To all the GPS and iPhone 3G/3GS enthusiasts out there, there is finally a good GPS App with updated maps that are available out there. The Papago GPS App is able to use the community-maintained maps from malfreemaps.com which has the most updated maps for Malaysia. Below is a great write-up by Tan Kit Hoong. It is also available at http://star-techcentral.com/reviews/story.asp?file=/2010/2/17/prodit/20100211165050&sec=reviews&new=1&cat=5&rid=1356

Papago iPhone App

iPhone 3G/3GS users rejoice, for there is finally a car GPS navigation application that works reasonably well on the iPhone.

We’re talking about the Papago! M6 Pro for the iPhone which recently appeared on the Apple App Store.

Retailing for US$19.99 (about RM68) the Papago! M6 Pro’s big draw is that it features the community-maintained GPS maps from Malfreemaps.com, which is probably the most updated ones available for this country right now.

The software fulfils the need of those looking for proper GPS car navigation on the iPhone instead of the rather basic Maps application but it does have some issues.

Features

The Papago! M6 Pro has all the features of a modern car navigation unit — you get 3D buildings, junction view and turn-by-turn voice prompts.

In fact if you’ve used the the company’s purpose-built standalone car navigation units before, the Papago! M6 Pro’s interface will be quite familiar.

There are actually two versions of the software available on the App Store — the US$19.99 (RM68) one comes with 3D building and junction view support, while the US$9.99 (RM36) doesn’t.

Interface-wise, the icons are a little nicer-looking and the layout is slightly different from the car navigation units, but they’re easy enough to figure out even if you’re a newbie.

We’ve said this before when reviewing the standalone car navigation units and it applies equally here — in terms of user-friendliness, the Papago!’s interface is just a little below Garmin Nuvi units and definitely much better than the TomTom software (which you can also buy from the App Store) and even MapKing (which is popular on Windows Mobile smartphones).

We won’t go into detail on the navigation system — suffice to say that you can find points of interest like restaurants and such, as well as enter in road names and addresses to find where you want to go.

All pretty easy to use, and thanks to the maps from Malfreemaps.com, there are extensive listings of restaurants, hospitals, roads etc., covering all of Malaysia as well as Singapore.

The one big advantage of the iPhone version is that it supports both portrait and landscape orientation on the iPhone.

Just turn the iPhone either way and the maps and menus will rearrange themselves to suit the orientation.

Menu navigation is a tad slow — while not deal-breakingly slow, the interface is a little bit laggy and could do with some speed optimisations.

Once you set your navigation, though, the refresh rate is fast enough for navigation, although it sometimes loses the GPS signal due to the iPhone’s relatively poor GPS hardware.

Nevertheless, I had very few issues with it — signal rarely dropped for very long (unless you’re in a tunnel) and the software is very quick in recalculating your position if you take a wrong turn.

Issues

There are a few problems specific to the iPhone however — apart from the hardware limitations of the iPhone, using the Papago! software for car navigation heats up your iPhone really fast.

While I don’t think this will cause your iPhone to suddenly ignite into a ball of white hot flame, it does have one undesirable effect.

If you’re using a car charger, the iPhone’s built-in temperature sensors will turn off charging to keep the temperature down if the unit gets too hot.

This means that the iPhone’s battery power will slowly deplete when this happens, even if the car charger is still plugged in.

However, I found an easy workaround for this — if you bring the iPhone up to your car air-conditioning vent for a couple of minutes, the temperature will come down enough that the temperature sensors will allow charging to resume.

So, if you have a an aircond vent mount for your iPhone, we would suggest using that instead or risk having to cool down the device every 20 minutes or so by holding it up to the vent.

There also seems to be a bug where if you connect the iPhone to a 3.5mm stereo jack while the Papago! software is running, it doesn’t automatically transfer audio to your car stereo.

What you’ll get when you do so is complete silence.

Again, we found a workaround — if you had music in your iPhone playing while running the Papago! software, then the voice navigation will also come through, although, of course, with the voice prompts heard over your music.

The last issue is not really a Papago! problem and it has more to do with Apple — as you probably know, unless you have a jailbroken iPhone, the device’s file system is essentially closed from users.

This means that should you want to load in any of the often-updated map updates from Malfreemaps.com into the iPhone, you simply can’t.

Instead you’ll have to wait until the Papago! software is updated on the App Store with the latest map data.

Papago iPhone App – 3D View

Conclusion

After a couple of weeks using the Papago! M6 Pro I have to say that the software is pretty impressive as it works as advertised and the Malfreemaps data included is recent enough and detailed enough that it got me anywhere I wanted to go.

The Papago! definitely won’t replace a purpose-built car navigation unit — it isn’t quite responsive enough and it’s a bit disruptive when you get text messages and phone calls while you’re navigating — but it works and is probably the cheapest alternative to getting a true car navigation unit if you already own an iPhone 3G or 3GS.

For the price Maction Technologies is asking for the Papago! with Malaysian maps, it’s practically a steal, really.

Pros: Intuitive interface; 3D buildings; junction view; extensive map data.

Cons: iPhone heats up a lot during navigation.

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