Candid conversations about using GPS and wireless technology for work and fun.
Archive for September, 2009
TeleNav GPS Navigator Comes to Motorola CLIQ – Video Demo!
Sep 29th
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...Some of you may have seen the rumors floating around lately regarding the applications that will come preloaded on Motorola’s upcoming CLIQ phone, the company’s first Android device running on T-Mobile’s network. Well, today T-Mobile officially announced details surrounding the CLIQ, including the preloaded applications and the date you can preorder this very cool device. We’re happy to say that TeleNav GPS Navigator v5.5 will be one of the applications CLIQ owners will be able to fire up from the first day they get their hands on the device. The service will come with a free two-week trial so CLIQ users can try the application out first hand. After that, users can get turn-by-turn directions, real-time traffic information, more than 10 million points of interest and spoken address entry capabilities for $9.99/mo.
You can preorder the CLIQ starting Oct. 19 and it will be available in stores on Nov. 2, right in time for the holiday season. To give you a little taste of TeleNav GPS Navigator v5.5 running on the CLIQ, we took the phone out for a little drive around our headquarters here in Sunnyvale. As you’ll see in the video, the application for the CLIQ got us right to where we needed to go and did it in style, with cool features such as flipping to landscape mode when the physical keyboard slides out.
All of you T-Mobile subscribers be sure to check out the CLIQ and all of the preloaded apps including our TeleNav GPS Navigator v5.5. You won’t be disappointed.
Video: Sprint Navigation (powered by TeleNav) on the Samsung Instinct HD
Sep 25th
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Samsung and Sprint are partnering to bring the new Samsung Instinct HD phone to you this Sunday, Sept. 27. As you can see in the video, I had a chance to play with the phone for a few days and I’ll tell you that there’s something really sexy about this little device. The Instinct HD felt really solid as a piece of hardware and the touchscreen has a nice response and tactile feel to it, which kept me from ever guessing if the phone recorded my touch or not.
I decided to hop in my trusty Corolla S (Toyota, you can address the check to me) which is now becoming famous on our YouTube channel thanks to previous demos. For this trip, I decided to head to a local Bank of America branch and as you can see, Sprint Navigation (powered by TeleNav) on the new Samsung Instinct HD got me there without a hitch. What was most impressive to me was the speed at which the application fired up and had me on my way.
Some of the features you’ll see in the video demo include full text-to-speech with spoken street names, a POI search (from the more than 10 million that are included with the app), and you’ll hear the application search for traffic congestion along our route. Fortunately in this demo I didn’t run into any traffic issues, which for the Bay Area, is pretty rare.
Enjoy the video and check out the Samsung Instinct HD on Sprint, it’s definitely the type of phone that will make your friends jealous. And who among us doesn’t enjoy doing that.
Big Contest Still Open . . . And an Inside Look Into TeleNav
Sep 24th
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Time is ticking away for you to win one of the biggest prizes we’ve ever given away here on the TeleNav Blog. You only have four days left to enter to win a full year of TeleNav service for you and a friend. The season of giving is quickly approaching, so why not get a head start and hook one of your friends or family members up with GPS navigation on their mobile phone. Just think, they’ll never be able to blame getting lost as the reason they missed your wedding again.
So how do I enter you ask? It’s very easy. All you have to do is click on THIS LINK and visit the original contest post. Leave a comment as to why your friend deserves (or in most cases NEEDS) TeleNav’s GPS navigation application on their phone and we’ll select the best five entries. As I mentioned above, the winners get a year of service for themselves and the friend or family member they nominated. To all of you couples out there, this is your chance to finally end one of the arguments that has plagued humankind for centuries.
But wait, there’s more. As part of our extended 10 Year Anniversary Celebration, we thought it would be great to give readers of our blog an inside peek into what life is like inside the friendly confines of the TeleNav offices. So, we took some time to visit with employees in our Seattle and Sunnyvale offices to shoot a brief video and ask them a few questions about what it’s like being part of the TeleNav family. Oh, and keep an eye out for a special edition of “TeleNav Idol” with our own versions of Randy, Paula and Simon (we later had our own Ellen announce that she was replacing Paula). We hope you enjoy this short video on life at TeleNav and if you want to see more, you can view some fun pictures of BBQs, team outings and other events at TeleNav here. Now go enter that contest!
Video: TeleNav GPS Navigator in 2002 – our first color version!; Contest Reminder
Sep 18th
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...This week, we’re continuing to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. If you haven’t already entered to win a year of TeleNav GPS Navigator for you and a friend, don’t forget! You can enter by adding a comment on this blog post about why someone else should win. It’s that easy!
In the meantime, we thought we’d share with you a video of one of the very early versions of TeleNav GPS Navigator. This is from our first color version (remember when most phones where black and white??) from 2002. It’s on a Nextel i95 phone and you can see the difference in our service from only a few years ago and now. Awww…we were so young then….
The audio is not good in this video so mute your speakers before you press play.
Win a Year of TeleNav for You and a Friend – It’s Easy!
Sep 16th
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...
TeleNav GPS Navigator on the T-Mobile myTouch 3G
We all know someone who seems to always be getting lost or arriving to events “fashionably late.” Well, here’s your chance to help that person out and give them the gift of GPS navigation right on their phone. Better yet, you don’t have to pay for the gift and you’ll even get it for yourself too! That’s right, we’re giving away a total of TEN (two for each winning entry) one-year subscriptions to TeleNav’s GPS navigation applications including TeleNav GPS Navigator and applications we develop for our carrier partners including AT&T Navigator, Alltel Navigation and Sprint Navigation. That means if your friend has an Apple iPhone, T-Mobile myTouch 3G or G1, BlackBerry or any of the hundreds of devices we support, you can hook them up.
It’s easy to submit as well. To enter to win, visit MONDAY’S BLOG POST and leave a comment explaining why your friend deserves to win one of the GPS navigation applications we develop. Full contest details are available for review in the post as well.
While you’re deciding which of your friends is most deserving of your generosity, here are a couple of fun mobile phone facts*. As you may know, TeleNav celebrated it’s 10th anniversary last week and we thought we’d show you how things have changed from the day our doors opened in 1999 to now. Enjoy!
- Top Five Carriers in 1999 – AT&T, Vodaphone Airtouch, SBC Wireless, Bell Atlantic Mobile, Bell South Mobile Systems.
- Top Five Carriers Today – Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Alltel
- Total Wireless Subscribers in 1999 – 86 million
- Total Wireless Subscribers Today – 270.3 million (entering 2009)
- Total Wireless Revenues in 1999 – $40 billion
- Total Wireless Revenues Today – $148 billion
- Cell sites in the US in 1999 – 81,698
- Cell sites in the US Today – 192,068
- Average number of minutes used per month in 1999 - 242
- Average number of minutes used per month in 2009 – 800
- Average monthly mobile phone bill in 1999 – $41.24
- Average monthly mobile phone bill in 2009 – $50.07 (at end of 2008)
Cleary times have changed in the past 10 years. Now, go enter that contest and scoop up some free GPS navigation service for yourself and a friend.
* Data referenced from Telephony Magazine, the FCC, CTIA, RCR Wireless, IE Market Research and JD Power.
