My move from GO 630 to iPhone 4

Joined
Jul 13, 2008
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40
Location
Houston
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ONE 130 S
:thumb:Thought I'd share my very positive experience of moving from my TomTom 630 to my iPhone 4. I've used a wide range of GPS and PND's for the last 15 years. I'm very picky about certain features, capabilities, and performance. My GPS was a GO 630 with RDS-TMC traffic. I've been waiting for TomTom on iPhone to mature, and with the current version on iPhone 4 it looked like it was ready for Prime Time. I took the plunge, and it has been a clear improvement in the features and capabilities that are important to me. Quite honestly, there are very few "cons" for my situation. Maybe the smaller display, Here's the list of "pros" relative to the GO 630 with RDS-TMC traffic.

I'ts only $50, and I can sell my GO and its accessories for $100+
I have TomTom everywhere I go, and I don?t have to carry any other accessories (although I like taking along my windshield mount.)
It has all the maps self-contained; no need for a cell data signal. This is a big deal for me.
On the iPhone 4 TomTom starts faster and gets a GPS lock faster than the GO.
Navigate to my phone contacts
Navigate to built-in Google local search! This is a new favorite feature of mine.
Pinch-to-zoom!! What an improvement!
In Houston, HD Traffic is a major improvement in both speed and accuracy. (I was using RDS-TMC, this might not be true for Live Traffic.)
I can tap on the traffic bar to get instant map details on each delay! Huge feature for me while driving!
Traffic is only $20/year and comes through my phone's data plan.
I can get to my most-used functions faster and easier with the iPhone GUI
Portrait and landscape option!
Easier to switch between 2D and 3D maps, which I do a lot.
Voice directions are integrated with music playing on my iPhone. Pauses the songs, and it will come over the car stereo.
Integrated ipod controls right on the TomTom screen.
Ability to run in the background but still get voice directions.
Oh, and the annoying ?keep left? at every freeway exit? is gone!
More options for managing favorites, including rearranging the list.
Ability to turn off the Auto Zoom, which is an absolute requirement for me.
POI?s are always up to date.
Very convienient MapShare, don't need to connect to my PC and TomTom Home.
Screen is big enough
No problem hitting the buttons.
AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST: Don?t have to worry about somebody doing a smash-and-grab to steal my TomTom.

Hope everyone finds this informative. What are your experiences?
 
Time for Tom Tom to get it together and drop prices especially for map updates ... Other wise I can see the future without tom tom or any other hand held GPS and the Iphone will be everything ...
 
actually I didn't pick up on that .. I just presumed the Iphone had its own GPS that used TOM TOM technology gui ..

But glad to see .. hopefully one day the stand alone TT will be as good as Apple ....
 
actually I didn't pick up on that .. I just presumed the Iphone had its own GPS that used TOM TOM technology gui ..
The iPhone does have its own GPS (although until the iPhone 4, it wasn't as accurate as some would like). Then you load the TomTom application on to do all of the work of making use of the GPS coordinate data. The only real difference (apart from some interesting added features) is that the TomTom app is running on an iPhone and not a Linux based standalone device.

I'd like to get some time with the application sometime to see how they are managing some of the features and the addition of data like POI, etc., but I don't own an iPhone to play with it.
 
For third party POI files you need to change the icon bmp from bmp to 24 bit png, if its an iPhone4 then the icon is better set to 44x44 rather then the more usual 22x22 due to the retina screen of the hardware.
To get the files in to the TomTom app map folder you need to use third party software such as "DiskAid" or JailBreak the iPhone.
If you want POI warnings then you need to take a preconfigured MapSettinbgs.cfg file from a pnd, rename the file to all lowercase mapsettings.cfg before using DiskAid to pop the file in to the correct location on the iPhone, th eapp also supports the use of ogg sound files for POI Warnings.

The above isn't really a supported feature of the TomTom iPhone app but in use it works well.

Itinerary mode isn't possible on the iPhone but almost everything you could do with a Go-940 Live can be acheived with the iPhone app - Mike
 

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