What's Still Missing...

When we gave TeleNav a test drive last spring, our main complaint was fact that it was only available on only 75 or so devices, all of which were Sprint/Nextel or AT&T handsets. That means users had to be Sprint/Nextel of AT&T customers to access TeleNav Track.

Unfortunately, that hasn't changed. Though there are now about 100 devices that support TeleNav Track, they're available only through Sprint/Nextel and AT&T--and only 13 of those devices are AT&T handsets. That means organizations that want to use TeleNav Track must have relationships with either Sprint/Nextel or AT&T.

Also, at least half of the supported devices only work with TeleNav Track LITE, which is Sprint-specific. And only a handful of devices, many of which are BlackBerrys, support all of the new functionality found in version 4.1. In fact, only seven of the roughly 100 TeleNav Track handsets support all the features in the latest version of the software.

TeleNav Track also remains a mobile-device-battery hog. Because the application is constantly sending information back and forth between cellular towers, satellites and handhelds, the system eats up battery life. That hasn't changed between versions. You can control how often the service sends and receives information to minimize the battery drain, but I strongly recommend keeping an automobile-friendly charger handy when using TeleNav Track.