Location, Navigation, and Map text is too small to read at most zoom levels

[Runestyr]

The map text at the zoom levels used for driving is too small to see!  I've checked the manual, tried pushing all the buttons, and searched the forums, and have not found the answer, so I ask here:  does anyone know how to make the map text a readable size?

The text for Navigation (the turn-by-turn directions app) and Maps (the social networking app) looks fine when zoomed in to street level, but is also hard to read when zoomed out (such as driving at highway speeds).  But the My Location app always shows the text in a tiny font at any zoom level.  The text is so small that it is unreadable without either getting very close to the screen or staring at it for a long time.  This basically renders the entire navigation suite unsafe for driving.  Do Google's lawyers know about this?

The menu hard key (normally used to access the current app's settings) does nothing in My Location.  Or, you can hold it to bring up the keyboard (except there's no input field so you're typing into the bit bucket).  All you can do are exit, activate the traffic overlay (which is cool if you already memorized the local roads), change the zoom level, switch to the Navigation and Google Maps applications, or recenter the screen. 

I'm used to a Garmin.  Garmin's interface is cartoonish and while both Garmin and 'droid sometimes cause me to ask, "where is this thing taking me?" (both can equate one-lane roads with  the interstate when path-finding), the Garmin never had me wondering, "where am I right now and how do I get back?"  Until this is solved, I'm keeping the Garmin installed.

Thanks in advance.

[geochapman]

I agree completely. I've said this since I got the D X . I even bought a car dock hoping it would help but no luck. Garmin I keep!

[Djsmurf]

Can I ask what program your using for your nav?

[Wildman · Accepted solution]

---

Djsmurf wrote:

Can I ask what program your using for your nav?

---

I would like to know also because Google Maps works well for me and I can see it clearly even with me being blind in one eye....

[geochapman]

For me either CoPilot or Google Maps or Navigation is hard to see. I've run it side by side with a Garmin Nuvi 660 and they loose for ease of seeing, warnings that occur, real estate taken up by non map items (I know these can be hidden but the Garmin makes the info known without interfering with the map). I'm not being nasty about any of these points, I just don't like the phone as a GPS. The dedicated one just works better. The DX has a nicer touch screen, the images are great, but the Nuvi just is easier to follow.  Put them side by side in the car (put the Nuvi further than the phone) and I think you'll see what I mean.

[Wildman]

OK you do realize you are comparing a phone GPS against a stand alone GPS that is made to be only a GPS?  The device is a phone first and this is obvious it will not function exactly as a GPS device, that like comparing the camera on a phone afainst a Canon camera, they are not the same.

I really cant believe there is issues with seeing the navigation that bad.,,

[Runestyr]

For navigation, I'm using the app known as "Navigation."  From the home screen, the icon looks like a blue "Starfleet Badge" or "compass arrow."   From the "My Location" app, it's white but the same shape.  

For some reason the text on the DroidX looks bigger in navigation mode ("take me here") than it did over the weekend.  So I have to recant my initial statement as it applies to Navigation mode.  This for me is good news!  Maybe I wasn't in nav mode before and thought I was; I'm still learning the phone.  In Location mode ("show me where I am"), the map text is still impossible to see.  I don't use Maps mode ("show friends and enemies where I am"), but the text is tiny there too. 

I ran the Garmin and my new DroidX side by side today.  I don't see the comparison as irrelevant if we limit the discussion to the interface.  I agree that a dedicated GPS should have better pathfinding than the multipurpose smart phone, and it did.  But the phone has an unlimited database and potentially unlimited processing power,  via the network, so maybe it should offer the option to check results with the Google Maps servers.  Anyway, the test came to an end when  heavy cloud cover left the Droid unable to find satellites, whereas the Garmin usually needs actual rain to get lost.  It was a tornado watch, and where I am going to live in a few months, those are a common event. 😕

Thanks,

Don

[Wildman]

I am glad you figured out a workable solution, now as for the cloud causing GPS issue isnt a surprise on any device but I guess I have been lucky because mine hasnt gave any issue under any weather condition so far (KNOCK ON WOOD) , out of curiousity have you activated the towers assist (aGPS) option to help the lock under situations like cloud cover?