MapQuest Stumbles Back Into the App Store With Budget Turn-by-Turn

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MapQuest has no shortage of cachet with the older folks, but I've taken Google Maps' last few years of ubiquity to mean that AOL's mapping service was dying off. Judging by this brand-new, cut-rate turn-turn-app, well, not quite.

MapQuest Navigator is network-based, like the similarly-position MotionX GPS Drive, which brings a distinct set of advantages and disadvantages: The lack of a large local cache frees up space on your iPhone, and since it's stored on MapQuest's servers, the map and POI data your seeing is always up to date; that said, if you lose network coverage, well, you're boned.

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Being a subscription-based service, it's been tagged with a (Apple-mandatory) token price of $1, with monthly, quarterly and yearly rates of $4, $10 and $30, respectively—a mite pricier than MotionX. Early App Store reviews point to a barebones, rough-around-the-edges app—portrait orientation is the only display option, routing can be iffy, and it's got some in-app advertising—but given that it includes traffic data and does generally appear to work, MapQuest Navigator looks like one of the better deals going right now. [iTunes via AppleInsider]