Yeah. realized it now, thanks.
I think this will be ok for me, I don't care about street names. I'll wait and see and read reviews before I invest any money (and first I have to buy me a nice iPhone when I finally get time to
)
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Are the gps companies REALLY trying to charge me close to $100? Really!?
- Thread starter vegas-steven
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Yeah. realized it now, thanks.
I think this will be ok for me, I don't care about street names. I'll wait and see and read reviews before I invest any money (and first I have to buy me a nice iPhone when I finally get time to
)
I mailed tomtom and asked them. It will not have text to speech and neither will it have lane guidance.
Do you think the tomtom mount will work with other TBT apps?
Having a Navigon GPS I can say their Text-to-Speech leaves a lot to be desired. It frequently mangles some of the easiest names while getting hard ones right. It is also inconsistent about how it reads things. You might find it saying a direction displayed as (Poplar St) "Turn left on Poplar Street" one time while another is decides (Main St) "Turn left on Main Saint." I also find it frequently deciding to say (PA-285) "Turn right on Pennsylvania route two eighty five" one time where another time it decides to say "In five hundred feet take the exit right I ninety to Erie PA [opposite of Ma - so it comes out Eriepah]" The first couple of times I heard it say that I looked to see what the heck an Eripa was.
That's a bummer about lane guidance. Navigon does that really well on their hardware GPS units. Not only does it to RealView but it also has very detailed displays of complex lane situations such as which lanes of eight you can be in and still exit correctly. Their stacked turning icons are great for rapid succession turns. I guess I'm going to have to give Navigon consideration again.
As for the mount, I'm going to have to see how they implement things. They already have a mount out that charges and outputs FM. So, basically that's like using a Griffin iTrip auto. I would think that it would pass anything else if you're using another program. How those other applications handle calls while in use we have yet to see.
I'm surprised that TomTom will not have text-to-speech, the hardware is certainly capable. Maybe they will add this as an update later (not hopeful for this).
Wow, I assumed all this time it had TTS. Huge bummer. Even the AT&T Navigator has it. Bah, ill just rent out the GPS from ATT when I need it.
Yes, both the AT&T Telenav App and Gokivo both do TTS. For that matter, so does G-Map East/West.
I was pretty surprised to hear that TomTom wouldn't have this feature.
How very disappointing only the pay per month apps have that feature. G-map is looking better and better, I also expect it to be competitively priced since only half the country is sold at a time.
So I just want to make sure I have this right.
TomTom App will not have "turn right at Fowler Ave, in 200 ft" It'll just say, "Turn right in 200 ft." (or similar wording.)
What is lane guidance?
Do all these apps give you average MPH and other smaller goodies?
TomTom App will not have "turn right at Fowler Ave, in 200 ft" It'll just say, "Turn right in 200 ft." (or similar wording.)
What is lane guidance?
Do all these apps give you average MPH and other smaller goodies?
I was reading the blog and noticed gps makers trying to charge upwards of $99 or more for the software.
Really?
When I can go and buy a hardware based gps which allows me to use the gps all the time and not have to close the navigation to take or make aPhone call... When I can have a louder volume on a gps than on Iphone...
So maybe I'm just being cheap but that seems too much for me since they are just selling software.
The g-maps west seems all the more tempting at 24.99 now.
(I am aware of xgps which is decent and a cydia app)
When you buy a GPSr you have to buy the maps extra for $100+ same diference.
Yes, that is correct.
Navigon has two types of lane guidance. There is a more basic lane guidance for exits. This is what they call their RealityView:
Then they have a more advanced lane guidance for very complex exit situations:
This tells you on multiple lane situations which lanes you can be in. With basic GPS units they will tell you to exit right in 1 mile. So you may end up fighting your way to the right lane only to find out that the rightmost two lanes would have been sufficient.
One place where it saves me is in the city of Pittsburgh. There are bridges on top of bridges downtown. I'm not in Pittsburgh frequently enough to remember which lane I have to be in to exit properly. One lane breaks off left, two go through a tunnel and one breaks off to the right. The problem is that when you're within the bridge structure the lane information is on small signs up inside of the bridgework above you and they can't be seen until you're very close to them. By the time you see you are in the wrong lane the bridge deck is so packed with cars you can't move and you get funneled off in a direction that takes you quite a while to be able to get back to if you have to find your way back. The advanced lane guidance will tell you which of those four lanes you need to be in before you get to the point that you have no ability to change position.
You are buying the top of the line at the time if you are paying that. Garmin always prices their new models at that price - and many times it's not buying you much over the previous model. That's your choice to spend that much $, but in no way is it a necessity. The 265 has traffic, widescreen, etc for $100-150 right now.
$180 for the Nuvi 265t or 265wt on amazon right now. That talks, that has maps and would SPANK any tomtom unit hands down. So I'm sure it's going to school the hell out of the iPhone GPS. If you wait you can find deals on the 265WT for <$150. I know because I got my girl the same unit for christmas for $130 SHIPPED. There are low cost units that do traffic and TTS. Ohh and it's free traffic for life - some of the more expensive garmin units charge you a subscription.
+1! TomTom is one of the worst GPS units on the market. Apple picked one of the worst partners they could have. They won't be getting my $.
Nicety? Traffic is a nicety - TTS is actually important.
When you travel a lot and go to weird locations where say 6 intersections converge right next to each other you need to know which street to turn on. Or when you have 2-3 roads one right after the other - TTS tells you which road sign to look at without having to LOOK at the unit and take your eyes off the road. TTS actually helps make your navigation a little safer.
Navigon has two types of lane guidance. There is a more basic lane guidance for exits. This is what they call their RealityView:
Then they have a more advanced lane guidance for very complex exit situations:
The great thing is that both of these are on the Iphone version. - reality View is great and saw and used it for the first time this morning.
Understandable, but would still be a distraction for me. I'm so used to normal paper map navigation, or at the very least, printing out a sheet of directions, that I generally have some idea of where I'm going before I go. I can understand how the feature is useful for some, but for my purposes, meh.
I don't really need a GPS map.. When you're at my level of expertise, you just KNOW where everything is
"Idaho? That way."
I don't really need a GPS map.. When you're at my level of expertise, you just KNOW where everything is
Mom won't let you cross the street, huh?
I like both of these as well but the square that shows the next turn covered up the exit lane on the reality view (cos all my exits were off motorways to the left and the square with the direction arrow is on the left - doh!) I have mailed Navigon about it and suggested that for the UK they move it or make it an option to locate it yourself
I used to think that Tomtom was the best available (having seen colleagues navman units etc). Now that I have navigon it looks waaaaay better than the tomtom. I do think that it needs some tweaking to make better use of the screen space and the reality view, lane assist and TTS are simply fantastic!
The GPS companies aren't going to totally cannibalize their standalone sales. This is an option. Another option is not to get a GPS app.
This is interesting. I hadn't heard much about the TomTom app but was seriously considering buying it. Sounds like I'm going to have to let it be tested before paying the big bucks. I must say I'm surprised no text-to-speech. That's why we'd buy the app.