Chicago (IL) - So you want a universal navigation system, but you don't want to shell out $100 or more for a stationary unit in your new car or about $500 for a portable device? Well, your cellphone is always an option and it can work out quite well, if you know why you need GPS and always have the cellphone's limits in mind.

Telenav's GPS software on the Katana cellphone ...

GPS is one of those fascinating technologies that have made great progress in trickling down from high end applications into the affordable mainstream over the past decade. And especially over the past two, three years, we have seen dramatic improvements not just in price, but also in GPS navigation quality.

But buying a GPS typically means that you will have to spend somewhere around $500 for a working system, which is still a considerable purchase for most of us. A little over a year ago, I reviewed a slightly more affordable way to get GPS - subscription-based software from Telenav - and while I found the system surprisingly useful, there were just too many drawbacks to call this approach a solution for everyone. Now there is a new version of the software, including traffic alerts as well as more and more modern cellphones supporting the technology. Time for an update.

I am not a big cellphone guy and I could care less about all the gadgets included in a device. But I have to admit that the phone provided by Telenav, a Sanyo Katana, was a beautiful device with an excellent screen. And since screens can make all the difference in navigation devices, I was curious how well it could deal with the new Telenav Traffic features.

Read on the next page: The good and the bad - and where the Telenav software excels