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Ask HP Anything: HP Answers Your Questions
November 7th, 2008Author: Mary Beth Lowell – Communications Manager
We received two questions this week for the “Ask HP (our CEO) Anything” column. See below for HP’s answers. Please keep them coming! As a reminder, you can ask your question below or just send me an email at marybethl (at) telenav.com.
Josh: HP, keeping in mind that the average person spends most of their time indoors, if GPS worked as reliably indoors as it does outdoors, how would Telenav take advantage of this, today? In 2 years?
HP: Josh, thanks for your question. There are a few ways that our services may leverage indoor location capabilities. For example, TeleNav Track allows for dispatchers to see mobile employees while they are out on the road - this means they can better route them to customers. This is all done through GPS since it is outdoors. But imagine if you were a very large enterprise organization that had multiple buildings on one large campus? If you managed the facilities for this campus, you might want to also know where your technicians were while they serviced the various buildings. Once they are indoors, it is harder to do this with GPS. Teams could also better find each other from level to level within buildings.
On a more consumer-level, indoor location technology could certainly be integrated with social networking services like our Whereboutz Facebook application. Say my daughter is shopping at the mall with her friends - now she could send them all a text message with her location (”at The Gap”) and not have to actually manually type in the location.
The possibilities are endless and we are certainly keeping on top of indoor location-aware technology so that we can leverage it as much as possible to provide even more value to our customers.
John R. Price: we keep hearing that telenav will be available for iPhone. i’m planning on changing all our company phones to iPhone (we’re all MAC users, including all my lab folks) since i have everybody on AT&T already but i’m holding off until i know about some the apps AND telenav. For me, telenav is critical. So, what’s the scoop?
HP: John, first I’d like to say thanks for being such a loyal customer and I’m thrilled that you are pleased with the service and find it useful for your business needs. If you have any feedback on features that you especially find useful or if you have ideas on how we can improve the service, please let us know. We are always open to the feedback.
Regarding the iPhone - everyone (myself included!) is excited to get GPS navigation on the iPhone but I am sure you can understand that, in general, we cannot announce anything until it’s available. Please keep an eye on our blog (we have an RSS feed if that’s easiest) for news of all our phone launches - we will notify customers here as soon as we can about when our service launches on new phones. If you use Twitter or Facebook, you can also get up-to-the minute TeleNav news alerts that way as well. There are links on this blog to follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
Thanks again for the questions and have a great weekend.
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Tags: GPS, iphone, telenav gps navigator, telenav track, whereboutz
November 14th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
I recalled that Telenav sentenced GPS device death for a while. Isn’t market too crowded for Shotgun, given Telenav’s has little name brand and visibility? Under today’s worsen economics, is there enough customer willing to sign up for monthly recurring charge for a device? NW Jose!
November 19th, 2008 at 11:28 am
@WenLi - thanks for your comment. We don’t believe the market is too crowded at all. Primarily because industry analysts have found that a significant number of people would like GPS navigation on their cell phone as well as on a separate device. We do agree with you that consumers may not be interested in buying another device right now with the tough economy. This is why we have developed the TeleNav Shotgun specifically for business travelers, not general consumers. For business travelers who are constantly visiting new cities and running on tight deadlines to meetings, the TeleNav Shotgun can be true asset and bring immediate ROI.
December 1st, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Just got a BlackBerry 8330. TeleNav says that it dosen’t work with Bluetooth it dosen’t,,dosen’t work with the earphones either. Freeway noise or radio while driving makes it a little tough… If anybody comes up with a way for Bluetooth it would be good to have Bluetooth with TeleNav again..!!!!
February 25th, 2009 at 9:59 am
Fired up the Shotgun last night…great first impressions. I have a few questions/suggestions. Wasn’t sure the best place to put them, but wanted to make sure you all got them for consideration. Most of these are from a business traveler perspective:
- When in Nav mode using “capture” if you try to leave, it says leaving will result in an end to capture. You have the choice to cancel. HOWEVER, if you miss your turn and it starts re-calcing and you hit cancel (i.e. you see your location, know where you are, etc) it automatically stops capture without telling you.
- If you start driving in capture, you have to stop capture in order to Nav to a location. Nav on the fly would be good while still in capture.
- Due to the above issues, we had one trip that ended up with 3 segments (NAV cancelled, started capturing again, stopped and re-input NAV location). It would be nice if you can “aggregate” trips when in mytelenav.
- The mytelenav mileage log lists addresses, it would be nice if favorites were named (i.e. Home, Office, Convention Center, etc.).
- It would be nice if there was a one touch “home” and “office” button that would automatically NAV to two or three favorites.
- It would also be very nice if there was a feature to always capture without telling it to. For example, if you want it to record all your miles over a year, but only list business expenses, you would track total miles, but “capture” just those for business perposes.
I realize these may or may not be simple, but so far Telenav seems to be the best solution to small businesses or outdoor sales people. I hope you can incorporate some/all of them to keep Telenav on top of the pile. Right now there is nothing in the price range that even comes close.
February 25th, 2009 at 10:00 am
Oh! Almost forgot. Can we also have a single user account? I’d like to have a Shotgun in my car and my wife’s car and view them on the same mytelenav…just different tabs. Can we also get a multiple device discount or a discounted subscription fee for the internet services?
February 26th, 2009 at 5:05 am
im using navigator on my moto q, everything works great. what my thing is that you have no different icon or voice options. my brother uses the tomtom and he has several different voices on it, including comedians. also he has lots of different icons for the icon that travels along the route, even has one of MY truck. thats not right, i am just wondering when or if we will be able to have these features. if by chance we have this already i would like to know how to access it.
thanks
February 27th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
It would also be great if there was a Drop down for “business” and “personal” when you start tracking miles.
Also, it’d be nice if the mytelenav log let you add comments that can be saved, As it is, you have to keep manual notes for where you travelled, but if you can update a notes column on the mytelenav, all that would be digital and stored….much more useful for taxes.
February 27th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
Jon - thanks so much for all of your thorough feedback. This is incredibly helpful for our dev team. Would you be interested in becoming part of our customer advisory team?
February 27th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
brian - we do offer some options for voices but they aren’t available on all devices/with all carriers. To check on availability, go to ‘Preferences’ - if they are available, you should see this indicated. I’ll share feedback about the different icons with our team. Thanks!
April 2nd, 2009 at 8:37 am
Follow-up question for HP wrt indoor location applications and GPS:
- why not use differential GPS (i.e. sell businesses an indoor transmitter?
- combine other known location references with GPS — i.e. IP address, cell phone tower, RFID card readers, etc.
- solid state inertial reference to do dead reckoning between GPS updates.
If Telenav is a generalized navigation system, then GPS is just one of many inputs, all of which could help fill in the coverage gaps between fixes.
thx,
Steve
April 6th, 2009 at 6:36 am
For months I have been asking via emails and phone calls to tech support to add my street on the map. I can navigate to the closest major cross-street but not to my house. What is the right procedure to add a street to the navigator? Your tech support does not seem to have the right answer.
April 6th, 2009 at 10:12 am
John - we work closely with our mapping partners to share feedback from our customers but cannot guarantee any immediate changes since we don’t develop the map content. That said, please do share the feedback with us and we’ll make sure it is sent to our mapping partners.
April 6th, 2009 at 10:19 am
Steve - thanks for the feedback. Right now our main focus is on our outdoor capabilities since the majority of customer use is outdoors but we are continuously researching options for improving the GPS experience. In fact, our CTO, Bob Rennard, was one of the original inventors of the GPS system when he worked for the Department of Defense so he has extensive knowledge and expertise in the field. He is keeping an eye on all of the latest technology so that TeleNav leverages this as much as possible to continue to provide a superior customer experience.
May 18th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
i have a 8350i nextel direct connect, and first couple of days my telenav gps was working fine but now i try to use it and it tells me that my account has expired. why is that?
May 19th, 2009 at 7:52 am
Jean pierre - did you try contacting our Care team? 1-888-353-6284 or care@telenav.com. They should be able to troubleshoot. If you are paying for a monthly subscription, your account should be active. Perhaps you were on a 30 day demo that expired?
May 26th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
I got a message today on my phone, saying there is a new update on the TeleNav software. I tried to download it, and i got a message saying “certificate error”.. what does that mean? why i cannot downloaded. My phone is a Samsung Memoir from T-mobile.
May 27th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
@Thomas - I believe this message was sent in error. You can disregard it as you should have the latest version on your phone already. Our apologies for the confusion.
June 8th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
HP, How about a direct answer on whether Telenav really is working on an app for the iPhone 3GS that was announced today. TomTom announced they will have an app with a car kit. When will Telenav have an app or are they being excluded from some sort of exclusive development by TomTom? If Telenav is not going iPhone very soon, I will need to look for a different phone. A direct answer would be appreciated. I bet John R. Price would like an answer too, he’s been waiting since last November for an answer.
July 8th, 2009 at 7:48 am
Could HP provide us some insight into the topic of routing algorithms and why TeleNav routing results (mainly as it relates to ETAs) seem to be out of sync with other web-based routing algorithms? Are we seeing a philosophical difference at TeleNav about ETAs or should we expect some improvements soon?
Routing Examples:
1) Des Moines, IA to Monroe City, MO
Yahoo: 4:25 hours
Mapquest: 4:12 hours
Garmin: 4:12 hours
Bing: 4:11 hours
AAA: 4:04 hours
Rand McNally: 4:24
But TeleNav’s app is a whopping (and unrealistic) 5:39 hours, nearly 90 minutes longer than any other service.
2) Des Moines, IA to Kissimee, FL
Google: 21:35 hours
MapQuest: 21:17 hours
Rand McNally: 21:40 hours
Bing: 21:03 hours
AAA: 20:03 hours
But TeleNav’s app is a whopping 25:47 hours, over 4 hours longer than any other service. Incidentally, your TeleNav Maps & More website doesn’t even support your application’s results. Your website says this route is 23:03 hours (still too high, but better).
Many more examples could be provided.
Why are we seeing such unrealistic ETA’s from the TeleNav app? Why are there differences between the app and the website? Which should we expect the Shotgun to perform more like?
July 8th, 2009 at 10:31 am
Thanks Jalan - I’m checking into this and will get back to you
July 15th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
Any updates to share on this issue?
July 16th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Jalan - we haven’t been able to recreate this - it shows us similar ETAs as the sites you mentioned. We’re continuing to research it though.
July 17th, 2009 at 8:10 am
How can that be? Here are step by step instructions to reproduce. I am using Sprint Navigation v2.1.30.
1) Start the app.
Select Type It.
2) Select Drive To.
3) Select City.
4) Type Monroe City, MO. Select Done
5) While the countdown is on, select Menu.
6) Select Change Origin.
7) Select Address.
9) Type Des Moines, IA (no street). Select Done.
10) When presented with choices for Des Moines, IA select the first one.
11) After the route is calculated (traffic optimized), select Options.
12) Select Route Summary.
Your app says: Total Distance 235, Total Time 5h 53m
How could you be getting a different result?
Do the exact same steps above, except instead of Monroe City, MO type in Kissimmee, FL.
The result from the app is Total Distance 1416 m and total time 25 hours.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
Jalan - thanks - I’ll share this.
July 24th, 2009 at 3:19 am
Should I expect any follow up to this issue?
August 7th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
I have just put telenav on my T-Mobile Samsung phone and need help in using it. Is there a place I could get written instructions to help me do this? Something simple as I am in the “older” generation.
August 10th, 2009 at 8:41 am
JoAnne,
Hi - you can find User Guide’s for TeleNav on T-Mobile phones here: http://www.telenav.com/support/user-guide/tmobile.html but you are always welcome to contact our Customer Care team 24×7 for assistance. The number is 1-888-353-6284 or you can email them at care@telenav.com. Thanks and please follow up to let me know if you have any other questions.
August 14th, 2009 at 6:09 am
I am a small business owner and I want to use the telenav tack service to keep up with employees, enter time and all the other features that telenav track offers. The problem is, I need the service to work on the iphone. Will this service be offered on the iphone? If you plan to offer it, I’ll try to get by with a windows device until then, but if not, I’ll just keep looking for a service provider that offers interface with iphone.
August 14th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Michael - thanks for the question. TeleNav Track LITE is currently available on the iPhone. Here is more information: http://www.telenav.com/about/pr/pr-20090707.html. It is the LITE version of our service so it is primarily centered around tracking and may not include all the features you are looking for. But you can contact our Care team (1-888-353-6282 or care@telenav.com) to walk through it. In the interim, I will share this feedback with our product team and AT&T to make sure they know you are interested in getting other versions of TeleNav Track on the iPhone as well. Thanks again.
October 29th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
How is Telenav Navigation compares with Google Navigation application free service now and 2 years from now?