As an aside, just been reading about gpx 1.1 and 1.2 on the zumo forums, thought your inputs were really good, helped me a lot.It looks like you keep the functionality that you currently have even in the new platform which is fine. I'd also be fine with £42 for the early adopter lifetime upgrades but so far that seems to be based upon AI route/schedule generation for a trip which is of no interest to me as I like to decide that sort thing. Also more capacity for collaborative planning, which again is no interest to me........as I'm a dictatorship not a democracyThings that the current planner does badly including handling POI's and tracks isn't really mentioned in the blurb which is woefully light on detail. Looks like I'll be continuing to use Basecamp (in windows, and a Garmin device) for sometime to meet my requirements. Hay Ho!
New Route Planner and Navigation Next?
- Thread starter the woodster
- Start date
Agreed, though I do find it disappointing that they are coming back for more money from people who thought they had already paid. I'm also not clear if the extra cash buys access to new and separate product, or just enhancements to the existing product, which will somehow be restricted unless you pay up, and I wonder now what future enhancements will also result in a request for more cash.It looks like you keep the functionality that you currently have even in the new platform which is fine. I'd also be fine with £42 for the early adopter lifetime upgrades but so far that seems to be based upon AI route/schedule generation for a trip which is of no interest to me as I like to decide that sort thing. Also more capacity for collaborative planning, which again is no interest to me........as I'm a dictatorship not a democracy
Like you, I don't need or want any of the new stuff, and they don't seem to be doing the stuff that would be helpful - like POI's/waypoint/tracks. I suspect they can't because of the architecture of the product, else they would have done.
Like you, I've tried different apps, but for some reason I just couldn't get my head around Scenic on a MacBoo Pro. The mapset just doesnt seem as clear or intuitive as MRA, or even Basecamp.
Strangely if you ask Chat GPT they suggest that the most effiient is Scenic for planning and MRA for the navigation app.
When did you try it, as it changed from Here to OSM maps? Being OSM based means that the maps update very regularly, and if you correct something that’s wrong on the OSM public editor it’s usually incorporated into Scenic maps within a few weeks.
One of the great features is that you can customise almost every single element of the display.
You can change the colour, font, size etc of the different classes of roads. In terms of POIs, they’re broken down into lots of categories, and each category can be customised for colour, font, icon, which zoom level they’re displayed at etc. This makes Scenic way easier to view when navigating, unlike the contrast-less colour schemes that MRA has.
Notice that I said can - you don’t have to!
It’s definitely odd that ChatGPT says Scenic is the better planner. I’d say MRA wins for me mainly on 2 points; you can customise layover times and see a running duration+mileage, and it has the various overlays when searching for specific things like fuel/food etc.
I’m looking forward to the new Scenic web planner, although I don’t have an issue running Scenic on my iPhone, iPad or MacBook.
Don’t want this to be seen as me pushing Scenic as I have no agenda, it’s just a product that I love, so I’ll let us get back on topic.
Perhaps I should give it another go. I'll have a look for some videos to get the basics covered.
It’s by the developer. 6 months old though, so there’s been a few tweaks and new features. It’ll give you a rough guide though.
I got in on the early MRA lifetime deal to fund the project, this meant I paid very little in 2013, the initial version of MRA planner launched in 2014, so I have had 12 years of using it for not a lot of money, according to google the navigation bit came in 2018, but I only stated using it a few years ago.
I know this whole "Lifetime" thing annoys people, but I signed up for something that did A,B&C, over the years they added D,E&F - at no extra cost, with support staff to help with any issues, they have a dev team fixing any bugs or issues - and as they hook into 3rd party systems and run the app on constantly updated phone operating systems they can never say "right, that's it, we never need to do any coding every again"
So I paid for A,B,C, have had 12 years use and gained D,E,F over that time, and for the foreseeable future that will continue, so should I be pissed off???
Imagine buying a new bike with a 10 year warranty, would you get any new features on next years bike reto-fitted to yours for free? when they did a facelift model and made it look better would you think that they would fit all new bodywork and lights to yours, would you expect to have bought a 1200GS a decade ago, then had them upgrade it to a 1250 and now a 1300 under this warranty?
Did anyone think "lifetime" meant from the day of purchase to the day of their death, a 20 year old buying it now expecting to still have in in 60,70 or 80 years time?
If Microsoft offered Lifetime Support on Windows 95 would you think you should now be running Windows 11 on that very same licence you bought 30 years ago for £50?
I think they should be clear about the expected support lifecycle for the currrent product, and offer upgrade deals to exisiting customers based upon how long they have had their "lifetime" membership, with my 12 years use out of the current one I would not necesarily expect a 90% discount (would be nice!) but if I paid for it a week ago I would expect them to offer the full price I paid for the current version against the upgrade to the new one.
Clearly a discount needs to be offered to current users or they 90%+ of them will stay put and they will piss people off forever when they pull the plug on the old version, current one does everything I need and more so even at 50% discount I have no incentive, and if they eventually pull the plug I would be looking at all the alternatives on the market, they have a huge user base now and need to not fuck them all off!
I am sure they will soon reaise existing gold "life" members are not going to pay £200 to get a few new features!
I know this whole "Lifetime" thing annoys people, but I signed up for something that did A,B&C, over the years they added D,E&F - at no extra cost, with support staff to help with any issues, they have a dev team fixing any bugs or issues - and as they hook into 3rd party systems and run the app on constantly updated phone operating systems they can never say "right, that's it, we never need to do any coding every again"
So I paid for A,B,C, have had 12 years use and gained D,E,F over that time, and for the foreseeable future that will continue, so should I be pissed off???
Imagine buying a new bike with a 10 year warranty, would you get any new features on next years bike reto-fitted to yours for free? when they did a facelift model and made it look better would you think that they would fit all new bodywork and lights to yours, would you expect to have bought a 1200GS a decade ago, then had them upgrade it to a 1250 and now a 1300 under this warranty?
Did anyone think "lifetime" meant from the day of purchase to the day of their death, a 20 year old buying it now expecting to still have in in 60,70 or 80 years time?
If Microsoft offered Lifetime Support on Windows 95 would you think you should now be running Windows 11 on that very same licence you bought 30 years ago for £50?
I think they should be clear about the expected support lifecycle for the currrent product, and offer upgrade deals to exisiting customers based upon how long they have had their "lifetime" membership, with my 12 years use out of the current one I would not necesarily expect a 90% discount (would be nice!) but if I paid for it a week ago I would expect them to offer the full price I paid for the current version against the upgrade to the new one.
Clearly a discount needs to be offered to current users or they 90%+ of them will stay put and they will piss people off forever when they pull the plug on the old version, current one does everything I need and more so even at 50% discount I have no incentive, and if they eventually pull the plug I would be looking at all the alternatives on the market, they have a huge user base now and need to not fuck them all off!
I am sure they will soon reaise existing gold "life" members are not going to pay £200 to get a few new features!
Michael’s upcoming 2029 camper trip to Japan needs funding somehow ….
It was never a great business model selling a cheap(ish) single payemt/lifetime product. What happens when you've sold as many as you will sell? Go bust, break your lifetime promise or develop another thing to charge everyone for.
True. I guess they needed a revenue boost at the time, and they are competing with a lot of products that are cheap or free. I pay £12.00 a year for the TomTom Go app, then there's Waze, Google maps, Apple Maps, all free, a basic Kurviger version that's free, Scenic with a free basic app, OSMand, Locus Maps etc.etc.
It's crowded market now
I wonder how many of the current “Lifetime” subscribers take out a similar subscription with the update/Next malarkey?
Sounds like they’re pissing on their own chips?
Sounds like they’re pissing on their own chips?
OSmand charge €450 for their full package which says it’s for 15 years. I think I’ve had MRA “lifetime” since 2023.
They are currently doing a 15 year package at £300. I use OSMand+ at a £10 a year. The 15 year package would be tempting if I was 21 not 65...........and a pessimist
I’ve a feeling that the OSmand+ would be fine for me, couldn’t work out the difference between that and the next one up.
But my new DMD device should be here shortly so I’ll try to get to grips with that first and see if that, TomTom Go and MRA will cover everything
But my new DMD device should be here shortly so I’ll try to get to grips with that first and see if that, TomTom Go and MRA will cover everything
I've been messing around with the free version of DMD2 for a few weeks the planning hub is good and it handles tracks and routes very well they are pretty easy to create. It uses OSM mapping so Like OSMand+ when you analyse a route it can give you elevation, slope, road type and surface which can be useful. It has loads of built in POI's but I haven't found out if ot how custom POI's can be handled. There is a satellite view but no street view as far as I can tell, but you can right click and get the co-ordinate's of a point and put it into google maps then get a street view (bit like basecamp). I'm not sure what the exact limitations of the free use version is other than being limited to 10 projects.
I will have a play with the route planner and the device as well.
