I’m new to Smart phones & even newer to apps - especially Sat-Nav ones.
At the moment, I am trying yours & it seems quite good.
I have a new Moto G – Android.
I’m sorry if my plea’s are basic or answered elsewhere.
I’m in West Cornwall – UK.
1/ Do we only get a drawn map – or can we see satellite photo’s ?
2/ I was driving along the A30 yesterday, & kept getting the message “NO CONNECTION – RETRY”.
I know I had 02 cellular connection, so wondered if this message meant no satellite visible ?
If it is, it seems very odd along the A30 – especially as my phones in-built sat-nav keeps connections all over this area.
Hi,
Thanks for your kind reply and welcome,
SIGNAL:
I have been looking through the forum, but can find no definitive answer to this.
Obviously, if the signal drops out, with a known cause, shouldn’t it be rectifiable ?
If people need to rely on the system, then they need to rely on it - otherwise, what’s the point ?
Its like having a kettle - that doesn’t heat water, or a TV that doesn’t show pictures,
MAPS:
As I say, I’m new to all this, but the built-in system of my phone does use satellite images.
This isn’t an argument, but I don’t understand why that uses maps, but a sat-nav app doesn’t ?
I love the idea of this system, especially with members actual input, and local managers etc to keep things up to date. I spent an interested couple of hours looking at the maps/changes etc, & find it fascinating.
If I'm here long enough, I might apply for a managership, as I guess its a bit scarce where I am.
First though, I gotta stop it dropping out,,,,,
I have always found Cornwall a great holiday location, and somewhere to break the smartphone addiction. The simple fact is that there is hardly any mobile data coverage across much of Cornwall. You may have a phone signal capable of calls, but rarely do you get a fast data connection.
Both Waze and Google Navigation rely on a continuous feed of data, building the map as you drive. In addition, average speed data/traffic conditions are another addition to the flow of data required. In urban settings with strong and fast data connections, both Waze and Google work brilliantly. Without data, both are useless.
I have Co-Pilot installed for no-data emergencies, often Cornwall or The Peak District. Co-Pilot isn’t great, but it has a full UK map installed on the phone memory so no connection is required - just GPS.
One day mobile operators will figure out how to fill the gaps in UK coverage. Meanwhile there is not much we can do about it. Not soon (unless in the Waze sense of the word)
You mention that Waze was showing a “NO CONNECTION” message but your phone was reporting a signal. It’s important to remember that your phone may show a strong signal but this does not necessarily mean you had a data connection. Some phones will report signal strength as well as a letter i.e. ( G, E, H, H+, 4G ) these can be taken to represent the type of connection and indicate the types of data.
It’s possible you had a mobile phone signal without having a data connection.
Waze is able to route without a data connection as long as the map has been cached. If you need to rely on the system it’s probably best you use a dedicated Satellite Navigation unit rather than a mobile phone with an app.
Most Satellite navigation applications and systems I have used do not use ariel images but instead just display a map. A good reason for this is a map can be kept clean, un-cluttered and easy to read quickly whilst driving. Out of interest what is the ‘built-in system’ on your phone that uses aerial images?
Could I ask whether that’s the free or premium (£19.99) version? I had a look at the free one, and saw that it requires access to my contact list and call log, so I won’t be using it. Does the premium also require that access as well?
Interesting question that, their privacy policy doesn’t mention anything about asking to access contacts or call logs either on the app stores or website, they do state that they collect, store and use GPS info but no personally identifiable information is ‘stored’ with it and they won’t disclose this info, just use it to better the service that they can provide. Why they’d want access to call logs is beyond me, contact lists I can get as you can add address info to contacts and then access them for navigation purposes. Will be interested to find out.
As far as I know, the Co-Pilot App is the same, whether free or paid for. The difference is whether the subscription for premium services (that expire) are paid for up front or (if desired) as an option later. I’m not too concerned about call logs, maybe I’m too relaxed about this.
Since you have raised this, I took another look at Waze permissions. Apparently Waze wants to “take pictures and videos” and “record audio”. This is much scarier. All the time we are driving along using Waze, presumably we could be filmed and our conversations recorded. Why have they asked for this?? :evil:
I wondered about those. The recording audio is maybe obvious enough, if they’re going to provide voice activation, but I didn’t realise they could take photos direct through the app - I run Waze on a tablet mounted in a dash cubby, so the camera would be fairly useless! The wiki does have some of the answers, though it would be nice if it were a little more explanatory.
Mobile phone with app is fine even without a 3G phone signal - this is the free one I keep on my phone for when Waze won’t work.
Advantage over Waze
it works without a phone signal
Advantages of Waze:
map more more up to date (in areas with active editors)
“fastest” routing takes account of historic speed data for the roads at current time of day, rather than just an assumed speed based on road classification (in areas with enough Wazers to generate meaningful data and 3G coverage to upload it)
account taken of traffic conditions (ditto)
petrol price information (again only if Wazers are inputting petrol prices)
I have to say that despite the many advantages of Waze, if I was only allowed one SatNav on my phone, it would have to be the one which works all the time. Fortunately there is no such restriction.
I’m aware that there are many other navigation apps for phones, but the OP implied that he may be heavily reliant on satellite navigation. Dedicated hardware would usually offer greater reliability.
Most, if not all SatNav apps (I have NavFree installed) will require access to calling and address books. How else do you navigate to a contact? Or call the person you are navigating to to say that “Waze has routed me cleverly and I’ll be 20 mins early”…
Permissions for access to sd cards to read/write/delete, phone status (make calls), access network services (download data or premium in app purchases) and so on…
It’s not quite so scary when you think about it for a few minutes…
Given a secure mount with a power supply, a smartphone can do as well as a “dedicated” SatNav device. They are just as at the mercy of poor satellite signal as each other. Providing a sat boost in car can help both. Such as this?
I’ve had a look at the Co-pilot privacy policy and am a lot more comfortable now. It was the extended explanation of the app permissions requested for social information that had me worried. I don’t know whether that’s generic Play Store text, or specifically set by the Co-pilot app.
The points it made about what malicious apps could do with the data made my professional data protection hat leap in the air and stopped me going any further with the install.
I fully accept the justification for access to my contacts - I’m not so sure about the call logs. The app can get the address and phone number from my contact. It doesn’t need to know when I last called them and how frequently. Principles 2 and 3 of the DP Act come to mind as applicable and I have to wonder whether, by giving the app permission to access my contact information (which certainly constitutes personal data and may even be, in some cases, sensitive personal data), I’m also in danger of breaching Principle 8, even though the Act is aimed at organisations’ rather than individuals’ use of personal data.
However, I do accept that this has absolutely nothing to do with the OP’s query! I believe the solution to ensure you have the maps cached in your phone is to set up your route while the phone has a data connection either by cellular network or wi-fi. Waze will download and cache all the necessary tiles for that route (according to previous posts on the topic). Going exploring without a set route will lead to the map disappearing whenever you move onto a tile that hasn’t been downloaded and there’s no network connection.
Thank you all for your contributions.
As I have only been in this game for a matter of months, I have a lot to learn.
Whilst my OP was about WAZE, I think its a ‘general’ issue in my case.
After receiving a reply from Motorola (yep - it surprised me also) I visited my local 02 store.
Motorola suggested a Factory Reset might help !
They advised me to back up my files on the SD card, mmmmmm, if only I had a SD slot !
The 02 store said that I HAD to have my data thing enabled.
In my case, the only reason I am looking at Waze (other apps are available !?) is to get away from using my data balance (remember - I am on payg due to limited funds).
When I got home, I enabled data, but still don’t see 2G or 3G etc.
I recently ditched O2 and moved to three … it’s only since doing that I realised how bad O2’s network is outside of built up areas.
The places I go the most are Lincolnshire, Devon and Cornwall. In all of these areas on O2 you are lucky to get GPRS outside of a town (and O2 seems to have no data connection these days for a lot of it’s GPRS network, for me anyway). Since I’ve had three it is rare for Waze (and my Phone) to have no network connection.
I’m sure that there are areas where three is useless and O2 rocks, just not the ones I go to …
Anyway the point of my ramblings … Network operators are required by OFFCOM to have coverage for a certain percentage of the population. 11 years after 3G was launched in the UK I find it shocking that there is any 2G (GPRS/EDGE) left let alone what must be a high percentage for O2. (Three is all 3G or if you are lucky, soon to be 4G)</rant>
If Vodafone are worse than O2 then I pity anyone who uses them.
I refuse to use EE as I have had several run-ins with them in the past with their customer service practices and vowed never to use them again.
More recently I was given an used t-mobile iPhone 4 which was to be given to my mother-in-law, EE refused to unlock it flatly. At the same time I had bought a used iPhone 4S for my wife and three unlocked it in 24 hours and for free, this is great example of the difference between the two companies.
