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TomTom Mobile review
EDIT (01-11-04) TomTom is now works on the C500
It's finally arrived the one app I have been waiting for since the Smartphone was released, Tom Tom Mobile.
TTM comes complete with it's own excellent Sirf XTrac BlueTooth GPS unit, as I had a pre-release version I did not have any guides for setting up (then again who reads the instruction books
) but the whole process is so simple it only took minutes to get up and running. TomTom Mobile will not support other GPS Blutooth devices as this is their method of security, which I believe is a smart move to reduce those out there who like to steal their software instead of pay for it.
I tested TTM on an E200 that I was using as my every day phone, that way I could do my testing in a real world environment. TTM comes preinstalled on an MMC card for ease of use so all you need to do is place the card in the phone, turn on the GPS unit and go to Start TomTom Mobile and you are away. BlueTooth is automatically configured so you do not even have to worry about settings. The only thing I found is that you must turn on the GPS unit before starting up TTM, otherwise it will not be detected. This is a standard thing with the PPC version as well and does not cause any problems you just need to be methodical on start-up.
Plan your first route
On start up you get the usual legal safety notice explaining that you are responsible for safe driving, and that the app should not be used (i.e. planning your route) while driving.
Once you agree to this you are taken straight to the 3D-map view. The up and down on the five way controller gives you zoom control while the action button takes you to the main menu.
Once in the main menu choose option 1. Navigate to this then takes you to a sub menu for choosing your final destination at the end of your journey.
So from this menu choose option 3. Address and you are given a Search bar which shows City: You do not need to enter a City location as the software is smart enough that it lets you type say your village or even a Post Code.
As with your Contacts list the more letters you type the Search narrows to the area you want.
Once you have the desired area, press Select and you can now enter the street name.
After you have found and selected the street name the last thing you have to do it type in the house number then select OK, your route from your current location to your end stop will now be planned.
Once driving it is best to use the voice prompt, as this will give you clear instructions on your route. Commands for when to turn what exit on a roundabout to take etc is straight forward and remarkably clear given the speaker on the E200. This also saves you being distracted by the screen even though you still grab the occasional peek just to see how well the real time GPS location unit is doing.
Another thing to mention is the range of voice commands that are available, you have a male and female support for each of the countries that TTM is available for.
My favourite part of TTM is the ability to find an alternative route after you have made a wrong turn, either by mistake or intentional. The recalculation is very quick, so you are not left panicking on what to do next. An alternative to this is that you can go to the main menu and choose an alternative route, for example if you see a road block ahead you can then pre-plan an alternative route to miss the problem.
Shortcuts
The 5 way controller; this gives you
Action = Menu system
Up, Down = Zoom in, out
Left and Right = Volume up and down
Soft Key 1 = Main Menu, then variable after depending screen you are on.
Soft Key 2 = Planned Route then variable after depending screen you are on.
Back Key = Sound on, off
Key 1 – Navigate to
Key 2 & 3 = Main Menu page 1
Key 4 = Add Favourite
Key 5 = Preferences
Key 6 = Main Menu page 2
Key 7,8,9,0,* & # = Last voice command
Exploring the Menu System
Most of the menus will probably be used initially to customise to your own taste but afterwards the average user need not worry too much about them.
The main features in the menu system are Navigation, Add favourite, Plan from A to B, Browse map and Change preferences.
One of the first jobs you need to do is add your own home or office as the Home location, this will then enable you to quickly plan a start or finish the most common location easily without having to manually type it in every time. Once this has been done you can then create your Favourite address listings, which you can then add as many addresses as you need, i.e. family and friends and common work places etc.
A nice touch is the add GPS position to the favourite list so if you find a place you would like to visit again while on a journey, but are unsure of it's name you can add this to your list and name it what you like.
Another similar option is the POI (Points Of Interest) this is a massive pre-programmed list of various places ranging from petrol stations and car parks, to zoos and local cinemas. Not every location is available i.e. only the main zoos are listed but you can add your own places of interest instead of adding them to your favourite lists.
The thing that amazed me most with the POI list was that all my local petrol stations and more importantly cash points (ATM for non-U.K. readers) machines were listed with the details of which bank owned the machine. Also a user can manually copy 3rd party POI databases to the map folder or create their own in the application. And get warnings when nearby. Whether you import Speed (or Safety) camera databases or ATM's or ..., is up to you.
I have now been playing with the Safety Camera Database (speed camera location settings) from www.pocketgps.co.uk and all you have to do is drop the relevant database files in to the map folder and the POI is created instantly ready for you to select them.
Another part of POI settings I like is the ability to enable an alert with an adjustable distance setting and also different notification sounds for different types of POI.
Just a few Petrol Stations, Night View
Preferences
One last thing I will touch on here is the Preference menu. This menu allows you to alter items such as Voice command, Set measurement units, 3D display on and off and the nice touch of map colours.
The map colours can be changed to suit your taste but one feature I use all the time is the Day Light or Night colours option. The Night colours reduce the brightness of the screen image and so makes the unit less distracting while driving.
For those that do not like the 3D view you can change the view to an overhead map view this map can still be zoomed in and out but personally I find it harder to follow as the 3D map is displayed in a more perspective angle to the driver.
Zooming in to my local B&Q Car Park
To summarise TomTom Mobile for me is the best application I have ever used on the phone, it works well and I have never encountered lockups etc. The only app I have found that conflicts with TTM is Xbar, it is not a major problem but reduces the way the menu system works slightly.
TomTom Mobile is available in the following countries,
Italy, Spain, France, Benelux, UK, Germany, Alps and Scandinavia
Update 01/11/04
1. You need 6,5 MB free mem on MiniSD to update.
To free memory you can remove voicefiles.
Two types are available: tomtom/dataXX.chk (16kHz for S60 and MSSP) and tomtom/dataXX.22k (22kHZ for MSSP only).
MSSP users can delete any double 16kHZ voice file, S60 users can delete any (double) 22kHz voice file.
E.g. if you have data04.chk, data05.chk, data04.22k and data05.22k (all english voices), you can delete the files data04.chk and data05.chk, because the 22kHz voicefiles are of higher quality. The app will always try to open 22kHz voicefiles first if present.
2. If gps connection does not work on C500, you might need to follow these steps:
To connect with bluetooth:
* throw away all TomTom Wireless GPS - devices from your BlueTooth settings (menu Settings (4) - BlueTooth ( )
* DISABLE COM7 - support (menu Configurations (997) - BT SerialPortSetup (2) - second checkbox)
* start TomTom MOBILE (wait 1:30 minute; there should be a beep and another question 'This application is not known...')
* exit TomTom MOBILE
* switch your phone off and on again
* start TomTom MOBILE and you should have a connection with the TomTom Wireless GPS...
The Traffic update can be found here,
http://support.tomto...ware/ttm_sp.zip
EDIT (01-11-04) TomTom is now works on the C500
It's finally arrived the one app I have been waiting for since the Smartphone was released, Tom Tom Mobile.
TTM comes complete with it's own excellent Sirf XTrac BlueTooth GPS unit, as I had a pre-release version I did not have any guides for setting up (then again who reads the instruction books
) but the whole process is so simple it only took minutes to get up and running. TomTom Mobile will not support other GPS Blutooth devices as this is their method of security, which I believe is a smart move to reduce those out there who like to steal their software instead of pay for it. I tested TTM on an E200 that I was using as my every day phone, that way I could do my testing in a real world environment. TTM comes preinstalled on an MMC card for ease of use so all you need to do is place the card in the phone, turn on the GPS unit and go to Start TomTom Mobile and you are away. BlueTooth is automatically configured so you do not even have to worry about settings. The only thing I found is that you must turn on the GPS unit before starting up TTM, otherwise it will not be detected. This is a standard thing with the PPC version as well and does not cause any problems you just need to be methodical on start-up.
Plan your first route
On start up you get the usual legal safety notice explaining that you are responsible for safe driving, and that the app should not be used (i.e. planning your route) while driving.
Once you agree to this you are taken straight to the 3D-map view. The up and down on the five way controller gives you zoom control while the action button takes you to the main menu.
Once in the main menu choose option 1. Navigate to this then takes you to a sub menu for choosing your final destination at the end of your journey.
So from this menu choose option 3. Address and you are given a Search bar which shows City: You do not need to enter a City location as the software is smart enough that it lets you type say your village or even a Post Code.
As with your Contacts list the more letters you type the Search narrows to the area you want.
Once you have the desired area, press Select and you can now enter the street name.
After you have found and selected the street name the last thing you have to do it type in the house number then select OK, your route from your current location to your end stop will now be planned.
Once driving it is best to use the voice prompt, as this will give you clear instructions on your route. Commands for when to turn what exit on a roundabout to take etc is straight forward and remarkably clear given the speaker on the E200. This also saves you being distracted by the screen even though you still grab the occasional peek just to see how well the real time GPS location unit is doing.
Another thing to mention is the range of voice commands that are available, you have a male and female support for each of the countries that TTM is available for.
My favourite part of TTM is the ability to find an alternative route after you have made a wrong turn, either by mistake or intentional. The recalculation is very quick, so you are not left panicking on what to do next. An alternative to this is that you can go to the main menu and choose an alternative route, for example if you see a road block ahead you can then pre-plan an alternative route to miss the problem.
Shortcuts
The 5 way controller; this gives you
Action = Menu system
Up, Down = Zoom in, out
Left and Right = Volume up and down
Soft Key 1 = Main Menu, then variable after depending screen you are on.
Soft Key 2 = Planned Route then variable after depending screen you are on.
Back Key = Sound on, off
Key 1 – Navigate to
Key 2 & 3 = Main Menu page 1
Key 4 = Add Favourite
Key 5 = Preferences
Key 6 = Main Menu page 2
Key 7,8,9,0,* & # = Last voice command
Exploring the Menu System
Most of the menus will probably be used initially to customise to your own taste but afterwards the average user need not worry too much about them.
The main features in the menu system are Navigation, Add favourite, Plan from A to B, Browse map and Change preferences.
One of the first jobs you need to do is add your own home or office as the Home location, this will then enable you to quickly plan a start or finish the most common location easily without having to manually type it in every time. Once this has been done you can then create your Favourite address listings, which you can then add as many addresses as you need, i.e. family and friends and common work places etc.
A nice touch is the add GPS position to the favourite list so if you find a place you would like to visit again while on a journey, but are unsure of it's name you can add this to your list and name it what you like.
Another similar option is the POI (Points Of Interest) this is a massive pre-programmed list of various places ranging from petrol stations and car parks, to zoos and local cinemas. Not every location is available i.e. only the main zoos are listed but you can add your own places of interest instead of adding them to your favourite lists.
The thing that amazed me most with the POI list was that all my local petrol stations and more importantly cash points (ATM for non-U.K. readers) machines were listed with the details of which bank owned the machine. Also a user can manually copy 3rd party POI databases to the map folder or create their own in the application. And get warnings when nearby. Whether you import Speed (or Safety) camera databases or ATM's or ..., is up to you.
I have now been playing with the Safety Camera Database (speed camera location settings) from www.pocketgps.co.uk and all you have to do is drop the relevant database files in to the map folder and the POI is created instantly ready for you to select them.
Another part of POI settings I like is the ability to enable an alert with an adjustable distance setting and also different notification sounds for different types of POI.
Just a few Petrol Stations, Night View
Preferences
One last thing I will touch on here is the Preference menu. This menu allows you to alter items such as Voice command, Set measurement units, 3D display on and off and the nice touch of map colours.
The map colours can be changed to suit your taste but one feature I use all the time is the Day Light or Night colours option. The Night colours reduce the brightness of the screen image and so makes the unit less distracting while driving.
For those that do not like the 3D view you can change the view to an overhead map view this map can still be zoomed in and out but personally I find it harder to follow as the 3D map is displayed in a more perspective angle to the driver.
Zooming in to my local B&Q Car Park
To summarise TomTom Mobile for me is the best application I have ever used on the phone, it works well and I have never encountered lockups etc. The only app I have found that conflicts with TTM is Xbar, it is not a major problem but reduces the way the menu system works slightly.
TomTom Mobile is available in the following countries,
Italy, Spain, France, Benelux, UK, Germany, Alps and Scandinavia
Update 01/11/04
1. You need 6,5 MB free mem on MiniSD to update.
To free memory you can remove voicefiles.
Two types are available: tomtom/dataXX.chk (16kHz for S60 and MSSP) and tomtom/dataXX.22k (22kHZ for MSSP only).
MSSP users can delete any double 16kHZ voice file, S60 users can delete any (double) 22kHz voice file.
E.g. if you have data04.chk, data05.chk, data04.22k and data05.22k (all english voices), you can delete the files data04.chk and data05.chk, because the 22kHz voicefiles are of higher quality. The app will always try to open 22kHz voicefiles first if present.
2. If gps connection does not work on C500, you might need to follow these steps:
To connect with bluetooth:
* throw away all TomTom Wireless GPS - devices from your BlueTooth settings (menu Settings (4) - BlueTooth ( )
* DISABLE COM7 - support (menu Configurations (997) - BT SerialPortSetup (2) - second checkbox)
* start TomTom MOBILE (wait 1:30 minute; there should be a beep and another question 'This application is not known...')
* exit TomTom MOBILE
* switch your phone off and on again
* start TomTom MOBILE and you should have a connection with the TomTom Wireless GPS...
The Traffic update can be found here,
http://support.tomto...ware/ttm_sp.zip
Back to top
Nice review! Cheers.
Yes CoPilot will work with other BT GPS Receivers and indeed with wired GPS Mice on the E200. The Fortuna ClipOn is a good choice and better than the CoPilot receiver as it has a user replaceable battery and XTrac.
