A couple days ago we announced the availability of the Navigon North America Navigation software for the iPhone.

We have gotten a review copy for evaluation and below is my review of this easy to use Navigon North America Navigation for the iPhone.

Download and Installation

Be prepared for big download. When purchasing I suggest doing this in the iTunes store on your desktop or laptop with high speed internet connection. The app is going to to be 1.3 GB. The download itself will take some time as well. If you are like me and want to try new things right away this is a disappointment. However the file has this size because it has all the map data for North America, which includes the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

For a succesfull installation I have to give a couple small tips.

Due to the large file to install on your iPhone it would be best to check first if you have the 1.3 GB space left over on your device. You can do this easily by connecting you iPhone to the iTunes on your computer. Once connected, click on the name of your device on the left hand side of the iTunes window. Now on the bottom of the screen you can see how much storage memory you have left over on your device.

The second thing you want to do first before going ahead and un-check the synchronization of Navigon and make sure that all your new podcast are downloaded to your computer and then are synchronized with your iPhone.  After you have done these 2 things your iPhone is just connected to your iTunes on your desktop and at the next synchronization it only needs to install the Navigon Software. So go ahead and check the box next to the Navigon application in the application tab under your phone name while your iPhone is connected to iTunes. Now click on “Sync” on the right bottom of the iTunes screen. Again due to the large file this will take some time before it is finished installing.

User interface and options

When starting the application it takes a couple of seconds to start up.

The first screen that shows up on your iPhone is a standard warning about using the navigation software.

After the above screen the Main Menu shows up. The Main Menu has 4 tabs.

From the Main Menu you can enter an address directly. Through this process it will let  you select the State first which is indicated with a country flagg right next to it. This is a great added feature so you don’t have to scroll through many same named cities or towns with different state codes behind them.

From the Main Menu you can also navigate to a POI (Point of Interest). This means if you need to find a bank, school, restaurant or anything else, you can use this function to find these POI in a city or nearby you current position

Another quick “Main Menu” item is to” Take me Home”. The first time you select this you are able to enter in your own home address and from that point on the “Take me Home” button will automatically calculate the route back to your home.

The last button in the “Main Menu” will show you the map. You can use your fingers to scroll through the map and to point a location you would like to navigate to.

The” Favorites” tab lets you quicky select your destinations you have marked as favorites.

Your “Recents” tab lets you select quickly the destinations you have entered last.

And your “Contacts” tab will look at your iPhone contacts and use the addresses enterered already within your Cotact fields.

Now that we are on our way you can use your Navigon navigation software in portrait mode or landscape.

If you have a red bar on the top of the screen it means that your internal GPS has no fix with the satellites. However with your iPhone in to a car mount in the windshield of your car you get a great fix and the time response in movement is as with any of the current stand alone Personal Navigation Devices. (PND). I prefer to use the ProClip USA mounting system for my on the dash mountings of my devices.

Within this current screen you can tap on the top bar of your screen and the info listed will rotate from:

1. Destination Time
2. Destination Milage /KM
3. Speedometer

Tapping on the bottom bar will rotate the info between:

1. Street name next turn
2. Street name current position

Tapping on the left box with the next turn notification will repeat the voice instructions for this information.

The “Options button”  on the right top will give the following options:

By tapping the middle of the screen while driving will give you a quick 2d view of your current location. However going back to to navigation screen with view into your driving direction (3D or 2D) you have to tap the “Done” button instead of tapping the screen again.

When you take a wrong turn the Navigon software will quickly recalculate a new route for you.

You can also adjust your settings to give you “Caution” warning when you are driving a certain speed over the speed limit. Could be handy for those unaware heavy foot people.

Experiences

Take a quick look at my live experiences with software below

This weekend I drove for about 8 hours in total using this Navigon navigation software for the iPhone and I have to say that this version can easily replace my Personal Navigation Device. However a limitation to the iPhone is multitasking. Once you leave the navigation software for some music or quick weather information. You have to restart the navigation system. It won’t keep running in the background.

Hopefully the future will allow you to pick up traffic information,weather information and search for new live POI’s within the software. Who ever has the iPhone has the data connection. Why not use the data connection to enrich the use of the Navigation Software?

Conclusion

The Navigon Navigation Software is the first proffesional navigation software for the iPhone comparable to the stand alone devices. The functions are slightly different from the stand alone devices, but this is the bestversion now available to have on your iPhone.

The Navigon MobileNavigator North America is on sale now for $69.99 in the App store until August 15. After that the price will go up to $99.99.