PREVIEW COMMENTS: TomTom Navigator 2

iancjc

Oldie

its been a while since I've been to Aldershot - actually it was to see one of (or perhaps the) last game they played as a league side (Steve Claridge was playing for them at the time), must be 11 years ago......

I have no wish to navigate there again (GPS or otherwise) until they they play the mighty Cambridge Utd again.

I think I'll leave you to hook up with Darren

Cheers

Ian

RichDem

Hi Guys,

I live in Reading, Maybe we could meet up sometime at a local venue to discuss things. What do you think?

Richard

Dave

Sounds like we'll have to get a southern gathering going shortly...

Darren

Quote: Originally posted by iancjc on 04 April 2003

Darren

shouldn't you be back praising plusnet for your great adsl connection rather than trying to get a date on a Friday night!

Want to come back and see my gps unit?

You stalking me!! Would have replied earlier but my ADSL link died

_________________
Darren Griffin

Darren

Quote: Originally posted by Oldie on 04 April 2003

Yes, I live in Farnham close to the border with Aldershot. Fleet is very close.

Richard

I ask because I live in Fleet. As Dave has said, perhaps we ought to consider a get together for any members in the London & SE areas?
_________________
Darren Griffin

jedstagg

Guys

I think I need your help.

I am currently looking to buy a sat nav system, and at present do not have a PDA/pocket PC.

I have heard good things about NavMan, but am looking at TomTom2 at the moment, since it is quite a bit cheaper. PC World advised me that there were a number of problems with the first version ("it didn't work") leading to the product being recalled. Is this true? Anyone aware of any problems with the new version?

Secondly, I wondered if any might know where I should shop. Dixons currently have a Toshiba PDA with TomTom2 for £500. Amazon sell the Toshiba PDA seperately for c.£250, though I understand TomTom2 itself costs £250, so it does not appear to be cheaper to buy it seperately. Any ideas?

I appreciate your help, because I can't seem to find any other decent buyers guides on the internet!

Many thanks,

Jed

Dave

! Never listen to what Dixon's, Curry's or PC World have to say. Sorry if there's anyone here who works for these companies, but the amount of time I hear them saying things like it was recalled, it's no longer in production, when in-fact they have just decided not to stock it anymore.

Truth of the matter is that there were issues with TomTom Navigator 1 (map problems), lots of them, it wasn't recalled, map problems are better with Navigator 2, still some problems here though. TomTom are always improving their product and release frequent bug fixes, it never was recalled. Go and slap the person who told you this around the face and tell them to wake up.

Firstly it depends on the PDA you're going to use, the Navman bundle will ONLY work on an iPAQ, pref 3800, 3900, 5400 series. The Navman is good for portablity, but fix times aren't as quick as other's. TomTom Navigator gives you the freedom of mixing and matching the software and hardware (be it PDA or GPS Receiver), so you have a wide range of options open.

At the top of this page and every page on Pocket GPS (under our big logo/banner) there's a menu system. Check out the hardware reviews and software reviews. There's some very good reviews here, and that should help sway you in a direction. There's systems that will keep you locked permanently to the car, or mobile systems like the Navman or Emtac sleeve, and even more mobile cableless systems like the Emtac/Socket Bluetooth GPS.

Also check out our Compare Hardware page as this shows which Pocket PC's have which storage solutions, and also which GPS hardware works with which PDA's.

nicknick · Regular Visitor Joined: 03/02/2003 17:18:53 Posts: 154

I couldn't believe Amazon were selling a Toshiba for £250 so I had to have a look. That one is a secondhand one (but it does have some nice accessories).

But for £258 you could get a brand new Dell Axim, or for £187 the lower spec Axim, and you can get a TTN2 package for that.

Nick

GuyC

Dave,

I think your comment about Navman TTFF may no longer be valid. I use a Navman, but because Navman told me the voice software was not supported on my IPAQ3630, I use TomTom. Since upgrading to TTN2 all the TTFF problems have gone away, it is always less than a minute and recovers from tunnels etc. imediately the signal is available. I think the problems I used to get with Smartpath and TTN 1.xx must have been caused by the driver.

Dave

The newer sleeves I think have most of the TTFF problems eradicated as they are running a newer firmware version. Navman have recently sent me a new firmware sleeve and comparing this against the old firmware sleeve does run much better, people do have to be warey though that some sleeves may have been sitting around for a period of time and might have an old firmware release on them.

SteveW

Jed,

Got mine from http://www.totalpda.co.uk - worth a look, but remember u need some way to get the extra memory. I got my Europe maps from these http://www.globalpositioningsystems.co.uk/ also a good price, and both good service.

Cheers,

Steve.

jedstagg

Thanks for your responses.

Just double checked on Amazon, and they currently have the Toshiba E330 for £200 (new). I understand that this is compatable with TomTom2, but could not see the TomTom GPS on the 'Compare Hardware' link posted above.

I gather from reading the above comments that despite a few glitches in the mapping, you are all more than satisifed with the product? I think I have now decided to go for the TomTom -now just need to find PDA & TomTom for a decent price. Steve mentions in the above posting that he got his from TotalPDA - I looked at these people, but was worried that they only offer a 2 month warranty, and that the PDA is refurbished? Was yours OK? It seems quite a bit of money to spend considering that if the PDA stops working after a couple of months you have no comeback...

Reckon I'll probably go for the Toshiba PDA on Amazon and then shop around for the cheapest TomTom software I can find. But then I'm more than happy to be swayed by your collective guidance...

Thanks!

Jed

alanparrott

Dave, any performance issues?

i.e. have you tried it on a 3630?

Cheers

Alan

Cessquill

Cool! Thanks for that Dave. My appetite couldn't get much whetter, and I look forward to receiving my email to place my order (unless my CD didn't make it back).

Having only jumped on the TomTom bandwagon late last year I don't know what's likely to happen...

Do you think there'll be some progressive version tweaks and fixes once TTN2 is downloaded, or is this pretty much the finished version?

I say this because - from looking at your screenshots - it looks like some of the user interface was designed by the developers. Obviously no showstoppers in there, and I'm sure it does the job admirably, but using things like housenr and streetname on user dialogs suggests that bits of it are still developer-interface rather than user-interface (I wonder if there's a DI and UI acronym system in the trade).

That said, did you say that this was a pre-release version?

Either way, can't wait. Thanks again.
_________________
What's going on? Where am I?

harrinp1

Nice mini review.

I'm not upgrading but decided to purchase. TotalPDA say

they are expecting their stock of TT2 to arrive today!

	PocketGPS
	Web