Notices

So after a few situations where Maemomapper gave me grief (couldn't get a route over DUN, or route downloaded over DUN but would not show up, Google Maps deciding to not download, OpenStreetMaps becoming slow to update...) I went on a search for a replacement and ran up on NAVIT. After a few days of tweaking I am now a happy NAVIT user. No need for internet to get directions. Decent redraws, etc. I'm keeping MM around as a backup but won't be bothering it unless NAVIT gives me grief. One thing that MM has over NAVIT is when getting a location. At least the Google Query will parse an address for closest match. NAVIT will simply refuse to go anywhere it doesn't find in the map.bin file. For example I attempted to put in my mother's address but it refused to believe that she lived in the town I told it. I had to try 4 different towns before her street would appear. Similarly NAVIT decided that my job address wasn't real.

The good thing is that once you manage to locate the address (say GPS coordinates) you can bookmark the location so you don't have to bother with the search tool. This is the primary reason why I am keeping MM around (fallback).

Of course there is still the problem of the N800 screen glare issue. If anyone wants to part with an 810 with a decent price I may consider it.

Anyway if any of you N800 people are looking for a MM replacement, Navit is it. I can share my navit.xml modifications if you like.

Or do what I did and get an Android device (they're getting cheaper! Very cheap if you get a used one) with Google Maps, since it now does cached vector maps and you don't have to tinker with anything at all.

Considering the orphaned status of our N800 (yes, I still have mine), I don't expect I'll be trusting it to get me anywhere reliably anymore (Maemo Mapper is dreadful and the wrong tool for the job of navigation, Navit has potential but I suspect that it'll forever be potential unrealized like so much on Maemo ends up being, and Wayfinder is still stuck in the year 2008).

Sometimes, man, you have to bury your dead and move on with your life.

I am using navit since a long time on the n810 for car navigation and on the n900 even for bike navigation (voice announcements and earphones). The n810 has the advantage of the bigger screen over the n900.

The navit package for the n8x0 is almost daily updated, new features are coming. I would not consider this orphaned ;-)

sondjata, yes I would appreciate if you could share your n8x0 config file. The one I am using is here.

To clarify, I didn't say Navit is orphaning the N800. I meant that the N800 itself is in orphaned status--that is, Nokia no longer supports it. So much for future-proof.

As for Navit, it may be getting updates but it still doesn't hold up against even the old Wayfinder app yet. It's a nice development exercise, but it lacks a useful turn by turn navigation mode and it's got a long way to go before it can be useful for the average user.

I agree, it would be nice, if Nokia would still support the N8x0 series. On the other hand the device is many years old now, so I did not expect that Nokia will provide software updates after so many years. I was hoping though that there is a community distro, but it seems that Nokia did not release (or even own) enough code to make this happen.

Can you define what turn by turn navigation means for you?

I think the biggest limitation for that average user is that he cannot edit the xml file. But for the advanced user having access to all these configuration options is very nice. Is there any other tool out there which give a similar configuraton power to the advanced user?

I think the phrase 'turn by turn navigation' speaks for itself, doesn't it? I expect to know where I am currently located, then to tell it, simply, where I want to be and then to be led there at every turn. Turn by turn. Navit has problems with even recognizing addresses, nevermind providing a reliable and intuitive exprience.

Why do you think that editing an XML file is an advantage? The idea that you can't even have a usable application until you do a lot of editing and configuring sounds more like a flaw, to me.

Why should the user even have to know about any XML files? Configuration power is fine, but what happened to the idea of running your navigation software, telling it where you want to go and off you go? The flexibility of configuration should be an afterthought to USABILITY, which should always come first in any piece of software.

Another thing

I read "routenplaner" in the configs

I've got an old version of "routenplaner" for my PC

Can I use my projects of the PC on the n900?

It would be enough if they pushed upstream the code for all the drivers, instead of keeping them as out-of-tree secrets.
Now, of course, it's probably too late to do that, so we're stuck with an old kernel forever (which in turn keeps us tied to the dead maemo 4).
I don't follow meego development very closely but it seems they're doing the same with upcoming devices.
Parole, parole...

I am not familar with routenplaner, but I assume navit can work with routenplaner maps, I would be surprised if navit would do anything beyond that. Since you mention that your version is old, it is probably better to go with the free openstreetmap based maps.

yeah the device is orphaned but right now it is the device I have and is used heavily. I would have gone with a 900 but the USB issue and the lack of ATT 3G are show stoppers for me as I don't want to deal with contracts and definitely am not looking to deal with a broken USB connection. Secondly, as an Apple user, an iPhone holds more compatibility than an Android device (though I have been watching them as well). I'd probably go for an 810 for the KB and built in GPS though I've heard the many horror stories about that as well.

I think that the navit crew *NEEDS* to make a GUI front end for the XML file. If I wasn't command line literate configuring the file would have been a no go. I simply cannot see the average person even considering touching that. Not to mention the number of test runs I had to make to confirm whether a particular tweak worked properly.

I actually don't think MM was so bad. I kept the maps zoomed pretty far in (and out when I was on highways) What bothered me was when it stopped downloading routes while over the DUN connection. I would not have wanted to have been on one of my epic road trips and had that happen.