There's gotta be a better way of doing this...

Navigon's the next package I'm testing...

But there's naturally a hiccup. The file you download from their website is a zip style archive, which contains the package files and executables. You then transfer these directly into a storage card. However, as there isn't a CAB (installation) file, there's no automatic installation of the software into your pocket PC. So, here's the burning question of the moment... and I can't see it in the FAQs over on the Navigon site either...

How the heck do you run Navigon Navigator 7 once you've copied all the runtime files onto your storage card - it doesn't have a dedicated CAB file, and thus doesn't get assimilated into the WinMob device registry, and thus doesn't appear in the program listings?!

Are they seriously telling me that I have to run File Explorer, go to the Navigon folder on my storage card, and find and run the main program executable file in there, EVERY time I want to run the software package on my TP2?

Either they're having a laugh, or this is gonna be one of the shortest trial runs in history...

On problems, here's another...

I would be looking at Nav N Go iGO 8 Europe, but there's a problem... of course.

The problem with iGo8 is the limitation on the card used to run the package - 2 gig non-transferable. In these days of increased storage capacity, that's a pretty feeble attempt at Corporate Humour.

OK, so limiting the card size helps them prevent software piracy, I can follow the logic - they issue the card themselves, and can thus make sure that the package looks to particular places on the card for particular run-time files, libraries, and maps, for example... Common sense there. Copying the card will change the address on the card of those files, and thus render the software useless. No arguments there, but hells bells, surely they could figure out a safe way to allow users to migrate the package onto a larger size storage card for ease of use with other data as well?

That's the ONE sticking point I have with iGo8 - the card. Not the package - the reviews I've seen look excellent. It's the storage limitation. Without a satnav package on it, the 16 gig card I currently use is already pushing 4 gigs of saved data, from MP3s to video files, documents of one form or another, imagery (photos and diagrams) and so on. Adding a satnav package to THAT card makes sense - I don't wanna be forever changing out cards willy-nilly.

THAT'S the limiting factor, and thus the deal breaker as far as iGo8 and my hard-earned cash is concerned.

This leaves NavMii... and this is possibly the best option, to be frank. It's brand new on the market, although it's backed by a firm that's been working (subcontracting, in effect) in the satnav solutions field for many moons for other companies. It's still teething, ironing out the bugs, and so on, but it's integrated with the best safety camera file set out there - pocket GPS World's weekly-updated subscription service - and it works. There is, though, no trial version, darn it...

So I'm back to Navigon's laughably farcicle method of running the software.

There HAS to be a better way to do things, surely?!

Six Hours later...

AHA! Navigon does, it appears, have a CAB file... just took forever for my TP2 to "see" it, which it only just did, some six hours after I installed the software