Not sure that the colour palette is significant, TBH - but also remember that you will need Capacitive touchscreen tips on your glove finger(s) to operate.
I see the smartphone as being a useful back-up to a decent sat-nav, to be honest.
Who needs a BMW navigator.....
- Thread starter malcopopolo
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Not sure that the colour palette is significant, TBH - but also remember that you will need Capacitive touchscreen tips on your glove finger(s) to operate.
I see the smartphone as being a useful back-up to a decent sat-nav, to be honest.
Everything is a compromise. A real benefit for me is one device. Others might be cost saving. We have to make our decisions and choices. Using my phone as a sat nav is a good solution for me given the amount of times I actually need one.
I always take my gloves off to operate phone or satnav. As having owned nav 5 and 6 I am familiar with smartlink. I just prefer to use one device. Love the simple effective mounting solution from quad lock. Hope this is useful to others.
I always take my gloves off to operate phone or satnav. As having owned nav 5 and 6 I am familiar with smartlink. I just prefer to use one device. Love the simple effective mounting solution from quad lock. Hope this is useful to others.
fred_jb
Registered user
I've changed permanently from a Nav 5 to a phone running MyRoute Navigation. This system is well proven over several trips, and the ease of creating and modifying routes gives a lot of flexibility to change routes while away, plus the maps and routes can be downloaded in advance to the phone making it able to work completely offline where there is no phone signal.
I have been using my Nexus 6 phone which has one of the biggest brightest screens available, mounted with a Quadlock mount, and have been very happy with that, so have now bought a second one to dedicate to satnav duties and act as a backup for my main phone. Got that for only £109 which is not bad for a powerful device with 32 GB of storage, which was state of the art only three or four years ago.
I have been using my Nexus 6 phone which has one of the biggest brightest screens available, mounted with a Quadlock mount, and have been very happy with that, so have now bought a second one to dedicate to satnav duties and act as a backup for my main phone. Got that for only £109 which is not bad for a powerful device with 32 GB of storage, which was state of the art only three or four years ago.
BiKenG
Registered user
Ta for the recommendationThe Wunderlinq devs have said they'll be talking to the Copilot devs to see if things can be done.
Good luck to them on that. I have a BIG interest in being able to use CoPilot, but the developers are hopeless. They've not got around to basic functionality (like ability to copy routes to and from a PC/Mac) that customers have been demanding for probably more than 5 years, but keep revising the interface, making it worse and adding other stuff no-one's asking for. Typical developers really. However, it is what I have used for many years and in many respects it works very well. I'd love to be able to use it with a Wunderlinq. That would be ideal.
I laughed at someone's comment about using a nav app on a phone as a backup to a decent Sat Nav. Ha, what Sat Nav are they using that is better than apps available for iOS etc? I've tried Tom Tom and Garmin units and many built-in car units but they all pale in comparison to a good app on a phone - no question. And of course the non phone options are all WAY more expensive. Add to that the faff of having to deal with 2 actual devices all the time (assuming everyone does actually carry their phone with them) and it's a no-brainer as far as I'm concerned. Each to their own and all that, but using a dedicated Sat Nav while carrying a phone around makes no sense to me whatsoever.
Just to clarify, not got a GS yet, but planning on a new 1250 for this year and thinking ahead about such options. Have long thought what a great idea it would be if you could hook up a mobile phone to the GS's Sat Nav control system, but the Wunderlinq is the first I've seen. Are there actually any other ways to integrate a phone into a GS?
nbaker
Registered user
Would that be using the mirror mount?
I would love to see a picture if you do this as this would seem ideal for me also.
You definitely need the mirror mount...
Then purchase a windscreen mount for the car....
I am quite difficult to please
The quadlock system is solid, stable and just works.
which route planning software do you use?
I use Tyre to travel or MyRoute if you want to share routes as it is a cloud based system, also you can check your routes on your phone.
Now that is cheap
I have used quad lock and my iPhone with Here we go maps, you can download any country and use off line I have just used it in Vietnam and it worked very well.
fredaroony
Registered user
The Tomtom GO app works very well on the iPhone. Only bummer is no route syncing with MyDrive
I thought they had that sorted now in a later revision of the app. They have a beta release that supports CarPlay and android auto so that would be available as the default Nav app on WunderLINQ for example.
Weird Bob
Registered user
I agree and disagree. The nav apps on the phones are getting better and better (pity garmin pulled out of that market as I like their interface).
However I find the gps chips in the phones less than ideal. They are fine on nice open routes in the countryside but head into dense city streets and they get easily confused compared to even my older dedicated GPS units. They always seem to go bonkers when I do some wriggling and maneuvering to get to the head of traffic at red lights.
Any chance of an update on how the WunderLinq is working both at controlling nav / music / calls on the phone? TIA
And no doubt - you’ll still be laughing when your phone conks out in the heat of the south of France/Spain........
Not really seeing the worry about overloading your (yet to purchase) GS with an additional 200gm Sat Nav either
But - each to their own.
Last Year did a 5000 Km tour using a phone as nav, worked well mostly but two issues comes to mind: it froze a couple of times, one driving on a auto bahan were I couldn´t stop to reset it
(had to take my glove off with my teeth to unlock it than stuff the glove down my jacket and drive a 100km with one hand gloveless) and two, it´s impossible to access it with gloves (I know there are gloves with touch spots but they aren´t very common) and if it locks unlocking it with fingerprint touch is hard (gloves) and with face id the same (helmet)
I have a nav 6 now, thought it was a bit dated online search wise but was surprised by the associated phone app, you just search what you want with your phone using internet and than send it to the nav6 easy peasy
(had to take my glove off with my teeth to unlock it than stuff the glove down my jacket and drive a 100km with one hand gloveless) and two, it´s impossible to access it with gloves (I know there are gloves with touch spots but they aren´t very common) and if it locks unlocking it with fingerprint touch is hard (gloves) and with face id the same (helmet)
I have a nav 6 now, thought it was a bit dated online search wise but was surprised by the associated phone app, you just search what you want with your phone using internet and than send it to the nav6 easy peasy
BiKenG
Registered user
I've been taking bikes on trips to the South of France and Spain since before anyone had ever heard of SatNav or mobile phones (or the Internet for that matter) and yes, I did have a problem one year when the iPhone was packed in a waterproof case, surrounded by insulating foam. Otherwise I have used less 'encased' mountings and never had the problem again. With a modern waterproof phone that needs no case at all, I would certainly not expect to experience that problem.
I have also not experienced any other glitches when using phone based SatNav as opposed to a dedicated unit such as the TomTom Rider whose mount partially broke on the first day, repeatedly chose different routes to the same device my friend was also using (with same settings and route plan etc), insisted on sending me on the route I specifically was trying to avoid and generally pissed me off so much I nearly threw it into the nearest field. I didn't though and on my return sent it back as not fit for purpose and anyway, broken. Funnily enough, I've never experienced any such traumas when navigating with an iPhone.
As for overloading a GS with the extra weight due to carrying 2 devices, who said I was worried about that? Not the issue at all. Was that a dig about my not yet having purchased a new 1250? Your point is? If you wish to buy my car then you could assist me in more quickly obtaining the GS.
I first rode a bike abroad in 1973 and most years since. I've navigated using memory, paper maps, scribbled notes, dedicated SatNav devices and SatNav apps on an iPhone. From that experience I have determined that app on phone is by far the best solution. If you still wish to faff about with 2 devices where one will do, then that is your choice. But, it is important that everyone is aware of the fact that apart from being so much cheaper, navigation by phone does not restrict you to on-line maps that require constant downloading. Indeed you then have the choice of which app to use and can always change it at a later date if something better comes along or you simply fancy trying something different. A true SatNav app on a mobile device will give at least as good SatNav capability as any dedicated device. I am not alone in this realisation which is why the sales of dedicated devices has dropped through the floor.
Provided anyone making the decision has the full facts at their disposal, then it is their choice as to which device they use, but this choice should not be made based on any misunderstanding of the capabilities of phone based SatNav.
fred_jb
Registered user
Yep - well put, and I agree. I've used MyRoute Navigation running on an Android phone for my last few trips, and will not be going back to a dedicated satnav. I can see the appeal of what seems a simpler product in the form of the dedicated units, but in reality, especially if you want to pre-plan routes, they can end up being no simpler than a phone solution, and IMHO quite a bit worse.
Those aren’t really ‘facts’ - more ‘homespun philosophies’ with a good helping of ‘I’ve been doing this for years, m’boy’
Sales of Satnavs have probably declined, but there are many factors involved, including the standard fitment of good devices in cars, the ability of people to mount a phone legally in their car (or on their bike), and ‘illegally’ check for texts and e-mails while performing simple navigation.
“Provided anyone making the decision has the full facts at their disposal..........”. It’s their choice, whether they base that on your so-called ‘facts’ .... or not.
I still think there is a risk of total failure of an expensive smart-phone in elevated temperatures - even if you do laugh at that.....
BiKenG
Registered user
Now you're just being argumentative. The 'facts' I refer to are that a mobile phone SatNav app doesn't have to rely on downloading, i.e. on-line maps. They are also cheaper than a dedicated device and you can simply get a new app when you wish, whereas with a dedicated device, you simply cannot swap the interface etc for anything else. These are incontrovertible facts.
My opinions are exactly that, but based on real world experience that I clearly described. What occurred in each case is similarly fact. My opinions have subsequently been formed by those actual events and experiences. I am simply passing on my not inconsiderable experience and subsequent opinions to others in the hope that it might assist them in their own decision making - either way.
Your scaremongering regarding "total failure of an expensive smart-phone in elevated temperatures" is however about as far from 'fact' as you can get really, totally based on your own fears and not supported by my own actual experiences like an entire week in France when I don't think the temperature dropped below 40°C. We all baked, but not one phone failure.
I'm not laughing at any of this. Just don't really see the need to prolong the argument.
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