Walt Mossberg reviewed popular iPhone Navigation Apps in the Wall Street Journal, yesterday. Automated, turn-by-turn navigation with voice-prompts do not come free, like other location-based that show what’s nearby.

But the iPhone’s built-in GPS, large screen, decent mono speaker and large selection of car mounting kits make it a tempting navigation device, says Mossberg. He reviews four apps: from TomTom for the iPhone, Navigon MobileNavigator, AT&T Navigator and MotionX-GPS Drive.

None of the apps stood out as much better than the others at navigation, says Mossberg, though they have different styles and features:

• TomTom for the iPhone: The U.S. and Canada navigation app costs $100 and takes up a 1.2 gigabytes of space on your phone. But there is no subscription fee and the maps are always present.
• Navigon MobileNavigator: This app costs $90, and it takes up 1.3 GB on the iPhone because it also stores all the maps. There is no recurring fee.
• AT&T Navigator: Downloads maps and info on the fly, but it takes up less space on the phone—just 2.3 megabytes. That means you need a good connection at the start of a trip. Though the app download is free, a $9.99-per-month subscription fee will automatically be added to your AT&T account.
• MotionX-GPS Drive: The main screen has a clever menu arranged in a circle. It’s also fairly small—just 10 megabytes or so. But it must download maps and other info each time you start a route. Drive also is potentially the cheapest of the four apps. It will cost $1.99 and include a 30-day free trial. After that, it’s $25 a year.

There are many wonderful location based applications that don’t feature turn-by-turn navigation, of course.

Many use Skyhook’s cellular/WiFi database. Skyhook is able to provide location information to your device, even if it doesn’t have a GPS built-in, by mapping nearby cell towers and wifi access points. By triangulating tower signals, Skyhook can determine your position, and passes that information to your cellphone. It can also integrate GPS (if you have it). Indoors or out. Google Maps uses it.

But if that data is wrong, you can’t change it.

Don Park, who co-founded Dailywireless.org, has created a creative-commons licensed location database alternative that he calls Geomena. You can input the location of your WiFi Access Point using Google Maps. Rick Turoczy, at Silicon Florist has an excellent description of Geomena. But Don’s project — with just 7 WiFi access points registered — is a little shy of the tens of thousands in the Skyhook database.

Geomena demonstrate how a creative-commons location database alternative could be created. OpenStreetMap is a collaborative project to create a free editable map of the world. Offshoots of OpenStreetMap include; OpenSeaMap, OpenCycleMap, FreeMap and YourNavigation.

Microsoft has created the nonprofit CodePlex Foundation with the stated goal to increase communication between open-source communities and software companies. WhereCampPDX, October 2-4 in Portland, includes Microsoft as a major sponsor. The jury is still out on the CodePlex Foundation, says ArsTechnica.