| Software Author: | Easy PocketNAV, Inc. | | Product: | OnCourse Navigator 6.0 | | Cost: | North America Deluxe Edition (1GB & 3.5 million POIs) - $89.95,Premium Edition (2GB & 12.5 million POIs) - $99.95 | | Reviewed By: | Russ Terrell | | Rating: | |
OnCourse Navigator 6.0 Released - March 30, 2007 Tested – North Americian Delux Edition (miniSD) with 3.5 million POIs Tested on a Dell AXIM x50 2003se with iBlue Bluetooth and Qstarz Bluetooth GPS. OCN6 comes on a microSD or SD memory card. Installation on your Pocket PC is as simple as insertion of the card. The first time the card is inserted, the program goes through a short setup. The program adds an Icon to the Today screen. This Icon is only available when the card is inserted into the Pocket PC. There’s an option to have OCN6 autorun when the card is inserted. I didn’t see that the option is overly useful and I found the option turned off after one card insertion. The first thing you will need to do after the installation is to configure the GPS. Be sure your Bluetooth GPS is paired to your Pocket PC. Start the program and tap on the radar dish on the bottom left corner. You can tap on Detect and the program will scan for your GPS. I found this takes a while. If you know the settings, you can tap on Config and set the Com port and Baud rate manually. You will need to have Bluetooth enabled whenever you start the program. After you get a location fix you can test the software by driving around. This will give you a feel for how the maps display. It will also give you a chance to test all the different display options. The first view is Cockpit. This mode gives you a ‘driver’s eye view’ of the route. It’s a 3D view with the direction you’re traveling pointing towards the top of the screen. The second view is Map. This is the standard 2D overhead map view. Both Cockpit and Map views can be used for general travel and navigation. You can select North up, track up or ’40,000 foot view’ orientation of the screen.  |
The next button is Find & Go. This is where you select the location you’re going to be traveling to. You can setup your Home and Work locations, so you can auto select those locations. You can also select a location by Coordinate. This works great for Geocaching or finding a location that doesn’t have an address. The POI (Point if Interest) button takes you to POI selection at your location or elsewhere. Finally, the most important button is the Address button. This is where you drill down to the address your traveling to. They have designed the address entry to be very intuitive. It will keep you from entering incorrect information. You start by entering either the zip code or city name. The program will then prompt you with a list of cities to select from. After you select a city, it will prompt you with street name and then street number. The program will then calculate the route and display it. At this point you can use the display provided or tap on Menu, and then Main to get back to the main menu. At the Main menu you can select the Cockpit or Map view. Either mode will display your route. The top of the screen will display the miles to the next turn and what kind of turn it is. The voice prompt will say the same thing. If you make a turn that is not on the route, the route will be recalculated and you will be informed by the navigator voice and on the display. You will be informed when you get close to your destination. The program does not inform you of which side of the street the final location is. In Cockpit mode, the bottom of the screen is configurable. There are 3 slots that you can configure. The default settings are; miles to the end point, estimated travel time and current speed. There are lots of other options you can replace these with. OCN6 is full of configuration options. Just about every portion of the program can be custom configured. You can use the program is portrait or landscape mode. It will work in VGA mode (for PPCs that support VGA). Many of the options are associated with the display. At the Setting screen you’ll find a multitude of additional settings screens. These are real times settings and nothing needs to be manually saved. General Settings allows you to set Safety Mode, set your home and work destinations, Automatic Night Colors, Speeding Alerts, Off-route recalculation and screen orientation. The Map Options screen allows you to set the day and night color scheme, show Alternative Road Names, Show Street labels and show Textured Polygons. On the Sound Settings screen you set the Master, Voice and Key volumes. You can also turn on Dynamic Volume, which raises the volume as you travel faster. This assumes that road and engine noise will drown out the voice prompts. The final setting is the tone for Voice Guidance attention. The Route Parameters settings screen is where all the variables for getting to your destination are set. These settings include; Routing Method (fast to optimal), Route (short, economical, fast), Vehicle (car, taxi, bus, truck, emergency, pedestrian, bicycle). There are also settings to allow or disallow routing on Unpaved Roads, Highways, Ferries, U-turns, Permit needed and Toll Roads. You will need to read the manual and play with the options to find the optimal settings for routing in your area. The Language and Units screen is where you set the Program language, Voice language, distance Units and set the Date and Time Format. The Advances Settings screen leads you to 6 more setting screens. Display Options gives you the 2D/3D mode options, and allows you to set the 3 display fields in Cockpit mode. Backlight Settings gives you the ability to custom set your backlight. Smart Zoom screen lets you fine tone the Smart Zoom feature. Smart Zoom allows the screen to zoom out and in when you’re traveling long distances without a turn. Route Options allows you to set the Off-route sensitivity and other recalculation parameters. This is another screen you should read the manual to understand how it works. The User Data Management screen is where you backup and restore your user data. It also allows you to clear your Pins, Clear your data and Reset your advanced settings. Remember that you cannot backup the SD card and copy it to a different card. They do recommend copying the card contents to a folder on your PC, in case of data corruption. The last screen is Setup & Minimized settings. This is where you can turn Autorun on. It also sets how the GPS and Voice Guidance operate when the program is minimized. Itineraries are easy to create with OCN6. Start in Map mode. Tap on menu in the upper right corner. Select the Route tab. If there’s an existing route, select Delete. Next select Edit. Tap Add and select your starting point. Location entry is done the same way as when you’re entering for a single point. Continue to do Adds until you have built your route. You can move the locations up and down if they get out of order (or if you wish to backtrack during your drive). Tap on the back arrow and it will calculate your route. Additional locations can be added at any time. Note that routes cannot be saved. My ‘user experience’ with OCN6 was positive. I liked the screen layout. It made navigation easy, without taking my eyes off the road. The software has a high degree of accuracy. This is best seen when you enter an intersection and it shows you doing the same on the screen. I found some drifting off the course when I was going past exits. Sometimes the indicator would show that I had exited and then snap back to the set course when I was past the exit. I did find this typical of most GPS programs I’ve tested. The software is feature rich; especially in the points of interest section and the ways of selecting your destinations. The software is very stable; I never had a lockup or crash. Communication with the Bluetooth GPS was very consistent; there was never any wandering when I was stopped. My biggest disappointment in this software was the fact that it didn’t announce highway and street names of upcoming turns. The program is easy to use from the very beginning, but its so feature rich that you have to read the manual to find how to use all the routing and display options. This program would be a good candidate for a short training video. Another annoyance is that after the program has ended the screen dims. I’m sure this is an after-affect of the power save option. Putting the PPC in the cradle seems to clear the problem. Strengths of OnCourse Navigator 6.0: - Comes preloaded on a SD (miniSD and adapter).
- A very complete PDF manual is available on-line.
- Nice choice of a female or male voice with clean enunciation.
- I liked the way the map would zoom out when you were on long stretches of road. The map would zoom back in as you approached your next turn.
- Highly configurable display in Cockpit mode.
Weaknesses of OnCourse Navigator 6.0: - Having a dedicated card for the GPS software. This means that you can’t load MP3s and listen to them while you’re using the software. My Dell does have the advantage of having both a SD and CF slot and I have my music loaded on the CF card.
- The voice guidance is very generic. Street and highway names are not announced. You get an announcement such as ‘turn right in 1000 feet’.
- I found the routing settings were confusing to set without reading the manual.
- Setting up an literary was very hard to setup without reading the manual.
- The microSD card would come out of the SD adapter when I took the SD card out of the PPC. It would be nice if it locked into the adapter a little better.
OnCourse Navigator 6.0 features - Plug & Go - Insert the included memory card into your device, OCN6 will automatically launch, installed in a few seconds and you are ready to GO!
- Easy to use - Simple and intuitive menus give you the perfect navigation experience.
- Stunning 3D - Impressive 3D navigation view with smart zoom to automatically zoom in for each turn and zooms out right after you made a turn.
- Detailed maps of USA and Canada pre-loaded - Seamless navigation across North America, for example Los Angeles to Toronto.
- Choice of 3 or 12 million POIs packages - Easily locate restaurants, hotels, gas stations and more. POI database covers a huge 3 millions listing on OCN6 Deluxe edition and 12 millions listings on OCN6 Premium. Millions of POIs (Point Of Interest) with phone numbers included: Millions of POIs including hotels, restaurants, gas stations, shopping centers etc. Along the journey, you can choose hotels around your GPS position or destination; just make a phone call to check pricing and availability before you arrive. You can even enjoy last minute discounted pricing!
- Select POI from different reference points: Choose POIs not only near your current GPS position, but also near your destination, a selected address or any cursor position
- Manage or create new POI listing of your choice.
- Popup the POI info: See POI details with a click of the popup icon (blue circle icon)
- Zoom out to the earth view: Do you want to know where your exact position on earth? OCN6 provides an unprecedented zooming function that allows you to look at your position from space within seconds.
- The most complete maps: The latest Tele Atlas maps of USA and Canada.
- Intuitive user menu: Simple and easy, you can use most functions immediately without reading the user manual.
- Customizable status bar: Improve readability by customizing your status bar to show only the information you need.
- On-screen Help: tap the ? (Question mark) icon in the upper right hand side of the screen to see a detailed explanation of each button.
- It gives you both visual and voice prompts for each turn-by-turn instruction.
- Automatic re-routing if you make a wrong turn.
- Find & Go: Easily setup your destination.
- X.Y coordinate input: Find your desired address destination by X.Y. coordinate
- ABC or QWERTY keys: Choose ABC keyboard , standard QWERTY, QWERTZ (German) and AZERTY (French) keyboards according to preference.
- Zero Risk- 30-day, 100% no-questions-asked money-back guarantee.
Minimum System Requirements - Minimum RAM: 9 MB (Recommended: 12 MB) free runtime memory
- A free slot for the OCN6 memory card (supports either SD / miniSD / microSD)
Compatible Operating Systems - Pocket PC or Pocket PC Phone Edition device running at least Windows Mobile 2003 and up such as WM2003SE, WM5 for Pocket PC/Phone
Receivers - NMEA compatible GPS Device. A GPS (bluetooth) receiver in order to run our software, if your device does not have a built in GPS receiver
Routing - Seamless coast-to-coast Navigation across North America: Maps of the USA and Canada are pre-loaded and ready to use out of the box, create a route, navigate and drive from Los Angeles to Quebec, Canada
- Lightning fast route calculation: Calculate a route of hundreds miles within just a few seconds.
- Optimized Multi-destination route planning: The Advanced Route Optimization function, which most of the other navigators do not have, is a unique function of the OCN6. If you want to visit several destinations on your trip, the Optimized multi-destination route planner will help you optimize the order in which you will drive through those way points to save you time and fuel.
- Detailed route information: Show the distance and time not only for the final destination but also for all the way points
- Route options: Plan your route to fit your requirements, whether by car, bicycle, or pedestrian. Avoid toll roads, motorways, or ferry...etc.
- View/edit route: View a detailed turn by turn route list and edit the route to avoid a specific road. Preview and test your OCN6 proposed route before you start your trip using Fly Over feature.
- Avoid a specific road: possible to avoid a specific road in the route planning
Map - It comes preloaded road maps of entire USA and Canada (Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and Guam included) as well as over 3 millions points of interest.
- All the newest TeleAtlas maps are installed on a memory card included as one seamless map. It allows you to find your way to any address in the USA or Canada.
- Seamless coast-to-coast navigation across North America
Visual Display - Impressive 3D navigation view with smart zoom to automatically zoom in for each turn and zooms out right after you made a turn.
- All journey information you need is shown: battery & signal status, estimated time and distance to destination
- Stunning 3D navigation view: the most brilliant 3D navigation view you can find in the market. You can tailor the 3D view angle in real-time by the tilt button. Smart zoom to automatically zoom in for each turn and zooms out right after you made a turn.
- Automatic day/night view: Based on the time and position given by the GPS device, OCN6 calculates when the sun rises and sets at your current location and changes the day/night colors automatically.
- Customizable status bar: Choose the information you need on the status bar, speed, time, distance.
- Animated turn guidance: Animated arrows shows the directions you need to continue your journey.
- Textured polygons: Enable the "show textured polygons" function to display river, lakes, forests in a more realistic way on the map
Voice - Dynamic Voice Volume: The volume of the voice instructions will automatically increase as the car speeds up and decrease as it slows down enabling the driver to hear voice instructions over the engine noise.
- Male and Female voices in multiple languages
Availability:
Buy direct at Easy PocketNAV, Inc. or BuyGPSNow.com. |
