GO 825 Europe vs. VIA 125 Europe

[Andy_P]

I've been asked by a friend what the difference is between the GO LIVE 825 Europe and the VIA LIVE 125 Europe and I must admit I'm stumped!

Can anyone come up with any appreciable differences?

 

[canderson]

825 has the uSD slot for the day when TomTom finally releases the firmware that can make use of it. Apart from that, nothing at all comes to mind.

 

[Andy_P]

According to the specs on the UK TT website, so does the Via!

http://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/products/car-navigation/via-live-125-europe/#tab:specifications


Or is that a mistake - my memory is so bad I might even have reported it myself!

If not, it seems odd to have two that are *completely* the same. Usually there's at least one or two differences.

 

[Andy_P]

Answering my own question...
I *did* report it to TomTom... but I was reporting that the website said those VIAs didn't have card slots, when they do - so they have actually corrected it! :thumb:

 

[canderson]

To add a new wrinkle... Appears to depend on which Via 125 we're talking about per a certain "chart" I had mentioned elsewhere. There was something funny going on with production for a period of time. At some point, they appear to have borrowed from one line to support another. It's one of the odder things I ran across when I was reviewing all of that last month.


It appears that a Via 125 model has shown up in four different flavors.

You'll know one of them by the name Cataxxx. This is a BlueTooth equipped model (unlike some of the other Cataxxx units) with 4GB internal, serial numbers starting with BH, and those models appear to have no card slot, and no TTS ability. This appears to have been cloned as the Via 180 in Australia.

Then there are Via 125 models that you will know as Lauxxxxx. This one should be equivalent to the 4GB Bluetooth equipped Via 1535 sold in the U.S., and the Via 225 in Australia, with serial numbers starting with BM. Those DO have a card slot, and unlike the other non-Live versions also have TTS!

Next there is another Lauxxxxx 4GB model that appears to be a Via 125 Live that is, also the equivalent to an Australian Via 180. Serial numbers start with BN. This one also sports a card slot, but no TTS.

Last, there is the Via 125 Live version, based upon Mesxxxx, is a 4GB with TTS, and has a card slot, serial starting with FP.

Feature Summary by Serial:

BH models: no TTS, no card slot, built on Catxxxx <= the original non-TTS unit?
BM models: TTS, card slot, built on Lauxxxxx
BN models: no TTS, card slot, built on Lauxxxxx <= the replacement non-TTS unit?
FP models: TTS, card slot, Live, built on Mesxxxx

So it looks like anyone getting hold of a Via 125 (or Via 180) with serial number BM gets the bonus of a card slot and TTS.

 

[- et -]

To add a new wrinkle... Appears to depend on which Via 125 we're talking about per a certain "chart" I had mentioned elsewhere. There was something funny going on with production for a period of time. At some point, they appear to have borrowed from one line to support another. It's one of the odder things I ran across when I was reviewing all of that last month.

This is not unique to TomTom or to GPS devices.

One of my casual interests is photography, and since I'm a typical engineer, I've often looked at details of the hardware involved. Over the last 60 years - and probably even before that - there have been many camera manufacturers who made rolling changes to the internals of a given model without any announcement, and also shared parts among different models.

The consensus opinion of those who get really, really involved with the details of the internals of the cameras is generally that the manufacturer sometimes did not purchase or fabricate exactly the same quantities of all the parts. When they had excess left over, they then attempted to use up all of the inventory of "older" parts before switching to the new parts, even though there may have been a model change. In some cases they did not have enough of some "old" part to finish out a model run, so they would use parts from the future model in the older model.

There have also been many instances where the same basic camera was sold under different names in different markets, in some cases with no difference other than the name, and in other cases with minor cosmetic differences.

With best wishes,
- Tom -

 

[dj123]

Via 180 (AU with BH number) with BT and TTS

My Australian VIA 180 with BH number has Bluetooth, TTS (I think - some voice descriptions say "Speaks street names"), no card slot. It has an odd type of USB connection which my PC sees as a network adapter, not a USB device. So the PC cannot access the VIA 180 internal memory - pity.

 

[Andy_P]

dj123... that USB connection is not"odd" it's how nearly all TomToms are done now. (You'll see them referred to as the "NAV3" models)

TomTom had a major change in the way the devices work after their big court case with Microsoft. They had to stop using the FAT32 file system and took that as an opportuniy to stamp out most of the map piracy that was going on.

Hence the new "locked down" system where you only get to see the limited parts of the internals that they want you to see (such as adding personal content like POIs etc.)