just to let you know

Wayfinder UIQ on Sony Ericsson P910i

I have been using Wayfinder UIQ (vers. 4.55.2077) for about a week on my P910i now. I decided to buy Wayfinder UIQ for my P910i phone because I was simply not willing to fork out about £250 - £500 for any of the Garmin or TomTom devices. Also, I refuse to carry another gadget around with me when leaving my car. In addition, I liked the idea of having an in-phone navigation system.

Since the P910i hasn't got any GPS receiver capabilities, I needed to find a GPS receiver first - preferrably Bluetooth.. After some research I decided not to go for the Wayfinder package and by doing so saved about £30-£50. Instead, I found a OEM Socket GPS Bluetooth receiver at Expansys.com for about £70. All in all, SatNav for my P910i therefore cost me about £130 (the cost for my phone obviously not included) - €99 for the software (12 month contract) plus £70 for the receiver. The socket receiver comes with a simple car charger (no power charger, I am afraid).

So what is Wayfinder like? Well, I have to say that it works pretty well for me. I have recently returned from a trip to Germany and used Wayfinder to guide me from the Midlands to Aachen and back. Before we left, I made 2 additional, important purchases though: 1. a cigarette plug/USB adapter for my USB charger to be used with my SE USB charger and 2. a mobile phone holder for the car - very important so you can easily see what Wayfinder displays whilst still keeping the eyes on the road.

But lets start from the beginning: I initially trialled Wayfinder for 5 days as I wanted to explore its capabilities. The trial version is easy to install and is (almost) fully functional. The only bit that is disabled is the option to access Wayfinders portal myWayfinder.com - which enables you to download maps, plan trips online and download contacts . Whilst I can understand that Wayfinder has no interest in offering this service to those who trial their software, I think it would be a lot easier if this would be mentioned somewhere on their website that myWayfinder.com is not accessible during the trial.

My Socket GPS BT receiver arrived on my last day of the trial and once the unit was charged I was able to pair/connect the P910i and GPS receiver with miniumum hassle. Once, the satellite fix is there (takes about 15-60 secs with the Socket in my experience), Wayfinder displays GPS signal strength on its little button symbol. Clicking on the button takes you to the map view of where you are. It's great that the GPS functionality is enabled even in the trial version.

Speaking of maps: Wayfinder either downloads maps from the web (via GPRS), accesses them from its buffer from already downloaded maps (configurable to up to 10MB) or from pre-installed maps that can be downloaded from myWayfinder.com. The bad news is that downloads via GPRS cost you additional money, based on the contract you have. The good news is that there are many ways how to minimise your GPRS downloads (clever download of maps that are frequently used, larger memory buffer - or simply not displaying the map whilst driving and instead switching to the Guide view). I don't understand why the memory buffer can only be up to 10MB - it would be helpful if this could be increased depending on free space on your memory card (the P910i takes up to 1GB Memory Sticks thee days). Also, I think Wayfinder should also offer a complete list of UK maps. Currently, only town maps are available for download from their online portal, which is of little help for someone in a rural location. But then, Wayfinder and their map provider have to make some money one way or another, right?

The myWayfinder.com portal gives you access to all UK and European maps as a download for your phone. In addition, you can sync your favourites from your phone via GPRS to the portal, which makes it very easy to calculate a route whilst your logged into the online portal on your PC/Mac. It is however not possible to sync any favourites back to your phone.

The best thing to do is to make all you preparations prior to setting off on your journey. Make sure you have a Satellite fix - this depends on your GPS BT receiver and can take between 30 seconds and 5 minutes. Also, it is of some help if you store your destination as a favourite. By doing this, you have all required parameters already stored in your phone. Once you have the satellite fix, connect the receiver to the phone (indicated by a little signal strength button in Wayfinder). Select "Start from GPS" to start from your current position. Then select your destination from your favourites, select "Calculate Route" and about 5-10 secs later (GPRS connection to the Wayfinder server!) you receive your first command.

Voice commands are clear and easy to understand over the little loudspeaker on my P910i. You obviously do not -like in built-in car nav systems- have the advantage of your car stereo volume going down for each routing command, but you soon learn to live with that. More importantly, all commands come in a timely manner. I even think they are adjusted to your speed, ie if you go faster then the commands come slightly earlier, giving you enough time to make that turn or take the exit off the motorway.

Whilst on route, I found route re-calculations to happen pretty fast. As soon a the GPS finds you "off-track", it only takes a few seconds until the new route is found. Also, it is possible to change the route settings to "distance", "time" or "time with traffic info"

If you include traffic information into your route calculations, GPRS traffic data is additonally taken into account when the route is calculated. I found this to be working perfectly whilst driving back from Germany to England. On two occasions - once in belgium and once in the UK - I was rerouted to avoid the congested parts of the route. Moreover, in the UK I was even redirected before the congestion had been announced on BBC Radio 2!

On the whole, I have used Wayfinder for about 30 on-road hours so far and must say that I am still impressed that such functionality is available on a device like the Sony Ericsson P910i. There were some occasions then GPRS was not available and an alternative route could only be calculated when the connection was back. On one single occasion Wayfinder fell over after a failed GPRS connection, but after an app restart and a recalculation of the route from the current GPS position everything was fine again. This took less than 60 secs, but had to be done whilst driving unfortunately.

My verdict on Wayfinder:

Pros:

• affordable, easy and simple solution


• clear voice commands


• online maps provide up-to-date info


• fast route re-calculation


• traffic news integration


• user friendly


• gives you access to MyWayfinder.com portal


• ideal for those who need in-car navigation on a sporadic basis


• different purchasing options (1 year or lifetime version) are available



Cons:

• additional GPRS costs (depends on contract and provider)


• UIQ device Sony Ericsson Pxxx or other Symbian UIQ device required for this particular version


• route calculation always needs GPRS connection