GPS Navigation APP - TomTom

I have a Garmin 760 which I have become dependant upon--so when it quit on my wife and I in the backwoods of Arkansas I decided I needed a backup plan. Dirt roads all tend to look alike and you can see some interesting territory if you haven't been paying attention to the map and suddenly find the GPS you have been blithely following to be dead.

After much research I decided on the TomTom App which I now have installed on both of our iPhones and iPads. Haven't used it much but seems to work fairly well. I went with one of the larger paid APPs for the downloaded maps. A lot of places we tend to go don't have cell phone reception, in fact where I am most likely to actually need a GPS is when I am least likely to have phone service.

My reason for posting is feedback from others using Tom, Navigon, Magellan etc APPs and for good ideas for mounting iPad for in car use.

IMHO, an iPad for use while driving is a bad idea. It can't be mounted on the windshield or dashboard for easy line of site to the navigation screen which means you're going to have to do something else with it. That probably means having to take your eyes off the road which isn't a good idea.

Use your iPhone instead. TomTom actually has a really nice iPhone kit you can get:
Amazon.com: TomTom Car Kit for iPhone: Electronics

I don't use TomTom on my iPhone, but I have a stand alone TomTom unit that I love:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000PCBVA6/?tag=macforums0e4-20

I switched from Garmin. Both are solid, I just prefer TomTom's UI and Mac update software more.

I have absolutely nothing to compare this to, so I'm not sure how useful this review is, but I do have Navigon on my iPhone 3G (8 GB model).

Overall I'm pretty happy with it, but I really think it's designed to be run on the 3GS and iPhone 4 models. My phone apparently doesn't have the power to run such a large program. It often hiccups in the spoken directions. It is incredibly slow to load. The iPod is accessible, but it takes it forever to get going and about half the time I can't even get it to work. However, I'm hoping that these problems are simply due to the phone and not the software.

I have a window mount (link) for it and the vast majority of the time it picks up the GPS signal pretty well. There are a few times it is sluggish, but that usually is fixed when I take the phone out of its case.

There have been a few times that it was unable to find POIs that I knew existed. Once I was in the parking lot of a Publix grocery story and Navigon told me the closest grocery store was about a mile away. There have been a couple of times I entered an address or found a POI using the Google search feature, and it took me somewhere else...but then again these may be problems that are sometimes encountered with all GPS units.

The advantage to the Tom Tom is that you can get the official window mount thing that strengthens the GPS signal and doubles as a charger. Of course, you'll pay a pretty penny for it through.

The main disadvantage to using your phone is that when someone calls you it interferes with the program. With the new multitasking feature that problem is lessened considerably because now you can continue to view the GPS program while talking, but it still would be a brief interruption.

I've thought about getting the TomTom car unit for the iPhone but have two issues with it:

1) I'm somewhat cheap and don't like the idea of paying $100 for an adaptor to use my iPhone when I can get a stand alone GPS for not much more

2) I don't like a window mount. I have a friction deskmount for the Garmin that I really like. If the ball head for the friction mount will work with the TomTom iPhone adaptor head I would be inclined to consider it.

Schweb,
I agree with your concern about diverting the eyes and using the iPad but I don't tend to look a the GPS screen much while driving anyway. My wife provides the eyes on if needed, though for that matter she could just hold it so a mount may not be an issue.

Hey...don't hold your breath...some creative person or company may come out with some sort of mount for the iPad when in the car.

But as it stands now...there doesn't seem to be one.

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

Hey...don't hold your breath...some creative person or company may come out with some sort of mount for the iPad when in the car.

But as it stands now...there doesn't seem to be one.

- Nick

Click to expand...

Since I live in Arkansas, I could just ductape it to my steering wheel. Or for that matter, I have the inCase case which doubles as a stand. I could use carpet tape to keep it in, place on the dashboard. ;D

I think for the duration my wife will be the in car holder . . . though, a flip down holder like the car DVD players would be nice too. Might be hard to concentrate on driving with Star Trek playing on the iPad.

pigoo3 said:

Hey...don't hold your breath...some creative person or company may come out with some sort of mount for the iPad when in the car.

But as it stands now...there doesn't seem to be one.

- Nick

Click to expand...

May? It's already been done my friend:

YouTube - iPad in Car - Scosche Dash Kit for iPad

YouTube - iPad Steering Wheel Mount Product Demonstration