I retired from personal blogging in July 2008 but you can find me over at blog.xero.com
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One unexpected consequence of blogging is that people start sending you stuff. I like stuff so I guess that works out well.
The latest stuff to arrive is the new TomTom GPS navigation system. I think I got it after Mauricio as it was still bluetooth paired to his phone. That’s right it has a bluetooth hands free system in it.
Mauricio did an excellent review here. Geekzone: TomTom One XL review
Now I’m a loyal New Zealander so have found it hard to look at any other GPS unit but NavMan. The NavPix was my spousal christmas present last year. When I got it I was thinking I know everywhere I need to go in NZ so why would I need a GPS - but over this year I’ve used it every couple of months and found having my own GPS in the rental car very useful.
I have a couple of gripes with the NavMan. The keyboard was ABC and had no QWERTY option, I don’t need another camera (I know that you can put a camera on a car gps, but that doesn’t mean you should), and the unit is too big for it’s sucker mount so it droops. Drooping is bad.
I’m not sure who owns NavMan now so I felt a little less guilty about trying a new unit. TomTom is brand I’ve seen in countless London minicabs. Now it is in New Zealand.
The Tom Tom won me over quickly with some first impressions. USB Power, QWERTY by default, Mac Software and super quick location of satellites. So fast that I was relieved Mauricio had researched how it did it.
… the TomTom One XL has the fastest time to get a fix I have ever seen, thanks small data files you can download and transfer to unit, containing information on satellite ephemerides. With this data the GPS knows where to find the satellites in the sky given the current date and time, instead of having to scan the sky, like other GPS devices do.
My challenge today is now to work ephemerides into a conversation.
It’s a great size and the sucker mount works well. There is only one button and the user interface is natural. The graphics are not as pretty as the NavMan. The manuals are missing so Mauricio if you can remember the pairing code I’ll try to connect my phone
I tested it yesterday by myself and I realized I had not been driving the fastest way to work. This morning with the family we went to the opening of the new Giraffe House at the Zoo. I was willing to forgive that the Tom Tom tried to drive us up some stairs in Newtown but as my wife (in the car) bought the original NavMan last Christmas she wasn’t having any of it. “… a GPS is all about the maps …” she said.
So as long as you don’t use your Tom Tom to find the Wellington Zoo it’s an ideal spousal gift to receive this Christmas.
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I don’t know Rod, I’ve got a N60i (soon to upgrade to a S90i after seeing it at Big Boys Toys) and we got a demo TomTom from the distributor.
The main thing I didn’t like was the look of the maps, NavMan certainly wins this hands down. Also, being able to change the voice that reads out directions (Darth Vader is an option) is more of a hype feature for me than actually being useful.
Good point about the NavMan’s lack of QWERTY keyboard, this is certainly a huge pain. I’ve not had the same issues as you with the NavMan drooping down, maybe tighten up the knob behind the unit?
Sorry, I’m still firmly a NavMan believer ;)
I believe Rod that Navman are owned by Mitac now. I bought last June a Navman with the 4GB hard disk and camera in it. It has all the maps of Europe and NZ in it. Bought it off Navman’s website in the UK, had it couriered to NZ and then took it to Italy a week later. Could not buy it in NZ! Has a 4 inch screen which is handy. It quite a big unit but I always take it to Europe. The camera is great because it enables yo to take a photo of anything and records the GPS co-ordinates for that location. Then you just touch the photo on the screen and navigate back to that position. Its great because if you are overseas on holiday or business you don’t usually have time to mess around. You just want to get from A to B as fast as possible.
In our house its called the marriage saver!
The only drama I find is taking the screen mount and trying to avoid breaking it in your luggage.
I think they are well worth the money when travelling
Hello there… Thanks for the link. I don’t think it came with manuals for me, but the Bluetooth code is either 0000 or 1234.
Navman is now 100% owned/controlled by Mitac - this company is based in Taiwan and used to manufacture the Navman PIN, those Pocket PC with bult-in GPS.
This was a transaction completed a few months ago…
Enjoy it… for now the TomTom One XL is a small child sitting all alone waiting for the rest of the family to arrive. :-(
Those of us who already have TomToms (I’ve got the Go 910) love them to bits and pieces. Mine has had a fairly hard workout in Europe over the past 5 months but now it’s just sitting idly at home because TomTom haven’t released an NZ map for it.
I got the following response from TomTom last week when I enquired:
“We are due to release map coverage for New Zealand very soon, however we do not have a release date as yet, we would recommend signing up for a newsletter, once the maps are available for purchase, you will be informed by email.”
Waiting… waiting… waiting…
“One unexpected consequence of blogging [while being Rod Drury] is that people start sending you stuff. ” :-D
Love Tom Tom…it is light years ahead - here’s what I think: http://www.tv3.co.nz/VideoBrowseAll/ScienceTechnologyVideo/tabid/311/articleID/38459/cat/167/Default.aspx
Ha, I had to laugh. The security word i was faced with: export, and I’m an export from Wellington. Now in Perth. Have you seen the Nokia 6110 Navigator mobile phone with in-built GPS? It is quick to use, has ‘reasonable’ Aussie maps though it has sent us into a dead end rubbish tip meant to be a faster route to Rockingham, south of Fremantle. No ‘qwerty’ as it’s a cell phone. The voice is sometimes absent for 15-20 minutes so it is not a match for NavMan or TomTom. But.. it works. I have family in Hataitai Road. Small village is Oceania.
Hi.
NZ Map is now available as a download from the TomTom website. I downloaded it today onto my TomTom Go 720.
Hi, I own the Navman pin 570 which I have been very disappointed with. Although the maps look very nice, there has not been any updates available for this device since 2005 which I dont think is good enough. Battery life is also very poor and it never seems to completely turn off.It then needs to be re-calibrated every time I use it.This seems to have put me off ever buying another Navman and I had lost interest in GPS units until a friend of mine purchased the Tom Tom Go720 and from what I’ve seen, I am very impressed.Although the mapping doesn’t look quite as nice as it did on the Navman, It is definately feature packed and nice to use.
After the disappoitment with the Navman I am reluctant to rush out and spend another $750 on another GPS until I know what the after sale support is like and that regular map updates are available and at what cost.
In May 2008 I bought a Tom Tom One in Vancouver. It had Canada and USA maps, and cost Can$200.00. The first one I took home from the shop had the window mount missing (left out when packed), and a return to the shop the same day produced a complete set. It took 5 mins to set up and run. There were only about 5 voices, but thats ok. We used it mainly in the car, and for a short time I held it in my lap on the back seat of a motorbike. Was unable to hear the instructions, but they were quite clear on the screen. This definitely saved our good relation ship, on a 3 month road trip. We travelled about 16,000 km, the gps only led us wrong about twice, not seriously tho. You still need to carry a map for advance planning.
I LOVE MY TomTom 1XL except for the fact that the NZ map is not up to date it is at least 18 months out of date.
I have the latest maps that came with my unit (Nov 2008).
Can anyone help me with this problem?
I recently had my Navman S150 stolen and am trying to decide what to replace it with. The Navman touchscreen was tricky to handle but otherwise the unit was brilliant. To date I’ve had no need of bluetooth funtions & the like so considering replacing it with used S100. But for the same price I’ve found a used Tomtom GO720 with charger and mount but nothing else. The 720 reviews well. I may get around to using bluetooth. Graphics not as clear as Navman but still quite adequate? I presume the 720 entered NZ in 2008 so mapping should be fairly current but am I going to have trouble updating maps without software? Still good buy for NZ$300? Advice please.
have just had a big crash on my go 720 and can not get it going it seems to have no maps any ideas folks as an inspector with the spca i am like a man with no arms with out it .tom tom australia are not a great help
many thanks in advance
leslie j keeley
inspectoe manager
mid-cnterbury
spca
po box 485 ashburton
0274-342-646 24/7
I have just spent some time cycling through Vietnam and Laos and I couldn’t have lived without my Garmin. Unreal - Can’t imagine traveling without it!