Windows Phone Thoughts: Are We There Yet? - PowerLOC's Destinator 3 (v3.0.04) Reviewed

By the Time I Get to Phoenix


Figure 11: Let’s spend the afternoon at the Club…

So let’s say you’re all set to leave for Wally World, but you have to make slight detour to drop Aunt Edna off in Phoenix. With Destinator 3, you’re all set for both legs of your trip, because it now supports waypoints.

With waypoints, you can specify your origin, multiple intermediate destinations and your final destination. Destinator will determine a route between consecutive waypoints, so that you can make your way to Phoenix first and then to Wally World. This was on my wish list from the Destinator 2 review (the waypoints feature, not a trip to Wally World), so I’m happy to see that it made it into this version.


Figure 12: Turn-by-turn view.

Once the route has been calculated, you can look at the results in a variety of ways. Turn-by-turn shows the map display for each turn, with the distance from the previous turn. Note the new “fly-out” direction arrows on the map… they’re much more legible than in the previous version.


Figure 13: Destinator understands the male psyche... never ask for driving directions again!

Driving directions are also available. In this view, a list of all turns is provided, and no map is displayed. If you’d like to see a particular turn, tap on the Show icon and you’ll see the corresponding map from the turn-by-turn display.

From this view, you can see another important addition to Destinator 3… the ability to avoid roads. If you don’t want to use a particular road that Destinator selects, highlight it and tap on Avoid. The route will be recalculated, and that road will no longer be used.

You can do this on a route-by-route basis, or you can pre-designate roads that you always wish to avoid, so Destinator will always avoid them.


Figure 14: The whole route.

Destinator can also display your entire route, along with total distance and estimated time of arrival.


Figure 15: Tap and hold.

Another added convenience… Destinator now provides convenient “tap and hold” menus in many map views.

As with the previous version, Destinator 3 allows you to use flat 2D maps as well as 3D maps with an “over the shoulder” view. Since they have greater detail, I generally used the 2D maps except in unfamiliar areas, where the larger view provided by the 3D maps sometimes makes it a bit easier to get your bearings.