Verizon Wireless VZ Navigator

VZ Navigator offers five basic functions: Navigation, Local Search, My Places, Maps, and Messages. Navigation provides voice-guided turn-by-turn directions via the speakerphone, in addition to text-based instructions. Obviously, a cell phone's smaller screen isn't optimal for in-car use, but it gives you a good idea of your location, either via an overview map--of which you can zoom in and out--or a dedicated screen with your current instructions (for example: Main Street, turn left in 0.2 mile). During our tests, we relied heavily on the audible directions while driving and used the graphics as a secondary source; you can even choose from two voices. You can also set VZ Navigator to create a route based on whether you're walking or biking. For more options, create your itinerary by the fastest, shortest, or simplest route, and you can choose to avoid highways and toll roads. If you happen to veer off track, VZ Navigator will recalculate your route; just be aware that this will require additional airtime use. Also, if you make or receive a call, VZ Navigator will suspend services until you hang up, then update the directions.

For more general use, the Maps function displays a map of any address in the United States, as long as it's in VZ Navigator's database. You can search by address, Favorites, airport, or intersection. The Follow Me feature will do just that; acting as a bread-crumb trail, Follow Me tracks your traveled route, and you can identify nearby places by pointing the cursor over a certain location and clicking the OK key.

The new Messaging option is quite useful, but there's one caveat: it only works with other Verizon phones. The feature lets you send the address and coordinates of your location via text message to your friends and family. You can add a personal note if you wish, such as "Meet me here," making it a great way to communicate if you're trying to coordinate plans. If the recipient also happens to be a VZ Navigator user, he or she can then view your location on a map, get driving directions, search for businesses around the area, or add it to their favorites list. To be fair, you can send a similar message to an e-mail address, but the SMS text option is more attractive if you're trying to catch up with acquaintances while out on the town.

Local Search is much like the POI database found on in-car navigation systems. You can search from more than 14 million POI, including gas stations, restaurants, ATMs, hotels, and movie theaters, and you can have VZ Navigator map its location or provide directions from your current location. Also, if a number is listed with the place of business, you can call it directly by simply pressing the Send button twice, which is great if you want to make dinner reservations on the fly, for example. Verizon says it updates the database every several months for the most accurate information.

Finally, the My Places function gives you fast access to your favorite destinations, recent searches, and more. Within this menu, you can save your home and work addresses, so you can use either as a quick starting point for navigation. You can also now manage your favorite locations and searches from your PC or laptop using the VZ Navigator Web site and synchronize the information to your phone via USB cable or wirelessly. This is a nice option if you have some time to plan your trips, since you get a larger view of maps with your computer's screen and you can enter addresses using a full keyboard. That said, we're disappointed that you can't use the Web site to get driving directions and transfer them to your phone.

We tested VZ Navigator on the Motorola V325 in the San Francisco area; we were impressed with the service and found it very useful. From a cold start, it took several minutes for the phone to acquire our location, which is standard for most GPS devices; subsequent starts took only a few seconds for satellite acquisition. We then used the Local Search function to find the nearest Best Buy in our area, and within a couple of minutes, VZ Navigator returned with our route. As we mentioned before, the V325's 2-inch display isn't ideal for use in a car, but thankfully, the voice-guided directions were there to help, and the speakerphone's volume was more than adequate. It's also helpful that it called out specific street names rather than generic instructions, such as "Turn right in 100 feet." This text-to-speech functionality is just starting to show up in today's portable in-car GPS devices. On the downside, we found the frequency of the audible directions to be somewhat sparse. Accuracy, for the most part, was dead-on, although on a couple of occasions, it gave us the wrong street address when we used the Where Am I? function. We also purposefully took a wrong turn to test out the autoroute recalculation, and though it took a minute or so to get our location, VZ Navigator got us back on track.

To test the newer messaging and Web features, we used the Motorola Razr V3m. We sent several text messages from different points in the city to the Verizon Wireless G'zOne Type S, and each text came through just fine. However, there were some issues. First, the listed address was off a couple of street numbers or had us located on the nearest cross street. The addresses were always in close proximity to our actual location, but we expect better accuracy. We also noticed that the latitude and longitude coordinates were stripped from the original sent message--not as big a deal as the former issue since most people won't be searching or navigating via coordinates. On the bright side, the PC-to-phone synchronization worked like a charm.

See more CNET content tagged:

Verizon Wireless,

route,

Verizon Communications,

GPS navigation,

local search