Windows Phone Thoughts: Raising the Ante - the Pharos GPS Phone 600 Reviewed

Setting Up a Route


Figure 20: Use the Basic menus...

Ostia features several ways to set up a route. The most commonly used methods can be accessed by tapping on the Go button on the navigation screen. This brings up the basic menus, with large buttons that can be easily read and accessed while the 600 is mounted on a windshield. Of course, a driver should not do this unless the car is at a full stop. More choices are available by specifying the Power User menus, which you can do from the basic menus.


Figure 21: ...or pull up the Power User menus if you prefer. These are some of the available choices to enter destinations.

The navigation choices on the basic menu include Address, Point of Interest, Saved Place and Home. Address allows you to input the specific address of your destination, starting with state, then city, street and number.


Figure 22: Typing in a city name. Only valid "next letters" are displayed.


Figure 23: The filtered list of cities.

As you move along in the process, input is restricted to items within previous selections. For example, if you specified California as the state, only cities in California can be selected. As you enter a city name, only keys for valid entries remain available… the balance is greyed out.

Another choice for address-based navigation is by intersection. You specify a city and 2 street names and a route to the intersection of those 2 streets will be determined. The program again constrains your choices to meaningful ones… after you've entered the first street name, the second street name is restricted to streets that actually intersect with the first one. Navigation to an intersection is available only from the Power User menus.