Mobile Sat Nav in France

[stephena]

Being a bit of a geek I have an Android Moble Phone which includes the rather excellent and FREE google sat nav application, since having this I havent used another sat nav as they are simply not a patch on this for clarity and accuracy of instructions.

My issue is, I am off to France in July but this app relies on the mobile data network to down load the maps as you move along thus racking up I suspect a hell of a bill when i get off the ferry in France.

The best suggestion to date has been to buy a pre paid French sim card top it up and use that so not as to get a nasty surpise when i getmy next bill... does anyone know if you can buy one of these online anywhere? Or will I have to get one in France/on the ferry over?

Steve

 

[JonnyG]

Even if you get a prepaid sim card, its not that, that you need. You need one that gives you data download, and you need to know how much you can download and how much it costs.If you intend to use google navigation. Then there's the issue of always getting a signal on your phone, otherwise you end up with a non functioning navigation, as you need to keep downloading continuous maps.and at what cost?
Good luck.
but personally I too have google nav on my android nice toy but that's all it is for now.
i also have a proper sat nav on my phone "co pilot live" Which personally is a match for my Tom tom live, which actually google nav, really doesn't have a patch on, when it comes to "real navigation" and the options these proper units give the user.
Unless that is you like the real view that google gives you, nice view but a limited navigation tool.

http://aura.sygic.com/ This is a new one on me but by all accounts its pretty much on the ball and inexpensive. Note PRESS "BACK HOME" once you have used the link, otherwise it shows nothing.

 

[nelmo]

Google satnav is OK - it will always have the most up-to-date maps and you can search by anything (postcode, names of landmarks etc) but is doesn't have useful tools like ETAs, storing favourites, setting your home address etc. Most importantly, as JonnyG says, it is dependent on your phone signal and how often have you lost a phone signal when trying to find that remote campsite? And do you want the hassle of having to buy a French SIM card?

There is an app called Locus which, in theory, allows you to download any maps to your phone. I had a quick play with it and you can download Google maps but they seemed to take up a huge amount of space (probably because they have so much detail?) - it wanted to use 2Gb for just the south of England! Maybe I was doing it wrong...

I have Navigon on my phone (<2Gb for all of western Europe) - it's not brilliant BUT it was cheap (£5 off eBay) and it does have a 'lorry' option, which should mean that it avoids certain tricky bits for caravans. I'm dubious that will actually work but I may be wrong...

 

[JonnyG]

Hi nelmo. not sure about google being anymore up to date than anyone else, as its navigation is based on tele atlas a Tom tom subsidiary .
Didn't know you could actually download google to micro SD card. Is this street level view? if so that's good and I wouldn't be surprised if southern England took up 2GB, Micro sd cards aren't that expensive, so it could be a goer to download Google to Micro cards and use that,if indeed it is Stret level view.
PS the link i gave to AURA, anyone with an android running 2.1 or above i believe can go to the market place and download a 7 day trail, free.