Tom Tom on the Iphone

Deedsie

Hi, has anyone bought the tomtom app for the iphone? Is it any good? Do you have to be on the internet for it too work?

The Big Gig

Have it, yep its very good. On 3gs it uses the gps chip which is not on 2g or 3g (i think) so no it doesn't "use the internet"

francie BradyII

It's expensive isn't it?

ADSLUSER

I would also consider Tom Tom's competitor Navigon which is also very good. I believe some of the maps are better catered for Ireland than Tom Tom. Just another suggestion.

Valentia

I have a non iPhone Tom Tom and the shaggin thing is dangerous. Very very poor Irish maps. (Yes, mine is up to date).

Victor_M

Igo would be my choice, but I use Tom Tom the odd bit, it's good around Dublin City centre but can be hit and miss with newer developments.

Co pilot get decent reviews too, a fair bit cheaper also.

Deedsie

Are these other apps you can buy off the itunes store? Would they have similar holders etc?

Bluehair

Yup all on the itunes store. For what it's worth I found CoPilot to be by far and away the superior product. Google it for a few reviews.

By the way you will need an in-car charger. The satnav apps are all pretty hard on juice.

rebel.ranter

Deedsie wrote: »

Would they have similar holders etc?

You would need to get something like this:

In-car holder on EBay

As mentioned you will definitely need a car charger too:

In-car chager on EBay

Victor_M

rebel.ranter wrote: »

You would need to get something like this:

In-car holder on EBay

As mentioned you will definitely need a car charger too:

In-car chager on EBay

Just on those accessories rebel.ranter linked too, be careful of the really cheap chargers on Ebay most of them are as cheap as it gets and at best they charge slower than the battery is wasting, at worst they damage the battery stick to brands like Kensington, griffin, belkin etc, same goes for the holder, some nifty kits out there, you get what you pay for in a big way with those accessories.

New.White.Socks

I've got the Navigon Europe app and the Irish maps are perfect on it. Really impressed by it.

TomTom make a cool holder for the car that charges the phone and amplifies directions, but its something like $150, so not really worth it in my opinion. Especially when you're paying about 150 for the app itself.
My phone sits nicely in the car in a little spot that was put in long before anyone ever heard of iphones! And the good ole traditional aux cable routes the sound through the car speakers just fine!

mossym

Bluehair wrote: »

Yup all on the itunes store. For what it's worth I found CoPilot to be by far and away the superior product. Google it for a few reviews.

By the way you will need an in-car charger. The satnav apps are all pretty hard on juice.

+!, co-piolot user here and i find it's beter than most of the standalone gps's ive ever used

iKeith

yeah copilot is the bomb :evil grin:

Deedsie

I wonder could you use the tomtom holder with the CoPilot app? I dont have an audio out on my car stereo.

vw-golf-gt-sport-tsi_8.jpg

byte

Interesting thread. I was debating between TomTom, CoPilot and Navigon.

Think for the price, it's hard to ignore CoPilot.

From what I gather, both Navigon and CoPilot use Navteq mapping which is generally better than TeleAtlas (TomTom) in Ireland.

The TomTom car accessory does work with CoPilot, and is €99

http://www.tomtom.com/products/product.php?ID=939&Category=2&Lid=25

New.White.Socks

The Big Gig wrote: »

Have it, yep its very good. On 3gs it uses the gps chip which is not on 2g or 3g (i think) so no it doesn't "use the internet"

The iPhone 3g has the gps chip, which means you don't need to connect to the net to use it, which is important in lots of parts of Ireland and especially when going abroad. The 3gs does have a digital compass that the others don't have though, so knowing which direction your facing is more accurate with the 3gs.


Has anyone got the TomTom holder thing?

Deedsie

I just ordered the TomTom holder. As soon as i get it i will report back about it.

Unfortunately the stereo in my car is not compatible with the aux out wire. Might try find a way around that to get full use out of it.

keane2097

I got TomTom the other day and used it going from Limerick to Dublin.

I'd echo what has been said already in that it was excellent getting me to my destination in Dublin, I switched it off once I got to the motorway but that's just "continue for 130 miles" anyway.

New.White.Socks

The other thing about the TomTom car kit thing is that it's got its own GPS chip, which boosts the signal, so it's more accurate and you're less likely to lose the satellite while using it.

byte

Deedsie wrote: »

I just ordered the TomTom holder. As soon as i get it i will report back about it.

Unfortunately the stereo in my car is not compatible with the aux out wire. Might try find a way around that to get full use out of it.

I'll be interested on your views of the holder when it arrives.

It's pricey at 100euro, though, as stated, does have its own GPS and a sepereate speaker for better sound.

Deedsie

byte wrote: »

I'll be interested on your views of the holder when it arrives.

It's pricey at 100euro, though, as stated, does have its own GPS and a sepereate speaker for better sound.

Its €99 and £99. And that covers P&P aswell. I mean how often are Irish customers getting the good side of the currency exchange. I actually think that is half of what made me take the plunge, not being charged more than the UK for once.

I ordered it Monday morning. Hopefully it will arrive before the weekend. Ill try it out as much as i can and report back next Monday. Unfortunately my car stereo is crap. I am trying to find a way to make it compatible with the Tom Tom Kit. That'll prob cost me another few €. Gonna do it myself to save.

Victor_M

Deedsie wrote: »

Its €99 and £99. And that covers P&P aswell. I mean how often are Irish customers getting the good side of the currency exchange. I actually think that is half of what made me take the plunge, not being charged more than the UK for once.

I ordered it Monday morning. Hopefully it will arrive before the weekend. Ill try it out as much as i can and report back next Monday. Unfortunately my car stereo is crap. I am trying to find a way to make it compatible with the Tom Tom Kit. That'll prob cost me another few €. Gonna do it myself to save.

You can use the TT cradle as a hands free car-kit too! What type of car radio do you have? I'll try and find something that will allow you play music through the car speakers.

Deedsie

Victor_M wrote: »

You can use the TT cradle as a hands free car-kit too! What type of car radio do you have? I'll try and find something that will allow you play music through the car speakers.

Its a factory fit RCD 300 in a 2006 Volkswagen Golf 1.9TDI Comfortline. I have created this thread on a Volkswagen forum to try find away around the problem:

http://www.vwaudiforum.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?p=468776#post468776

If you are familiar with car stereos Id really appreciate some guidance.

I set up a thread on boards too but i received no reponses in the Motoring section.

Victor_M

You could use one of these in conjunction with the TT cradle the Aux in will play the sound from the iPhone through the car stereo.

It is designed to connect to an iPhone directly but the TT cradle doesn't have a dock connector pass through, but you could use the 3.5mm aux in only if you really want to play music through the car stereo, sound quality from these kits is very good.

AlanD

I have TomTom and Navigon on my iPhone. The only good thing about TomTom is the IQRoutes and it's time calculation. Apart from the that, I think the map drawings are not good at all. They look like a child drew them. And with no auto switch to night mode (could have missed a setting), I really don't like using it.

Navigon is brilliant though. Like it a lot. Nice UI too.

I also use the TomTom cradle which I find very good. It has it's flaws. GPS signal is certainly much better now. Music playback is odd. It's very loud I find at low volume settings. But I can work with it. The handfree phone is quite good too, but one thing, if you have been on your own in the car and been listening to music that has been turned up a nice bit, it's hard to hear the handsfree....all down to aural perception, but it could do with being a bit louder.

Lastly, when the cradle is in landscape, a bump makes it fall down. Other that, glad I bought it.

Deedsie

Apologies for taking so long reviewing the Tom Tom kit and App. I would have to echo what Alan D said. I have version 1.2 of the app and the maps are pretty awful. Two examples: The galway bypass doesnt exist, Apparently i drove from Galway to Loughrea through fields. The N7 junction on the Nenagh Limerick road, the tomtom app gets totally confused on the roundabouts.

It has great potential but unless they improve the quality of the maps i wouldnt recommend buying it. They actually have some cheek to charge what they do for such poor mapping. The POIs are not that accurate and the database should have more information.

The Car Kit on the other hand is great. Unfortuantely i dont have the Aux in yet, should be getting that done Saturday. I will review it more thoroughly then.

The Poker club

*SNIP*

scottyboy

I've used both Tom Tom and CoPilot and would prefer CoPilot. As a cheaper option to the Tom Tom cradle, try the Belkin iPhone Tunebase FM Transmitter/Charger/Holder thing, http://www.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=492841 it is selling for €49 at halfords at the moment.

You can use either the FM transmitter or an AUX connection for hands free, music or GPS audio feed and has a built in microphone to improve the sound quality for hands free.

seamus

I'd started a thread on Motors cos I wanted to replace the stock radio in my car with something with bluetooth and a USB port, without losing any of the car's features but it turns out that would have cost upwards of €500.

The TomTom yoke looks like the right job though for only €100, I've an AUX cable on the way to plug into the stereo.

The Belkin one also looks good, but why oh why do so many of these iPhone docks insist on plugging directly into the cigarette lighter? If I was to put it there, it would be at my left hand (not ideal) and it would also be in the way of my gearstick. Pretty sure these docks are designed mainly for the US/EU market where the cars are left-hand drive and automatic.

Deedsie

seamus wrote: »

I'd started a thread on Motors cos I wanted to replace the stock radio in my car with something with bluetooth and a USB port, without losing any of the car's features but it turns out that would have cost upwards of €500.

The TomTom yoke looks like the right job though for only €100, I've an AUX cable on the way to plug into the stereo.

The Belkin one also looks good, but why oh why do so many of these iPhone docks insist on plugging directly into the cigarette lighter? If I was to put it there, it would be at my left hand (not ideal) and it would also be in the way of my gearstick. Pretty sure these docks are designed mainly for the US/EU market where the cars are left-hand drive and automatic.

The flex is quite long. I think it would stretch over to the right of the steering wheel.

seamus

On the Belkin one? I downloaded the manual and it appears to only connect directly into the cigarette lighter.

I went ahead and ordered the TomTom one from Tomtom.com - €10 cheaper than the apple store. Couldn't find any bad reviews on it except for people complaining about the cost of the App itself, which I've no intention of buying.

Deedsie

seamus wrote: »

On the Belkin one? I downloaded the manual and it appears to only connect directly into the cigarette lighter.

I went ahead and ordered the TomTom one from Tomtom.com - €10 cheaper than the apple store. Couldn't find any bad reviews on it except for people complaining about the cost of the App itself, which I've no intention of buying.

No the tomtom car kit. I have it, got it off tomtom.com too! Great unit! Couldn't fault it really!

Mister Gooey

Have the TomTom car kit as well. Excellent piece of kit and works with all GPS Iphone packages. I use it the TomTom iphone software and have had no problems yet. It is very quick to boot up and lock in your position.

I have the iphone and car kit seated on the dashboard connected to the car stereo so you can also listen to your ipod (on your iphone) through the car stereo. Brilliant!

scottyboy

The Belkin unit needs to be connected to the cigarette lighter socket so, yes, this can be a pain. Otherwise, it is a good unit. I'm guessing that the Tom Tom version is charged from the cigarette lighter via a cable as you really need to power the iphone when using GPS as it sucks the life out of the battery?