Just a couple of days ago I was wondering when GPS would finally make it to Tunisia, and to my great surprise today, by accident, I came across a new website launched by Tunisia’s first private mobile operator Tunisiana publicizing a new product they’re launching called GPS Weenee. (Weenee in Arabic means: Where am I? or Where is it?)
The product should be currently available at Tunisiana’s service centers in the Grand Tunis area: Les Jardins du Lac, La Marsa (Zephyr), Ariana, Medina, Tunis-Carthage Airport.
The details of the service are as follows:
– Coverage: The Grand Tunis area and inter-urban Tunisia for the time being.
– Vocal and symbolic guidance
– 2D and 3D Maps
– Multilingual: Tunisian accent, Arabic, German, English, French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese
– Search for interest points in the proximity, sorted by distance
– Search for addresses in the Grand Tunis area
– Automatic route recalculation
– Optimised route calculation (time/distance)
– Possibility to save favorites and last addresses
– Alerts when speed limit is exceeded
– Positions for hotels, restaurants, fuel stations, …etc.
I’ve found no information about the price on the website, so I guess I’ll have to pass by one of the service centers to check that out. Hopefully them not putting the price doesn’t mean it’s really expensive.
I can’t understand why I had to find out about this by coincidence, where is the communication a product like this deserves? where are the ad campaigns? where are the billboards?
Personally, I find this very very interesting, a great move by Tunisiana, a product everyone needs and that simply sells itself, something I’ll totally go for if the price is right.
Update: The information I got about the price from a Tunisiana insider is a one-time 900 DT for the device. Very expensive and unpractical, I think.
A friend of mine rightfully joked after hearing the price: You could spend your whole life getting lost in Tunis and taking taxis to wherever you want to go and it still wouldn’t amount to 900 DT.
I think by Weenee, they mean “Where am I” 😉
Yes, it could be that, don’t know why I didn’t think of it too. Maybe because I’m used to saying it with a shadda on the n in the case of “Where am I?” 🙂
Yes even Tunisie Telecom started one similar service. It’s time for Tunisia to show its capability in technology :p
Technology related to GPS is used in fleet management in Tunisia since about 2 years, but weenee it’s is the first Tunisian Navigation System (not fleet management) like those used in europe since few years (TOMTOM , etc).
Yeah, Weenee is a diaper brand in Australia, and when you search the web, what turns up first is this. In an article about the new product for a german media it was called by a writer the “new gps diaper navigation system”…
When you try to dig up more information on the homepage, you will end up with a FAQ about Tunisianas mobile phone tarifs , it s eems they are well prepared that someone visits the product homepage and dares to obtain information about it…
Umm … what capability has Tunisia in technology? This gadget is certainly not made (neither assembled nor programmed) in Tunisia. And actually, all what is really needed is the MAP information, with this map information, you could feed all the navigators that are already available on the market – or why would I want to switch my navigation device which works perfetly in all countries and use an extra device only for Tunisia?
Having said and thinking about it more, I am not really sure anymore if the program was not made in Tunisia – the little palm trees on the demo picture look more like a children play than a professional product.
Weenee is NOT comparable to the systems used in Europe, since it only covers one small region (Greater Tunis) and is worthless for the rest of the country. The navigation systems I use in Europe cover the whole of Europe (often even the US and other regions). Saying that “Weenee” is similar to a US/EUR navigation system would be the same as saying that a fly is similar to an elephant (of course, they both are animals…).
I have used GPS in Tunisia before, even 2 years ago already – there are maps available that work with common navigators (Navigon, Garmin, etc.) and there are also tracks / waypoints available (you can add them yourself of course).
If it, however, makes really sense to use a navigation system in Tunisia, is a different question, because the traffic, the signs and the driving behaviour is much different from Europe. Where you really NEED the system it does not work (in the countryside, where signs point everywhere but in the right direction) and what the system does will often enough not be needed (honestly: how many people know the exact street address of another person).
So – summing everything up, WEENEE ist a good idea, but it is badly promoted and it is just too little what is offered, regardless of how much it will cost.
I already used GPS in Tunisia with the built-in Nokia Maps application of my N95 8GB, though no realtime navigation is possible and the maps data just cover a fraction of Tunisia’s streets. Due to the poor amount of maps data available that is often out of date (infrastructure changes happen on a regular basis in our country). I ask myself how the product fits in Tunisiana’s portfolio? Some data must be retrieved via GPRS/EDGE (for traffic jam infos or for map data), otherwise this would be a little strange. Let’s wait and see.
Here is the manufacturer of the gadget, a Hongkong-based chinese company:
http://www.e-carcar.com/product/101.htm
Price over there is 195$ including maps (ca. 240 TND) – does anybody have a clue already how much Tunisiana is asking for it?
Soly: There are some maps available, but you have to integrate them eg. into Fugawi … – Nokia maps is not really a match for it, since it only shows the very basic main roads and is lacking the street level zoom maps.
The device is made in china (like your TV) whao, what’s a scoop !! you killed me European. You look like someone who lives in 1902, you don’t understand what is GPS: “The device , the map and the software”, the two last things are made in Tunisia, you like it or not it is the reality…TBC
ter,
why should they make an extra software for Tunisia? And an extra map? Both would make the device incompatible in the long run.
Of course, I do not know it for sure, but my feeling says that this software is asian-made,
maybe with some integration of graphic artwork
from Tunisia. I cannot put it into words, but the
screen impression is somewhat “Asian”.
Maps: Basically all map data that you find in navigation devices are nowadays from TeleAtlas which is owned by Dutch TomTom and Navteq which is owned by Finnish Nokia.
TeleAtlas is covering these countries: http://www.teleatlas.com/stellent/groups/public/documents/content/ta_ct015204.pdf
The main partner products are Navigon, ViaMichelin and TomTom.
Navteq concentrates on Europe, USA and the middle east (has yet a few African countries also).
The main partner products are Falk, Garmin, Dayton and numerous build-in car navigation systems.
Although I do not know it, I have a “feeling” that the Tunisia map data is from Navteq.
There is a company in Tunisia who is producing GPS
applications, but they mainly produce hardware parts and work on the field of fleet management (integration software):
Tunav, 2088 Parc Technologique, BP 55 – La Gazelle
My TV was not made in China – I do not even have one, because I hate to watch advertisments the whole day with a few minutes of movie in between … there are other solutions. 🙂
BTW – did you know that Hajer is a chinese company too? When I bought an A/C some years ago, I was first convinced that it was manufactured in Tunisia.
European,
I really appreciate when you have questions about the product weenee, I don
I agree, this price is amazing … 900 DT for a GPS.
In France you have GPS device for about 180 DT .
I don’t think that tunisiana’s device is morte technical. The problem is certainly le map cost.
Je suis totalement d’accord, ce prix est impraticable. En France les produits d
Je pense que 900 Dt est un prix de debut. Toutes nouvelle techno est chere au debut. Regardez par exemple l’ADSL il est 100 fois plus cher qu’en France (calculez le prix du mega par moi) et pourtant ca marche bien en Tunisie.
Les GPS en France ils ont commenc
If both the mapping and software are made in Tunisia then that is a big problem. Like many things made in Tunisia it will be of poor quality and everyone will go round in circles.
is there a trial to download?
There are other fields of technology where Tunisia does beat all the other countries of the world, like internet censorship and bloggers police repression.
900 dinars. IT’S RIDICULOUS
indiff
It smells sensored and deleted comments here !!!
@not indiff: I don’t understand why you think so, as I’ve never censored or deleted any comments on this blog ever since I started it back in 2003.
So before you start throwing useless and baseless accusations, check your facts first!
Ok thank you, but i’m talking about my comment: not indiff on Sep 9, 2008 – text of my comment is no more displayed
BR
I think the most important thing in a GPS device is the maps , because basic GPS modules that just gives your coordinates , time and speed are very cheap nowadays (About 9 € on ebay ! )
Any way the price for these maps is too hight !
You guys could use a simple bluetooth GPS maus with google earth (with maps already cached so you don’t need internet ) to get all maps you want and connect them with your GPS !!! FREE !!!
Who needs a stupid voice to tell you go right or left anyway !
Hi,
Great posting guys, Its really great that Tunisiana’s GPS Weenee Brings GPS To Tunisia. I really so glad to come in your site.
Thanks
still too much