I already own a traditional GPS system but I hate the hassle that comes with owning one. You know what I’m talking about, making sure they are always charged, updating the maps/software constantly, not leaving it in plain sight when I exit the car, and remembering to bring it with me when I go on trips. I wanted a simpler solution and hoped and app on my iPhone was what I was looking for. With the various GPS applications within the App Store, it was hard to choose the one that was right for me. I just wanted a program that would update itself, get me where I was going, and didn’t cost more than a traditional GPS device.  After sifting through the mountains of candidates in the App Store, I believe I stumbled across exactly what I was looking for.

Available right now in the App Store is an application called MotionX GPS Drive. With the purchase of this $0.99 app you get 30 days of the “Live Voice Guidance” service that gives you a month to utilize exactly what the name states: live voice guidance for your trips with turn by turn navigation and automatic rerouting if you miss your turn. After the 30 day period is up, you have the option to extend service in two different ways; you can either pay $2.99 which gives you 30 days of use or $24.99 for a year. If you decide that you don’t want to pay any extra, you will still be able to use basic turn by turn directions at no extra cost. Depending on how much you use your GPS you can determine the option that is most economical.

Now that we got all that pricing out of the way, time to jump into the actual use of the app. Recently, I took a road trip from Orlando to Clearwater and used MotionX all the way there. It’s only 2 hours away and pretty much a straight shot aside from intersections leading up to my final destination. All I knew was the name of the restaurant.  No address, no zip code, and I wasn’t really sure what city it was in. Fortunately, I didn’t need to know all of those fine details. I used the search tool and within seconds, the top choice was the place I was looking for. With a simple press of the ‘Navigate’ button I was on my way to my destination. I also took some wrong turns on the way just to see if the re-routing worked as intended, and to my surprise, it was pretty flawless.

The application has a ton of screens that display a vast amount of information, various settings, and also gives you the ability to play your iPod while the application is running. Because the system is relying on a GPS signal, the directions and maps are cached to your device just in case you lose signal for a while. If you get an incoming call, feel free to take it. MotionX GPS Drive will resume navigation as soon as you go back into the application with no hiccups at all. There are a few options that are missing, (i.e Landscape Mode and Text to Speech), but at a price point of $0.99 this can be overlooked.

Because MotionX doesn’t sell a physical device on the market that they provide to consumers, they have the ability to enter the iPhone GPS market at a relatively low cost without any hesitations. All in all, if you’re looking for an inexpensive way to change your iPhone 3G into a GPS, MotionX GPS Drive is a great way to go. I highly recommended this application.

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app store, gps, iPhone, motionx