Destinator 6 is piece of SatNav software for PDA's and features Navteq maps and a host of features, but can it out-perform its rivals?
We started off by loading Destinator Six onto our test PDA which features an in-built GPS SiRF-Star III receiver, 64Ram, a 512MB SD card and a 240 x 320 QVGA screen.
Once the software is loaded you will find the initial interface pleasing, as it contains nice large icons that can be pressed using your fingers, however apart from the colour changes there does not seem to be much difference over Destinator the older 5.5.
The biggest problem with the interface is how they have taken the most simplest of tasks and turned them into a mind-bending chore. Every option seems to have an 'Action' and 'Mode' associated with it and new users will be puzzled as to which one to use.
For example when you enter destinations, your first instinct is to navigate via a postcode, but before you can even do this you need to press the 'Action' button - confused? You will be.
However you can at least navigate via the full postcode when you get into the option and you can also navigate via street names, cities and road junctions, but to navigate via POI, favourites and outlook contacts you have to come out of this screen and go into a separate option from the main screen. You do get a 'QuickNavigate' button to speed things up, but this is once again located on yet another screen.
On a positive note you do get a lot of useful features, there's an impressive 12 Interim multistop route planner, with route optimisation - but when in use it automatically takes you to the next stop instead of prompting you.
Like TomTom you can view step-by-step routes of trips or record trips for play back later on, import new POI with speed camera support, plus activate a nightmode or switch to different profiles such as pedestrian mode - for when you want to find a place on foot.
The software is TMC ready for traffic updates, with the option of upgrading to DestinatorsTraffic Sam, which offers updates across Europe and a nice SMS feature for mobiles running Pocket PC - which allows you to text people your current position.
For people with hi-res 480 x 640 displays you will be pleased to know that the software supports this mode - which makes the images on-screen more graphically pleasing.
Generally both the 2D and 3D maps were adequate and contained both street and city names on-screen and the 3D maps now have a horizon feature - helping with perspective.
As well as the normal directional aids you get during driving, you also get a distracting large arrow appear on-screen when you are prompted to turn, but luckily you can turn off this feature.
We found that routes were calculated accurately and when we tried to confuse the software by taking a wrong tern, the system acquired a new route pretty quickly.
Voice directions were clearly spoken and theirs an option for turning voice prompts on-off, which is a welcome feature as the prompt informing you of your speed can get annoying.
