GoGoNavigator & Live Traffic App for iPhone

Gogo Navigator USA & CAN is a real-time 3D navigation app for the iPhone. It features real-3D, Live Traffic (an in-app purchase add-on), Text-To-Speech voice guidance, Lane Guidance, Signpost Display, and  more.

There are so many options in Gogo Navigator that when I first downloaded the app I was overwhelmed. There are many cool features such as the voice commands and the 3-D display.  I had a little trouble understanding the voice commands but hubs had no problem at all. I think some minor tweaking at my end to adjust volume level will likely solve the bit of trouble I had.

Hubs and I have always had problems on our road trips. And we make a lot of genealogy road trips! So Gogo Navigator seemed like a good fit for us.

I did notice that my iPhone battery drained quickly when I was in Gogo Navigator but that's common to any GPS system on your phone. A quick side trip to the Gogo Navigator website gave me the solution. I had a few choices to minimize battery drain but the one I used (and it works well) was to be sure to use the QUIT button in Gogo Navigator instead of just using my Home button on my iPhone to go to another app. Using the QUIT button ensures that the GPS is not running in the background. Easy to do and a perfect solution. Also when in the car, and using Gogo Navigator on your iPhone as your GPS of choice, you can plug your iPhone in and the battery won't drain.

I've been using Gogo Navigator for a week now and what I love best about it is the Live Traffic Report. Live Traffic, with information provided by Clear Channel Total Traffic Network. gives you an up-to-date report on road conditions on your route Are roads closed? How long are they expected to be closed? Is traffic slow but the roads are open? These questions and more are answered on LiveTraffic.

To access LiveTraffic you choose your destination, then Gogo Menu and then Traffic (the bottom middle button). The next screen takes you to Traffic List screen and a choice of All Messages or On My Route.

This is an example of what you see in Live Traffic. I had chosen a location in Pennsylvania as my destination and Live Traffic brought up several screens of traffic information (in order from my house to my destination) 

The icons tell  me what the problem is - construction, road closure, etc. I can click on the right arrow (beak) for details including what the problem is and how long it is expected to last. The exact time the problem arose is also given.

The next road trip hubs and I take for genealogy research should be much less stressful. We use a GPS system already and it saves us lots of headaches as we head out to unknown cemeteries, libraries or museums in cities and towns unfamiliar to us. But I'm going to use Gogo Navigator on our next trip. With the Live Traffic add-on in Gogo Navigator it should all be smooth sailing!


Disclaimer: I was not paid to write this review but I was  provided with the app at no cost so I could review it. I tested it on my iPhone 3GS using IOS 4.2.1 and the version of Gogo Navigator  I used is 1.2.0

Dropbox Just Keeps Getting Better!

Readers of Olive Tree Genealogy blog know that my favourite and most-used cloud service is Dropbox. With Dropbox I can store, sync, and, share files online for free.

Here's a brief look at how Dropbox works. I've saved a file to my computer hard drive but I want a backup and I want to be able to work on the story from my iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Laptop or other computers. All I need to do is "drop" my file into my free Dropbox Account. Dropbox automatically syncs the file to all my devices that have the App installed. I can also access the files from any computer simply by going to the Dropbox website. I can also give other family members or contribuotrs access to the file and they can participate in the story writing, or simply enjoy reading it.

With Dropbox I can take a photo from my iPhone camera and immediately send it to Dropbox. But here's the good news! You used to have to add one photo at a time to Dropbox. It was tedious. It meant going into Dropbox app on your phone, selecting the camera icon and then choosing ONE photo from your Camera Roll. When that was done uploading to Dropbox, you selected the camera icon again, back to your Camera Roll, try to remember where you left off and choose one more photo. It was time-consuming and you could only upload 2 photos every minute.

But now Dropbox has the coolest update - the ability to mulitple select photos on your phone's Camera Roll! I tried it out after accepting the update on the App Store. I opened Dropbox on my iPhone and chose the Uploads icon. Then I clicked on the + sign and dropbox immediately went to my iPhone's Camera Roll where I began selecting photos. I added 22 at one time! Each photo I chose popped up a little check mark. When I was done, I clicked on upload.

I was able to put my phone down and do other things while all 22 photos uploaded to my Dropbox account. This is a huge improvement. Now when my husband and I take our cemetery photos we can upload dozens at one shot. I am curious if there is a maximum number for an upload and have not tested that yet. Sometimes we take over 100 photos in a cemetery!

Dropbox gives you 2GB of free storage plus ability to earn extra free space up to 8GB. No size limit on files. Sync files automatically. Available as an App for iPhone, iPad and other mobile devices. Able to access files from any computer (Mac, Windows, Linux) or mobile device. Sign up for your free Dropbox Account of 2GB and get an extra 250MB free through this link