G-Map Turn by Turn GPS on iPhone

Well it took long enough but the iPhone now has a Turn by turn GPS app. XRoad is the company and G-map is the name of the app and it is not from one of the major GPS companies. That really surprised me at first. But I guess that makes sense since now I will never buy a dedicated GPS for the car. If Tom Tom released a GPS iPhone app no one would buy their units. Looks like the iphone killed another device on my gadget list.

G-Map has been out since October I guess but v1 was really buggy so no one really made a fuss about it. XRoad just released an update version of G-Map and it rocks! It is getting 4 and 5 ratings since the update. I had to buy it and give it a go since I sold my Tom Tom a few months ago. The app is $19.99 which is the most expensive app I have purchases yet. I had some buyer’s remorse while I watched the app downloading. But compared to a dedicated GPS unit $20 is cheap. There is a West and East version so I guess the real price is $40 if you need both versions. Iowa is in in the West so I bought just the West version.

I tested G-Maps this morning driving my daughter to school and then myself to work. It worked great. I even made a wrong turn on purpose and the app rerouted me a new rout as expected. The only issue right now is no voice. But I can get by just fine without voice since I couldn’t hear my old GPS unit over the radio anyway.

You can save your own POI’s and it has what you would expect for preloaded POI’s. One option I really like is a play back feature. You can rout your point A to B and then watch it back at different speeds. Might be useful if you want to see the rout before you drive it. You can also make routs and save them for later. Very cool!

With my testing this morning the iPhone never put me off rout from bad GPS positioning. G-map has three views with two flat/top views and one 3D view. The other great thing is the maps are in the app. Even if you lose phone coverage you won’t lose GPS connection unlike using Google Maps for directions on the iPhone.

The app is well worth the $19.99 price tag in my book. The app can only get better with future updates and other than voice I can’t think of anything else I need the app to do. Now I just need to buy a cradle for the iPhone for long trips.

You can download the Web Version here and the East version here.

You can also get more information at http://www.xroadgps.com/Maps/GMapforiPhone/tabid/2463/Default.aspx

Here are a few screen shots I took today.