Don't get confused (like I did) by the "Europe" on the DVD box. For a moment I though MapFactor might have sent the wrong product . The box may be the wrong one, but the DVD contains both the EU and USA/Canada versions. I suspect it is the serial number which decides what map data is available for installation. Even though I will not have the time to work on this review for at least 3 or 4 weeks (busy with other reviews), I couldn't resist to at least quickly installing it to make sure USA/Canada was there . It was, and it takes I think a bit over 2GB to install the whole USA and Canada.
More to come ...
This morning I installed Mapfactor PC Navigator 7 USA/Canada on my mobile PC. Wow, where has this software been all this time? It's at version number 7, but I only heard about it for the first time few short months ago!
What a hidden gem! Look at the gorgeous 3D navigation mode! The program has definitely been designed for drivers - it is not an application meant to be used at home or office on a desktop computer .
It will work well not just on a large laptop screen, but even on a small screen of an Ultra-Mobile PC. It is touch-screen friendly, good for TabletPC and UMPC users.
Over the past few days I've done some driving with PC Navigator 7. I have to admit I do like this product quite a bit. It does have some features which could use some improvement, but over all I'm very impressed.
Map data comes from Tele Atlas. A few years ago I wasn't too thrilled with navigation products based on Tele Atlas data, but this has changed to the better. The map quality of PC Navigator 7 USA/Canada seems good, and the routing seems good, too.
I'm very impressed with the 3D-view and the automatic zoom feature. I will have to take more pictures of it, to illustrate how great it is. I also very much like the ability to simply click one on-screen button to toggle 3D-view and 2D, as shown above. It instantly zooms out to show the whole route when it switches from 3D navigation mode to 2D,
So far the few negatives that I've observed would include the following:
* It creates a route just fine when I enter my destination while I'm on a road. But when I enter my destination while off road, for example when sitting on a parking lot, it may take a bit longer to compute the route.
* I haven't yet find a way to search POIs based on proximity to my GPS location. I can search for POIs by city name, and/or alphabetically, but I'm not yet sure if there is a way to look up POIs closest to me.
None of the above would be a show-stopper by any means, though. This is a very good looking program. I'll play with it more before I write a review.
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