windows 7 phone gps voice guidance

blatantrereg

I dont have the option for voice guidance during driving directions. Should I have it?

If it's not available, does anyone have a recommendation for an app I could get? I saw Navigon recommended on an old thread, but at about €85 for the European version, it strikes me as a little expensive when most of the functionality I want is in the phone by default.

edit: Apparently it is a USA-only feature.

Another question: Is tehre any way of stopping the screen from dimming, and/or the phone going to sleep while using the gps? I can set it to wait 5 minutes instead of the default one minute to time out, but it would be more convenient if it could stay active indefinitely.

Thanks

blatantrereg

I downloaded a trial of GPS Turn by turn.
This is not polished at all, but I gave it a test run and it gave correct directions spoken clearly. Also it was able to lock the phone display to prevent it going into sleep mode. Finally you were able to select routes by touching the map, rather than just entering an address - which is very helpful given that many addresses arent found in my mapping software in my experience (or at least in my locale).
Only 2.49 to buy, so it might be a better option than the Garmin one.

evolutionqy7

If you go into settings and change all your location settings the navigation option will come on. The reason why it's off is because bing has local information for Ireland. So even when it's on expect to point your locations rather than search :-)

I've gotten Navigon and it's really good. I bought it when it was on sale for 6X.XX something. It's cheap considered how much a stand alone sat navigation would cost me with those features. Even for 80 its pretty good.

What phone do you have?

blatantrereg

I think you misread my question: The navigation works fine, it's just not giving a spoken version of the directions - so I have to look at the screen.
All regional settings are set to Ireland, and 'use my location' is enabled.
I downloaded a trial of navigon. Haven't used it while driving yet, but looking at it it does seem pretty good alright. The trial is fully featured as far as I know, but time-restricted to 30 days.
My phone is a Samsung Omnia 7.

wheresmybeaver

My understanding is that Nokia will be providing all map data for windows phone 8, so 3rd party apps won't be needed even if you have a HTC or Samsung handset. The lack of native Irish poi / address search has been pretty poor.

blatantrereg

wheresmybeaver wrote: »

My understanding is that Nokia will be providing all map data for windows phone 8, so 3rd party apps won't be needed even if you have a HTC or Samsung handset. The lack of native Irish poi / address search has been pretty poor.

I dont understand what you mean.
Do you think Windows 7 phones will be upgradeable to Windows 8? What I have read indicates they won't be.
In any case (as I've said a couple of times) it's the voice over for directions that I'm missing. I find the other features fine.

Ronan H

blatantrereg wrote: »

wheresmybeaver wrote: »

My understanding is that Nokia will be providing all map data for windows phone 8, so 3rd party apps won't be needed even if you have a HTC or Samsung handset. The lack of native Irish poi / address search has been pretty poor.

I dont understand what you mean.
Do you think Windows 7 phones will be upgradeable to Windows 8? What I have read indicates they won't be.
In any case (as I've said a couple of times) it's the voice over for directions that I'm missing. I find the other features fine.

Firstly, you're right, wp7 phones will not be able to upgrade to wp8. There will be a wp7.8 version to upgrade to at some stage, but in not sure when.

I don't have the voice option on my lumia 800 either. I googled it a bit and all I could find was a disclaimer saying that some features are region specific, so id say its the same for your phone, i.e. no voice available in Ireland.

blatantrereg

Yes it's region-specific

blatantrereg wrote: »

Apparently it is a USA-only feature.

Ronan H

blatantrereg wrote: »

In any case (as I've said a couple of times) it's the voice over for directions that I'm missing. I find the other features fine.

Sorry I thought you were still looking for clarification on the issue based on your above post a while ago. You seemed a bit impatient so I addressed the issue.

evolutionqy7

It never reads out directions unless you push on the screen... Bit silly but it's a feature lol.

blatantrereg

evolutionqy7 wrote: »

It never reads out directions unless you push on the screen... Bit silly but it's a feature lol.

It doesn't seem to even do it when you tap the screen unless you are in the USA though

evolutionqy7

Last time I tried it did. Maybe things changed with mango.