A Review Of Skobbler: A Free Turn By Turn GPS App for the iPhone

As I was perusing the iPhone App store yesterday, I came across a free, yes actually free, turn by turn GPS option. It's called Skobbler, and it's totally free because it relies on an open source map program that is similar to wikipedia. So with excitement and hesitation I downloaded it, not knowing if it would work with VoiceOver at all. The good news is that most of the functions are completely usable with VoiceOver, but the bad news is that I still don't think it meets my needs.

Since I said that it was mostly compatible with VO, I'll go over the features that I like. THe first is the take me home option. Just like almost all GPS solutions, this one has the option to set your home address, and then if you don't know how to get home, you can ask the program to get you there. I imagine using this when I'm going new places and I don't want to figure out the best route back. The second nice feature is that you can choose either pedestrian or car mode. I have currently only tried the car option, but if you're less than 3 miles from your destination than it always checks to see if you're walking or driving.

So those are the good things, but sadly the drawbacks mean that this is still not the GPS app I'm looking for. We'll start with the fact that there isn't a POI list that you can look at. If you don't know the name of your destination or it's address, than your out of luck. There is no near by feature. The second drawback is that there is no street name announcement, only turn left or right in so many feet. This may work well for sighted users, but I want to know what street I'm getting on. Finally, I can't get a list of directions so that I know where the app plans to send me. I think for a GPS to be useful to the blind, we need to be able to look the route over before we go.

So overall this is an app I will likely keep, but only use when I'm with others. I like that it is an open source project so the map can continuously improve. I also really appreciate that it only downloads the map for my nearby area because it means it isn't taking up a lot of space on the phone, unlike most GPS apps. I suggest that people give it a try and let me know what you think.

Here is the link to the Skobbler page, and here is the link to the app on iTunes. Happy travels.