A few days ago, I reviewed the new navigation app MotionX GPS Drive. I cited a few limitations of the applications. Well, MotionX released an update to the application that addresses some of the things I experienced.

The new version, 1.2, offers improved GPS locking and map caching – two things I was concerned about in my review. My experience with the new version is that these things are improved, but may still need a little bit more tweaking. The GPS locking, for example, is MUCH faster than before, but on the base map, the icon is often off from your road position. Whether this is a problem with the maps or the application or simply working with a limited number of satellites (and getting a slight incorrect positioning) I’m not sure. In navigation mode, you are locked to your roadway, but not in the non-navigation mode. Adding the road-lock to that screen as well would likely help the situation.

The map caching is also significantly better, but I still saw a healthy amount of background grid on my screens as I was moving. I still believe that all off-board navigation apps will ultimately need to go to a hybrid model where they pre-download maps around a corridor (or something similar) in order to obtain a smoother user experience,.

Also – the anomaly I mentioned where road names and symbols are all upside-down is still present in this release.

Overall, the updates are welcome. Clearly the people at MotionX are committed to improving their product. Additionally, the product remains an excellent value for the money. I look forward to seeing where they go with it!

Related posts:

1. Review: MotionX GPS Drive
2. Update: Round-up of Recent Updates to Navigation Apps on iPhone
3. First Look: Navigon (Lite) for iPhone with North America Maps
4. Update: Alchemize for iPhone 1.1
5. The iPhone Navigation Parade Continues: AT&T Navigator (Telenav)