Goodbye gps as stand alone !

[gs500zuki]

I haven't plugged in my tomtom in months. Haven't used it hardly at all since buying a HTC G1, yes, this is the "google phone". Generally I don't trek mountains, race to burning buildings, or deliver mail to far off places, so I really don't need a stand alone unit.

The turn by turn directions were nice, and the unit was fairly fast, but not fast enough.

Here's the simple pro / con rundown:

pros-
easy interface (once you memorize where things are)
loud speaker
decent battery life
mp3/video playback

cons-
MAPS - HEY TOMTOM, YOUR MAPS AND SOFTWARE SUCK.
interface, it lags, and doesn't need to be so hard to find an address a few towns over.
search by zip code ? why would i memorize zipcodes ?
maps
software


So yes, TOMTOM, you've lost a customer who bought happily from you twice to a cell phone. A cell phone with built in GPS, WIFI, MP3 player, etc and no map charges, no laggy software that crashes... and oh ya, it runs linux.

Thanks for the direction, but I'll try another turn now.

 

[doctormstein1]

I haven't plugged in my tomtom in months. Haven't used it hardly at all since buying a HTC G1, yes, this is the "google phone". Generally I don't trek mountains, race to burning buildings, or deliver mail to far off places, so I really don't need a stand alone unit.

The turn by turn directions were nice, and the unit was fairly fast, but not fast enough.

Here's the simple pro / con rundown:

pros-
easy interface (once you memorize where things are)
loud speaker
decent battery life
mp3/video playback

cons-
MAPS - HEY TOMTOM, YOUR MAPS AND SOFTWARE SUCK.
interface, it lags, and doesn't need to be so hard to find an address a few towns over.
search by zip code ? why would i memorize zipcodes ?
maps
software


So yes, TOMTOM, you've lost a customer who bought happily from you twice to a cell phone. A cell phone with built in GPS, WIFI, MP3 player, etc and no map charges, no laggy software that crashes... and oh ya, it runs linux.

Thanks for the direction, but I'll try another turn now.

I disagree, nothing is going to replace my 920 for features that are needed by everyone.

 

[saud]

I love my Go 720 too and I have TT on Nokia E61i too and i prefer Go 720 cuz its easy to use.

 

[mvl]

A cell phone can function like a low-end GPS, just like it can function as a low-end camera.

Cell phones do a tolerable job, but they're far from the quality of a standalone. Screens are too small, directions aren't as good, input is harder, etc.

 

[paspossible]

What will you do when you find yourself out of data cell phone range? It won't always be planned and suddenly, you're lost and the damn cell phone can't pick up a signal. If you don't at least get EDGE, you can forget cell phone maps. A true GPS will work even in the middle of nowhere.

Have you seen your cell phone bills lately? A new map is sent to you every step of the way, frame by frame, as soon as the image need to move. That's an image so it ain't small. Most "unlimited" data plans have a fine print maximum and after that, you're billed enough money 1 trip might be more expensive than a stand-alone GPS. With a true GPS, you know exactly how much you will pay as soon as you purchase it. Even without keeping the map up-to-date, it still can do a pretty good job.

I just got a GPS-enabled phone and I'm on a company plan so I don't care about data cost. I used it once lately with Goggle Map and, while it's better than a paper map, I didn't like it much. The map doesn't recenter automatically, the traces are small, there's no 3D view and it's hard to manipulate because it ain't touch screen.

 

[chronomatic]

A cell phone with built in GPS, WIFI, MP3 player, etc and no map charges, no laggy software that crashes... and oh ya, it runs linux.

You do know that TomTom units run on Linux too, right? More info here.

 

[Skilow]

i will never use a cel phone for a gps ever, had a bad time when i used google maps on my blackjack 2 and it decided to try to send me and my wife off a cliff into a blast site....

 

[theparson]

I don't believe there are any cell phones with 5 inch displays like that on my 540S.

 

[gatorguy]

Ah, but I believe there might be. I saw one about a month back with an absolutely huge screen. It was almost comical. I'll see if I can find it again.

 

[mikealder]

HTC Athena or its newer version, useless as a phone even though it can be used as one, but for mobile internet access it is probably the best device available when you consider weight, size/ screen and battery performance - Cracking unit and I still have my Athena in tow as the internet performance is better than the iPhone offers without a doubt, although this advantage is becoming rather web site centric with some internet locations supporting iPhone better than others, the HTC device still offers the performance needed compared to how the iFone behaves at times.

I have owned my Athena with its 5" display for around two years by now, its a great device even though a little heavy to carry around (the good old HTC Universal was a far better device TBH) - Mike

 

[gatorguy]

Thanks Mike!

Saved me a search.