Destinator SP by Destinator Europe (10/03/2005) | nedge2k.com | Destinator, Have, Software, Which, Select

When it comes to satellite navigation on the Smartphone, there's a fair amount of choice out there and seeing as the only trial version available is Mapopolis, you may need some pointers on what to look out for when making your decision.

As you may already know, we here at MSMobileNews have already tested and reviewed all the major navigation options available for MS Smartphone to make it easier for you to make your choice and have come to the conclusion that TomTom is by far the best. Now, however, comes a new pretender to the throne, Destinator SP by Destinator Europe.

First impressions of this software are very good. The kit comes with everything you'll need to get started with sat nav:

Accessories:

Windscreen mount

The windscreen mounted phone holder supplied with the Destinator kit is a very capable little accessory. It uses a suction cup to mount onto the windscreen and has a bendable arm to allow you to position it exactly how you want it. The phone holder itself is universal and can adjust to hold most phones, even the I-Mate Jam. It then just clips onto the main arm. However, the design of this system has not been thought out too well. If you car has rather hard suspension, a pothole will cause the phone holder to detach itself from the mount and send your beloved phone hurtling to the floor. Not good. A bit of superglue will fix this but it shouldn't have too in the first place.

Memory card

Included in the kit is a generic 256MB Mini SD card with a full size SD adaptor. The card comes preloaded with software and maps, which takes up around 130MB, leaving you enough space for some music and software.

GPS unit

Destinator Europe made an excellent decision when including the RoyalTek RBT-1000 Bluetooth GPS unit with the kit. The unit is very small, smallest in the world in fact, has a removable lithium-ion battery, is very lightweight and supports Xtrac 2.0. Overall the GPS performs very well. Time to first fix is usually quite rapid and fix re-acquisition is fast also. There are however a few problems, the main one being the lack of mini USB port, or any data port for that matter. Destinator also failed to include a mains charger and opted to include a car charger only. When it comes to informing users about their products, Destinator have taken a similar stance to Orange, in that they only tell you half the story. Destinator doesn't tell you that the GPS unit is configurable to enhance performance or increase battery using free software from RoyalTek. Luckily, RoyalTek allow you to download this software from their site and even though there is no data port on the unit, it can still be configured via Bluetooth using your laptop/pc. There is PPC configuration software available which does exactly the same thing but no Smartphone version at this time.

Software:

Overview

On opening the Destinator SP software you are confronted with a splash screen while the program loads. This takes a minute then you are asked to select the maps you want to use. Assuming you have Bluetooth switched on (unlike TomTom, Destinator will not connect to the GPS when Bluetooth is off), Destinator will automatically connect to the GPS device, which will start flashing blue. The program also tells you that you then have 14 days in which to activate the program. The program interface is a mix of native Smartphone user interface (pop-up menus etc.) and Destinator's own interface which, in my opinion, looks a bit sloppy. One or the other would have been better, preferably a fully designed interface like TomTom's. Another gripe with the interface is that, although you can press numbers to select options while using the phone-style side of the interface, you cannot using the Destinator-style side. E.g. when looking up an address, pressing 6 to select the sixth address down will only highlight it, not select it. You then have to press the action button which, on the C500, can prove difficult. Especially when you're in a moving vehicle and the phone is vertically mounted. Apart from that the interface is clear and easy to understand on the move. You have a choice of four different view modes. 2D gives you a bird's eye view of the map with road/place names. 3D gives you a more simplified view without road/place names. Step-by-step has no map but instead has large images of the upcoming directions. Driving directions simply gives you a list of the directions. Unlike TomTom, colour selection is not possible. 2D view always has 'day colours' and 3D view always has 'night colours'. Also located in the view menu is 'GPS status' allowing you to view various information such as speed (not viewable in main views!), longitude, latitude, direction etc. Why on earth your speed is not viewable in any of the main views is beyond me and yet producers of satellite navigation software continue to do it! One thing that sets it apart from the current version of TomTom and brings it more in line with Mapopolis is the ability to select how your route will be calculated. Although not as extensive as Mapopolis, in that you cannot set it to avoid toll roads etc., Destinator SP still allows you to select between quickest and shortest routes. Destinator also has a couple of other features that set it apart from the current offerings such as the ability to send your current location via sms. Handy if you are stranded and the rescuing party also has Destinator. Destinator has its own inbox for those kinds of messages and will allow you to navigate to the location in the message. Another nice feature is the ability to navigate to an address by looking in the phone's contacts database. Destinator SP is also fully skinnable and, as all the sounds are .wav files, you can customise those too. Destinator offer a free skin designer to help you with the skinning process, but it doesn't work for Smartphones; in fact, it doesn't work at all from what I've seen. Another huge oversight by Destinator is the lack of an ability to keep the backlight on or stop the screen timing out! As you can imagine, very annoying at night.

Navigation

When it comes to actual navigation you have a few options. You can enter an address or partial postcode (yes, no full postcode search in this either!), travel to a point of interest (POI), travel to a favourite location, view you navigation history and pick a previous location to travel to, travel to a contacts address (from phonebook) and select a point on the map to travel to. All pretty standard stuff, nothing ground breaking but the ability to navigate to a contact's address is a nice feature. Route planning is a simple select and click affair. When entering an address you simply select the city, then the street and then the house number. Sounds simple enough but having to click action on everything can prove tricky at times, especially when, unlike TomTom, your travel history is separate to the main address entry interface. Destinator have also neglected to include a few rather important features: you cannot travel via a location which is very disappointing. Say, for example, you need to make a quick stop at a petrol station, in TomTom you would merely select travel via petrol station. In Destinator you have to cancel your current route and make a whole new one to the location! Another failing of this software is the lack of an ability to calculate a different route. In TomTom you would just hit recalculate route. Simple features but imperative to stress free motoring, which brings me onto another couple of gripes I have with this software: although the voice is clear and understandable, they seem to have got things a bit backwards in that, the distance to the next turn/roundabout/exit etc. is at the end of the speech e.g. 'turn left two miles'. While advanced warning like that is useful, having the distance at the end of the sentence can be confusing and could cause you to turn when you don't have to. The same is true when a bend is greater than 45 degrees. Destinator classes that as a turning, so you'll be driving down a country lane and suddenly be told to 'turn left' when going round a bend. Destinator also randomly tells you to 'keep left' when the road doesn't even split into two directions (and never has) and instead of telling you to exit a motorway it again tells you to 'keep left'. Roundabouts are another problem for Destinator. Instead of telling you to 'go left on the roundabout, 1 st exit' or 'cross the roundabout, 2 nd exit' or 'go right on the roundabout. 3 rd exit' it merely tells you to 'continue driving around the roundabout, 1st / 2nd / 3rd exit'. Obviously, Destinator need to work on the clarification of spoken directions. Points of interest are not customisable either so any hopes you have of loading up the latest speed camera database are quashed. Again, a simple but essential requirement of good sat nav software that Destinator have not deemed important enough to include.

Activation

The biggest and by far the worst problem with this software is the activation process. You start off with a voucher code which, when registered, gets you a license key. That, paired with your device ID gives you the activation key. Sounds pretty straight forward, well thought out right? Wrong! Everytime you hard reset your device, the device ID changes, so you then have to 'move' your license to your 'new' device. Problem is, you can only do this twice before Destinator stop you doing it again meaning that if you hard reset more than twice, Destinator SP becomes even more useless than it already is.

Conclusion

I had high hopes for Destinator SP when I first heard about a few months back, it really sounded like a TomTom beater. I'm afraid to say, however, that my hopes have been dashed. This software is truly awful to use, an A-Z would be better and less confusing than this and if their customer service is anything like my experience with the Destinator staff; it will be just as bad. I questioned Destinator about the little annoyances I found with the software, including the rather outrageous activation problem and whether they would be releasing an upgrade to match TomTom Mobile 5. Not only did they take three weeks to reply but the reply was in German, a language I don't even speak (which they knew)! What was their reply I hear you ask? 'kannst du ihm die Antworten geben????' which, loosely translated, means 'can't you give the answers????' As you might be able to tell, I'm not greatly impressed with the professionalism of Destinator as a whole let alone the software they produce.

However, none of this would be so bad if a bug fix patch was released and the kit was considerably cheaper than its rivals but the Destinator SP kit weighs in at a hefty £170, a price which, in my opinion, is absolutely laughable.

Don't get me wrong, it's a nice effort but it's just too little too late. This kit is no-where near up to the standard of others. Take my advice, save your money and wait for TomTom Mobile 5 to be released. You'll be a lot happier, trust me ;)