Skobbler SatNav for Android: First Impressions

One of the reasons I bought a smartphone was to use it as a SatNav – thus removing the need to carry around two devices. I’d heard that Android phone came with turn-by-turn navigation – for free! However, I didn’t really do my homework and bought a HTC Hero. Not that there was anything wrong with the phone itself, but it was running Android 1.5 which didn’t have the functionality I wanted. With a trip to France looming I bought CoPilot 8.0 for Android with the Europe maps and apart from a few, minor niggles I’ve been quite happy with it. However, just because I have one SatNav application doesn’t mean I can’t have another – I’m a gadget junkie after all.

When my Hero was updated to Android 2.1 I was pleased to find that I now had the turn-by-turn navigation which I probably use a little bit more that CoPilot when I’m in the UK. Why? Well it just seems to be a bit snappier and easier to use – that said, when I was on holiday in Portugal this year I was glad to have my CoPilot as it stores the maps locally so I did not incur any data charges (£3/MB – no thank you Orange!).

So I should be fine with two SatNav applications … shouldn’t I? Well until I heard about Skobbler I was, and there’s always room for one more isn’t there, or is three a crowd?

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Running CoPilot 8 SatNav for Android

When I bought my Android phone (a HTC Hero) I wanted to be able to use it as a SatNav as well – to save me having to carry two devices around with me. The Hero has built-in GPS and as it runs Googles Android operating system it has the Google Maps application installed as standard. So that’s it then – well no, not really. Read the rest of this entry »