In November right before Turkey Day I did a review of the TeleNav Shotgun. Since then, the TeleNav engineers have been busy churning away and they provided me a new Shotgun with some update and some new added features. Let me start by saying I think the TeleNav Shotgun is an great product. It has a great interface, quality hardware and construction and a strong feature set! The problem with me reviewing a great product, especially a great product a 2nd time is that I tend to get even pickier when I’m using the device. SO, I might make some comments that sound nit-picky but that’s because they are nit-picky! TeleNav has done a great job in making the Shotgun great for most users, so now I’m going to point out the little tweaks I think could make it even better for at least this user. It may not sound fair, but its my $0.02 :)
To recap, the TeleNav shotgun is a a two-way, Internet-connected GPS Navigation device. The new features added in this release are:
- The ability to track miles driven using TeleNav Shotgun. This is great for business travelers who can now save time they may have otherwise spent compiling this information themselves for their expense reports.
- TeleNav Shotgun now also provides customers with ratings and reviews for various points of interest (POIs), including restaurants, hotels and shopping malls, and allows customers to rate the POIs directly from their device.
- Another thing worth mentioning is that that the annoying blue LED I complained about in the first review has been dimmed so its not as bright and noticeable anymore.
Let’s go into some more detail no the first added feature. With one click, users can track the miles driven on their TeleNav Shotgun device.
The entire route can be tracked or the driver can start and stop tracking miles at any time when receiving turn-by-turn navigation or while in map ‘follow me’ mode. Using the My TeleNav website, users can view and download reports in Microsoft Excel or Adobe PDF files. The mileage data will remain online at My TeleNav for up to 24 months.
The second new feature is the Business Rating & Reviews. These ratings are based on a 5-star scale. When you search for a business you will see its rating and have the ability to rate it yourself as the following pictures show. I will highlight that the Search feature on the TeleNav Shotgun is very good. Everything I’ve looked for, including business that aren’t restaurants has been found. It found my Physical Therapy once I entered the the first few letters of the name with ease and the search is quick.
Now that the new features have been reviewed I’ll discuss some of the other aspects of the TeleNav Shotgun I may have not talked about previously or didn’t notice my first go-around with the unit.
I discovered an interesting ‘feature’ with this device. If my SIM card door was not closed all the way I would loose my Internet connection. What I noticed was that when I was driving down the highway, some days the Shotgun would tell me to get off at Exit 351, and other days it would tell me to get off at Priest Drive. The difference was when I had an internet connection. Apparently, with an internet connection the device would talk in Exit #’s and otherwise it would use street names. Personally I like both and I think the device should display both, maybe by flashing between the two on the top of the screen.
The only real thing I find lacking on the Shotgun is that I wish it posted the speed limit information on the main screen. The device has access to speed limit information is, because on the Traffic Summary screen it shows what the speed of traffic is, and colors it based on how it relates to what the speed limit is for that road.
In summary, other than the lack of Speed Limit information, I really enjoy using the TeleNav Shotgun. The latest features added are cool and I’m happy they dimmed the Blue LED. It is much less noticeable but I’d still rather it didn’t’ blink. The only thing I really have to complain about is that the power cable plugs into the left side of the unit. Since in the US the driver side is on the left side of the car, I find this slightly annoying because the power cable crosses across my console/radio etc. If it plugged into the right site of the unit it would be more out of the way visually and functionally.
-by Gautam Khattak
Brought to you by your GPS navigation site NaviGadget.
