Windows Phone Thoughts: Routing the Competition... a review of Pharos' iGPS-BT and Ostia 6.0.2.51

Using the Routes
First, let me say that of the Pocket PC GPS programs that I've used, Ostia produced the most straightforward routes. For all of the programs, I used a relative's house about 12 miles from home as one test route. One of the other programs, regardless of the settings, had me going on every back road between my place and the destination, with turn after turn after turn. Far too complex a route. The same origin and destination in Ostia produced a very direct route, using the same main highways that I would have used myself. It just seems to have better routing logic overall.


Figure 13: Satellite display

To use the route, we must enable the GPS. This is done by tapping on the red smiley and tapping on Yes when it asks you if you want to enable the GPS. The smiley then turns yellow as the GPS attempts to acquire satellites. The figure above shows the Satellite screen, which displays the satellites that the GPS has acquired, along with their signal strength. Once the GPS has acquired enough satellites, the smiley turns green and we're ready to motor.


Figure 14: Map view

This figure shows one of the display modes provided by Ostia, which they call the Map view. It displays a large portion of the map with a small text direction on the bottom. The green arrow on the left shows your next turn, with the distance to that turn below it. The center describes the turn, and the red figure to the right shows the distance to the destination. Your position is displayed by the red arrow on the map.


Figure 15: Split Arrow & Map view

The Split Arrow & Map view shows less map and more text. The estimated time to the destination is additional information provided in this view.


Figure 16: Arrow/Text view

Next, we have the Arrow/Text view, which eliminates the map display completely, and adds the name of the road that you're currently on at the bottom. You switch between the map views by tapping on the green arrow in the toolbar.


Figure 17: Text view

Finally, we have the text view, which shows the list of directions for the whole route.

As with most Pocket PC navigation software, Ostia offers voice prompts. It comes with a set of female voice commands, and it has the capability of using customized voice commands as well. Pharos promises to offer additional voice sets on their Web site, although none are available at the time of this review. The voice prompts are very clear, and my 2215 can virtually scream them out. You're given advance warning about your next turn just before you reach it. The distance before the turn when the warning sounds varies by speed... the faster you're going, the longer the distance before the turn when the warning sounds. Then just as you come up to the turn, a loud bell sounds. I liked this, because it's very easy to hear and very distinctive. Prompts include such instructions as "right turn ahead", "highway exit ahead", "you are off route" and "arriving at destination". If you tap on the instruction box on the screen, the voice prompt for the next turn will sound on demand.

If you do get off route, Ostia will attempt to reroute if you have Auto Reroute enabled. Otherwise, it will just keep bugging you about being off route until you somehow get back on the route. I left Auto Reroute enabled.

I missed one feature from a competing product. If you're on a particular road for an extended period of time, such as a long stretch on an interstate highway, you won't get any voice prompts since there aren't any turns. So you may get a bit inattentive regarding the routing. Ostia treats turns the same if they're two miles or 200 miles from the previous one... you just get the standard advance warning just before you must make a turn. Destinator 2 has a feature where it will give you "way advance" warning under such circumstances, such as "left turn in two miles". This gives you plenty of time to make necessary advance lane changes if you're on an interstate highway. Such a warning would be a welcome addition to Ostia.

There are two methods for zooming. One is to drag down from left to right on the map to zoom in, and up from left to right to zoom out. The other is to tap on the "+" and "-" buttons on the toolbar when in Map view. I'm a bit puzzled by the operation of the latter, however. Tapping on either the "+" or the "-" brings up a box with an arrow that you drag up or down to zoom in or out. If both buttons just open this same box, why have 2 buttons in the first place? To me, it would make more sense for the "+" button to zoom in one level and the "-" button to zoom out one level, as the arrow is difficult to use while on the road. A little interface tweaking would be helpful here.

These quibbles aside, I was very impressed with Ostia overall. I found Ostia's performance to be very speedy, definitely more so than the competition. To be fair, though, I haven't tested the others on this particular Pocket PC, so different hardware and Pocket PC 2003 as opposed to Pocket PC 2002 may account for some of the difference. I experienced an occasional lockup that required a soft reset, but they were few and far between... certainly fewer than I had experienced in the past with other products. I would describe Ostia as being very stable overall.

Support
I found support from Pharos to be quite responsive. With each of the two inquiries that I sent to them via e-mail, I got a response in one day, and each response showed careful consideration of my questions.

Gotchas
When I first signed up to do this review, I planned to use my iPAQ 5455, which was recently upgraded to Windows Mobile 2003. While I was able to achieve a connection between the iGPS-BT and the 5455, the connection would drop after about a minute, and I'd have to soft-reset the 5455 to establish a new connection. I tried several things at the suggestion of Pharos tech support, but at this point I wasn't able to rectify the problem. As reported earlier, the iGPS-BT and my iPAQ 2215 worked very well together.

My other issues:

• The lack of restaurants as POIs when not online
• The rather baffling design of the zoom buttons

Where To Buy
The iGPS-BT can be purchased from Pharos' Online Store for $369. This includes the Ostia navigation software.

Specifications
Pharos claims that the iGPS-BT will work with any Bluetooth enabled Pocket PC, using either built-in BT or BT through an add-on card (as noted above, it may not work with every Pocket PC). The Ostia navigation software supports any Pocket PC, from Pocket PC 2000 to Windows Mobile 2003. It requires approximately 1 MB of storage space and should not be installed on a storage card. In addition, a storage card is necessary for maps, since their size would quickly fill up the main memory on most Pocket PCs.

I couldn't find any specifications for the PC-based MapFinder software... all I can say is that it works flawlessly with Windows XP.

Conclusions
The iGPS-BT works very well with a compatible Pocket PC. Connections are strong and reliable. Satellites are acquired quickly. And I appreciated the convenience of NOT having to attach my Pocket PC to the windshield. The package is very complete, and some very useful accessories, such as the DC charging adapter and the high quality case, are included.

Ostia 6.0.2.51 is one of the more impressive Pocket PC navigation software packages. I like the interface design... commands seem to be more easily accessible than with the competition, and operation is very speedy indeed. It always seemed to create very direct and logical routes, as opposed to the "tour of the back roads" that I experienced with some other products. And the biggest advantage of all is the multi-stop routing capability, which is a first among the products that I've used, making Ostia seem quite similar to PC-based navigation software such as Streets and Trips.

While it would benefit from a little beefing up of the basic POI functionality and a few interface tweaks, Ostia definitely raises the bar for Pocket PC navigation software. Matched with the convenience and portability of the iGPS-BT, Pharos has provided a very capable and desirable navigation package.