I am thinking about buying a TomTom

[Rolacoy]

I have been reading the information online. Also my brother has a TomTom 300 and I have seen how it works. I would lean toward the 910. I guess this is a poor place to ask but what about some of the other brands.

We would be using it in our small motor home mostly. I am usually driving and my wife has some trouble reading a map. We thought about putting GPS software on my Mac Book Pro but I haaven't been able to locate software for a Mac and if I did it would cost me nearly as much as the TomTom. I use a Treo phone and can get TomTom for it but it would cost nearly $300.00.

What do you think

 

[Rolacoy]

Another question, from reading the information about TomTom it seems that they will connect to a computer. Will they connect to a Mac ?

 

[digital-flex]

I have been reading the information online. Also my brother has a TomTom 300 and I have seen how it works. I would lean toward the 910. I guess this is a poor place to ask but what about some of the other brands.

We would be using it in our small motor home mostly. I am usually driving and my wife has some trouble reading a map. We thought about putting GPS software on my Mac Book Pro but I haaven't been able to locate software for a Mac and if I did it would cost me nearly as much as the TomTom. I use a Treo phone and can get TomTom for it but it would cost nearly $300.00.

What do you think

I think the TT910 would be a great unit, as it has the Text-to-Speech function so you can keep your eyes on the road while you drive your motor home.

Another question, from reading the information about TomTom it seems that they will connect to a computer. Will they connect to a Mac ?

Yes, if you end up purchasing the TT910, you can connect it to a Mac.

 

[Guttboy]

Welcome!

I have a 910 and I love it. I like it better than the Nuvi 660 that a friend has. I like the text to speech on the 910, I like the ability to "tweak" the 910...kinda like a palm product.

Some folks like the Garmin POI's better than the TomTom's but I like the TomTom's just fine. There are many sites out there on GPS's....

OHHHH...the MAJOR reason that I got the 910 is that it can handle routes with MULTIPLE waypoints and destinations....If you drive a long way and want to use an out of the way road or just even divert yourself around city traffic, the TomTom is the way to go.

As far as its navigational abilities...I think it works pretty darn well....I have deliberately got it lost a few times and it routes me back to where I would have gone! Pretty nice!

Ohhh....some folks have stated that TomTom customer support is horrible. I have discovered just the opposite to be true. I have called them about 6 times so far and I have been connected with a knowledgeable representative in under 10 min every time (longest wait was 9 min...soonest was less than a minute!). The reps answered all of my questions no matter how long it took...when I had to go through and reupdate my firmware they just waited for my computer to do its stuff...several minutes!


Good luck in your decision....I just got mine last week after considerable research and I am VERY happy that I went the TomTom route (I have and still use garmin products) for an in car Navigation system!

 

[Rolacoy]

According to Guttboy the settup is quite complicated. I use a Mac computer, I called TomTom and got connected to TechSupport within about 2 minutes. He told me that connecting to a Mac with the newer operating system may not work. I am running Version 10.4.9 on a Mac G5. I also have a Mac Book Pro running the same system. Anyone linked the TT to a Mac ?

 

[Guttboy]

It is actually not that complicated at all. I am just a bit on the OCD side when it comes to navigation devices and computers....LOL....

Irockjayhawk on the board acutally works for apple and used TT with it with out problems if I remember correctly...try PM'ing him and see what he says!

I really do like my TT...having used the Nuvi with a buddy and the need for me to have multiple waypoints was the biggest selling point with the TT.

Good luck!

 

[lec510]

Hi Rolacoy.
You can execute most of the updates in TomTom using copy/paste - including 3rd party softwares like TripMaster.

 

[Rolacoy]

I tried sending an IM to Irockjayhawk, not sure if it went to him.

 

[Rolacoy]

I just talked to a tech at TT and he told me that it was pretty much plug and play. We are leaving on a trip Sunday afternoon, I want to use it on the trip. He said That it would work with a Mac and that I could do what ever computer connections that I might need to do once we are back from the trip in a week or so. I hope this works my wife is not too happy about the $499.00 price.

 

[irockjayhawk]

I have a TomTom One and it works just fine with my MacBook Pro. It mounts on the desktop just like a flash drive and I can copy things directly to it or use the Home software which is OS X native as well. I'm very pleased with my TomTom One and using it on my Mac. No issues at all.

As for other devices, I came from a Garmin (older, about 3 years old) and the mapping software for it only ran in Windows. Obviously this isn't as big of a deal as it used to be since you can run Windows natively on an Intel Mac now but just another step in the process. Garmin has announced they are porting the maps over to OS X but I haven't seen any news lately if they have been released.

As for GPS software to run directly on a Mac, here is one option. I'd suggest using Google as well to look for other options.

http://www.usglobalsat.com/category.asp?catid=24

Also, if you go to guide.apple.com you can find all hardware and software available for a Macintosh. It will even tell you if the software is native Intel, etc. Once there, do a search for GPS and you can find different options as well.

Hope this helps.

irock

 

[Rolacoy]

I purchased the TT 910. I did not connect it to my computer yet. We are going on a trip tomorrow and don't want to take the time to mess with it. I did try it out, we live near a small town of about 2000 people and I had it direct me to a couple of addersses. It a good job. I had two problems: One it could not find the address to my house. And two, I tryed to confuse TT and the screen seemed to lockup, however the voice was still working. I turned it off and back on and it was ok.

I can see I have a lot of reading and expermenting to do.

 

[Pedro2NR]

Before leaving home, try this:
Locate the add favorite icon. scroll through the menu and select gps location. This will add your current location (your home) as a favorite. You then can add/change your Home location. You can select the favorite you just added.

These feature is much better than the address. When entering one's home address, I find it to be a bit off.

 

[sonodave]

Nobody Home for iMac

I have used my 700 for 18 months or so. Except for some map issues - "you have arrived at your destination" as I sat in a warehouse district some distance from the Philadelphia Airport, it has worked well.

TomTom Home, though, has never worked well. It crashes unexpectedly at start-up. For a while it couldn't 'see' my 700 but a new and better USB cable solved that problem.

When I spoke to TomTom support I was told that Home, "will probably never work with that software" meaning OS X 10.4.9 on an iMac G5. I find that sort of a reply from a services company's tech support deeply disturbing. If it is true, such news needs to come directly from the company and if it is not some 'pruning' of the tech support staff is in order.

In the mean time I work to keep my device up-to-date the old-fashioned way, dragging and dropping. Primitive and not terribly flexible.

If you get the 'no compatible device' message try a new USB cable.

If TomTom Home crashes it looks like we are just out-of-luck. Nice, huh?

 

[an89ag]

Mac's & TomTom's

I have both the ONE and a 910 and use them with my MacBook Core Duo. You will find that TomTom (device and HOME) do not play well with Mac OS 10.4.9. I actually had to revert back to 10.4.8 (easy enough to do) to get everything to work. Having done that, I have not lost any Mac usability, and HOME works just like advertised.

Just remember to BACKUP EVERYTHING (caps intended!) with either HOME or click & drag to folder on Mac. If needed, I can help describe the BU using Toast, but I'm not really an expert.