Destinator 6 Review

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Author: FredS
Categories: Reviews
Published: Monday, 20 November 2006 6:44 PM
Created: Sunday, 19 November 2006 11:48 PM
Updated: Tuesday, 28 November 2006 by FredS
Views: 19086

A review of Destinator 6

Destinator 6 Review

Introduction

Destinator 6 was officially released early October 2007. As is always the case there weren't any surprises for Australians because screenshots and reviews had appeared on the Web several months prior this. What was a big surprise was that MapInfo maps were not included in this edition, rather the maps used were Sensis V13 dated 1st quarter 2006. Just why this decision was taken is unclear, and it is not my intention to speculate on this.
NAVTEQ maps have setup in Australia and given that Destinator uses those maps everywhere else in the world, I, amongst others, expected the Australian version to follow suit. But this was not to be.

Mapinfo maps had specific locality problems but overall I still think they had better coverage than the Sensis offerings. Even today Destinator PN using the Mapinfo maps will find streets and suburbs that are not in the Sensis database. Of course in Sydney the new Sensis maps do contain The M7 and, given the changes this makes to routing in that area, it is almost a must have. If you don't live in Sydney, I'm not sure that there is any benefit map wise at any rate.

Much of the actual use and operation of Destinator 6 is the same as Destinator PN, so I don't really see the need to explain or detail every option and menu function and it is probably worthwhile to read the Destinator PN review in conjunction with this one. Additionally this review is just that, a review, not an instruction manual. Destinator provide a good manual via a PDF file and I recommend every user read it thoroughly.

The biggest change previous users will notice is the large finger friendly buttons. Destinator 6 can now be used completely without a stylus. This is a great thing in my opinion. The next thing you might notice is the voice - an American female that uses the term "circle" instead of "Roundabout". If you don't want this voice the chances are that you didn't read the manual well enough and didn't read the on screen installation instructions completely either. I did this and had to put up with the American drawl and Circle for about a 1000 kms. The option is there to install the UK English voice as well as several other languages, just look down the list a bit. I didn't pick up on this either until the review was over and Destinator support pointed this out due to my criticism of the choice of Language - silly me I should have followed my own advice - always (thoroughly) read the Manual! Other than that it is pretty well the same as Destinator PN to use.

Destinator 6 was provided to me by Phoenix IT Distribution and I thank them for the opportunity to review the application.

Standard features

Flexible address input plus History, Favourites, POI's, or Microsoft Outlook® Contacts
Street/City/Number - City/Street/Number, Intersection,
Route (re)calculation within seconds
Voice guidance
Pedestrian navigation for parks and city centres
Full screen 2D / 3D / day / night maps
Limited Choice of on-screen information
Favourites alert
Location sharing via SMS text messaging - with Phone Edition devices
Planning of routes including stopovers

Summary of new features

Inclusion of a quick start tutorial
True finger friendly operation
QuickNAV Button (somewhat changed over Destinator PN)
New user interface
Full keyboard - replaces the T9 keyboard used in Destinator PN (T9 being a keyboard layout where one key represents 3 or more letters)

Other Items that have changed

Text to Speech has been removed
Directional shadow and variable cursor shape has been removed (this was called the Dynamic Cursor)
Amount of information that can be show on the screen has been reduced
Translucent buttons have been replaced and the zoom control keys are now translucent "+" and "-" buttons at opposite sides of the display
The Map Cutter in the Destinator console has been removed for the Australian version
Sound files are now in the .SPX format and are greatly compressed without compromising quality to much
Allow/disallow "U" turns check box is gone.

Set Up

Set up onto a compatible PDA remains quite straightforward, the console ( the front end to Destinator on a PC) is very similar to previous versions and now includes BackUp and Restore functions and (as mentioned above) loses the Install TTS function and the Map Cutter function. It is possible to install Destinator (well most of it anyway) onto a Storage card, so if you are tight on space this is probably worthwhile. Bear in mind though that sometimes this causes Destinator to run erratically - in the previous versions especially.

On My XDA2 installation went smoothly and auto detection of my BT338 GPS took only a few minutes. After the initial install and activation Destinator will walk you through some basic configuration and then your are ready to go.

Using Destinator

The nice big buttons make entering addresses and other details quite easy - no Stylus required - excellent. The keyboard however is set in alphabetical order and cannot be changed. I dislike this quite a bit, because I am that used to the QWERTY layout, that it takes me a fair bit of time to find the letters I want - it frustrated me every time I did it. The big problem here is I use my device for lots of other things, and they all use the QWERTY layout, so it is not something I will get used to.

For basic navigation (i.e. GPS is on, Destinator knows where you are and you enter an address) Destinator 6 is simple to use. The screenshot below shows the steps required, I have added the route summary screen for completeness. As you may be able to see, the route chosen was "Quick" selected in screen 7 and includes the M7 and M2 Motorways. This is indeed the quickest way between the two points.

Sometimes you may not want to pay the high prices that the Tollway operators charge, or you may want to go the scenic route. With Destinator you need to Allow or Avoid tolls each time your preference changes. The steps required are shown below. As you can see this is quite a procedure (relatively), but the worst bit is the way you have to hit back quite a few times to get Destinator 6 to recalculate the route.

To test how Destinator 6 handles incorrectly named Suburbs I chose A resort in Korora Bay, North of Coffs Harbour. The actual address is James Small Drive, Korora. Using the City/Street sequence does not work because Korora is not found. Switching modes to Street/City finds James Small Drive and suggests Coffs Harbour as the City. Bingo! One thing I have noticed in this latest Sensis version is that many suburbs previously incorrectly listed are now names correctly. (i.e. as they are are called by the Local councils) Not in this case though. However the work around does the job and it is good to see that Destinator have retained the Street/City mode.

Destinator 6 also connects to your Contact Address Book in Outlook on the PDA. As with other applications this works fine provided your details have been entered in correctly and in the correct format.

Routing

My standard route from Home to Work remains the same as previous versions provided I have tollways turned off. This indicates to me that Destinator 6 still has the same core routing engine and that's great because it was, and still is, in my opinion, very very good. However with the change in maps new errors have crept in. These errors are perplexing because they are not exhibited by other programs that use (supposedly) the same maps. One of these is quite close to my home and others have been reported as routing contrary to No Right Turn signs. The peculiar thing is that those errors can be duplicated on CoPilot V5 with the Sensis V12 maps!

Obviously in the second example Destinator was so convinced that I could not be at that position it moved me West about 200 meters.

These anomalies are not all that unusual when using GPS navigation software, and you can expect similar errors on rare occasions with any of the packages available. I have traveled some 1000 km's with Destinator over the past month and these are the only two map glitches I am aware of. Another one I thought was a glitch was simply unintentionally leaving the route mode on shortest through a trip from work to Penrith. Which brings me to my next point.

The new interface in Destinator 6 is an improvement on previous versions because now you get to pick "Quick" or " Short" via nice big buttons on the bottom of the screen before you press GO. However this choice is not offered if you use the QuickNAV feature - it just defaults to the last selection. it is still easy to forget which mode you are in though, and once your trip has started this cannot be changed, hence the funny route from work to Penrith.

Multistop Planning

You will notice in the examples below that the actual route is not shown, rather the order and direction is shown via straight lines. When showing the route (via show Route) only the current route is shown. i.e. the one segment you are currently traveling on.

Destinator has had Multistop planning (waypoints) for the last two versions. As previously Destinator will not show the entire route, merely the current route and will recalculate the next when one route has finished. New this time is route optimisation. i.e. Destinator will work out which way would cover the minimum kilometers for any given trip. Planning a Multistop route starting from Kings Park with Merrylands, Forestville, Sefton and Yagoona as destinations and final back to Kings Park and then tapping Optimise produces the following result.

First stop Merrylands
Then Yagoona
Then Sefton
Then Forestville
Return to Kings Park

Another example using Kings Park as the Start and End points, this time Newcastle, Frenchs Forest, Windsor, Wollongong and Bankstown.

First stop Bankstown
Then Wollongong
Then Windsor
Then Frenchs Forest
Newcastle
Return to Kings Park

These routes seem to be a fairly good, the latter one being a particularly difficult one in my opinion.

This test is no where near exhaustive and it would take several real world examples to demonstrate whether or not this feature really works, but it seems to be quite capable and a worthy improvement with a high use factor for many buyers.

Pedestrian Mode

A walking mode is still included in this version - And still I cannot see the why anyone would use this. The route is identical to the road route with a 10 kilometer limit. Maybe there is some change in the way which the program uses or communicates with the GPS receiver, but I haven't found any.

Points of Interest

Points of interest are very well catered for, the selection is huge and as far as I can tell quite comprehensive and accurate. I checked two categories ATM's and Public Toilets and the list was spot on every time. Of course I only checked six or seven of each so your results may well vary. Waste Management is no longer included but then it was practically non existent in the previous version anyway. For the record, I only drove past the Public toilets, I didn't bother checking if they were working or not :)

Aside from POIs being used as a Destination, they can also be checked for inclusion on the map and an audible/visual alert shown when you are near any places in that category. Unfortunately It is still shown as a generic "Favourites Alert" on screen and the tone is not user configurable. This is something I (and I suspect many others) wish that Destinator would change, more in line with the TomTom way of doing things. Perhaps V7? All in all I rate the level of POIs in Destinator as probably the best I have seen so far.

On The Road

In use Destinator 6 provides timely and clear voice instructions, whilst not as comprehensive as some they are sufficient and do the job. The standard two views are offered, namely 3D and 2D. The difference in map details is quite pronounced with the 2D version having much more detail. Interestingly it is also possible to zoom out to an area larger than NSW in 2D mode only. I see this as being quite useful for long interstate trips, although auto zooming has to be turned off in the options for this to work. The 3D maps are quite bland and certainly not as attractive as those used by PaPaGO or Route 66, the latter having an excellent level of detail. Naturally Night and Day views are offered as well.

Destinator 6 still includes Speed Warnings, however there is no option to fine tune the speed, nor is there any way to change the preset limits that come with the maps. This means if the speed it thinks is legal on a particular road, is different to the actual speed limits it will give a verbal warning almost continuously if that speed is exceeded. In many cases the speed in Destinator is wrong. 50, 70, many 80 and 110 zones are incorrect. Thereby rendering what could be a great feature almost useless. I turn it off as soon as I have determined whether it is accurate or not, which is usually on the second day.

Re-routing

I applied the usual tests in regards to re-routing, by intentionally missing turns. Destinator 6 is still quite fast at calculating new routes but I don't think it is the fastest anymore. This is mainly because it now seems to take a few seconds more to realise it has gone off route before a re-calculation takes place. Worst of all, it now tends to produce "U" turns rather than new routes. This a major step backwards for me. I have had occasions where it calculated "U" turns for approximately one kilometer before giving up and producing a brand new route. If you happen to be in heavy peak hour traffic, along a major road with traffic lights, Destinator will pick every intersection as the "U" turn point. Aside from being Illegal in NSW, imagine what a nightmare it is to actually carry out that maneuver. This is something the programmers need to get on top of - especially as this was one of Destinator's strong points before.

Of course if you stick to the route as provided this won't happen - until you unintentionally miss a turn, find a map anomaly or road works or something else stops you from following the route calculated. Then you'll see exactly what I'm talking about.

Problems

I had two problems with Destinator 6.
Firstly, the voice prompts and other alerts would only work about half the time. Those times when this happened the voice and alert sounds were replaced by a series of short beeps. Sometimes a soft re-set fixed this and other times it didn't. In other words it truly was a 50/50 chance of voice and alerts working correctly.

Secondly, Destinator would fail to complete it's startup on my device. Sometimes taking several soft re-sets before it actually came up. Other times it just would not start at all and I had to re-install the application from scratch.

According to Destinator Australia these problems are known and seem to be peculiar to O2 devices. I have not heard of any reports of the failure to startup from anyone else as yet but sound problems similar to those I have experienced have also been reported on the JASJAM some O2 and HP devices. Recrem another Moderator here at MTekk has an O2 Exec, initially he experianced sound problems too, however since he has disabled the built in Graphic Equaliser, he has not had a repeat - this might be something you should try if your device has that feature - My XDA2 does not.

In an effort to resolve these problems I hard reset my device and only installed three must have applications plus Destinator 6. The problems continued unfortunately.

Destinator in Canada are actively working on fixes for both these problems and here's hoping that they a resolved soon

Conclusion

I really wanted Destinator to be better than it turned out to be, Destinator PN was probably my favourite GPS application.
There are improvements in the User Interface, especially with the large finger friendly buttons, excellent POI's and the much improved Multistop Trip planner. In Addition it is also evident that the Destinator programmers have looked at how the program is being used, because the position of the quit button and the inclusion of "Quick" and Short" now make selecting route types really easy. Quitting Destinator PN was a little bit of a pain, this is now implemented very well. But are these improvements sufficient to make it hold onto the title of arguably being the best PDA GPS solution in Australia? Regrettably I don't think so.

It is still a good product, and does what it is supposed to do. However program problems aside, the removal of NO "U" turns as a preference seem to have had a detrimental effect of how Destinator 6 recalculates routes. The fact that the map coverage is no better than some of it's competitors and may even be less than the NAVTEQ enabled products like CoPilot and Route 66 also works against it. The opportunity to make Speed Warnings really useful was also passed over. When all of this is added to the Program Problems I experienced and mention above, it is difficult to recommend it as it stands right now.

If you are thinking of upgrading or purchasing Destinator 6 please check that your device is fully compatible, because the problems I had with the sound and failure to start up will really spoil your experience. If your device is fine and those problems are not exhibited then Destinator 6 maybe for you. It will certainly do the job it is intended for.

I rate Destinator 6 as 6.0 out of 10

Discuss it HERE

You might also be interested in reviews on:

The TomTom 910/710, Route 66, PaPaGO v7, Destinator PN, CoPilot v5, The tomtom ONE and The tomtom GO 300

This review was done a XDA2 with a WM2003SE upgraded ROM. The GPS receiver used was a GlobalSat BT338 and the program was installed onto SansDisk 2GB SD card.