That's not so bad when you consider how many maps you have store compared to a game like Myst which is 750MB.
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TOMTOM probably going to be better, but....
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That's not so bad when you consider how many maps you have store compared to a game like Myst which is 750MB.
a mount can be bought for very little. as can a car charger and many modern cars will have an aux input, rendering the advantages of the tomtom dock useless as it can be easily replicated for what will be a fraction of the cost
tomtom are pushing the dock a lot as it 'improves' gps signal, but many people say just the iPhone gps is more than enough
That's not so bad when you consider how many maps you have store compared to a game like Myst which is 750MB.
It's downright impressive if this thing is going to be only 1GB in size! I have to check the specs again but I know both Navigon and Sygic weigh in at about 1.5 to 2GB in size. We're talking Big Boys here.
The smaller (relatively) speaking size of the TomTom app will be another feather in it's cap. I just hope they release it soon. IIRC, someone on these forums (can't remember who) had quoted TomTom customer support as saying that the app would launch at the end of this month at the same time the car kit comes out -- he had also said that this would also be around the same time Navigon launched. Well Navigon just launched last week and if there's any truth to that, perhaps the TomTom launch could happen this upcoming week?
EDIT: Navigon NAM is 1.29 GB, Sygic NAM is 1.62 GB.
TomTom's GPS antenna isn't going to make the GPS antenna on the phone better at all. The mount has its own antenna and the GPS antenna in the phone will be bypassed while in the dock. A GPS only uses one antenna at a time.
As for the difference, it woud be significant. The internal GPS antenna of an iPhone is tiny. There are teardown pictures online that show the antenna plane of an iPhone. A GPS patch antenna is significantly larger. TomTom would be using a traditional patch antenna in the dock which would have significant signal retention and stability advantages. I just looked up typical patch sizes and a "medium" antenna is approximately 1" square. That's larger than the the entire antenna plane of the iPhone which contains the GPS and cellular antennas.
To give a real-world example of usability, I have attempted to do Geocaching with my iPhone and it did a terrible job. Any level of tree canopy and the error grew to >300 feet. That is completely unusable for Geocaching purposes as it becomes a needle in the haystack. The only way I could use my phone was to be in an area with a completely unrestricted view of the sky.
Unfortunately, developers have no access to individual signal levels for the internal receiver so no application exists that has a display of every signal channel as you would find in a typical handheld GPS. That's likely to be intentional as Apple probably doesn't want that to be seen.
I wouldn't recommend you hold your breath on that one. I posted a link to another article from four days ago with quotes from TomTom's president in which he said the dock would be available through TomTom's usual retail channels as well as "hopefully" from Apple. Hopefully? That tells me they haven't worked out the sales through the Apple stores. If he's saying hopefully as recently as this week then they certainly don't have the dock even in stock to sell. I never saw the quote you mentioned from the CSR you're referring to but I think the President of TomTom is a little higher on the food chain.
Navigon
Do NOT rule out Navigon:
NAVIGON REVIEW
First off I was a little skeptical to spend 69.99 after reading the various complaints here. All I can say is that I am so glad I did make the purchase. This program is fantastic!
GPS - This is the single most important aspect of any navigation program. After launching program GPS was initiated within 10 seconds. I used this on a 3 hour trip to NY State in the middle of nowhere. My GPS signal was superb. here is something tat surprised the heck out of me. I was in a portion of the trip where I had NO SERVICE on my phone. The whole time I has no phone service the GPS was running perfectly! I was shocked. I though that the GPS signal depended on the telephone signal triangulation. Boy was I wrong. Cudos to the iPhone GPS chip and the Navigon team. I NEVER lost GPS signal the whole 3 hours and believe me I was in the middle of nowhere (Roxbury, NY).
SCREEN - Very clear and easy to read. Maps names are not as detailed as my Garmin 660 but the main roads were there.
VOICE - The voice was loud and clear thru the iphone speaker. I have seen complaints on this but I was happy with the volume. Even though all strrt names are NOT in the speech I did notice major routes were spoken by the voice part of the program.
Overall this program worked better then expected. I ran it side by side with my Garmin 660 (with updated maps) and it was dead on exact. Voice prompts and a wrong turn calculation was just as quick as the Garmin.
Overall I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this program. I am perfectly happy with the performance and it can defiantly replace my Garmin. I have Garmin mobile on my Blackberry and I can tell you this is just as good.
Charlie C
Do NOT rule out Navigon:
NAVIGON REVIEW
First off I was a little skeptical to spend 69.99 after reading the various complaints here. All I can say is that I am so glad I did make the purchase. This program is fantastic!
GPS - This is the single most important aspect of any navigation program. After launching program GPS was initiated within 10 seconds. I used this on a 3 hour trip to NY State in the middle of nowhere. My GPS signal was superb. here is something tat surprised the heck out of me. I was in a portion of the trip where I had NO SERVICE on my phone. The whole time I has no phone service the GPS was running perfectly! I was shocked. I though that the GPS signal depended on the telephone signal triangulation. Boy was I wrong. Cudos to the iPhone GPS chip and the Navigon team. I NEVER lost GPS signal the whole 3 hours and believe me I was in the middle of nowhere (Roxbury, NY).
SCREEN - Very clear and easy to read. Maps names are not as detailed as my Garmin 660 but the main roads were there.
VOICE - The voice was loud and clear thru the iphone speaker. I have seen complaints on this but I was happy with the volume. Even though all strrt names are NOT in the speech I did notice major routes were spoken by the voice part of the program.
Overall this program worked better then expected. I ran it side by side with my Garmin 660 (with updated maps) and it was dead on exact. Voice prompts and a wrong turn calculation was just as quick as the Garmin.
Overall I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this program. I am perfectly happy with the performance and it can defiantly replace my Garmin. I have Garmin mobile on my Blackberry and I can tell you this is just as good.
Charlie C
There's an obvious reason for that. Garmin uses Navteq maps. Navigon bought Navteq in 2006.
TomTom owns TeleAtlas.
Hopefully TomTom will release some details this upcoming week. I'm ready buy a GPS app and Navigon is looking better and better. TomTom is very close to losing my sale (and many others...)
I don't agree with this statement at all.
I've used Navigon for 4 days now. 2 days worth of traveling the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex (over 70 miles a day through many mixmaster/turnpike/suburban areas), and a 600 mile roadtrip from DFW to Houston (and even into very rural areas) the past 2 days.
Navigon got it all spot on for me. It works very well as a TBT software package on the iPhone. Even works great 'backgrounded' with another app (I was using the Sirius/XM app) loaded and running.
Yes, I had a couple GPS signal drops, but that was my own fault of hand holding the iPhone in my vehicle. Signal re-acquisition and the necessary reroute happened within seconds for me. As others have reported, using the Navigon software on the iPhone with a mount that keeps it under the windshield has worked extremely well. I'm searching for a good mount solution for my vehicle. Probably a ProClip or similar.
Tom Tom's advantage is going to be that they have had at least a month of using/evaluating Navigon's software, so that they can specifically address complaints on the Navigon interface, to make their software package better. I don't care for their mount/external antenna solution, as it doesn't suit how I want the iPhone setup in my vehicle.
I've got Navigon already doing what I need, everywhere I've gone. I can't wait to see the Navigon updates as these two software packages duke it out.
The critical reason I won't use either is background tasking.
Suppose I receive a text message during a complicated transition.
Suppose I wish to listen to my iPod while using Navigation.
Suppose a call rings through at a critical junction.
I'd like to listen to Last.FM while navigating.
...the list goes on. Do those of you with Navigon just forfeit your iPhone functionality?
Suppose I receive a text message during a complicated transition.
Suppose I wish to listen to my iPod while using Navigation.
Suppose a call rings through at a critical junction.
I'd like to listen to Last.FM while navigating.
...the list goes on. Do those of you with Navigon just forfeit your iPhone functionality?
navigon works fine with the ipod. just make a playlist
navigon also quietens the ipod music when there are verbal instructions, making them very easy to hear
Erm... aren't I to be the judge at that? I required the navigation software about 6 times in the past two weeks whilst I was in London. It got me there, safe and sound, and therefore fulfilled my expectations.
Same/ TomTom loses simply because they waited entirely too long. Navigon is excellent.
I like how it displays more street names than my Garmin. The only negative I found was that every other citiy is shaded differently. The olive green color makes the street names almost impossible to read. The next city over will be shaded a lighter color again. I had to use night mode to avoid this.
So, I bought Navigon, Sygic and G-Map. I don't have money to buy TomTom. Don't need to with Navigon.
That's incorrect. TomTom has stated simultaneous call and navigation. That would appear why they are tying calls to the Bluetooth speakerphone. They're routing calls over Bluetooth. Your music remains on the audio port to connect to a car with an audio cable. This is why I don't understand the rush to Navigon. You'll be able to have GPS and phone and music simultaneously on TomTom. It would make sense to wait and see how well the implementation works. You would only lose calls on TomTom if you chose not use their dock and then, yes, you would be just like all other satellite navigation applications.
I'm going to attempt to call bs here. Can you please provide link or source for this.
I'm not going to go back and repost every link I've posted on Macrumors already for nearly two months. There have been a lot of them. I've posted articles from a number of newspapers, magazines and technology sites. You can either search out every linked post I've made or do the searches yourself. Use search or be lazy. Everything I've posted has come from articles stating either quotes from the President or the VicePresent of TomTom and every one of these posts have been in the primary discussion threads. It's not my fault you haven't paid attention.
well, in my car i have built in bluetooth so all calls are routed over bluetooth, and audio is via aux out, exactly as the tomtom dock will work
yet still i get 'dumped' to the phone screen. this cannot be changed as it is due to the way apple have programmed the iphone, calls cannot be run in the background (straight away, once a call is initiated the home button can be pressed but this is different)
also, there are many different conflicting articles - all apparently coming from the president etc
and finally, if it were possible to do simultaneous calls and gps, would tomtom not have highlighted this at the WWDC keynote? if it were possible it would be a major feature they would have highlighted
translation: "sorry you haven't been reading macrumors 24/7 for the past 2 months otherwise you would know that these RUMORS are true for this UNRELEASED app"