TomTom iPhone Dock, anyone? (1 Viewer)

[Sam Posten]

Magellan sez: Suck it, Trebek, er TomTom!
http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/17/magellan-debuts-gps-app-car-kit-for-iphone-and-ipod-touch/

 

[DaveF]

It hit me what's wrong with the TomTom kit: TomTom is afraid of cannibalizing their hardware sales with the iPhone solution so is selling only a basic, dumbed-down iPhone kit.

TomTom could deliver a top-of-the-line, GPS solution that meets and exceeds their best standalone solution. That's what I assumed they'd deliver for $198. Instead they're charging $198 for something that's less useful than a $149 base-model GPS. Perhaps they don't yet know how to do program the iPhone solution for e.g. spoken-name streets. But I think it's more likely they're playing protecting their main business.

Perhaps incorrectly, I perceive Magellan as third-rate GPS company, behind TomTom and Garmin. Now they're coming out with a superior iPhone and iPod Touch solution to TomTom. TomTom

And Garmin is nowhere to be seen.

TomTom is on a path to market irrelevance, with Magellan taking their lead. Assuming the smartphone / GPS solution is a sizeable and profitable market.

 

[KeithAP]

Actually, TomTom is about to roll out an update to their app that adds a lot of requested features:
http://www.tuaw.com/2009/11/13/its-about-time-tomtom-submits-updated-nav-app-to-apple/

I think TomTom just wanted to get an app to market before any of the other major players so they rushed it a bit and left out features to meet their timetable.

-Keith

 

[Sam Posten]

It's out.
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/11/18/tomtom_app_updated_to_support_ipod_touch_first_gen_iphone.html

 

[Sam Posten]

Ok, Magellen are dumbasses too:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/28/magellans-gps-car-kit-for-iphone-and-ipod-touch-130-coming-n/

 

[Sam Posten]

US only for half price
http://www.macrumors.com/iphone/2009/12/11/tomtom-introduces-u-s-only-gps-iphone-application-for-49-99/

 

[Sam Posten]

I'm thinking I might actually buy the dock now that the combo price is $150, what do you guys think?

 

[DaveF]

Depends on whether you drive in Canada. For me, leaving out Canada is worse than leaving out NYC. But if for you Canada is a foreign country, and not the location of the nearest major city (Toronto), then it's a decent price savings.

 

[Sam Posten]

Bah the dock is still $120 making it $170+ tax to get it....

 

[Ted Todorov]

Originally Posted by DaveF /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Depends on whether you drive in Canada. For me, leaving out Canada is worse than leaving out NYC. But if for you Canada is a foreign country, and not the location of the nearest major city (Toronto), then it's a decent price savings.

Macrumors reports the Canada inclusive version is also on sale right now for $69

 

[Sam Posten]

OK that's a price I can live with, Confirmed that price till 28 December. No Mexico, just US and canada. 1.3 GB.

 

[Sam Posten]

http://www.macworld.com/article/144972/2009/12/gps.html?lsrc=twt_macworld

 

[Sam Posten]

Reviews on the Apple site are pretty encouraging. I may be going to one of the local Apple stores tonight, if I do I may pick one up
http://store.apple.com/us/reviews/TX672LL/A?fnode=MTY1NDAzOQ&mco=MTM3MDc1MTY

 

[David Rubenstein]

If anyone has picked this up yet, can you let me know if the kit is easily transferrable between vehicles? I travel every week and I'm definitely interested in this if I can use it in rental cars for a few days at a time.

 

[Sam Posten]

Yes if you use the suction cup on the windshield, it is easily movable from car to car. They also do provide a disk that you can attach to your dashboard for the suction cup to stick to, but you can only do it once, and I have no idea how long it will stay put or how hard it will be to remove if you buy a new vehicle. You can, of course, remove the suction cup from this disk and continue to bring it to other cars like rentals any time you want, but you will need to attach again to their windshield... I'll try to post pictures this week.

Anyway, I'm not sure how I really want to proceed in setting this up in my own vehicle. What i thought it would have is Bluetooth from the dock to my CAR, not from the dock to my Phone. I am yet to explain this, really. If it did that I should be able to stereo A2DP from the Dock to the car totally wireless, but it won't do that, which I considere totally dumb. I still have yet to even figure out why it has a bluetooth connection between the phone and the dock. This makes no sense to me, it should just use audio out over the dock connector to the stereo out of the dock itself. UNLESS it's optional and only for people who don't have in car bluetooth already... For folks like me who have such tech, adding this as a requirement for use would be especially problematic. I want to continue using my in car bluetooth for calls so that it 'dims' the stereo no matter what I am listening to. My car also does not have a free stereo in jack, which means that the audio out of this dock remains useless.

The problem is I have not been able to get the TomTom App on it yet cause that will require me to free up 1.5+ gigs on the phone and I'm not yet ready to cull my playlists down that much. More when I have done so. Until the software is installed it apparently won't keep the phone lit up either, it continues to fade and then go to power save after however long you have it defaulted to. I assume that this is fixed with the TomTom software, but I can't be certain until I install that. If that DOESN'T work the way I'm expecting then this will be a real big failure of the dock itself.

 

[Sam Posten]

Big changes inc:
http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2010/03/02/tomtoms-iphone-app-to-get-real-time-traffic-alerts-and-google-local-search/

I can't wait to see it make me redownload a 1gb+ app again...

 

[DaveF]

I've got a $50 iTunes GC from Xmas, set aside for iPhone apps this summer GPS could be a good use for it.

 

[Sam Posten]

$50? You're going to need a bigger boat =)

 

[DaveF]

It's the nest egg, the starting point, a bite off the total appstore bill /img/vbsmilies/htf/biggrin.gif And I'll get a few bucks when I eBay my current GPS.

 

[Sam Posten]

OK OK =) As long as you get PvZ and GeoDefense I won't bug ya to buy too much other kool aid =)