McGuider is officially no more, having been withdrawn from the TeleAtlas portfolio officially from 13th November 2009. A short statement on the offical McGuider website reads
Dear McGuider user and friend,
We would like to inform you that, with effect from 13 November 2009, McGuider products will no longer be part of the Tele Atlas portfolio. For future reference, we would like to recommend Sygic mobile maps, which is very similar in functionality and pricing to McGuider 2009. The latest version of mobile maps can be ordered from our online shop.
This news does not really come as a surprise given TeleAtlas has not offically sold McGuider for much of the past year. In fact it was something of a surprise when new stock arrived on the TeleAtlas website a couple of months ago.
As the TeleAtlas statement says, Sygic Mobile Maps 9 offer very similar functionality - hardly surprising since McGuider was just a rebranded version of Sygic Drive (the name given to Mobile Maps in previous years). The new version also supports newer hardware including Google Android and Windows Mobile 6.5 based devices.
Sygic have recently expanded the coverage of Mobile Maps to include Columbia and some Gulf Countries, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. Users in these areas can download the new application and maps from Sygic direct for Windows Mobile, Android and Symbian and from the iTunes app store for iPhone. Current pricing for both of these two new regions is €79.99 direct from Sygic.
Sygic have released an update for Mobile Maps on iPhone across all regions, taking the build to 7.71.4.
The updates include navigation from contacts, adding waypoints to existing routes, performance improvements in how the app runs & control the volume of iPod music from within the application. It is a free update for all existing purchasers at the iPhone App Store.
Hopefully Sygic will also implement some these extra features on the other platforms as well.
With the release of Windows Mobile 6.5 today, Sygic have confirmed that Mobile Maps is fully compatible (I have tested McGuider 2009 myself and can confirm this too). The application runs the same as it does on WinMo 6/6.1 so anyone purchasing for one of the soon to be upgraded phones can be sure their purchase is not wasted.
Also announced today is more regions released for WinMo, Symbian and Android from the Sygic E-Shop. The line up now covers UK & Ireland, Complete Europe, North America (incl. USA, Canada & Mexico), Australia & New Zealand, Brazil and South East Asia (Incl. Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand). This expansion of regions brings these platforms up to par with the regions currently available from the iPhone App Store.
For those who do not want to purchase from the Sygic E-Shop, Expansys are also now offering a retail boxed Micro SD complete Europe package for £55.99. They are listing stock due within the week here but oddly do not mention Symbian. Since the E-Shop download covers WinMo, Android and Symbian I would of expected this. I have queried this and will report back when I have more news.
Sygic CEO Michal Stencl had this to say about todays flurry of news - “The unique multiplatform engine of Sygic navigation software enables us to make a way through the quantum of the operating systems like an ice-breaker. We were the first turn-by-turn application ready for sale for iPhone at iTunes back in June - just 10 days after the official iPhone OS 3.0 release, we are one of the first providers of a navigation application for Android phones and now we are happy to announce our compatibility with and availability for Windows Mobile 6.5. We devote our efforts to all mobile platforms at the same level of importance, because that is the only way how we can bring a great user experience and a reliable solution to our customers. At the same time, we are working hard and continuously to extend the regional availability of the application in order to make it accessible to mobile phones users world-wide.”
I have finally uploaded my review of Sygic Mobile Maps 9 on Android to the reviews section.
The basic conclusion echos my initial thoughts that SMM9 works very well on Android but there are a few annoyances to the product. The largest for me is that the back hardware button actually closes the application instead of moving back through the application as would be expected.
Should you have any questions about the review or the product, please create a forum post or send a message using the contact link on the left.
Finally don't forget Sygic are currently offering a 10% discount on purchases from their e-shop until 29th September 2009 with the voucher code EARLY947689.
Sygic have recently expanded the coverage of Mobile Maps to include Columbia and some Gulf Countries, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. Users in these areas can download the new application and maps from Sygic direct for Windows Mobile, Android and Symbian and from the iTunes app store for iPhone. Current pricing for both of these two new regions is €79.99 direct from Sygic.
With the release of Windows Mobile 6.5 today, Sygic have confirmed that Mobile Maps is fully compatible (I have tested McGuider 2009 myself and can confirm this too). The application runs the same as it does on WinMo 6/6.1 so anyone purchasing for one of the soon to be upgraded phones can be sure their purchase is not wasted.
I have finally uploaded my