A-to-B (GPS turn by turn Navigation - FREE!!!)[MOD EDIT: READ MY POST!]

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Aaron McCarthy

Senior Member
Oct 27, 2007
1,383
22
Just found this on the marketplace and I have to say... pretty awesome. This is what WP7 was missing. Although its clearly in the beta stage it is pretty good for a V 1.0.

A-to-B is a Turn-by-Turn application built to demonstrate some of the capabilities of the ArcGIS API for Windows Phone. Warning: The application is meant for demonstration purposes only! Do not rely solely on the suggested routes or instructions given by this application. Features: - Turn-by-turn routing. Sound notification when a turn is coming up. - Add often used destinations as favorites. - List of recent destinations. - "3D view" when in navigation mode with easy accessible "zoom in/out" buttons. - 2D Map for browsing the map supporting pinching, panning etc, and pick new destination by touch'n'hold on the map. - Easy accessible "Recalculate" button if you go off the route and need a new route from your current location (because of service restrictions, the app is not allowed to do this automatically). - Routes all over US (support for Europe coming in a future version). - Worldwide map (detail may vary).

You can read more about and get the marketplace download link here
 

jabtano

Member
Feb 13, 2011
44
4
North of Boston MA
And so I just did. I've been playing with this for an hour not bad, not bad at all I'm going to have it set up in the car on the way into work. I'll post how it does on the highway. But it gave the correct route that I take. But I want to see how it does when I'm actually driving.
 
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buffalosolja42

Senior Member
Aug 19, 2007
1,111
22
Gainesville
awesome find I can almost retire my Tilt2 :)

Keep it coming guys, honestly I don't research the app market because I can get all reviews and such here at XDA :)
 

cnico88

Member
Jan 15, 2011
14
2
This indeed looks fantastic. One question though:
Which map is it actually using? This one has the outlines of every single house or building in my neighborhood and it is VERY accurate. I really like it.

Will it support pinch to zoom?
 

andrew-in-woking

Senior Member
Jan 14, 2006
1,030
22
Partial support in the UK

Hi all

I have installed this on my phone in the UK as a trial. It works and in map mode I reasonable moving 3D map like any normal Sat-Nav. There is no car/arrow on the road to indicate precisely where I am, but the basic mechanics. It can't find any addresses in the UK so I guess that's not yet supported on the server side, but this application clearly has huge potential.

I think whoever gets there first with a fully functioning turn-by-turn sat nav in the marketplace is clearly on to a massive winner.

Cheers

andrew-in-woking
 

jabtano

Member
Feb 13, 2011
44
4
North of Boston MA
On US 95 in MA I, had an arrow up showing my car. it had all the off ramps and had my destination pegged down perfect. Also there is a speed indicator I was doing 70 mph, it had me doing 71 I can handle that. Like said before, it could use a few tweaks here and there. But overall this Nav app is darn good.
 
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ycavan

Senior Member
Nov 9, 2007
412
300
It was pretty nice and accurate getting me to work this morning, but it couldn't figure out my home address. Kept on sending me to weird parts of town.
 

Casey_boy

Retired Recognized Developer
Feb 2, 2010
456
56
...I was doing 70 mph, it had me doing 71 I can handle that.

Maybe this sounds stupid, but how do you know you were doing 70mph? Using your car's speedometer? In which case, have you had it manually recalibrated? Usually a car's speedometer is not accurate (though it normally shows that you're going faster than you actually are).

I'm going to download this now, though I'd be interested in maps of UK and Australia, so I'm not sure how useful it will be to me yet.

Casey
 

jabtano

Member
Feb 13, 2011
44
4
North of Boston MA
Maybe this sounds stupid, but how do you know you were doing 70mph? Using your car's speedometer? In which case, have you had it manually recalibrated? Usually a car's speedometer is not accurate (though it normally shows that you're going faster than you actually are).

I'm going to download this now, though I'd be interested in maps of UK and Australia, so I'm not sure how useful it will be to me yet.

Casey

Yes using my cars speedometer, and no I have not had it calibrated.
 

noodles222

Senior Member
Nov 20, 2009
122
1
Hi all, it really looks amazing.. Is there any way I can see how it works when i am in Europe? I just want to see something like preview - e. g. select two destinations in USA and than see how it goes. Thanks
 

Audio

Senior Member
May 14, 2007
481
30
Salford Quays, Manchester
Fact of the day! - Generally, Sat-Nav's register a more accurate Speed than the average Car's Speedometer. Speedometer's are configured at manufacturing to register a faster speed than what the car is actually going, this is to compensate for Tyre wear and other wear-and-tear happenings that all cars suffer from over time.
 

Aaron McCarthy

Senior Member
Oct 27, 2007
1,383
22
What I have noticed about this so far as that if I'm zoomed in relatively close.. not SUPER close mind you, but maybe 2 or 3 zoom levels back from the closest zoom, that it doesnt actually register the map, says map data not yet available... shows the route the of the road... the path but not the surround streets, weird. This only happens in certain area's of the city I live in too, not all over. Its like the map data just isnt there which I find odd. Its not like its loading a satelite photo so I dont know why it would do this. I tried xmaps from the marketplace the other day and it didnt have this problem. Id understand if it was a satelite image as you cant zoom in close to those sometimes, I used to have that issue in google maps where you would zoom in and it would just say you were too close.

Otherwise I LOVE this thing and am so happy I found it in the market the other day. Just an awesome APP
 
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MartyLK

Senior Member
Apr 19, 2010
3,968
177
Oklahoma City
Finally! Free TbT voice nav on WP7! :)

Guys, WP7 looks to become the leader of smartphones. The system is the best there is and now the features are appearing...albeit slowly.
 

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  • 6
    Just found this on the marketplace and I have to say... pretty awesome. This is what WP7 was missing. Although its clearly in the beta stage it is pretty good for a V 1.0.

    A-to-B is a Turn-by-Turn application built to demonstrate some of the capabilities of the ArcGIS API for Windows Phone. Warning: The application is meant for demonstration purposes only! Do not rely solely on the suggested routes or instructions given by this application. Features: - Turn-by-turn routing. Sound notification when a turn is coming up. - Add often used destinations as favorites. - List of recent destinations. - "3D view" when in navigation mode with easy accessible "zoom in/out" buttons. - 2D Map for browsing the map supporting pinching, panning etc, and pick new destination by touch'n'hold on the map. - Easy accessible "Recalculate" button if you go off the route and need a new route from your current location (because of service restrictions, the app is not allowed to do this automatically). - Routes all over US (support for Europe coming in a future version). - Worldwide map (detail may vary).

    You can read more about and get the marketplace download link here
    5
    And here's a short message from the developer...

    I'm the developer of A-to-B and I really appreciate the feedback.
    I would first of all like to say THANK YOU for the amazing feedback! But I also know it's not quite there yet.

    First a bit of background to the app: I daily work as a lead developer on the ESRI ArcGIS API for Silverlight, WPF and WinPhone7, and I have used this app for both learning, testing and demo purposes. It's really there on the market place to promote this API as well as the ArcGIS Online services (and that's really why it says "for demo purposes only"). So first and foremost, it's a showcase application, and being such I really want to keep making this better and better - both with respect to user experience and performance, but also wrt all the stuff you dont see (ie code-design etc), and also to try and come up with new great ideas for it.
    Here's a couple of questions for you guys:

    Have you noticed that you can "tap" the two right-most squares (ie destination and eta squares), to flip it to show other information? Does this work for you? Is it too hidden (the first time you run it, a help screen hints at this feature).

    I have the option of controlling a million settings on how the route is calculated. For intance avoid poor-condition roads, ignore not-a-through street restrictions, one-way restrictions, 4x4 only roads etc. Would you really need stuff like this? (my concern is that if used wrong you can really get yourself into some trouble).
    (I can say that I already put in "Avoid Ferries" and "Avoid toll-roads" options for the next release).


    Here's some answers to some of the questions:

    To answer a general question: Support for something more than North America:
    I'm working on this and do have most of Europe covered in my private build. This will support both address search and routing. I have no plans on supporting anywhere else at this point in time (mostly because I'm limited by the services I'm using - and no I can't use Bing or Google's services, because they don't allow this type of app to use them).

    Aaron McCarthy wrote: "Although its clearly in the beta stage it is pretty good for a V 1.0."
    Thanks! I'd love to hear what you want from the app, that will bring out if out of the beta experince felt you got.
    Also regarding your issue with "No map data": This is because of the service it relies on. Unfortunately for whatever reason, high resolution tiles are not available for some areas. I'm working on getting them to add this (since they obviously have the data). For now I suggest zooming out a bit when you hit this issue.

    jabtano wrote: "Morten you made one very nice app wit a few minor tweeks this thing will rock well done dir well worth the effort"
    Thanks! Again, feel free to share what type of tweaks you want, and I'll see what I can do.

    cnico88: "Which map is it actually using?"
    It's using ArcGIS Online services, available here: services (dot) arcgisonline (dot) com (most other map services, including Bing and Google doesn't allow turn-by-turn apps to use their data).
    ArcGIS Online actually JUST announced that you can use them freely for pretty much anything, and with a transaction limit thats so high, I don't see why I would want to hazzle with Bing and Google's restrictions and transaction limits.

    The easiest way to consume these maps, is using one of the ESRI ArcGIS Client APIs. I used the ArcGIS API for Windows Phone 7, available for free download (links doesn't seem to work for me here, so google it). Most platforms are supported including silverlight, wpf, wp7, android, iOS, flex and javascript.

    "Will it support pinch to zoom?"
    Pinch and zoom is supported in the "view map" menu. The thought is that you shouldn't really be doing this when you're in driving mode, so I opted for quick access zoom in/out buttons there.

    ycavan: Regarding problems with finding your home address: You can always go to the "View map" menu, find your home address on the map, touch'n'hold on the location, then click the little "Route" bubble that pops up. You then have the option of adding that location as a favorite and name it "Home", for easy use next time.

    Regarding Voice navigation: If anyone knows of a free engine I can use, I'd love to hear about it. Until then, you'll just have to settle with the "Ding" when a turn is coming up.

    Keep the feedback coming! And also: PLEASE enable the "Feedback" setting in the settings menu. I get very useful usage and error data from this (don't worry: There's no personal data, location or routes sent - only usage stats and error stacktraces). I'm planning on sharing and blogging about this little "tracking framework" I built as soon as I get the server backend stuff cleaned up.
    2
    For those asking for offline: As long as you calculate the route while online, the app WILL contitnue to work offline. You wont see the map background, but you will see the blue route-line, upcoming turns, get turn notifications etc.
    True offline capability with map tiles is quite an undertaking, but might be something that will be worked into the core api that this is buit on top off - However this could be quite a while. For now this is an online app, and dont expect to see an offline feature in the near future.

    For those asking for other countries: You're barking up the wrong tree. I do not own or control the data behind the route calculations, so it's outside my reach. I don't think people realize how hard it is to even compile such a dataset - both price wise and quality wise. This would definitely make it a quite expensive app to buy. The number of bad reviews i got because it doesn't support their country (despite the description clearly states this) has made me think i'll only release the update in supported countries (the reason I did all of the world was so you could still use it when on vacation elsewhere).
    1
    And so I just did. I've been playing with this for an hour not bad, not bad at all I'm going to have it set up in the car on the way into work. I'll post how it does on the highway. But it gave the correct route that I take. But I want to see how it does when I'm actually driving.
    1
    Morton you made one very nice app wit a few minor tweeks this thing will rock well done dir well worth the effort


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