Digital Trends

TeleNav Shotgun December 31st, 2008 | by John Brandon

Extra features

Okay, so if the Shotgun is just a functional GPS for your car with accurate directions, you might wonder if it does anything else. The answer is a resounding yes, because this device comes with GPRS service. For about $10 per month, you have access to not only new points of interest, but can see local gas prices (accurate to within a day or two) and receive software updates with new features as well. (TeleNav says they plan some new features for early 2009 to boot.) There is also live traffic data. In testing the device, we found the Shotgun would accurately report slowdowns and we could even click a button to re-route based on current traffic (the alerts are shown on screen and with vocal prompts). Mind you, the Dash has an interesting feature where traffic data is enhanced by monitoring the speed of other Dash Express users; the Shotgun has no such extras and appears to just use local traffic data.

The Shotgun comes with 11 million points of interest in the device, and TeleNav promises more in the coming year. Business listings are updated once per quarter. We found them to be mostly accurate, although there were a few listings for companies long out of business and one that had changed its name at least six months ago that was not listed correctly. The most critical detriment on the Shotgun is that this data is not really "Internet enabled,” even though it could be. For example, the gas station data is fed from a service called Opus, but there are no options, for example, for viewing a Web site for the gas station chain to check on extra services. (Annoyingly, when you see gas station listings and prices, you can't simultaneously see the distance to the stations as you can on the Dash.) 

Movie listings are also not based on Web information and do not include mini-reviews or showtimes (or even which movies are playing). In most cases, you can just see the business name and find it on the device, but you can't find any extra information. The Shotgun is powered by Windows CE and could easily support Web-based services, so it is odd that it doesn't.

Another amenity is that you can do pre-planning for trips. TeleNav offers a Web site where you can type in a route and then transmit that route plan to the device. They are saved in the My Favorites section of the system. If you happen to drive out of range of wireless service, the Shotgun will use the locally stored POI data and continue working fine as a GPS device.

Conclusion

Overall, the TeleNav Shotgun is a good device for finding your way around town – it will be harder to get lost in urban jungles and country locales. We prefer the Dash for its simplicity, however, and the TomTom and Navigon devices for their more powerful features. Nonetheless, the Shotgun remains a worthy driving aid and accomplishes the ultimate mission: Getting you where you need to go.

Pros

• Directions work well
• Gas station prices
• Portable

Cons

• No added Internet features
• Mounting bracket only works once
• Light on extras

Image Courtesy of TeleNav