TomTom iPhone Car Kit Yes, the iPhone incarnation of TomTom's GPS navigation system is a bit on the pricey side. But if you're a fan, you're used to paying a pretty penny for flashy tech. And this TomTom actually gets the job done. TomTom car kit for iPhone The TomTom car kit for iPhone mounts firmly and easily to your car's windshield - or …
Thanks for the review. So, to get this to work with my car's Bluetooth system would involve first pairing the iPhone with the car kit, then pairing the car kit with the car? Is that even possible?
Why on earth didn't TomTom use the dock connector to link the iPhone to the car kit?
The potential for failure is high here.
Tim
"The price differential..." should read "The price difference".
Differential is becoming an overused word for describing differences as mundane as prices or football score. Unless you're doing differential calculus then please stick to the word 'difference'. It's worked for hundreds of years.
Or, more to the point, the US prices? El Reg is a UK site - why not report the UK prices?
The £99 price tag looks pretty steep when compared to CoPilot, although given you get the holder included I suppose it's not too bad. Compared to the £26 cost of CoPilot on the Android, which gives all the same features and UK+Ireland maps, it looks horrendously expensive - and CoPilot is really very good from my experiences with it so far.
It'll be interesting to see how many people take this up, given that in the US Google's Driveabout turn-by-turn nav is freeeeee.
Does the mount force you to have the iPhone in widescreen? I've never understood why SatNavs have widescreen displays. Call me strange but, when driving, I'm usually more interested in the layout of the road AHEAD of me, rather than what's to either side. I can look out of the windows to see that.
I've never had problems with the accuracy of the iPhone 3G's built-in GPS receiver when using Navigon (which allegedly works with the TomTom dock).
What I do like about the dock is that it integrates the line-out and charging into a single dock connector, so all you have to do to power an iPhone and link it to your stereo line-in is plop it in the dock.
It also looks much more secure than the Griffin WindowSeat I'm currently using - because of the way my windscreen slopes and the relative inflexibility of the arm joints, I have to have it at its maximum length, and it rattles around a lot.
So basically I'd be happier if I could get hold of a cheaper one of these without the GPS receiver built in, but as far as I'm aware nobody makes anything like this.
The software alone works pretty well provided you can hear the voice instructions. The speakers on the iphone itself are too weedy, but if you've already got an FM re-transmitter then you can listen to the iphone as an ipod and hear the voice instructions (the music volume is muted) all over the car radio. So it isn't killer expensive (less than a dedicated satnav) if you aleady have the other stuff anyway.
Terrible price, immediate fail on that for me, but I still have two questions...
1. Can it provide voice nav over bluetooth ?
2. Is it properly multitasking ? What happens if a call or txt comes in ? Can it continue to route for the duration of the call ? Does the app focus switch to a call, or does TomTom remain on top, and if the former can it still provide voice directions during a call ?
Was interested to see what the writeup of the car kit was as I have had the app for 3 months and know what it does, but the car kit is new. So was a bit disappointed to see a review of the app in the US with a couple of lines about the car kit.
Does the onboard GPS actually improve the reception? Whats the audio quality like? That kind of thing. And UK based given that we are rarely in SF...
For once I feel sorry for iPhone owners, especially if they buy TomTom. They know nothing of customer loyalty and will quite happily charge you full price for software updates where as all the other companies I buy software from will offer you a discount for an upgrade (MS included), may seem trivial but when your paying £70+ for maps each time!
I don't have an iPhone but after a few years of being financially abused by TomTom I ditched them and went with CoPilot as version 8 of their software is definately worthy of what I'd paid for the TomTom product but thankully CoPilot don't charge that much and if you have a HTC phone with version 7 installed (which obviously comes for free) they will still let you have a discount when upgrading to version 8, happy days, even happier that I could take all my custom favourites and POIs with me as well.
CoPilot you will have my money for a number of years if you keep that attitude, TomTom you can get stuffed.
Paris....errrrr..... ummm, cause she gets about a bit.
I have the application and mount for my iphone. The mount is of good design and holds the phone well. The idea always having the power and line out always connected is good but does not work in practice. I have to use the dedicated charge to reduce feed back but the cable bends downwards and get caught on my dashboard. To further reduce feedback I have had to purchase a rather expensive cable which has a huge great collar around the connector so only just fits in to the mount. I would not bother replacing the mount it is very overrated. I still get terrible feedback.
The application is a very cut-down version of navigator 7 and is missing a lot of functionality. Itunes are also refusing to issue a VAT receipt for my purchase. I have reported them to HMRC and await their comments. Itunes state that no itunes purchases can be used for business purposes. I think someone should tell that to their itunes website developers.
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