First Look: TomTom Navigation App for U.S. and Canada

[TAPelicious.com]

tom tom is far the best navigation software i've ever used. but the iphone version needs just a few improvements.

 

[jlanuez]

TomTom has been "selling" this for months!

Where is the ****ing CAR KIT?!?!?!

 

[dopipod]

May I request your main review includes a test of battery drain whilst connected to a power source. Arriving at my destination with a drained iPhone is a deal killer for me.
My recent experiences of Driving whilst using google maps ( with orientation turned on) were disappointing. My battery drained to nothing in less than one hour even when connected to power source. I connected power at 20% power alert but found that the power input could not keep up with the app requirements.
So, specifically, I'm interested in whether TomTom ( and the others) require more power than the feed can supply

 

[iphones4evry1]

What about overheating? I assume that since the cradle has it's own GPS chip, the phone does not get as hot, but at the same time, it is in a cradle and not in the open air where it can dissipate heat. Also, does it fit in the cradle with a carrying case on the phone, or does the case need to be removed first? Where do we get the cradle from?

Thank you.

 

[vvebsta]

I really really hope other GPS systems work in the TomTom car kit. The kit looks freaking awesome. Not sure which GPS is the best one yet. Leaning towards navigon. I'd be all over google maps with turn by turn. Come on google!

 

[dubels]

For me it makes no sense to spend money to turn my iPhone into a Car Turn-by-Turn GPS. For a little more you can get a decent TomTom and not drain your iPhone.

 

[Pennine]

TomTom sucks at getting addresses from contacts. If you have an apartment number in the second address line it doesn't understand the address and makes you enter it manually.

I've noticed this as well in the UK. Hopefully tomtom will get it sorted with an update or is it the way we store the contacts?

 

[m3coolpix]

So, specifically, I'm interested in whether TomTom ( and the others) require more power than the feed can supply

Different vehicle adapters charge at different rates.

I've got both a Kensington LiquidAUX iPod adapter and a XtremeMac iPod vehicle adapter. The Kensington sports the 'Made for iPhone' logo, while the XtremeMac does not. The XtremeMac charger charges faster in our vehicles than the Kensington, while using Navigon. Both will charge faster than Navigon depletes the battery.

 

[anfield11]

I've personally found TomTom a bit buggy with POI's.

Once such incident had me arrive at a POI only to find it non existent. Launching Navigon revealed I was several blocks away from the actual location (and Navigon got me there just fine).

Haven't tried many other POI's so I'm not sure if that was the only one.

It has great potential but seems a bit rushed out the door. Also no TTS makes this app lukewarm at the moment.

Okay, bear with me here, as I've only just started reading this thread. Many are mentioning the lack of TTS [Text to Speech]. Don't want to appear dumb, but what does TTS do for me?

Thanks

 

[FamiliaPhoto]

Text to speech allows street names to be read to you through the GPS. In short...

Instead of hearing "Turn right at the designated intersection in 100 yards..." it would say "Turn right and Thompson street in 100 yards..."

The two major players for the iPhone, Navigon and TomTom do not do this at the moment but I'm sure it will come one day. However I do not know when or if it will come with a price tag. I don't own the TomTom but the Navigon does read off road names for some highway intersections/exits. Albeit this is very limited.

 

[anfield11]

Text to speech allows street names to be read to you through the GPS. In short...

Instead of hearing "Turn right at the designated intersection in 100 yards..." it would say "Turn right and Thompson street in 100 yards..."

The two major players for the iPhone, Navigon and TomTom do not do this at the moment but I'm sure it will come one day. However I do not know when or if it will come with a price tag. I don't own the TomTom but the Navigon does read off road names for some highway intersections/exits. Albeit this is very limited.

Thank you

 

[m3coolpix]

TTS for Navigonis coming in v1.2 of their free software update, which has already been submitted to Apple for approval.

The announcing of major highways as well as highway numbers is already working well everywhere in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

 

[jfruh]

Out of curiosity, why is text-to-speech such a tricky addition to GPS apps? There has been decent speech synthesizer software available for more than a decade; the funny Norweigan-sounding voice my Mac OS 7-driven Powerbook could speak in in 1995 would surely do fine for these purposes.

 

[forty2j]

What about overheating? I assume that since the cradle has it's own GPS chip, the phone does not get as hot, but at the same time, it is in a cradle and not in the open air where it can dissipate heat. Also, does it fit in the cradle with a carrying case on the phone, or does the case need to be removed first? Where do we get the cradle from?

Thank you.

Nobody can answer these questions until, well, TomTom actually releases the cradle. Why they chose to release the software w/o the cradle is beyond me.. particularly since the software seems to assume the higher-quality signal that the cradle provides.. but, well, corporations do not always make the decisions that would seem to be smartest to outside observers.

 

[FamiliaPhoto]

TTS for Navigonis coming in v1.2 of their free software update, which has already been submitted to Apple for approval.

The announcing of major highways as well as highway numbers is already working well everywhere in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

That is great to hear about v1.2 for Navigon. For me it is the only thing really missing from the app at the moment. It has worked just great to date with all my multi-state driving as of late.

Well ok, I would also like traffic updates, but I can wait for that.

 

[3gbuff]

I just tried out the TomTom this morning. It worked flawlessly. My position was bang on (give or take a couple feet). It recalculated another route within seconds of my mistake. Voice prompts are accurate and pleasant and the POI's are also right on. A true pleasure to work with.

I own a TOMTOM one 3rd edition and the Iphone version is just as accurate but with more bells and whistles. I definately recommend it.

I used a 3GS for this test.

 

[biglar]

MacRumors and most other sites completely ignore possibly the best GSP application for the Iphone:
IgoMyWay 2009.
It costs $79 and includes map updates through the end of 2010. I have it mounted on my air vent and I get a good, reliable GPS signal with almost no losses.

http://www.igomyway.com/en/

P.S. I'm in no way associated with IGO.

 

[macUser2007]

MacRumors and most other sites completely ignore possibly the best GSP application for the Iphone:
IgoMyWay 2009.
It costs $79 and includes map updates through the end of 2010. I have it mounted on my air vent and I get a good, reliable GPS signal with almost no losses.
...

I second this.

I find both iGo's and Navigon's graphics better than TomTom's.

But, both iGo and TomTom have better coverage (Navigon's Eastern European's coverage is a joke.) Navigon also seems to have noticeably weaker GPS lock, and it's weaker at keeping a lock.

I thought iGo was the best on WM, and after a couple of updates, I believe it will also pull ahead on the iPhone. TomTom is good, and Navigon would be my third choice.

 

[underdutchskies]

TomTom when I tried it was almost unusably jumpy. Not only did the marker frequently jump off the road I was on, it not infrequently jumped onto nearby roads and recalculated the route from there (and then jumped back). What's odd is that it doesn't seem to have the basic assume-you're-on-the-nearest-road algorithms that most of the others (even the cheap ones) have; the marker keeps appearing on nearby non-road areas. I know that's what the GPS is saying, but almost every other GPS navigator in the iPhone just assumes you are on the same road, going the same speed (Navigon is especially smooth at this; and I think iGO shows a tiny dot where the GPS signal currently is, but keeps your car icon on the proper road). Also annoying, though not as problematic, is that every time you stop at a light, the road, instead of sitting still, twitches constantly -- clearly just a bug, but bizarre to have made it even into a 1.0 product. But the real problem with such erratic placement is that, often as not, one is passed an intersection by the time TomTom tells you to turn; that is not merely annoying, but makes it fairly unusable. As far as I can guess, perhaps TomTom wants the GPS placement to be tetchy, so they can sell you the GPS kit for greater "accuracy." But Navigon, and even some of the other cheaper ones, does a perfectly fine job with the erratic GPS signal. TomTom's implementation is just poor.

None of this is really TomTom's fault. The GPS chip in the iPhone is not a very sensitive one and certainly not as good as what you find in the stand alone GPS device. You'll get the same kind of thing with a GPS running watch if you could see it on screen. I'm wondering how much better it would be with the cradle and the additional GPS chip.