InfoMap Navigator Review

InfoMap Navigator is an application that will work on any Laptop, Notebook, Tablet PC or desktop PC and is not just a Street Mapping program along similar lines to AutoRoute, but it is a full blown Satellite Navigation Product for the PC which boasts a huge amount of features including Voice Navigation and Re-Routing to name a few!

Currently there are two main versions available. One covers Great Britain & Ireland and the other one is Europe (covering 16 countries).

Map Coverage
The Great Britain & Ireland version comes on 1 CD, and the European version comes on 5 CD's which covers support for

  • Australia (174mb)
  • Belgium (119mb)
  • Czech Republic (17mb)
  • Czech Republic Geodezie (159mb)
  • Denmark (95mb)
  • Finland (58mb)
  • France (1021mb)
  • Germany (1109mb)
  • Great Britain (684mb)
  • Italy (802mb)
  • Luxembourg (11mb)
  • Netherlands (174mb)
  • Norway (212mb)
  • Portugal (31mb)
  • Spain (449mb)
  • Sweden (358mb)
  • Switzerland (103mb)

Points Of Interest
InfoMap Navigator contains POI's for a whole host of different places, including Rail and Commuter Stations, Administrative Boundaries (both County and District), Hospitals, Universities, Airports, Parks, Woodland Areas, Golf Courses, Rivers and Canals and many more places of interest and what's more, the Great Britain & Ireland v ersion includes over 1.7 million postcodes with added support for Northern Ireland for improved accuracy.

Screenshots
InfoMap Navigator can operate in both window and full screen modes, and has dockable panels on-screen making the most of screen realestate. InfoMap Navigator has three window panes that make up the screen. The first is the Navigation Pane, the second the Map Pane, and the third the Route Navigation Summary Pane.

Mapping screen
The maps in InfoMap Navigator are provided from TeleAtlas, and contain high level detail whether you want to look at a full country map of the country, or zoom into a street level map. InfoMap Navigator offers a huge amount of features at a very low price without having to compromise on a smaller feature set.

 

 

PDA Version

The current version of InfoMap Navigator also provides PDA Support. If you have a Pocket PC, then you can install the maps from the CD's onto your Pocket PC and watch where you are driving. Although there are no navigation features available on the PDA version as of yet, it acts as a good system if you just want to take a walk and know where you are in relation to where you left the car.

 

Once you have received a satellite lock, you will see your position on-screen in the form of the arrow, you should then be able to detect which way you are heading, and you can then use the zoom in and zoom out functions to see either more detail on the map, or less detail over a greater distance.

The PDA version comes bundled as a free add-on with both the Great Britain & Ireland and European edition.

Accessories

Are you looking to use the SysOnChip CF Plus GPS Receiver in a Laptop, or a PCMCIA socket on your PDA ? If so, then make sure you also purchase a CF to PCMCIA Adapter. If you have a UV coated windscreen which blocks radio signals (including GPS Signals), then you may also want to purchase a Re-Radiating Antenna.

Conclusion

InfoMap Navigator is by far one of the better PC based Satellite Navigation products also at an affordable price. We currently sell the Standard and Professional versions (Professional is where you can write your own application to tap into InfoMap Navigator's features via API calls), we also sell InfoMap Navigator in a number of different hardware bundles which come supplied with a GPS Mouse which can be plugged into the Laptop.