Well, the new phones continue to come down the pipeline and the latest is the Samsung Moment for the Sprint Network. The Moment is an Android based device and after having the chance to play around with it, I must say it’s one very slick device. And even better, Sprint Navigation (powered by TeleNav) worked beautifully on the device, with the large touch screen providing an excellent view of the application for easy navigation.
We decided to hop in the car and take the Samsung Moment and Sprint Navigation for a quick spin. It was around lunch time and I was craving some Indian food, so you’ll see in the video that we conducted a search for Indian restaurants in our area. Some of the features you’ll see in the demo video include visual and audio turn-by-turn directions, full text-to-speech including spoken street names, real-time traffic information and our point of interests search including rated listings.
The Samsung Moment hit stores this past Sunday, November 1. If you’re looking for a new phone and want something that will make your friends jealous, the Samsung Moment may be the phone for you. If you’ve already picked one up, tell us what you think about Sprint Navigation. We always appreciate your feedback.
For those of you living in the San Francisco Bay Area, you may have been impacted (like many of us here working at the TeleNav headquarters) by the sudden closing of the Bay Bridge last night due to a cable breaking. Thousands of people depend on the Bay Bridge each day to drive to and from work, so this closing has a heavy impact on drivers all around the area. People who use the bridge on a daily basis now have to depend on using other roadways, which has added more traffic to the already congested freeways the area is so well known for. I myself had the privilege of my commute taking twice as long as normal today due to increased traffic.
In order to assist users of our applications driving in the Bay Area, our engineers acted quickly on the news of the closing and adjusted our routing engine to avoid the Bay Bridge. This not only helps visitors to the area who might not be aware of the closing, but also those people who use the Bay Bridge and may not be sure of the best alternate route to use while it’s closed. Our real-time traffic information is also another nice feature in times like these when roadways for miles in each direction are impacted by the closure.
If you recall, our engineers were able to shut the Bay Bridge down on a previous occasion when it was closed for construction during the Labor Day Weekend. As we mentioned at that time, this is a significant advantage of having a connected navigation experience such as that provided by the applications TeleNav develops. This connectivity enables our team to act quickly in these situations and ultimately help our customers in times when they need it most. The personal navigation device you bought last year can’t do that. So, if you’re traveling in the Bay Area while the Bay Bridge is being repaired, you can feel comfortable knowing you won’t be routed over the bridge.
AT&T and Pantech launched a new device this week, the Pantech Reveal, which is Pantech’s first “single-slider” phone. Overall, the phone has a nice feel to it and the inclusion of two key pads, the number pad when the slider is closed and the full keyboard when it’s open, makes it very handy to use. You can quickly dial a number with the slider closed and easily slide out the keyboard for messaging purposes. But perhaps the best feature in our humble opinion is that the phone comes preloaded with AT&T Navigator (powered by TeleNav).
We decided to take the Pantech Reveal out for a little spin and test some of the features included in AT&T Navigator on the phone. And because sharing is caring, we thought we’d bring along a video camera to show you the application in action. As you can see, it was very easy for me to find the destination I wanted to drive to and head out on my way. Some of the features you’ll see in the video include onscreen and voice turn-by-turn directions, text-to-speech (i.e. turn right on Kifer Road, not just turn right), real-time traffic alerts and the ease in which the POI database can be used to find a location.
Enjoy the video and if you picked up a Reveal or are planning to, let us know what you think of AT&T Navigator on the phone.
As some of you may know, last week CTIA held its annual Wireless I.T. & Entertainment event at the San Diego Convention Center. This event is always an exciting time in the mobile industry as many new phones are announced, cool new applications are launched, and a number of awards are handed out. A group of us from TeleNav headed down to San Diego for a few days to catch up with old friends in the industry and get a first-hand look of everything that was happening at the show. The San Diego weather and views (like this one from our hotel below) were a nice bonus.
Marina in San Diego
There was a lot going on for TeleNav last week in San Diego, so we thought we’d provide a brief recap. First off, there were a number of new phones announced last week that feature the apps we develop for some of our carrier partners including AT&T Navigator and Sprint Navigation as well as our own TeleNav GPS Navigator application. AT&T announced four upcoming phones including the Pantech Reveal, Pantech Impact, Samsung Mythic, and Samsung Flight. Sprint also announced a new phone, the Samsung Moment. And we can’t forget T-Mobile, which also came to play with the announcement of new phones including a myTouch 3G Fender Limited Edition phone and the newly announced T-Mobile Tap. I can’t wait for the chance to play with some of these phones. And while that’s an impressive lineup of devices, the image below of some phones sporting the applications we develop is pretty impressive as well. We showed these phones at the Pepcom Mobile Focus press event.
An impressive lineup of phones
People enjoying the Pepcom Mobile Focus event
But that’s not all. Ravi Acharya, associate director of marketing for TeleNav’s B2B products, also participated on a panel at CTIA titled “Public and Corporate Fleets” where he discussed the benefits of our TeleNav Track products. TeleNav was also up for two awards last week for our TeleNav GPS Navigator v5.5 application. We were named a finalist in the Best Mobile Consumer Application category for the CTIA Hot for the Holidays Award. Jitterbug took the top honor for its LiveNurse application, so congrats to everyone at Jitterbug. We were also up for a Location 2.0 Summit Fast-Pitch Award in the Consumer Application category. We’re still waiting on those results, so keep your fingers crossed for us.
Ravi Acharya speaking at CTIA
As you can see, it was a very busy week for us, but we all had a great time and appreciated everyone from the CTIA, Pepcom and Location 2.0 events being so helpful to us.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months, you’ve probably heard a lot of talk about the HTC Hero on Sprint. With the number of mobile phones that come out each year, it seems like only a few phones generate significant buzz before they launch and the Hero is one of those phones. Sprint launched the Hero yesterday and you guessed it, Sprint Navigation (powered by TeleNav) is available on the phone.
I got my hands on the Hero prior to the launch and took it for a spin and I have to say, I was really impressed with the phone’s performance and overall look and feel. While I was giving the phone a test drive, I decided to shoot this brief video of Sprint Navigation guiding me around here in Sunnyvale. As you can see, the app looks great on the phone and got me exactly where I wanted to go.
In the video you’ll see me using and mentioning a number of features built into Sprint Navigation including a POI search to find the bank I was navigating too. I also mention some of the other categories available in the more than 10 million POIs including gas by price, air ports and Wi-Fi hotspots. I also used the app in landscape mode and decided to try and throw it off by missing some turns to show how quickly it was able to calculate a new route and get me heading in the right direction.
I hope you enjoy this brief video and if you’ve already picked up a new Hero or are planning to, be sure to check out Sprint Navigation. And when you do, don’t hesitate to tell us what you think.
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.
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.
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!
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.
Sprint Navigation (powered by TeleNav) on the Palm Pre
If you’re a customer of our carrier partner Sprint and plan on traveling this Labor Day weekend, you should consider using Sprint Navigation (powered by TeleNav) on your phone to guide you to your destination and also help you find your way around once you arrive. The application transforms your Sprint phone into a lean, mean, navigation machine and brings the features of a personal navigation device right to your phone. Better yet, it’s now available on more phones than ever before. Sprint announced today that Sprint Navigation is available on more than 60 Sprint phones, including the popular Palm Pre, one of my personal favorite devices that launched this summer.
A few of the Sprint Navigation features you’ll be able to use on your trip this weekend include:
Voice and on-screen turn-by-turn directions complete with 2D and 3D maps to guide you to wherever you may be traveling this weekend
Traffic alerts with one-click rerouting to help you avoid the congested roadways expected this Labor Day weekend and get you to your destination as quickly and stress-free as possible
Real-time gas price listings help you find the cheapest gas prices along your route, helping you save a few bucks to buy that “I visited Branson and lived to tell about it” T-shirt you’ve always wanted
More than 10 million business listings to help you find restaurants, hotels or nightlife spots along the way or when you arrive at your vacation destination
Pre-plan your trip online to find all of the locations you want to visit during your vacation and instantly send the information to your phone so it’s there and ready to go as soon as you start up the car
You don’t have to rely solely on my word about how much Sprint Navigation can help you this Labor Day weekend and in your daily lives. After all, I might be a little biased. Today’s announcement includes quotes from three Sprint customers who use Sprint Navigation on their phones to help them do everything from streaming turn-by-turn directions through their vehicle while listening to Pandora at the same time to finding a new route around unexpected construction in a familiar area. James Kendrick of the popular tech blog JKOnTheRun also weighed in on his experience with Sprint Navigation on the Palm Pre, saying the app works just as well as a personal navigation device.
So, if you’re a Sprint customer and looking for an app to add a little guidance to your life this Labor Day weekend and beyond, check out Sprint Navigation. We’d love to hear your stories on how you used Sprint Navigation during your trip.
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