Buy it online from www.orangegadgets. Like I did. It's about RM340 + shipping if I remembered. Cheapest Garmin is RM900 (from online), locally over RM1K.

No way Garmin will port their software for IPhone. It will kill their sales.

XGPS is still in early version and way behind Garmin, but a strong IPhone GPS software will eventually emerge within strong Apple community. I've just built a tool to upload custom routes (multiple points supported) from Google Map into XGPS. Maybe someone can persuade me to start my own IPhone GPS project

IPhone GPS has a tiny antenna, if u want good signal u must ensure it has a clear view of the sky. Mount that IPhone on ur windscreen.

Sygic is not bad IMO. It's feature-loaded, routing is good, and map coverage is decent.

Wishing there will be an app that uses Garmin map or Openstreet, so Malsingmap or Malfreemap can be used. Roadee uses Openstreemap, but it's online and current Openstreemap Malaysian map only covers 10%. Better stick to Sygic's Teleatlas map with 50% coverage.

Fortunately u can still add POIs. If u Google around, u will find that u can easily add custom POIs into Sygic app.

I've managed to import most POIs from Malfreemap into my Sygic app, now happily having 100,000 POIs.

I did a plenty of steps for Malfreemap POI conversion into Sygic, mainly importing from the map and mapping POI categories to Sygic-like categories. To cut short, I have created files to be installed under the following folders in Sygic app:

upi files under var/mobile/Applications/<app id>/<Sygic app>/map/mys
bmp files under var/mobile/Applications/<app id>/<Sygic app>/res/icons

Note :
1. Rename sygicMfmPoi.jpg to sygicMfmPoi.rar, and extract
2. To install, SSH into ur IPhone, or use DiskAid
3. Start Sygic app, then select "Manage POI", then select "View/Hide POI", u'll see the new POIs with "2" behind the name eg "Food2". I added "2" to differentiate it from default POIs.

I only use v1.62 map as v.1.6.3 map onwards uses Garmin NT format which can no longer be converted to text-based MP file. I don't convert road POIs and smaller POIs, only important POIs.

I Hope Malfreemap guys won't mind if I post it here For starters, list of gas stations, banks, and restaurants.

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Added on September 15, 2009, 1:21 pmPlease save the blank attachment and rename to .rar

This post has been edited by taqu: Sep 15 2009, 01:21 PM

I wonder if anyone had actually tried out my POIs ...

Yes, but why not using built-in GPS? Weak signal? Faulty GPS? Heavily-tinted/metallic car windscreen?

Normally external GPS is better than built-in one due to small antenna size in most phones. I'm using external GPS (IGPS360) with my Ipod Touch. Works well with Sygic and XGPS. Rarely had signal dropout, and it's accurate down to +- 3meter.

Tomtom, if ever have Malaysian version, will be the same as Sygic due to same map source (Teleatlas).

If somebody build an app that supports Openstreetmap data, that would be great as Malsingmap/Malfreemap data can be easily converted to Openstreetmap format. Roadee uses Openstreetmap, but requires Internet connection.

To clear up on A-GPS (Assisted GPS):

Assisted GPS is true GPS. "Assisted" means the GPS will use cellular towers to initially determine rough location, which in turns speed up GPS initial acquisition times.

So, when no Internet or cellular coverage is available, A-GPS is like normal GPS, meaning it takes some time to get initial location.

Note that some claimed A-GPS device doesn't actually have a GPS chip, only cellular/wi-fi triangulation component. For example Iphone 2G.

So Sygic won't cost you any cellular/data cost, as it won't work without a real GPS chip anyway.

Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assisted_GPS

More POIs ...


Attached thumbnail(s)

GPS signal requires a clear view of the sky. It's harder to get a good signal when it has less view of the sky eg under dense forest or "urban jungle". U won't get GPS signal inside a building.

About map coverage, I find that Teleatlas map used in TomTom and Sygic has very good coverage in major cities. It have roads to my village in Terengganu where even Malsingmap has yet cover that road. For rural areas, it depends. It has decent coverage in my area (Bandar Enstek, Nilai), missing 2 road (N163 & partial Jalan Kuarters KLIA) and a small town (Bandar Baru Salak Tinggi). Weather u can live with that or not depends on you.

If u're willing to contribute updates to Teleatlas map, u can report to their Map Insight website at http://mapinsight.teleatlas.com/mapfeedback/index.php A sample report I submitted :

http://mapinsight.teleatlas.com/mapfeedbac...5b66ef7da3b8/en