There are several talking turn-by-turn GPS navigation solutions for the Blackberry Storm available to download through Blackberry App World, and independent web sites.
You can pay per month or you can pay a lump sum for software that lives on with server connections for the life of the device or subscription.
TeleNav is available to download via the phone through Blackberry App World for $99 with no free trial. It features proactive traffic alerts, automatic reroute and 10 million business listings.
Wisepilot offers a free trial downloaded from Blackberry App World and a $99 a year subscription.
Garmin Mobile Is downloaded by placing http://getmobile.garmin.com/trial into your Blackberry web browser for a free trial and then a $99 subscription for the life of the device, which for me could be two months. If you keep your phone for more than 10 months this could be cost effective instead of monthly or yearly subscriptions.
I downloaded the free trial of Garmin Mobile for the Blackberry Storm and it appeared to work well. It syncs with Google for local search and has a traffic warning.
I love the Garmin zūmo® 550 I have for my motorcycle.
The old standby that's been around for years, Verizon VZ navigator, continues to be my favorite due to the cost structure of a monthly $10 payment, this includes the phones I will kill this year. The monthly cost structure covers the any phones that may be replaced with the insurance plan in the future. VZ Navigator offers integrated traffic updates, reroutes, and the place finder doubles as a Yellow Pages for business search combining one step navigation and calling.
Other nice features of VZ Navigator include place messaging to other subscribers and also regular contacts (with fewer features) that auto calculates time of arrival and can help you to find others.
A dedicated website for the VZ Navigator allows you to do your searches offline and then synch to the mobile program. All user data stays with your account in the event of loss of the handset.
On the Blackberry Storm all navigation, including the VZ Navigator, uses the built in GPS rather than phone tower signals.
The Storm ships with Blackberry Maps, which like Google Maps, (also available for free download), draws a route offering a summary, but doesn't offer turn-by-turn and speech for navigation. Blackberry maps has a useful function where you can email your current GPS location that will send a map.
Another interesting navigation tool is TopoExplorer, available from Blackberry App World. The download for the reader that integrates the phone's GPS with topo maps maps is free but the maps must be purchased separately.
DO NOT BUY THE TOPOEXPLORER PROGRAM IF YOU HAVE A STORM!
I downloaded the “free” program and the two free maps. Whenever I opened the program, it would take me off the coast of Africa to coordinates 0,0. I contacted support about this problem and was assured that it would work on my Verizon Storm. Support was very quick in responding……….. until I purchased the maps of New York State. The program still takes me to 0,0. I wrote support. No response. I wrote support again. No response. I am still waiting for a response from support but do not anticipate hearing back from them anymore. They received their money and I received 4 GB of useless files.
I am using TopoExplorer version 1.0.77 and noticed version 1.0.72.0 at the BlackBerry app store. I tried the other version with the same results. The phone has the latest operating system authorized by Verizon as of 6-3-09 (v4.7.0.148 platform 4.0.0.181). Google Maps, BlackBerry Maps, and Nav4all work great using the GPS. I checked the coordinates from Nav4all against my handheld GPS and found them to be the same. I wanted to make sure the coordinates were not coming from cell towers. So, the GPS works fine in three programs, but not in TopoExplorer. Sounds like a glitch on their end, not on mine. I can open a map manually (from the Maps folder), but as soon as I press down on the screen, it goes to 0,0. Hello, I do not boat in the area. I cannot load the optimum map since my maps are not from the Atlantic Ocean.
If this problem is fixed and the program works as advertised, I will gladly let everyone know and upgrade my rating. It is advertised as being compatible with the Storm, but I don’t think so. Verizon does not lock the GPS on the Storm like they did with other phones. If anyone has this program working on their Storm, please e-mail me at smallengrep@yahoo.com and let me know how you did it.