MRA Navigation Next
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What is the status of MRA Navigation Next?
In the Blog of February 15, 2022 we could read the following:We want to have the RoadMap ready for MRA Navigation Next before April 1, 2022.
The start of the project is scheduled for May 1, 2022.
After that, I think it's been quiet about the progress.
On the forum I now read answers to questions from a user about the functions in the current Navigation app:
Q: Is there a way to adjust the volume of the voice directions in the app?
A: No.........it may be in the next new version.
Q: Is there a way for the voice directions to speak the street name you're supposed to turn on next?
A: No.........it may also be available in the next new version.The use of the words "it may be" seems to me to indicate an uncertainty. While the announcements in the aforementioned blog indicate that around this time there is a road book and that the project has started.
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@Jack-van-Tilburg
Hi Jack,The navigation app will certainly be rewritten, just like the (free) mobile app. Start will probably be Q4. I don't know yet what will be different/better than in the current Navigation app. As soon as everything is more definitive, communication from MRA will certainly follow.
So please be patient -
@Hans-van-de-Ven-MRA-Master
I hope I can refrain from responding to this.......
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@Jack-van-Tilburg said in MRA Navigation Next:
@Hans-van-de-Ven-MRA-Master
I hope I can refrain from responding to this.......
You have to appreciate that MRA are a small company with limited resources. The developers are currently re-writing the code for all the MRA products to make adding new features easier and therefore a lot quicker and to make the platform more stable. This was clear to see when the newly updated MRA Mobile app was launched. Users reported that there were features missing or not working as expected. MRA listened and these features were added in just a few days, with the old code this would have taken weeks.
There will be a new navigation app MRA Navigation Next and as Hans reported, work should start on it in the fourth quarter of this year. I will repeat what Hans said, please be patient, MRA Navigation Next is coming and it will be extremely good. -
Oh I certainly understand (and appreciate) that MRA is a small company with limited resources.
And it is precisely in such a case that it is so terribly important to make plans and stick to the plans. And that's something I don't see very many signs of. -
@Jack-van-Tilburg Jack, you are confused.
You are considering MRA from your past working for professional software companies that publish roadmaps and release plans, integrate user feedback, have a release schedules ... and carefully avoid giving wrong messages to the user base.
You should see MRA much more as a kind of hobby club doing what they like the most in the spur of the moment. This makes it much easier to understand what is going on.
Now, I have seen those professional companies with all their complicated management and working methods scr@w up big time, while MRA proves that the hobby club approach can lead to quite nice results. Don't forget that MRA started as a hobby (TyreToTravel) of a single person.
I know, after xx years in software design/ management it becomes very difficult to watch a hobby club operate... but I try, and take a more philosophical approach not taking anything they say as being serious and only looking at what they release (a few weeks after they have upset their users with their clumsy release approach.)
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@Drabslab Woa, that's harsh
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@Drabslab said in MRA Navigation Next:
You are considering MRA from your past working for professional software companies that publish roadmaps and release plans, integrate user feedback, have a release schedules ... and carefully avoid giving wrong messages to the user base.
Do I?
I think I wrote the following:
"Oh I certainly understand (and appreciate) that MRA is a small company with limited resources."You should see MRA much more as a kind of hobby club doing what they like the most in the spur of the moment. This makes it much easier to understand what is going on.
Totally agree.
But Michel did write "we will do everything we can to become and remain the finest and best all-in-one route platform" in his new year blog -
Hoi Jack,
You also wrote:
@Jack-van-Tilburg said in MRA Navigation Next:
I hope I can refrain from responding to this.......
in response to the explanation from Nick that the statement in the blog from 15 February "We want to have the RoadMap ready for MRA Navigation Next before April 1, 2022." was false.
which made me conclude that you were a bit unhappy that yet another promise was not kept. Was I wrong here?
My point is:
- you should not be reading (well, at least I totally stopped reading all that) those blogs as these are purely commercial and correlation between the writing and what happens afterwards is coincidence.
- or, you should be reading it as entertainment only
The advantage is that you will get pleasantly surprised by new releases and features from time to time.
By the way: being a small company should also mean spending the few resources on what matters, and I can't understand why they put time in blogs, roadmaps, and other communication if there is absolutely no commitment to realise what they promise but this is consequence of my "professional bias" again so it does not matter.
Finally, the MRA routeplanner is quite good (maybe the best on the market) despite the fundamental but largely unnoticed flaw that it is a "user lock-in trap".
We may think that some things could evolve faster, or be done better, but ultimately, it is the software version currently running that allows us to organise our naviagation, and it does that very well. -
@Drabslab said in MRA Navigation Next:
You also wrote:
I hope I can refrain from responding to this.......
in response to the explanation from Nick that the statement in the blog from 15 February "We want to have the RoadMap ready for MRA Navigation Next before April 1, 2022." was false.
Is that so? Or was it in response to the answer of Hans?
which made me conclude that you were a bit unhappy that yet another promise was not kept. Was I wrong here?
Funny conclusion. I am only asking for a status of MRA Navigation Next.
By the way: being a small company should also mean spending the few resources on what matters, and I can't understand why they put time in blogs, roadmaps,and other communication.
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Finally, the MRA routeplanner is quite good (maybe the best on the market)
I agree with that!
By the way how many users does MRA (planner and navigation) have? -
@Drabslab said in MRA Navigation Next:
Finally, the MRA routeplanner is quite good (maybe the best on the market) despite the fundamental but largely unnoticed flaw that it is a "user lock-in trap".
I would argue that MRA Routeplanner is excellent, specifically for it's inclusion of the Tom Tom and Garmin functionality (and lets not forget OSM and the overlays as well). I don't know of any other equivalent routing software that has that option other than the bespoke offerings of Garmin Basecamp and Tom Tom Mydrive.
As far as I am aware (i have tried most of them) all Routing Software's are "user lock-in traps", but also all of them also offer export functionality albeit a single gpx file at a time.MyRoute-App Mobile is in my view an awesome piece of software offering Off Road Motorcycle Routing, Cycling and Walking functionality, this works in the same way as my Garmin XT, no turn by turn notifications just follow the Route-Track line visibly.
I am aware that OSMand can do Offroad Routing with turn by turn notifications but unfortunately it gives no indication of UK Green Lanes (Byways Open to All Traffic.) so is of no use to me.Am I ready to stop using my Garmin XT now, No!
Do I think that eventually mobile apps will replace Sat Nav devices, Yes.
Will I switch?
I will wait patiently for MRA Navigation Next and make that decision when I have it installed on my phone. -
@Steve-Lynch said in MRA Navigation Next:
I agree with all you write!
and in addition:
Am I ready to stop using my Garmin XT now, No!
neither am i prepared to give in my TomTom at this moment in time.
Do I think that eventually mobile apps will replace Sat Nav devices, Yes.
I guess that the current satnav devices (Garmin, TomTom) are nothing but rugged small tablets restricted to operating satnav software. So, we could be already using a mobile app without realising it.
Will I switch?
difficult to predict the future.
- More and more new motorcycles (and cars) come on the market with huge screens installed that can be used for all kinds of purposes including navigation
- and we can't expect the GPS producers to simply "give up" and donate their sales to a software producer, so we may see a gps device in the future that can be conveniently used for other purposes as well (music, phone, tablet, camera gopro ... ).
I once dreamt of getting an samsung active pro and put MRA Nav on it to reduce the number of gadgets i was bringing with me on trips but luckily, i didn't.
But Serge (from MRA) seems very happy with this set-up.
I just find it a big pity that MRA nav doesn't function on a portable (or have I missed something).
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@Jack-van-Tilburg said in MRA Navigation Next:
Like this one?: MRA Season Challenge 2022
Maybe, i have not really followed this as it seemed not interesting for me.
But I also refer to the glamourous promises made at the startup of this forum promising weekly blogs, official announcements, community building etc ... and to their roadmap established and published with a lot of fanfare, both to be abandonned only a few months later.
@Jack-van-Tilburg said in MRA Navigation Next:
By the way how many users does MRA (planner and navigation) have?
I would not have a clue, but there have been pretty impressive numbers published in this regards.
I hope and expect that there are many, as said before the routeplanner is very good, and if the new mobile app is an indication of what the new NAV app will be like then this also looks very bright although in a fairly distant future.
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@Drabslab said in MRA Navigation Next:
More and more new motorcycles (and cars) come on the market with huge screens installed that can be used for all kinds of purposes including navigation
My main ride is a Triumph Tiger 900 Rally Pro.
Unfortunately Triumph are way behind the Beemers and the Hondaโs in this category.
The triumph app is a monstrosity, clunky to use and there is no map just turn by turn on the screen. -
@Steve-Lynch said in MRA Navigation Next:
The triumph app is a monstrosity, clunky to use and there is no map just turn by turn on the screen
A brand like Triumph having difficulties to prodcue a decent app shows that it is not that easy to do.
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Today I have installed the latest version of MRA Navigation v1.1.2 for Iphone.
Small improvements but still missing the setting and navigation languages โโsuch as Italian. It also does not read MRA route folders. When is an important Navigation update?
Thanks and good job .!