Posted by masseur
just received this email...
http://iphone.tomtom.com/
Posted by anonymuser
The reviews are pretty good too, and £60 isn't a horrible price... but I think to be honest, after all the waiting, I don't actually want to use my iPhone as a satnav like this.
I use my old HTC Tytn 2 for Tomtom at the moment, and I find that can overheat sometimes in the dashboard sun (usually the battery gets so warm it stops taking a charge, and soon runs itself down).. I'm betting the iPhone would start doing the same soon enough, it's not built for high temperatures and while I don't place much value on an old HTC I no longer use as a phone, I'd be gutted if my iPhone got ruined in the same way.
I think, if and when the HTC finally dies, I'll get a dedicated satnav that's built for the job - and the iPhone can stay tucked up in my pocket.
Posted by masseur
I have a Garmin dedicated GPS for use in my car, and I wish Garmin would bring out their software for the iPhone.
I almost never use a phone for car navigation as the screen generally doesn't serve too well, but I love having a GPS with me all the time. While waiting for this I've been carrying a Nokia 5800 with the Garmin software on board but probably I will now ditch that as I don't use the 5800 for much else. My preferred backup phone is my trusty mocca W890 which takes almost no space in my pocket which is what a backup should do.
I use my phone nav purely for walking around town be it Sydney or London, and when travelling in foreign cities as its so handy just to pull it and when needed, and I always have my phone with me.
Surprised to see whole of US and Canada priced the same as UK & Ireland! (not
)
Posted by masseur
here's a TOMTOM iphone video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJxkZq14XnU
I've downloaded the Western Europe version and am pleasantly surprised by the interface, though there is still the odd unexpected behaviour I've found on mobile phone platforms. I'll write more when I've used it more
btw, it was 1.45gb so make sure you have enough space
Posted by haynesycop
How have you found it? I'm just downloading it now, finally one device for everything.
Posted by fatreg
Don't you need a separate GPS device or does tomtom work with bluesky?
Posted by masseur
TomTom works with th inbuilt GPS of the 3G and 3GS
using it this morning... it works fine when actually on a planned route, and has a nice interface which is fairly intuitive.
but.. if I start the app and click on view map, the map displays in a zoomed out mode, but there is no indication if it is currently receiving a GPS signal. Whats worse is that if it is receiving a GPS signal, but the current position is off page, it doesn't centre and zoom to where you are. This means you have to manually zoom out to locate the blue arrow showing your position, and then double tap on that to zoom in.
Also, I can understand that it overrides the standby mode that the iphone normally does after a preset time, but when not on power, I still expect it to allow the backlight to dim. If I'm not on power, it probably means I am walking with it and am not constantly watching the screen but want to glance at it as I reach each junction/turn point.
As it is now, in walk mode it sucks battery, so I'll probably need to manually switch the phone to standby and turn it back on each time I need it, which may mean a few moments to regain GPS position
Last things I've noticed so far is that it doesn't seem to show you your favuourites in order of distance from the current location, as the Garmin software does. Infact the favourites remain in the order they were entered, there's not even a sort option.
Posted by masseur
having a bit more of a play...
the POI's don't seem to include Apple Stores, which is a bit of an omission on the iPhone!
Also, its choice of "restaurants" seems mostly limited to the likes of Mcdonalds, , Burger King, KFC and Pizza Express!
in the POI selection screen, if I pick a POI from the main selection, it shows me a list of entries that fills the screen. If the category I want isn't in themain selection, I can click more, then view other categorgies.... Now... if I click a choice, it gives me just less than half a screen full with the keyboard visible at the bottom and I can get rid of that keyboard! thats just inconsistant and useless
I was initially impressed, and I'm glad to have routing on my main device again, but the more I use this the more I remember why I prefer Garmin over TomTom.
oh, and if you want to go to a city (centre) rather than a full address (because you don't know the address of the city centre!)... you have to enter the city name for the city, then enter the city name again for the street name (or scroll down through the alphabetic list of street names to find the line with the city name on it)! crazy!
Posted by anonymuser
I wonder if the issues with the screen/standby are to do with TomTom or limitations of the iPhone SDK? Sounds like some of the other quirks are just plain bad design though, hopefully they'll get fixed for you later.
Posted by whentheleveebreaks
I definitely will get this, but want to find out if you can get the car kit as a stand alone before i purchase the app
Posted by masseur
the car kit isn't available yet, but it is a separate purchase as the iphone tomtom software is only available through the app store
in the tomtom app, there is the following page available
Posted by fatreg
Can I ask a really daft question Big M?
Why are you using iTunes on a PC when you have a mac?
Posted by masseur
b e c a u s e...
The mac is only for iPhone app development, I am in no way a convert
Posted by julias
A quick question is this App as good as a stand alone TomTom or would you say more or less the same?
Posted by masseur
I've never used a standalone tomtom, but in comparison to tomtom software on other phones I think they've done a good job with the interface and I definitly prefer it over the standard tomtom software for mobile phones
so, if the standard tomtom software for mobile phones is similar to the stand alone tomtom units, then IMHO the iphone software is a breath of fresh air.
Posted by julias
The thing is i use a stand alone TomTom unit for my car and want to know how this App compares? if its more or less the same then i'll download it for my iphone i've never used a mobile version of sat nav software so have no experience with them