Windows Phone Thoughts: Lost In Space (or the UK)? Get the Navman GPS 4400!

Setting Up
Installation of the software is organised into a number of steps, the first being the installation of the installer onto your PC. This preliminary step allows you to pick the language you want for the rest of the process & the application.


Figure 6: The desktop installer

For the rest of the process, the installer takes you through each of the steps required, starting with the installation of the SmartST software. SmartST is installed using ActiveSync. Once the software has been installed, it has to be activated, which requires an Internet connection. I didn't have a problem with the process in general, although I was a bit uncomfortable having to provide so much personal information such as my address & phone number. They should give you a choice of contact methods - post, phone or email - and ask you to provide the relevant information then. It should not be compulsory to provide all three. Thankfully, the second screen of demographic questions were all optional.


Figure 7: Installing the software onto the Pocket PC

Activation took a LONG time. There seemed to be a progress bar in the window, but it didn't show anything until all of a sudden, it had shot all the way across to the end and the registration process was finished. The activation tool could do with providing better feedback to the user as to progress being made. I was using a high-speed Internet connection and it was taking a worrying amount of time to complete - I almost stopped the process to try again.

Once the software has been installed and activated, you can install the maps. This process entails using the Map Downloader. As you can see from the figure, the downloader breaks the covered area down into segments. As you select each segment, it shows you how much space it will need. The right hand side of the downloader shows you how much memory is available in each of the three supported storage locations.


Figure 8: Installing maps

If you are unsure as to which segment to choose, you can use the Find City tool (Figure 9). This allows you to enter the name of the city you are interested in. When you've matched a name, double-clicking on the name causes a shrinking circle to centre on the desired location and a red cross to be placed on the map. The problem I have with this process is that the red cross doesn't really do enough to tell you which segment you want - see Figure 10 for an example. It would be better if the tool either explicitly told you, or auto-selected the area for you.


Figure 9: The Find City tool


Figure 10: Spot the red dot!

Once you've made your selection, you tell the downloader where you want the maps to be stored. At first glance, it didn't appear that this was going to be a fast process - the downloading tool said that it was downloading the Southern England segment and it was going to take 16 minutes. Approximately 30 seconds later, it was telling me that the estimated time to complete was three minutes! Still, it was good to see a working progress indicator and reassurance that the process was working.


Figure 11: Downloading the maps