired category. Since I missed the restaurant category before, I'll select that one.


Figure 10: Smart Finder - information about matching item

A list of restaurants matching the criteria is displayed, and you can display details about a selection. Options from the detail display include creating a route to the POI, setting it as a stop, accessing a website for the POI, or calling from a phone-enabled PDA.

I recognize and appreciate the power and convenience of the Smart Finder feature. However, until wireless Internet access in a car is more widely available, a more robust standard set of POIs should still be offered.


Figure 11: Smart Traffic - setting display thresholds

The other component of Smart Navigator is Smart Traffic. If you're Internet enabled, you can access traffic information for selected metro areas. You can specify the speed range in which you're interested in the dialog box above.


Figure 12: Smart Traffic - map display

Traffic speed on major highways is then displayed on your map via the dots on the map. The color of the dot shows the speed. As you can see by all of the green dots, freeways in Milwaukee on a Saturday afternoon were running smoothly.

Smart Traffic is a subscription service, currently priced at $3.95/month billed annually. A trial period is available.