"Tom Tom" Navigation device... (updated)

Me want! Much better than an in car system as you can take it into town as well (particularly when I'm trogging around in London...)



Touch sensitive, totally portable, GPS, navigation, traffic avoidance, 5 hours battery...

500 in July/August apparently.

Cheers,

Drew.

Edited by: drew

 

Drew,
The Dell Axim PDA with Tomtom3 navigation software and GPS receiver works out cheaper. And the bonus is that you have a PDA too. Also, the Tomtom PDA software can be interfaced with the Speed Camera database which is a free download.

 

A friend of mine's got an O2 XDA II with the Tom-Tom software and GPS receiver. It's pretty damn good. They do a wired one and also a bluetooth receiver now. Think it's 150 for the wired one, which is pretty reasonable.

 

I've already got a PDA though (not a supported one unfortunately), so I don't really need another one. Then you've also got two bits to look after, the pda and the gps receiver...

Cheers,

Drew.

 

Some of the GPS receivers plug into the card slot at the top, so thats a bit more hassle free. There are deals on Ebay much cheaper too, which include this very device.

Could you not sell the old PDA?

 

Trouble is i have a lot of other gadgets which go with this PDA. (Sony Clie NR70v). It's the older PalmOS 4 OS too, and I run quite a few pieces of software which won't work on OS5. So upgrading will incur a whole lot of hassle.

Plus, if my wife wants to use it I can't use my PDA...!

This one hasn't come out yet, I'd be surprised if it was on ebay already!

Cheers,

Drew.

 

No, i meant the Card Slot GPS Receiver as opposed to a wired receiver that needs plonking on the dash somwhere.

 

Well, my tom tom go should be arriving tomorrow.

I got a demo of this specific device and the PDA based version as a back to back comparision.

The PDA version is rubbish. Firstly it needs bluetooth to work with a suitable PDA. (In this case an XDA2). This was horribly unreliable. You had to boot it up in the right order and not use the headpiece (also bluetooth) otherwise the PDA crashed, hung or just didn't detect the GPS receiver.

Admitted the plug in version for some PDAs didn't have this problem, but....

Secondly on the PDA the screen update was appalling. About 3 frames a second. Driving quickly you would be past the junction before the screen updated. I can only put this down to heavy CPU consumption of the OS, pocket PC by MS.

Thirdly it took over 3 minutes to lock on the the GPS satellites. Just imagine sitting in your car waiting for this every day!

By contrast the dedicated 'tom tom go' was excellent. Switch on, 30 seconds to figure out location, screen update of about 15-20 frames per second, no bluetooth, better screen, no need for two devices etc etc. Just click and go. Incredible sound for such a small device. Comes with a car kit out of the box and major routes in Europe too. Got mine for 425 from expansys.co.uk, 499 at PC World!!

And the OS in this is thing is Linux, which is geek-cool!

Full report when I do a proper journey.

Cheers,

Drew.
Edited by: drew

 

Go here for all your Tomtom needs

Link

Does it allow you to use add-ons? ukpostcode is probably the best one around as Tomtom will only let of search using the first 4 characters of a postcode

 

Excellent Drew. I got my email from the comany a couple of weeks ago to say they had been released. May try and get one one day. Quite fancy the HP PDA with Tomtom 3 though, as you can download the free speed camera database which works in the same way as a road angel then.

 

Just been on a test 'navigation' and it's (to use the current vernacular) fecking awesome.

Tried a tricky location on our local industrial estate which has a series of one way streets, dead ends and so on. No problems at all.

Made a deliberate error and got myself stuck on a one way system and the tomtom figured out a new route and sorted me out within 15 seconds.

The 3d map updates in real time and gives clear directions (the voice is called 'Jane' - she's a bit plummy!) Very accurate positioning (10m accuracy) with both the onscreen 3d map and the countdown to next 'waypoint'.

Interesting to note that the Passat speedo was over reading a little, 60mph on the speedo was 57mph on the GPS.

It also allows you to do 'points of interest' stuff. Like - where is my nearest Lloyds TSB cash machine, cinema, restaurent, parking etc. Handy in a strange town.

All in, a fantastic device. Transportable from car to car, and pocketable for use in town.

Much better than the in car sat navs I have used and a lot cheaper and more useful.

Cheers,

Drew.
Edited by: drew

 

Wheres the Tom Tom website where u got the top post info???? any ideas?

Where did you get urs Drew? How much?

Cheers

Looks sweet!

 

and:-

http://www.tomtom.com

 

taa Luke

 

sounds brilliant. I wish I could afford one, I'm fed up of getting lost everywhere trying to follow stupid multimap directions.

just out of interest, can you update the maps in these things? If I did get one I'd want to be able to use it for a few years & roads seem to change all the time these days with new one way systems etc...
Edited by: hayesey

 

The maps are loaded onto a memory card hayesey. So in theory, this could be updated, albeit not cheap.

 

New maps will cost, but as Deako says, you can update them onto the memory card.

Info as above. Amazon also have a low price apparently. Worth shopping around.

Cheers,

Drew.

 

Hi,

I recently bought a Palm T3 400 and a Navman 4460 which I think is excellent value for money and the BT seems to work fine on the devices.

The thing I like most is the fact that there are no wires which is good in the cabrio.

FT

 

Drew - have you used yours much, so far?

My son will order his new car (Seat Leon Cupra) in the next couple of months and doesn't want to pay 1600 or whatever for Sat Nav. He does about 40k miles a year in his job and can find his way to almost any town in England/Wales without needing one, but then has to find the street/road he wants, so usually uses MultiMap (or somesuch). Is it good at street level? And if it's GPS, do you have to pay a subscription or anything?

Went round the shops today to try and see one, but all the usual places do not have any in stock. Would prefer to actually see one, though may end up having to order online.

Any experience/opinions welcomed.

 

It is good at street level if you have the town, road and number. A lot of addresses miss out the road and this may cause a problem. The device doesn't know house or building names either.

So

123 Muppet Road
Somewhereville
Muppetshire
AB12 3CD

is fine

123 Muppet Road
Muppetshire
AB12 3CD

may be ok

Muppet House
Muppetshire
AB12 3CD

probably wont work.

However, I've tended to use multimap to find the name of the road when one isn't present. This works ok.

As far as the GPS is concerned, the satellites are there regardless broadcasting all the time, so there is no fee for using them.

I find it great, just as good as the VW sat nav I used. Ultimately they are only as good as the data in them. Functionality wise though, no complaints.

Cheers,

Drew.