Anyone using the Tomtom GPS Nav kit?

[Reggie]

I was just wondering how many purchased the Tomtom nav kit and how do they find it.

Thanks.

[arizona 12]

here's one review:
http://www.pdabuyersguide.com/tips/GPS/palmOne_GPS_Navigator.htm

i have a copy of tomtom on my ppc (and actually also own copies of destinator, iguidance, and mapopolis). personally i find iguidance/deluo/routis/mynavigator (they are all the same, just rebadged) the best. for my nz90, i use mapopolis with a bluetooth Sirf V2 gps. and yes, there is a noticable difference with V2.

tomtom has always been around in europe and established a following there. however in u.s. use, my opinion is that while tomtom has good poi's, their memory management system and cost is not that overriding vs mapopolis for palm os.

[Moose Man]

I bought it and returned it back in February when it first came out. Now bare in mind that I also own a Garmin iQue 3600 as well as the T3 and my Treo. I did not like it because initially false advertising. It stated that it came with both a Windshield mount and a Vent mount. That was not the case.

Then I could not add anything to an SD card other than the TomTom software. If I did it disabled the TomTom. The mapsets on the CD's to me were also not "logical". I had to load 5 different CD's to get all of California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington plus northern Nevada onto the SD card. And Hawaii would not load.

OK, all of this was discussed with their Tech Support and as of today is still unresolved although they knew my displeasure and also knew that they unit had been returned to J and R.

In defense of TomTom, I did get two units to try. The first the package was definitley opened and was returned without incident. The second package was probably corrupted as well since I think that the software was not of the same serial number and may have caused the issue for Hawaii not to show up, ever.

The other thing was when the software installed the SD conduit for the maps on the PC - there was not an Uninstall option loaded into WinXP. I had to hack the registry to remove the conduit. This point just really soured me on TomTom's tech support because they couldn't figure out how to do it. The were simply dumbfounded by the whole process and my issues. This lack of intelligence and the fact that I couldn't talk to a body - everything was handled via the net and this added to my frustration because of time difference to Germany....I'd send a tech request at 5:30AM and wouldn't get a response until the next day.

OK now that the venting is over with: The TomTom software is good and to me it's better than mapoplis and just about all of the others that I tried. It was easy to see and very intuitive. But in the end, I still prefer the Garmin iQue over the TomTom but it is also dedicated to GPS'ing and therefore has more feature sets built in then TomTom can "add-on" to the T3.

Assuming that TomTom worked out the bugs from the early release units, which I'm sure they did, I'd say that it's a good way to go.

But I'm thinking that P1 will release their own hardware device that has GPS (designed by Garmin) in the form of a high end unit to replace the Que 3600. With Garmin releasing a scaled down form of the Que in a 3200 format.....I think Garmin is giving up on being the manufacture of a GPS/PDA and will partner with P1 to handle the hardware while providing the software.....M2C.

[Griffin]

Haven't seen TomTom for Palm but I use Navman 4460 and their own SmartST software. Works really well. Only issue is that the Palm version doesn't have postcode entry and wont allow additional POI's (not sure if TomTom for Palm does). No problems whatsoever running this from SD card and also having lots of other S/W on it (isilo docs, some games etc).
Slightly off track I know but thought you may be interested if looking for a satnav solution.

[bestoverall]

Well, I just bought P1's version of GPS Navigator which is identical to TomTom's. I have Garmin 3600 (for my wife) and I had T3 with Mapopolis.

As far as the software is concerned, Tom Tom's Navigator is inferior to Garmin's, but better looks than Mapopolis.

I'll try to list the particulars I've noticed during my 3 days of use so far below:

Positives:
- Great 3D rendering, hands down. Much much much better than Mapopolis. iQue doesn't even have 3D.
- Shows GPS signal strength. Others do not.
- Tom Tom's Navigator offers the ability to change the voice. I had it set to Lori (US Female) to Richard (US Male) to Jane (UK Female), then circled back to Lori. Others do not offer this option.
- The main program and all the maps reside in SD card - uses very little RAM. I didnot notice performance issue other than the time I had my T3 to zoom out and show a large geographic area.
- Right and left-handed layout option.

Negatives:
- Tom Tom's Navigator doesn't tell you which side of the road your destination is. It just says you've reached your destination without telling you right or left. Both Garmin and Mapopolis do. This is the biggest problem with their software in my opinion.
- POI has no address or phone number, just name. I know my iQue tells more comprehensive info. Even Mapopolis is better at this.
- No integration with Palm's address book. You have to remember the address before doing a search - Others offer tight integration.
- Somewhat awkward to use without GPS. Unlike Garmin or Mapopolis, Tom Tom's navigation ability greatly diminishes without GPS present.
- In the manual, it says the program only allows to register upto 2 devices. This means that when I upgrade my T3 to T5, and then Treo 650, I will have to buy the program again - A major drawback for someone like me who goes through new PDA every 6 month.

If Garmin can supply the software and leave the PDA making to P1, that would be the best solution. I like iQue, but T3 is way better in terms of PDA. But iQue rocks and blows every other GPS programs out there. Why can't I have the best of both.

BTW, Tom Tom's Navigator is going back to P1. I got the RMA number yesterday.

[bestoverall]

Oh, I forgot to mention that you must have SD to use Tom Tom's Navigator which is also negative. With Mapopolis you can load everything into the RAM if you wanted to.