PRESS RELEASE: TomTom Launches Navigator 3

woody67 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 03, 2004 Posts: 34

How much of a problem would it be for TT to release a 'patch' to the map data to include the new roads mentioned?

Or in fact a new map file - as the map data is separate form the rest of the software?

Dave · Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2004 1:33 pm Post subject:

They would really have to release the whole country file because the file is compressed.

anglefire · Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2004 2:56 pm Post subject:

Sounds like a bit of inside information. Wink

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vxer · Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2004 5:10 pm Post subject: Which maps in the upgrade

I'm a little confused as to how TT intend to upgrade the maps from single country. They say 49 euros to upgrade PLUS the Eurpoean maps. I guess it's the translation but unless I'm mistaken I assume this does NOT include the full European suite does it?? If it's not that are they going to send just TTN3 UK editions to Uk, France to France etc. ? - because this seems rather complex for them logistically. I would like to have France specifically. It used to be possible to buy by country. If they ARE only going to give you a single country it seems a bit mean to make us pay full whack for the whole of Europe. On the other hand 49 euros would be a great price for the lot!!!!!!

a4ace · Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2004 6:24 pm Post subject:

Dave · Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2004 6:29 pm Post subject:

There's a lower limit on searching, I think it's like 3 or 4 chars so you don't bring back 10,000 posts that's why you didn't pick anything up re M6.

a4ace · Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2004 9:21 pm Post subject:

thedon · Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2004 10:11 pm Post subject:

I've only had TT2 since January, but think it's fantastic and can generally live with it's flaws.

However I live in a fast growing town (swindon), and it's very apparent how quickly you accept a new road in your mind, but how long it takes to arrive in software (although I have only ever used multimap, MS Autoroute, and now TomTom Navigator).

Today I drove from Swindon to a little village called Slimbridge with a Swan / Duck sanctuary via the A419 / M5 which was redeveloped about 5 years ago, and was amazed at the number of time we disappeared off the map - although in fairness the new road was opened in stages.

I did however lose about 20 mins due to TT2 navigating via the M5 (in the wrong direction), as the slip road to enter the m way had moved.....

As posted above - trust your sense over old data!

I will of course be watching www.tomtom.com like a hawk in mid april, to get my upgrade asap...

MikeB · Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2004 10:19 pm Post subject:

MikeB · Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2004 10:49 pm Post subject:

Davidb67 · Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2004 11:05 pm Post subject: TTN; B/T GPS & GPRS

Crikey!!! anachronym overload!!

just travelled from Newcastle to Worksop and back today and although i know the route well enough, and there's no cameras, thought i'd take the opportunity to see if trying to make a GPRS connection on from my iPaq 3970 to my moto v600, whilst the 3970 was running TTN2 and "talking" to the Emtac b/t GPS would work.
as reported previously, it worked fine with no interuptions, but NOT whilst either of my b/t headsets (have Jabra, and got a moto one free with the v600) was connected to the mobile.
this was interesting for 2 reasons: i plan to upgrade to TTN3 to make use of the traffic info feature, and also i'll be changing company car soon and plan to get a b/t car kit to be able to use both my work and private mobiles (obviously not together!).

woody67 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 03, 2004 Posts: 34

I think there are 2 issues here -

1. Sorting out the map data is an ongoing programme - TT I am sure, will be working on the next lot of maps now. It would be therefore reasonable to assume that a small team would take no longer than 4/6 months to prepare the TT maps, and so could release up to date maps at 4/6 monthly intervals. And as the maps are separate from the software, then there is no need to tie software and map releases.

Also, it is not as if all of the UK data needs re-doing. Only the new roads need to be added Rolling Eyes

How many new roads are there every 4/6months? Not many.

2. Roads and housing estates don't suddenly appear. The planners use gps to prepare their layouts and site plans/routes and this information will be available to the map producers. They could easily put proposed or partially completed roads into their database - if those roads are likely to be completed by he time the maps will be released. OK, there may be a margin of error - but surely a slightly off road is better than no road at all?

Looking at paper maps, then new or proposed roads are put in with dotted lines and a 'completion date' printed along it. Couldn't something like this be done?

Its been mentioned that the map suppliers like to physically drive the route. Now, TT may not have the clout to make demands of thier map supplier. But TT and the other software providers have a lot of disatisfied customers - whom they should be listening to. If they all got togther and then went to the map data provider and said "this is what our customers want", then perhaps they could get the correct data earlier.

As TT is web activated, and users are likely to be connected to the web, then surely map data should be available to download. This will be a little cost compared to distribution by mail. Not everyone has the full UK map loaded, so not everyone needs the full download. Plus how do companies like Symantec, Dell or Asda manage with lots of people accessing their sites at the same time?

No, TT really need to get their priorities right.
Give us new roads - and not new icons

dickbo · Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2004 2:28 am Post subject:

Regarding the option to enter journey breaks. Does this option include stopover times.

I note that GPRS is required in order to use the trafic warning system and although the actual service is relativly low cost I might point out that a GPRS service is pretty expensive, in my own case if I required to use it I would need to cough up over £30.00 per month before the traffic service charges were added in.

Richard :|

gordonh · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 20, 2004 Posts: 6

Why could TomTom not do something clever, like allow the software to record routes taken or tracks, that you could then email off to TomTom for with details for inclusion in the next monthly map update ?

They could only allow map additions that have come from a number of sources, and even rate the people uploading the data, so regular reliable users could help the rest of the community.

I've loaded tracks from a Garmin 12XL onto PC mapping software and the data that gets supplied should be useable by TomTom to do a temporary map patch. They could also feed information back to their map suppliers for inclusion in their maps.

The data won't be fully surveyed, but they claim that the GPS unit are 95% accurate which should be good enough for routing.

This way we would all have very upto date maps, as soon as a few users have actually driven along them.

Gordon

MrT · Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2004 7:52 am Post subject: If Alturion can, why not TomTom?

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