AndNav2 for the Android G1… Turn-by-Turn GPS, so close I can taste it.

It’s really an impressive effort from AndNav, particularly considering all the “big guns” leveling their sights on the the prize of Turn-By-Turn voice navigation for the Android platform. You really get the impression that this is as much a labor of love for them as a commercial undertaking, and we all love an underdog.

Even though their map base does not appear to currently include full, real-time support for the United States, I decided to take the plunge with their latest Stable Alpha installation (or is it Beta2, there seems to be some confusion in the documentation).  I’m afraid given those limitations I can’t give you a fair, full overview, but I can give you my general impressions of the peripheral functionality…

The download is beefy for the G1 at 4mb, but it downloaded quickly on the 3G network.  Installation was quick and clean of any crashes (which are distressingly common in some application lines these days).  A supplementary download of the Android TTS (text to speech) module will be necessary, but let’s face it, you were going to need it eventually.  🙂

At first glance, its obvious that the AndNav team is putting their efforts into functionality and stability, rather than graphics.  However, I have no complaints as it locked onto my GPS’s signal quickly and solidly.  It would do you well to get over the lack of initial visual appeal as AndNav is touting some great core functions under the hood.  The real killer deal their choice to support the ability to download and store area maps without the need for a constant data connection.  After dabbling with my G1 for car navigation and wandering out of data range, I KNOW this will be crucial to a viable GPS navigation application.

Looking forward to great things from the AndNav team and I’m subscribed to the forums eagerly waiting for new developments.