Ariadne GPS VoiceOver Review

Using iPhone 3Gs, version 4.3.3

Pros:
- This is one of the most innovative GPS applications I have come across. First discovered buried within the “App Lists” section of App Advice, a category dedicated to visually impaired and blind applications. Needless to say I was very excited to give it a try after reading the review. One of the first things I noticed when interacting with (VoiceOver) in the application, is the variety of ways to use it. While it gives the impression of information overload at first, playing around with the different modes presents several different ways of using this app.
Pressing the “Where am I” button, gives a static readout of your present location.
Pressing the “Look Around” button flips over to a full screen map, where nearby streets and their corresponding numbers are presented. Admittedly, this is a little confusing at first relying solely on VoiceOver. However, with all accessibility options within the application turned on. Map navigation becomes easier to understand.
- Through some pretty extensive personal testing using the “Start Monitor” function, i.e. commuting on downtown busses, highway travel, suburban driving, walking, the most ideal use of this GPS application falls into more urban settings.
The experiences in downtown commuting on busses were pretty impressive. Each intersection crossed was fairly reliable in being announced accurately. There were some latency issues when turning into new intersections, and some street names were skipped completely in being announced. However, periodically checking the street name yourself resolves this issue.
While walking as the GPS application is in “monitor” mode, results in a similar experience as bus commuting. There are some latency issues with turning on to new streets, and the next street can be announced far in advance of actually approaching the intersection. These conditions were experienced with the “query interval” set at the default “10 seconds”. Changing the interval time could completely alter the experience of walking and using the GPS app.

Cons:
- Suburban driving and highway driving unfortunately had similar results. Even with the “query interval” set at “5 seconds”, the actual travel of the vehicle/bus was too fast for the GPS application to keep pace.
- Perhaps naively, I expected the options for this GPS application to be within the program itself. Instead, all of the preferences were located within the settings control panel of the iPhone. Surprisingly and disappointing, most accessibility oriented options as “vibrate on street” were turned off by default.
There are still some head scratching elements to be fully explored to be explained. For instance what does “Cardinal Point” and “Compass instead of Course” mean? How does this impact the performance of the application? No description is provided.
- There is no way, or at least I have not yet found it, to delete added favorites from the list.
Announcement of street block numbers seemed new and cool at first (using VoiceOver), but soon became repetitive. Unless you’re specifically searching for an address in real-time, this feature seems sort of useless if constantly turned on.
On the main navigation page, the top third portion is of a satellite picture of your current location using Google Maps. This is pretty neat, but I would have never known what was there without my wife looking at it to point it out, as VoiceOver indicates nothing is there.
Putting the application into the background disables the monitoring function if turned on.
Battery drain, as with all GPS applications, is the challenge with such a convenience. In my experience of walking one complete block, my battery went from a starting 98 percent to 86 percent.

Breakdown: Some may find the rough edges of the interface and lack of supporting documentation intimidating. For those willing to tinker and explore with VoiceOver will overcome these issues. There are a lot of settings and variables to play with here, so no shortage of varying degrees of accuracy or results with this GPS application. While there is much more to be said, the price of $2.99 cannot be beat for what is gained for someone visually impaired or blind. The possibility of using this GPS application together with Navigon or Tomtom may open new doors in exceptional accessibility and independence.

One Blind User about Ariadne GPS