Black Friday: Magellan updates iPhone RoadMate navigation app, offers holiday discount

Consumer Reports News: November 24, 2010 01:41 PM

Entering the shopping holiday weekend, Magellan has announced a significant update for its iPhone RoadMate navigation app. Version 1.3 most notably adds lifetime traffic—a feature that its main competitors charge extra for.

The latest RoadMate app also adds points of interest sharing, allowing users to share POIs via email, Facebook, and Twitter. This could be a fun convenience when advising friends and family on travel, or just for meeting up for dinner.

Another new feature is location-based promotional offers and coupons. The idea is that users can route to a business from an ad. This may not be as welcomed, though we have not yet evaluated this version.

Until December 1st, the RoadMate app is available for $44.99 (North America version), $34.99 (U.S.-only version), or $29.99 (Canada-only version), after which time the prices will increase up to 25 percent.

Navigon and TomTom each have holiday deals going on right now, making this a great time for iPhone users to purchase a navigation app. In our past tests, all three companies provided good, feature-rich guidance that make the apps a viable alternative to a dedicated navigation device. However, we found that all three work better with the Magellan or TomTom car-kit that includes a more powerful GPS receiver and speaker built into the mount, better enabling the iPhone to truly mimic a dedicated nav device.

Check our smart-phone navigation ratings, and see our iPhone app reviews.

—Jeff Bartlett