Telenav on Tuesday announced the company’s “Scout for Apps” HTML5 voice-guided GPS navigation service. The service is being offered to developers who are looking for a free, turn-by-turn, voice-guided GPS navigation solution that can be built directly into their apps or websites, and the first mobile apps to incorporate Telenav’s service are scheduled to roll out soon. Avantar’s popular Yellow Pages app, which serves more than 90 million listings each month, will be among the first to incorporate the Scout for Apps service. “Currently, when users click on an address in our Yellow Pages app, we provide a standard map experience to help users get to their desired destinations,” said Adrian Ochoa, CEO of Avantar. “Once we launch with Scout for Apps, our customers will receive full-blown turn-by-turn, voice-guided directions, and they will never have to leave our app to get those directions and guidance. We love being able to offer this type of service on our platform.” Read on for more.

Telenav has also updated its browser-based Scout.me navigation service to allow users to send HTML5 voice-guided navigation instructions directly to their smartphones through either a text message or email. Users can also share their locations with Facebook friends and Twitter followers, allowing others to navigate to the same location.

“Because Scout for Apps is browser-based, we will be able to rapidly and consistently update the service moving forward,” said Sal Dhanani, co-founder and vice president of products for Telenav. “Further, these updates will roll out immediately to consumers, so developers know that their customers will continue to receive our most updated technology. We will continue to work with developers to add or update features and enhance usability based on feedback.”

Dhanani continued, “Launching Scout for Apps allows us to offer our services to more people and is a huge milestone for us as we continue to work toward our vision of bringing daily personalized navigation to people wherever they go and whenever they need it.”

I was able to test the company’s new “send to phone navigation” feature and while I found it useful, there were a few hiccups. The service is able to suggest interesting and rather unique places to visit, however at times I found it quite sluggish, with cluttered and sometimes outdated results. Once I selected a location, however, the GPS worked as intended. Telenav’s press release follows below.

Scout™ for Apps, Telenav’s HTML5 Voice-Guided GPS Navigation Service, Now Open to All Developers
First available for consumers on Scout.me and shareable via text, email, Facebook and Twitter;
Launching soon on several mobile apps including Yellow Pages, AroundMe, Life360 and WedVite

Sunnyvale, Calif. — March 27, 2012 — Telenav, Inc. (NASDAQ: TNAV), the leader in personalized navigation, today opened its free Scout for Apps service to all mobile web and app developers. Scout for Apps gives developers an easy way to offer consumers free, turn-by-turn, voice-guided GPS navigation, directly from their app or website.

Scout for Apps is the first HTML5, browser-based, voice-guided turn-by-turn GPS navigation service for mobile phones. Developers can integrate the service by simply adding one line of code, making it ideal for social, travel and shopping apps, or any other app or website that includes points of interest, places or addresses.

The first mobile apps incorporating Scout for Apps are scheduled to roll out soon, including an update to Avantar’s popular Yellow Pages app serving more than 90 million listings every month.

“Currently, when users click on an address in our Yellow Pages app, we provide a standard map experience to help users get to their desired destinations,” said Adrian Ochoa, CEO of Avantar. “Once we launch with Scout for Apps, our customers will receive full-blown turn-by-turn, voice-guided directions, and they will never have to leave our app to get those directions and guidance. We love being able to offer this type of service on our platform.”

Additionally, Telenav has integrated its browser-based navigation service on the Scout website (www.scout.me), which helps people discover and explore new places and events before they hit the road. Once a user has found an event or place on Scout.me, they can select “Navigate” and choose “Phone” or “Email” in order to send the link to themselves or to someone else via a text message or email. In addition, they can post it to their Facebook wall or share the link via Twitter. Users with compatible phones can then click on the link to launch voice-guided, turn-by-turn directions from Scout for Apps.

“Because Scout for Apps is browser-based, we will be able to rapidly and consistently update the service moving forward,” said Sal Dhanani, co-founder and vice president of products for Telenav. “Further, these updates will roll out immediately to consumers, so developers know that their customers will continue to receive our most updated technology. We will continue to work with developers to add or update features and enhance usability based on feedback.”

Other developers who are already working to implement Scout for Apps and plan on soon launching the HTML5 navigation service as part of their apps include:

AroundMe provides its users the ability to search for nearby restaurants, hotels, movie theaters and other businesses based on category and distance from their current location. AroundMe will integrate Scout for Apps to give users navigation to any location they select.

Life360 Family Locator uses GPS and other location technology that allows more than 14 million people to locate their family members using their phones, providing a convenient safety tool that delivers peace of mind. Life360 Family Locator will include Scout for Apps so that, for example, parents can navigate with turn-by-turn directions to pick up their kids at their current locations.

WedVite is a mobile invitation app that allows brides and grooms the ability to share their wedding day information with guests. The app includes details such as directions to the venue, the guest list and gift registry information. WedVite will soon include Scout for Apps to provide guests with the ability to get directions to the wedding and reception.

“Kids aren’t always great about keeping track of what time it is and where they should be. Maybe soccer practice runs over and then they head to the nearby store for a treat afterwards without notifying their parents. Knowing where your kids are at any moment provides peace of mind in these situations,” said Chris Hulls, CEO of Life360. “Scout for Apps means there’s one less thing for our customers to have to worry about when it’s time to pick their kids up – no more following a dot on a map, reading written directions, or cutting and pasting an address into a GPS device. Scout for Apps was so simple to add to our app and it offers so much value to our customers. If you have a location component to your app, I don’t know why you wouldn’t use it.”

Scout for Apps is currently optimized for the iOS platform. Telenav plans to optimize Scout for Apps on Android later this year.

“Launching Scout for Apps allows us to offer our services to more people and is a huge milestone for us as we continue to work toward our vision of bringing daily personalized navigation to people wherever they go and whenever they need it,” added Dhanani.

TeleNav just announced that the company will soon introduce a brand new voice-guided GPS navigation service for use in mobile apps and web sites. The innovative navigation solution will be HTML5-based and it will include spoken turn-by-turn directions. By using one line of code, TeleNav will provide free navigation to any mobile app or mobile web site, supplanting the need in many cases for something static like Google Maps. TeleNav let us know that this service will be free even for non-TeleNav subscribers, which is amazing if you think about it. The service will be launching “early next year,” though developers can start testing the service starting today. TeleNav’s full press release is included after the break.

TeleNav Announces World’s First HTML5 Browser-Based, Voice-Guided, Turn-by-Turn GPS Navigation Service

Free for both developers and consumers; Access available now for select developers

Sunnyvale, California — Dec. 15, 2011 – TeleNav, Inc. (NASDAQ: TNAV), one of the largest global wireless location-based services providers, today announced that it has created the first HTML5 browser-based, voice-guided, turn-by-turn GPS navigation service for mobile devices. By simply adding one line of code, developers of mobile websites or of apps with local content will have a free and easy way to integrate full GPS turn-by-turn directions into their services, creating a more seamless user experience and increasing user engagement and time spent within their applications.

Similar to TeleNav’s award-winning GPS navigation application, the HTML5 navigation service will include full-color moving maps, audio directions, and automatic rerouting if the driver misses a turn. TeleNav’s HTML5 navigation service will be free for both developers and consumers and will support all major mobile platforms. 

“This is an enormous amount of added value for any mobile, location-based website or app focused on travel, shopping, local search, deals and more,” said Sal Dhanani, co-founder and vice president of products for TeleNav. “With one line of code, you can give your customers one-click access to premium, voice-guided turn-by-turn directions to any location, including hotels, restaurants, merchants or deal locations. Customers never need to leave your app.”

TeleNav would like to partner with select developers to test the service. Interested mobile website publishers and app developers can apply for early access by visiting TeleNav’s website at www.telenav.com/developer/HTML5.

TeleNav expects to publicly launch its HTML5 service in early 2012. Consumers will not need to be current TeleNav customers but will need to have an HTML5-compatible feature phone or smartphone.

A recent survey found that 33% of Americans would sooner give up sex for a week than go without their mobile phones for the same period of time. Navigation software leader Telenav surveyed 514 mobile phone users in the U.S. last month to find out how willing they were to give up certain things ahead of their cell phones. Respondents were most willing to part with alcohol instead of their phones, with 70% saying they would go a week without booze before going a week without a phone. At the other end of the spectrum were computers, with only 20% of those surveyed having said they would prefer to part with a PC than a cell phone. A few more interesting snippets were also provided: 63% of BlackBerry users and 62% of Android users said they had never paid more than $1 for an app, compared to 45% of iPhone users. 50% of iOS users and 55% of Android users said they update social networks from their phones, compared to 40% of BlackBerry users. Finally, 66% of all smartphone users polled said they sleep with their handsets next to them. Telenav’s infographic detailing highlights from the survey follows below, along with the associated press release.

Survey Finds One-Third of Americans More Willing to Give Up Sex Than Their Mobile Phones

TeleNav survey examines Americans’ attachment to mobile phones; finds iPhone users are least willing to let go of their devices

Sunnyvale, California — August 3, 2011 — Results of a recent national survey* commissioned by TeleNav, Inc. (NASDAQ: TNAV) indicate that Americans are willing to give up some of life’s greatest pleasures in order to hang on to their mobile phones. Not surprisingly, smartphone users were more attached to their devices than were feature phone users, with iPhone users leading the pack. In fact, iPhone users were more likely than their Android or BlackBerry counterparts to spend a week without their significant other, exercise or shoes—rather than go a week without their phone.

While 22 percent of all respondents said they would rather give up their toothbrush than their phone for a week, this number jumped to a whopping 40 percent among iPhone users. Halitosis and other priority quirks aside, 83 percent of iPhone users thought other iPhone users would make the best romantic partners.

Even among feature phone users, however, TeleNav’s survey showed respondents’ strong attachment to their mobile phones. Nearly half of all respondents said they sleep with their phone next to them, including 38 percent of feature phone users and 66 percent of smartphone users.

From differences between iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry users to the snap judgments people make based on the type of phone someone carries, TeleNav’s latest survey sheds light on just how important mobile phones have become in Americans’ lives.

How willing are you . . .

Life is full of simple pleasures, so having to choose between one of those many pleasures—such as coffee, caffeine or even sex—and your mobile phone can be difficult.

• One-third of all respondents would be more willing to give up sex for a week than their mobile phone.
  • Of the respondents who indicated they would be more willing to give up sex than their mobile phone for a week, 70% were women.
• 54% of all respondents would be more willing to give up exercise for a week than their mobile phone.
• So what about our guilty pleasures? 55% of respondents would be more willing to give up caffeine for a week than their mobile phone, 63% would be more willing to give up chocolate, and 70% would be willing to forego alcohol.
• One in five respondents are more willing to go shoeless than phoneless for a week.
  • iPhone users (43%) were more likely to say they’d go a week without shoes than Android users (27%) or BlackBerry users (25%).

Smartphone vs. Feature Phone

As more Americans jump on the smartphone bandwagon, results of TeleNav’s survey indicate that a person’s choice in phones may impact some of their daily behaviors.

• It appears the phones we choose may also reflect our manners, as 26% of smartphone users admitted to using their phone frequently at the dinner table, compared with just 6% of feature phone users.
• Some couples may find themselves saying it’s either me or the phone. 22% of smartphone users said they’d rather go a week without seeing their significant other than to have to forfeit their phone compared to just 14% of feature phone users.
• How do we value our phones over other technologies? Smartphone owners were twice as likely as feature phone users to choose their phone over their laptop/computer.
• Smartphone users were three times more likely to admit that they judge people based on the type of phone they carry.

OS Showdown

Survey results suggest that not only does the type of phone a person uses reflect the choices they make, but also the smartphone operating system they choose.

• iPhone users were twice as likely than Android users to have spent more than $40 on apps for their current phone.
• Nearly half of Android users said their phone reflects their overall sense of style—more than iPhone users (35%). 43% of BlackBerry users felt their phones reflected their overall sense of style.

While a strong majority of iPhone users (83%) thought other iPhone users would make the best romantic partners, and a strong majority of Android users (70%) selected other Android users, only48% of BlackBerry users thought other BlackBerry users would make for the best romantic partners.

We’re back with another one and this time it’s thanks to TeleNav, our launch partner for our new podcast series. Want to get your hands on the hottest tablet on the planet, which is still sold out almost everywhere? Here’s how you can enter to win:

• First of all, make sure to check out our very first podcast with information on the giveaway!
• Install the free GPS by TeleNav app on your iPhone or your Android smartphone and start the 30-day trial.
• Leave a comment below letting us know your feedback on the podcast, your thoughts on the TeleNav app, or why you’d like to win a brand new iPad 2.

The content will run for one week until July 4th at 11:59 p.m. EDT. For official terms and conditions click here.

Good luck!

P.S. You can also follow @TeleNav on Twitter, along with the @BGR team at @boygenius, @zacharye and @robotodd!

Believe it or not, Christmas is but 11 weeks away which means that every single tech company on the planet is going to be lighting up our inboxes with press releases about their holiday offerings. The first company to do this for 2009 is T-Mobile. Apart from another chance to get us bloggers talking about the Behold II and the Motorola CLIQ, T-Mobile took the opportunity to introduce two new handsets and a limited edition collaboration piece. The first new handset is the Nokia 3711, a 3G clamshell affair with a 2 megapixel camera, GPS by Telenav, and stereo Bluetooth. The second is the T-Mobile Tap. Presumably made by HTC based upon its appearance, the Tap is an “affordable and attractive” full-touchscreen featurephone that, like the 3711 has 3G, a 2 megapixel camera, stereo Bluetooth and GPS by Telenav. New in another sense of the word is the myTouch 3G Fender Limited Edition. With only 10,000 to be offered sometime this winter, the Fender myTouch 3G sports a “guitar-inspired wood-grain finish”, 16GB microSD card filled with a bunch of music and videos not a soul alive won’t delete, and *gasp* a 3.5mm headphone jack. What do we think, people?

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TeleNav has become synonymous with mobile phone GPS navigation. It is relied upon by millions of mobile customers. It was important to us that we build a great application for Android and the G1 so that customers with this phone would have a remarkable experience. The device’s large, beautiful touch screen creates an incredible navigation experience when combined with our software.

TeleNav GPS Navigator will become available as a free 30-day trial beginning Tuesday February 24, and will run $9.99 per month for those who find it useful enough to hold on to. Unlike some bigger navigation companies building nav software for mobiles such as Garmin and Tom Tom, TeleNav still opts for the monthly subscription model as opposed to a one-time fee. The idea behind a one-time fee of course — make mobile navigation purchases akin to buying a dedicated navigation unit. Buy the hardware, get the service forever, pay a subscription if you want advanced features. Different users have different preferences of course but we wonder how TeleNav would fair with a one-time fee option as well. Which pricing model do you guys prefer?

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It’s no secret we’re pretty big fans of TeleNav around here (heck, we’d even venture and say that the carrier-branded versions like AT&T Navigator and Sprint Navigation are top-notch), so it should come as no surprise to you that we’ve been given a first look at their new version for the Verizon BlackBerry Storm. Let’s not beat around the bush: this thing is fantastic. While our Storms used to lay lifeless with no battery charge, we’re seriously considering just using one of them as a GPS unit. It’s that good. TeleNav Navigator has been brought up to OS 4.7-level compatibility and using the touch screen on here is a joy. It’s the most fun application to use on the Storm at this point. Any current user of TeleNav (or those carrier-branded versions we talked about above) will feel right at home. The menu structure is the same, but the application is super polished and extremely well thought out. The only thing we didn’t like was that when zooming in and out of the map, the zoom buttons were touch sensitive instead of utilizing the click screen. Oh well, it’s still one of the best GPS programs on the BlackBerry and for once, the Storm adds, not subtracts. We’ll post some more screenshots and a little walkthrough in a bit!

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Thanks to the eagerness of TeleNav’s web designers, they’ve let slip one of their most-closely guarded secrets — a stand-alone internet connected GPS device. We’ve got a TeleNav Shotgun in hand, but we weren’t prepared to fire that bad boy off until Monday. Since there’s this little slip-up though, we’ll give you some first impressions.

Marketing and timing aspects aside, the TeleNav Shotgun is actually a pretty sexy unit in terms of appearance. The UI is pretty clean and you could sort of think of it as a big brother to the TeleNav Navigator GPS software you have on your cell phone. The Shotgun uses a built-in SIM card (they won’t let us say which carrier, but it is GSM, obviously) to let you get real-time traffic, locations, restaurant ratings, look-ups, and whatever else your heart desires. The unit does work as advertised and we didn’t have any real hiccups. All in all it’s not bad, it’s just not great and we really don’t see a place in the market for this thing. We’ll let you ponder if you think you’re going to get one or not while we put the finishing touches on our review. We’re riding Shotgun, bitchez.

We gave you a list of upcoming phones a while back and one of them included the V9x. Well, from the looks of it, it began shipping right on time. For those of you who are big Moto fans and you liked the RAZR2 V9 but hated the color, here’s your chance to pick up a slightly better version. Not only is it a sexier look with that clean black, but it also now has built in GPS. You know, so AT&T can bang you for another $9.99 every month. The large external display apparently also shows the GPS function, which is cool if you don’t want to hold your phone flipped open while painfully making your way to your in-laws’ house. Expect to see the same features you would find on the original V9 such as 3G and CrystalTalk technology (which actually works very well). No word on pricing for this Charcoal model but we’re guessing it should be sub-$200.

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We know, we know, you’ve heard this all before… but we’re serious this time! Promise. We’ve totally overhauled the show format, brought along the world-famous DJ Clue to help host and produce, and we’ve got some kick-ass celebrities lined up! In this first episode, we’ve got interviews with Kim Kardashian, Carmelo Anthony, and Mary J. Blige. Carmelo doesn’t know what social networks are, Kim Kardashian loves her Curve, and Mary J. sends over a million emails a month on her BlackBerry. Hot stuff, right? Make sure you check out the full episode below. Big big shout out to TeleNav for sponsoring the show, and make sure y’all check back in every couple weeks — we’re going in!

Click on over to BGR Radio!

TeleNav Navigator AT&T Navigator has recently been updated with expanded coverage for international navigation. You can now use your supported handset to find your way around any of 20 different foreign countries, all for the low price of $19.99/month. 20 countries isn’t the most comprehensive collection of nations we can imagine, but it’s a decent start. The list includes a number of western European countries, as well as many locations near the Olympic sites in Beijing, China. $20/month isn’t bad, and until we can get some turn-by-turn support on our new iPhones, we’re pretty confident that Telenav AT&T Navigator is one of the best handset-integrated solutions out there.

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