TomTom Mobile Review & How2 Guide Now for C500

[Guest Pagemakers]

I have this app on my PPC. It is fantastic. You can download a whole heap of POI's including speed cameras here: http://www.pocketgps.co.uk/uksafetycameras.php

[Guest fozzie]

I don't know of any SD card slots/readers that aren't. Didn't your E200 come with a MMC card with trial apps on it? :)

[Guest sorcer1]

No, with an SD Card (8 Mb) from Orange (France).

[Guest travisb]

Slightly different question. I'm about to get the new Streets & Trips 2005 (only available in US), which apparently has the new version of Pocket Streets for Smartphone which supports gps.

If I buy Tom Tom mobile (as they release it for c500) for UK use, would I be able to use the Tom Tom BT gps box with Pocket Streets in US ( I go over 2 or 3 times a year and this would be soooo handy). Or does the Tom Tom box only work with Tom Tom software.

[Guest Blakey]

Anyone with mapopolis and tom tom care to write up some sort of comparison?

Cheers

Blakey

[Guest neilg]

griffog or someone else - Does co-pilot work with C500? I am guessing that any problems are BT serial port support and may affect all programs? Does anyone have access to co-pilot yet? GPS does seem to be the topic of the moment so a compatative review between mapopolis, tomtom, co-pilot owuld be great for anyone lucky enough to have access to all......Otherwise I will wait until Co-Pilot is out and try and but from somewhere with a returns policy, just in case!!

[Guest Paul [MVP]]

I am working on a comparative review, hopefully between CoPilot, TomTom, Mapopolis and the Orange solution...

P

[Guest neilg]

cheers Paul. What a class forum - the service is superb! :) :lol:

[Guest the_ugly_north]

Neilg,

Co-pilot works with C500 and is available now......

[Guest awarner [MVP]]

Here are a few replies I have from TomTom regarding some of the questions that have been asked here.

Q, Will support for other GPS Blutooth devices be possible?

A, No, this is our method of security for TomTom MOBILE.

(My thoughts were correct on this issue :))

Q Does in have built in POI warning for speed camera databases of POI's?? its rumoured to, but be nice for someone to confirm

A, We only supply our standard POI's and the POI warner (via Maintain POI's). 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 also asked about when the C500 fix would be released and have understandable been told that there is nothing worse then delaying or canceling early release messages. So a definate release date will be announced when they are 100% certain they are ready (unlike the Orange update saga)

[Guest neilg]

cheers the_ugly_north, I am just waiting for the new model of the emtac BT GPS reciever (Trine) to be released and see what the price is, since either the CRUX model will see a few quid off of the price or the trine will seem like it is worth the extra for the extra battery life....... good to know it works with SPV C500 though.

[Guest Djarid]

hmm

I would rather have my choice of receiver and use another app than be locked into tomtom.. what happens if your GPS receiver dies and you want to get the latest version...

Wonder how many sales tomtom will lose though this policy.

1 here anyway

[Guest the_ugly_north]

Neilg,

Look here for co-pilot with choice of GPS receivers

http://www.globalpositioningsystems.co.uk/...product_id=2595

[Guest neilg]

thanks for the links, still going to wait for paul's and or pocket gps world do a comparative review between TomTom, ALK, Mapopolis, Orange in house etc. TomTom not providing open support for GPS BT Recievers puts me off a little but it depends on it's overall functionaility. From what I have read in the various forums and reviews so far it seems that other companies are more open to incorporating feedback and change more quickly.

The emtec reciever seems to come out as the best of the bunch of the BT enabled gprs recievers so hopefully the 'Trine' version will be out by the time all the reviews are in!! Either way I am going to wait until after some more reviews appear before parting with another 200 quid!

[Guest awarner [MVP]]

Co-pilots not cheap though @ £239.94 incl. VAT

Compaired to TomTom Mobile @ £183.94 incl. VAT

from the same site, £56 is a big difference :?

When getting GPS unit make sure it's SiRF XTrac

[Guest neilg]

cheers awarner. I was looking on expansys and globalpositioning systems UK website. there is only a 20 quid difference on expansys, 10-quid more on tomtom, 20 quid cheaper on co-pilot! globalpositioning deal with a pre-pay C500 bundled is interesting though....

WIll still wait for reviews and see what comes out on top!

[Guest the_ugly_north]

awarner,

The price includes better (IMHO) receivers than the standard one with co-pilot. So the price difference of £56 is not indicitive of the difference between co-pilot (and bundled GPS receiver) and TomTom (and bunled GPS receiver). As Neilg has said the actual difference is £20.

Another point; tomtom normally charge approx 9EURO (per month?) for their traffic integration. co-pilot has not mentioned a charge for this.......

I am with neilg. Wait for a few more reviews first.

[Guest fozzie]

When getting GPS unit make sure it's SiRF XTrac

Is TomTom's?

[Guest rikwebb]

Neilg,

Co-pilot works with C500 and is available now......

Where is it available 'now' ----- oooooo cant wait ooooooo

Rik

[Guest travisb]

Expansys reckon to ship Co-Pilot on 10th October

http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=115191

[Guest fozzie]

Tomorrow (22 Sep) for globalpositioningsystems.co.uk :)

[Guest iainp999]

so if I've got this right, on my C500 I have to keep swapping the memory card when I want to use the navigation software?

sounds like a bit of a pain. is there no way you can just install it on the existing card?

[Guest neilg]

htink it is only tomtom that lock you to their card from what I have been reading. Others let you copy the software (for instance to a 256 or 512) so you can also have other things on it.

OK - I read off some of the GPS forums but ignore! - I still havent actually laid my hands on this yet and the guys below say TomTom is no different to any of the other products in this respect so you can copy to another card - sorry for mis-information!

[Guest iainp999]

great, cheers. it's just that it'd be nice to have it already on the phone and not have to carry around their card seperately.

apart from it being a pain to swap them over, there's the chance that the card could go missing too.

[Guest boden01]

TomTom software can be copied onto another SD / MiniSD card and works perfectly. No need to keep swapping.