Previous articles in this series:
Google Maps (7.7.0): Android navigation software overview
Waze 3.7: Navigation "Wikirod" (wikiroad) for Android
Comparison of 5 Popular Navigation Apps for Android

general information

Be-on-road is one of the few navigation apps with free downloadable maps. Initially, it was developed by the Czech company Aponia Software, which was far from new to this market. The company began its activities in the mid-2000s at the peak of the growing popularity of electronic mobile mapping and navigation. In Russia, Be-on-road at one time “lit up” in Mio navigators, where it replaced iGo products, offering faster map updates and work with traffic information.

In 2014, the app was taken over by another company - Bzing s.r.o. At the same time, Aponia still has a clone, which received a new name and is formally distanced from the rejected brother by the support of paid Navteq cards. Users who would like to continue working with paid maps, including updating them, were asked to download the new Aponia application, and Be-on-road, which went “on the side”, limited itself to supporting only free OSM maps, which at that time could be counted on the fingers. However, their number began to grow rapidly, and in just a few months there were several dozen cards available.

Pricing and licensing policy

With the change of the “owner”, the earning model has also changed - now the application will offer users a package of additional paid functions, while navigation will remain free, including all cartography. The cost of the package for Russia is 600 rubles. It includes head-up display, speed change alerts, mobile speed camera display, lane guidance, more frequent map updates, and personalized support.

System requirements

There are no special requirements for the system. The application is ready to work even with old Android versions 2.1, but you need to remember that the cards will require a lot of space. On the other hand, the application offers the user a choice of where to store maps, including the one installed in the system. external card memory.

Functionality

The main features of the Be-on-road 3.10.1.42 application are reflected in our traditional table:

* the function is activated if the starting point of the route differs from the current position according to the GPS receiver.

Interface

The working screen is extremely concise. In addition to a map and an arrow that shows your location, there is an information bar at the bottom where you can choose between three options regarding your route and how to navigate it, or GPS data such as speed and altitude. When you touch the screen, a menu appears on the right with zoom buttons and display settings, and on the left, an icon for opening a pop-up menu of actions.

The map itself is even more ascetic. At small and medium scales, there is a minimum of details: only the main roads, the contours of zones and regions, plus some elements of the POI. And only on the largest scales appear roadways, signatures with street names and contours of buildings.

The horizontal mode is present, but nothing new is added to the working field in it.

The main menu has a monochromatic tiled interface, migrated to mobile app from car navigators, including small "back" and "off" buttons. Despite the multilingualism and several voice guidance options for Russian alone, half of the menu items are in English.

Settings appearance located in the Appearance menu. Here you can change the set of colors for the map itself, as well as control the display of labels for geographical objects and POI objects on it.

In the Objects section, you can turn on the display of sidewalks (pedestrian paths), houses as 3D objects (all of the same height), and traffic signs at intersections when driving along a route.

The map has some problems with displaying the contours of coastlines. Either water disappears, or dry land. Moreover, in most cases, objects are absent at all scales.

Brief Summary
Liked: austerity, the presence of buttons in the menu for quickly building routes "home" and "work".

Did not like: slow map rendering and low detail on small scales, drawing errors of water bodies, partial Russification, exiting the application only by pressing a button in the menu.

Search and work with the map

Everything is not as bad here as one would expect from an application ported from autonavigators, but not so good either. The main search is address. First, the name of the settlement is entered, then the street, and so on, for which the keyboard built into the application is used.

As you type in the names of geographic features, the list of results is automatically rebuilt, offering the most suitable options. In other words, the principle is the same as that of navigators 10 years ago. But the presence of the Online Search item partially saves the situation. However, this type of search requires access to the Internet is, in fact, a single address entry line. You can write “zarechnaya 15” and get a list of all settlements where there is a zarechnaya street, regardless of whether there is a house number 15 on it. But if it is there, by clicking on the corresponding element of the list, it will be shown on the map. However, you can't find out just by looking at the list.

Everything else is useless to search with it. You won't get anything intelligible for requests for proper names of various geo objects or general names like "shop".

Search in the POI database is quite adequate. It has a lot of different categories, as well as objects in them.

You can search for objects around the specified points on the map, near the current position, near the end point of the route, or along its entire length.

You can also point your finger at any place on the map or any object and then, by clicking on the icon with a ball on the left, call service menu, where you will be prompted to get directions to this place, include it in an existing travel plan, get information about it or search for a POI in the area, and save the point as a favourite.

Brief Summary
Liked: a large number of address objects, an extensive and structured POI database, it is possible to search for objects near specified points on the map.

Did not like: no normal general search; outdated interface; displaying the contours of houses and secondary roads, including courtyard driveways, only at the largest scales.

Relevance of maps

All maps used in the application are compiled from OSM maps. The map of Russia occupies 744 MB and is updated about two to three times a year. At the time of this writing, Q3 2014 was available and was released in February 2015. The map has a good detail of the road network, the relevance of which is consistent with the date in its title, i.e. the third quarter of last year. So, for example, it does not have two new open sections of the M-11 Moscow-St. Petersburg highway.

Routes and navigation

Building routes is relatively fast - literally in a few seconds. The corresponding menu contains a classic set of settings that allows you to select the type of route (fast or short), the type of vehicle and the permission to lay routes on highways and their paid sections.

Routes can be edited by adding new points to them, which can then also be changed or deleted. Through the menu, you can search for POIs along the route or end and start points, and change the route to visit them.

In general, routes are built adequately. But it was noticed that in some cases they may have an excess length (up to +20% at distances of ≈1000 km) or go around the places familiar to the author, the most convenient for travel.

Also, the application has the ability to play the route, but only on condition that it was built from a point different from the current position according to the GPS receiver. In addition, there is no playback speed adjustment during playback.

Navigation support here is not much different from other applications. While driving on a route, the top of the screen displays the direction and distance to the next maneuver, as well as the name of the current street or section of road and the one to which the turn will be made. When you click on this part of the screen, you go to the route settings, where, among other things, you can use the familiar “detour” function, which is called Road Blocking in the menu. However, unlike other applications, here you can specify the length of the blocked section of the route, which is very convenient.

In case of leaving the route, the application does not panic and simply silently rebuilds it.

Voice prompts do not cause any complaints. They are timely, but there are no settings, except for choosing one of the three Russian-language voice options. In total, there are about a hundred “voice acting” options available for download.

It is noteworthy that the application has a built-in base of stationary road cameras, as well as a mechanism for adding and displaying dynamic objects on the map.

The camera database is being updated, apparently, along with the map itself. Dynamic objects are taken from the Internet, which requires from several tens to a couple of hundred kilobytes of traffic in a couple of hours of driving. The relevance of the database is consistent with the frequency of its update, and the fullness is far from ideal.

The application also provides information about the current speed limit and gives a customizable sound signal if it is exceeded by a certain threshold (10% or 20%).

Brief Summary
Liked: speed limit alert.

Did not like: no information about traffic, low relevance of the camera base, does not offer alternative route options.

All sorts of "buns"

There are few additional features in the application, and almost all of them are included in the paid package. Only the function of obtaining the address of your friends from your address book and laying a route to them is available for free.

It works in cases where people themselves indicate their address in their profile on their phone or on Google Plus, and also if data from a messenger, such as Skype, got into the address book. Among several hundred recipients from the address book on the author's smartphone, there were only a few people who indicated their address. They all labeled it "Moscow" or something like that. By clicking on the contact, the application put a marker on the map near the village of Moskva, in the Kirov region. In general, it is logical.

The paid package consists of the function of projecting an image onto the windshield (for this, the image is displayed on the screen in a mirrored form, and the smartphone must be placed closer to the windshield); warnings about changing the speed limit; display of mobile speed cameras; lane guidance; more frequent map updates and personal technical support.

It would be nice to add a DVR function to this list. Although no one prevents you from using applications from other developers at the same time.

Testing

This time, speed performance was evaluated on a smartphone with two Cortex-A9 cores operating at up to 1.2 GHz and 1 GB of memory. OS version - 4.2.2. And also on a single-core device with a gigahertz Cortex-A9, which was the main one in all our previous tests.

Time of laying routes and utilization of system resources

The time for laying routes directly depends on their length. For relatively short distances of 100-150 km, it takes 1-3 seconds. A distance of 1800 kilometers on a dual-core device is “covered” in 7-10 seconds. But the application, alas, could not build a route from Moscow to Vladivostok at all. Even after 25 seconds of thinking.

When laying routes, the system uses all available CPU resources, therefore, on a single-core smartphone specified time doubled. In general, this is one of the slowest applications in this indicator among all previously tested. Longer than him, only Sygic performed these operations.

The consumption of CPU resources is also overestimated. The dual-core system was "puzzled" by 55-95% during route guidance, depending on the speed. Single-core showed the load of the computing core in the region of 95-100%. At the moments of stops, the computational load dropped sharply to 20-30%. But it was worth starting the movement, as it again increased almost to the maximum. Such a load could not but affect the battery life: its charge was melting literally before our eyes. You can help the cause by turning off the screen. In the background, the application continues to work, providing the driver with voice prompts.

Network traffic per trip

Although the app is marketed as completely offline, it appears to occasionally attempt to retrieve police ambush data from the web. But in the end we are talking about several tens of kilobytes of data per hour. But what constitutes background traffic (when the application is not in use), it is difficult to say.

The absence of the Network does not affect the performance of the application.

Availability of objects in the database

Our old table with a list of settlements, where we record the quality of cartographic and address information, will help us compare the quality of cartographic coverage. It does not give an absolute and objective assessment, but it will help to orient a little.

* data as of the beginning of 2014

Be-on-road looks pretty good compared to other commercial products, to say the least!

findings

Being an ideologically offline application, Be-on-road copes well with its task where there is no access to the Web at all or very expensive roaming. It has a quite tolerable interface (the russification would have been corrected...), a relatively good POI database and well-designed maps. Navigation mode is also good. It even has speed limit warnings and speed camera locations. Only the high loading of hardware resources upsets here.

Other shortcomings include rare map updates (about twice a year), lack of information about traffic, as well as poor detail at small scales, which was done in order to increase overall performance. But the main thing is that the application and all the cards, of which there are now more than 280, are absolutely free! In a word, we recommend.

GPS Navigation is a mobile application with maps from the developer Maps&GPS Navigation. Lost? Download the program and learn a lot about your favorite places.

How many times has each person faced the problem of orienteering in a little-known area. Tons of free similar applications require a constant connection to the Internet and downloading gigabytes of information. But what to do if you get lost in an unknown location, and even without the ability to connect to the Internet? To avoid such incidents, download the GPS Navigation program for Android and be always informed.

All maps are available offline. Especially suitable for users living in remote or little-known countries, for which there are few geographical details in such applications. The developers tried to combine all geolocation services in the application, which increases the accuracy and the number of geographical objects on the map. In addition to the mapping function, the program provides GPS navigation for both pedestrians and motorists. Speed ​​control zones, traffic cameras, traffic lights and much more will help drivers on their journey. It is possible to lay a route with the connection of geolocation algorithms.

The program itself will determine the shortest path and inform you about the corrections in motion using voice assistant. The interface is intuitive, the control is carried out both by tactile method and by voice commands in many languages. Both 3D mode and HUD with 2D are available for activation. Also, to facilitate the search, photographs taken by users and tourists are attached to each known place. So you can visually determine the desired location. GPS navigation, map updates, offline work is provided for free, which makes the program gold among many similar clones. Download the app, pack your backpack and set out on a journey to explore new horizons!

Features of GPS Navigation for Android:

• offline maps;
• constant updates;
• GPS navigation;
• several projection modes;
• photographs of localities;
• voice commands in multiple languages.

Download GPS Navigation for Android free by clicking on the link below.

The BE-ON-ROAD app will provide high quality offline GPS navigation where you can use NAVTEQ (high quality map data from the provider) and OpenStreetMap (i.e. free image data) at the same time. BE-ON-ROAD will provide you with easy-to-use navigation that will help you quickly find your way around. Maps, like the application itself, are updated automatically. For the opportunity battery life data is stored on the phone.

On the map you can find the nearest cafes, gas stations, car services, shops, hotels, hospitals and so on. In addition, BE-ON-ROAD will warn you in advance about road signs that you will meet along the way, help you get directions and get to your destination. Compared to previous versions of the application, maps load much faster. The speed of drawing maps during zooming and moving has also noticeably increased. Adding a waypoint is very easy. Just touch the place you are interested in, then you will need to select the purpose of this point: finish, add point, start. After the first and last route points are selected, the optimal path will be automatically generated. In addition, there is a search function. AT new version you will not find delays when typing, everything works well.

The BE-ON-ROAD software application is an offline GPS navigation built into your smartphone. In other words, this is a navigator for android devices that does not require an Internet connection. This application can use both NAVTEQ, which contains high quality maps, and OpenStreetMap, free graphic data.
This offline navigator for android provides convenient and easy navigation, with which you can quite accurately and quickly determine your location or find the desired destination, pave the shortest path to it. We offer you to download the BE-ON-ROAD application in Russian for free on your mobile phone.

All maps, as well as the BE-ON-ROAD application itself in the phone, are updated automatically. The update procedure does not require user action (if this function is activated on the device itself).
For faster offline access, maps are stored on your smartphone and remain there until updates are released. They can be used without an internet connection.

Navigator for android BE-ON-ROAD will warn you about all road signs, help you easily find cafes, restaurants, hospitals, gas stations and hotels. With the help of the application, you can quickly plot a route and quickly reach your destination.
In the new version of the BE-ON-ROAD application, which can be downloaded for free from our resource, the speed of loading maps, as well as their detailed drawing when zooming and moving, has become much faster and more energy efficient.
In order to indicate to the navigator the place you need to get to, you just need to poke at the point of interest on the display of the device itself.

After performing such simple manipulations, the user will be prompted to add a start and finish point, after which a path with a minimum mileage will be laid (an optimal route has been generated to go to the specified point).

Among other things, there is a search function in the offline navigator, which is very necessary, and most importantly, pleasant. The new version of the application eliminates a long-standing problem - a delay in dialing the desired address.

Main features of offline navigator for android:

• Lots of accurate maps.
• The maps contain t addresses, streets, as well as other places of public recreation (cafes, restaurants), etc.
• Good map rendering speed and detail.
• Clear and fast route search.
• Automatic map updates on mobile device subject to the activation of this function on the device itself.

The program for walking, cycling and car navigation BE-ON-ROAD will help you create a convenient route and accompany you to a specified place, search in the POI library of objects, find out in advance about speed limits or set speedcams. The function of recording the distance traveled is available. GPS navigation BE-ON-ROAD for iPhone allows you to update maps and start navigation mode for free without an Internet connection.

Opportunities:

• three navigation modes - pedestrian, car, bicycle;
• voice guidance;
• huge database of offline OSM maps;
• display of high-speed cameras;
• record of the route travelled.

Principle of operation:

As with most OpenStreetMaps-based navigation utilities, you must load the map into your device's memory before using the program. Detailing of objects directly depends on the volume of the loaded map.

The application menu is Russified, access to the main functionality is carried out after pressing the button with the image of horizontal stripes. On the back of the screen is a camera icon. With its help, you can inform other users about the installed speedcam.

The main menu of the program is divided into six items. To select the main navigation mode, select the Destination icon. This section contains address search, route planner, history of visited places, The address book and a master of coordinates, in which you can find out your location.

The most interesting features are offered in the Premium version. This is a layout of speedcams, a projector on the windshield of a car and photo navigation. The cost of B-On-Road Premium is 15 euros.

Some users note that they do not like the design of the program - some of the buttons have different sizes and use the interface "blindly" on iPhone screen not very comfortable.

Pros:

• the application can be used as a free navigator in roaming;
• interface in Russian;
• advance recommendations for rebuilding;
• auto switch to night mode;
• free map updates.

Minuses:

• not very user-friendly design of the program;
• no traffic alert system;
• base of speedcams is available for a limited number of countries and for money.

If we do not take into account the lack of synchronization with online libraries of traffic jams and accidents, then we have a good navigation product that is primarily focused on laying a route for travelers. With the help of Bee-On-Road, you can save on network data transmission while roaming, and thanks to the large database of POI points, your smartphone turns into a reliable assistant that will guide you to the desired object.

Analogues:

• Navmii GPS Russia - free navigation software based on OSM;
• Yandex.Navigator is a powerful solution for online navigation.