Tom Tom turn by turn finally ready for the iPhone

Victor_M

It looks fantastic, anyone care to speculate what they will charge for this?

Proper turn by turn navigation is one of the few thing left that the iPhone can't do superbly well (after the V3.0 upgrade)

http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/08/apple-partners-with-tomtom-to-bring-real-navigation-to-iphone/

cojomo2

Victor_M wrote: »

It looks fantastic, anyone care to speculate what they will charge for this?

Proper turn by turn navigation is one of the few thing left that the iPhone can't do superbly well (after the V3.0 upgrade)

http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/08/apple-partners-with-tomtom-to-bring-real-navigation-to-iphone/

I had a garmin sat nav. 1 thing that would concern me is the windscreen sucker that attaches the iphone to the windscreen. I know the 1 that came with my garmin wasnt great, it would often fall of , and if that happens when going around the corner, your iphone will go flying... I just hope Tom Tom have come up with a decent mount to make sure this doesnt happen.

Dades

Looks great. Doesn't need to be a 3GS then, I take it?
Price? Anyone's guess. Probably a LOT since they aren't selling their unit to got with the software.

Re mounts, I bought this sucker and it's never even thought about dropping my phone.

seamus

I'm guessing that the mount comes with a GPS receiver built-in which communicates with a Tom Tom app installed on the phone?

cojomo2

seamus wrote: »

I'm guessing that the mount comes with a GPS receiver built-in which communicates with a Tom Tom app installed on the phone?

don't think so. At the WWDC he just said that something like 'you don't want to be driving around holding the device in your hand, so we developed this tom tom screen mount'..no mention of it doing anything apart from holding and charging the phone..

toushea

cojomo2 wrote: »

don't think so. At the WWDC he just said that something like 'you don't want to be driving around holding the device in your hand, so we developed this tom tom screen mount'..no mention of it doing anything apart from holding and charging the phone..

If i remeber correctly he said something about using the dock connecter interface to boost the iphones GPS signal , i may be mistaken though

copacetic

seamus wrote: »

I'm guessing that the mount comes with a GPS receiver built-in which communicates with a Tom Tom app installed on the phone?

the phone has gps itself, the mount apparently provides a power input and 'increased gps' performance, likely via an external antenna and HW accesory control thats built into SW v3.0

philiporeilly

Realistically the app and the unit would want to sell for less than €70 for the both. You can purchase a sat nav for not much more than that and Tom Tom cannot sell it so low that it will eat into their existing sales. They also have to license the maps which is expensive.

mobius42

cojomo2 wrote: »

don't think so. At the WWDC he just said that something like 'you don't want to be driving around holding the device in your hand, so we developed this tom tom screen mount'..no mention of it doing anything apart from holding and charging the phone..

Actually, it includes a loudspeaker, boosts the GPS signal and also has an FM transmitter for playing your music on your car radio. It also mentions hands-free calling, but I'm assuming that's just because it holds the phone in place, not any kind of remote or anything. I'm hoping this won't be much more than €50. It'll be very handy to charge my phone and have somewhere to put it while I'm driving.

You can check it out here:http://iphone.tomtom.com/

Dades

So reading between the lines, does that really mean you have to buy the mount in order for the app (or GPS signal) to work effectively?

Or are they just trying to get us to buy hardware we don't necessarily need? :pac:

mobius42

Dades wrote: »

So reading between the lines, does that really mean you have to buy the mount in order for the app (or GPS signal) to work effectively?

Or are they just trying to get us to buy hardware we don't necessarily need? :pac:

You don't have to buy the car kit, it'll work without it. I imagine it just boosts the GPS signal making it more likely to get a lock. I think the main reason they're releasing this is that it's not practical or safe to hold the phone in your hand as you're driving around.

seamus

copacetic wrote: »

the phone has gps itself, the mount apparently provides a power input and 'increased gps' performance, likely via an external antenna and HW accesory control thats built into SW v3.0

The phone doesn't really have GPS though and if you're in bad coverage or a foreign country you're probably out of luck.
So as Dades says, with the app alone, you'll have a so-so GPS unit that you really need the hardware to get the best out of.

mobius42

seamus wrote: »

The phone doesn't really have GPS though and if you're in bad coverage or a foreign country you're probably out of luck.

The iPhone 3G does have GPS. The 2G only has cell tower triangulation, but the 3G has a full GPS chip. All it's missing is turn-by-turn directions and maps stored on the device, which TomTom have put into their app. I think that if you have an iPhone already, this will probably be better value than a standalone GPS unit, depending on the price.

Dades

I guess the proof will be in the testing.

Depending on the price of the app, buyers could hold off on the official 'mount', but be prepared to buy it if it becomes apparent that the iPhone signal isn't strong enough on it's own.

My concern is from the official site that says:

All you need is:

* the TomTom app...
* the TomTom car kit...

:pac:

seamus

mobius42 wrote: »

The iPhone 3G does have GPS. The 2G only has cell tower triangulation, but the 3G has a full GPS chip. All it's missing is turn-by-turn directions and maps stored on the device, which TomTom have put into their app. I think that if you have an iPhone already, this will probably be better value than a standalone GPS unit, depending on the price.

And there was me convinced that my phone didn't have GPS. Probably because it's pretty crap.

Evergreen

I find that the GPS works very well on my 3G anytime I bother to switch it on I could see that it knew where I was to within a few meters.

Necronomicon

The last time I used maps on the road it got very patchy in areas with poor reception. If you're going to splash out on an expensive app I guess you might as well get the HW to get the most out of it.

Morlar

If that works well that would be the killer app for the iphone imo. I would not be very surprised if Apple bought Tomtom if this works just as well as a tt standalone gps.

Victor_M

Necronomicon wrote: »

The last time I used maps on the road it got very patchy in areas with poor reception. If you're going to splash out on an expensive app I guess you might as well get the HW to get the most out of it.

It was probably the 3G signal that was patchy, the GPS receiver works as good as those on any stand alone GPS units, the only difference at the moment being the GPS chip tells the google maps app where you are and it downloads the appropriate map for the area you are in this is very dependant on a good 3G signal to be able to keep continuously downloading maps as you are driving around, it is also financial suicide to use 3G data roaming when abroad so it's essentially not a functioning GPS unit unless the maps are preloaded onto the device like the Tom Tom software does.

It will not be Tom Tom hardware dependant but I suspect that in order to be able to use it safely as a GPS in the car you will need a holder of some sort.

I wonder will the post 3.0 software allow for pairing external Bluetooth GPS receivers (like the one I have!!) to the phone?

mobius42

Victor_M wrote: »

I wonder will the post 3.0 software allow for pairing external Bluetooth GPS receivers (like the one I have!!) to the phone?

I don't see why not. The 3.0 SDK introduced Bluetooth APIs and access to the dock connector. Also, I don't think it'll be long before we see an app for transferring files via Bluetooth.

copacetic

seamus wrote: »

The phone doesn't really have GPS though and if you're in bad coverage or a foreign country you're probably out of luck.
So as Dades says, with the app alone, you'll have a so-so GPS unit that you really need the hardware to get the best out of.

Not at all, most of the slowness in gps is around the download of the maps via 3G, the gps is fine. Not sure what you mean by 'doesn't really have gps'.

Assuming the tom-tom maps are stored locally on the phone you should get really good performance without the adapter and the phone will be usable as a gps abroad without worrying about data charges.

The real reason for the dock could be to let you power the phone, get increased gps signal within the car and also to allow direct fitting to the car radio for voice commands via the cars speakers. This should also mean that with the dock you are getting bluetooth handsfree and iphone integration to your radio.
Of course I may be hoping for too much there.

CivilEx

I currently have a TomTom SatNav, great device, but it's looking for €48 from me at the moment if I want to get the latest version of the maps I already own :eek:

I'll be spending my cash on the TomTom App and holder as soon as it comes out




...as long as it's not too expensive...