TomTom Navigator 5 System with Maps of the US and Canada for Compatible PDAs
By: TomTom Average Rating: 3.0 Total Reviews: 5
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 On: 2007-03-20
TomTom Review!
Pros: Being able to have it integrated on the phone
Cons: Inaccurate Maps (we are talking miles not feet!), Difficult of use, cumbersome menus, lack of POIs, Wrong POI locations, crashes often and the list goes on....
Review:
This software should be labeled a beta software until the company works out all its problems, it should be never compared to Garmin or Magellan, I owned both and it does not even come close.
I will start with the pros since it will take the least time to mention.
Pros: Convenience of having a GPS loaded on your phone, the GPS receiver can be left in the vehicle except when you are hiking for example.
Cons:
Maps:
The inaccuracy of the Maps are incredible and can lead you to a wrong place or miss a free way exit.
Maps are out dated; it did not show streets that have been updated on all map search engines 18 month prior.
You can not click and pan the maps to see the route ahead.
Crashes often, about once every 2~3 days.
You would expect to be able to easily access your address book or contacts to navigate to a saved address; right? Not with TomTom, you have to exit the application and open another application called tomtom contacts there you can select a name and from the pull down click on navigate to address, it would then open the main navi software and show you the route, Oh but if for some reason you did not have your satellite locked yet, then you will have to exit out and do the same thing all over again! I think you agree that this is a bit cumbersome.
POI (Points of Interest):
Again incomplete, inaccurate and difficult to use. For example if you are looking for a certain store and the search returns 6 and let us say the first 3 are approximately 3mi from where you are, you will not be able to select each one to further know more info - all you can do is pick one to get the directions to.
SD card:
Every time you insert the SD card into your PDA, the TomTom application will have start, and No, this is not an option you can turn off.
Customer Service:
Not very helpful, not knowledgeable about their products or offers and take long time to answer questions or concerns.
I am disappointed at the product which could have been an incredible for the convenience, I hope that the people involved in making decisions for the company go out and buy some different GPS units and see how they can improve their product.
Thanks for your time reading my review!
On: 2007-03-20
TomTom Software Review!
Pros: Being able to have it integrated on the Smart Phone
Cons: Inaccurate Maps (we are talking miles not feet!), Difficult of use, cumbersome menus, lack of POIs, Wrong POI locations, crashes often and the list goes on....
Review:
This software should be labeled a beta software until the company works out all its problems, it should be never compared to Garmin or Magellan, I owned both and it does not even come close.
I will start with the pros since it will take the least time to mention.
Pros: Convenience of having a Navigation loaded on your phone, the GPS receiver can be left in the vehicle except when you are hiking for example.
Cons:
Maps:
The inaccuracy of the Maps are incredible and can lead you to a wrong place or miss a free way exit.
Maps are out dated; it did not show streets that have been updated on all map search engines 18 month prior.
You can not click and pan the maps to see the route ahead while on route.
Crashes often, about once every 2~3 days.
You would expect to be able to easily access your address book or contacts to navigate to a saved address; right? Not with TomTom, you have to exit the application and open another application called tomtom contacts there you can select a name and from the pull down click on navigate to address, it would then open the main navi software and show you the route, Oh but if for some reason you did not have your satellite locked yet, then you will have to exit out and do the same thing all over again! I think you agree that this is a bit cumbersome.
Sync
It gives data base errors of "WARNING: Possible database overwrite problem....", after contacting the customer service they said that it is a known problem! And nothing can be done???!!! So now every time I sync I have to ignore the warning message so other problems might go unnoticed thanks to the smart developers at TomTom.
POI (Points of Interest):
Again incomplete, inaccurate and difficult to use. For example if you are looking for a certain store and the search returns 6 and let us say the first 3 are approximately 3mi from where you are, you will not be able to select each one to further know more info - all you can do is pick one to get the directions to.
SD card:
Every time you insert the SD card into your PDA, the TomTom application will have start, and No, this is not an option you can turn off.
Customer Service:
Not very helpful, not knowledgeable about their products or offers and take long time to answer questions or concerns.
I am disappointed at the product which could have been an incredible for the convenience, I hope that the people involved in making decisions for the company go out and buy some different Navigation units and see how they can improve their product.
Thanks for your time reading my review!
 On: 2006-07-31
Update: I wrote the review below based on my experiences with TomTom Navigator for Palm, which was version 4. Ive seen v5 in operation but have not used it myself. From what I saw, TomTom has resolved some of the issues that I mentioned, but there was no way to test for signal problems.
*****
Ive owned TomTom Navigator for my PDA for a while now, and I just cant recommend it. There are many things to like, but the problems with the software outweigh the good. A couple of good features:
+ Nice 3D map view.
+ Interface desiged for fingers, not a stylus.
But the main problem:
- Sometimes it just refuses to see the GPS signal, which means its no good at all. I have a wired GPS antenna, so its not a bluetooth problem. It could be working fine, then Ill switch to the address book to look up a phone number and then switch back to Navigator, and it says it cant find the GPS signal. It had no trouble finding it 30 seconds before, and nothing has changed, but it will not find it no matter how long I wait. Ive tried to work with TomTom on this and they replaced my cradle and gave me some setup steps to try, but the problem is still there. If a GPS device cant find the signal, all those pretty maps are worthless. Id say that it works at least 90% of the time, but that 10% is a killer, especially when youre on a trip to an unfamiliar city and you need to find your way back to the airport in time for your flight.
A few design problems:
- The "Major Roads of the USA" map is just roads; it has no POI information. So if youre on a long trip, you have to switch maps to find a hotel or restaurant.
- Map groupings are limited, so you have to load individual states or predefined groups. You cant plan a long trip and load just the states for that trip in one installation.
- Maps dont switch automatically. For example, if youre in Massachusetts and you drive to New York and you have both maps loaded, it wont switch to the NY map automatically.
- POIs dont have any useful information, such as addresses and phone numbers. You cant see an address for a POI even though the Navigator obviously knows it. And there are no phone numbers that might let you call a restaurant or hotel and make a reservation.
- You cant pick a POI for another location. If youre in city A and you are driving to city B and you want to have dinner there, you cant search for restaurants in city B. All POI searches are based on your current location.
- POI list doesnt tell you enough. For example, supposed you want to find a McDonalds. (I dont know why you would, but it works for the illustration.) So you go to the Restaurant POI list and you type in "mcd" and you see a list of McDonalds restaurants, and their distance from your current location. But thats all. Some other GPS systems at least tell you which direction, which is useful to prevent you from selecting one that you passed or that is completely out of your way. The list could also tell you what city, again to help you select one that is on your route.
 On: 2005-10-27
Why pay for another small computer with a touchscreen when you already have one? The TomTom Navigator 5 with its CDs of maps and software is less than half the price of an all-in-one unit. One advantage over the all-in-ones is that you can put the Navigator way out on your cars dash to receive a good signal while keeping the PDAs screen closer to you (or even with someone in the back seat). In my looking around, it appeared that TomTom is one of the better GPS software companies. Their software was definitely easy for me to figure out. I paired the Navigator GPS receiver (about the size of a double-thick iPod nano) with my Treo on a recent trip to New York. It worked great.
MY EXPERIENCE SETTING IT UP: To set it up you need to load the software onto your PDA, visit the TomTom site, and enter in some passwords. Then its time to load the map(s) you need. Warning: one state can take 50 MB or more (make sure you have room on your PDAs expansion card or buy a bigger one). Loading maps for NY, CT and MA totaled about 75 MB. Transferring that much info to your PDA takes about 10 minutes. Then its time to register the maps which requires going back to the TomTom website.
Getting into the software, I went to the "Points of Interest" option, chose "Airports", selected Laguardia Airport, and saved it as a favorite. I then went to the "Hotels", selected the one I was staying at and saved it as "home". It got me right to the hotel with only one confusing direction near the end of the trip. While at the hotel, I found that I needed to go to a grocery store. I found one in the "Stores" portion of "Points of Interest" and it navigated me to it perfectly.
THINGS I LEARNED:
1) You need to be out in the open for the GPS to pick up satellite signals (dont try to use it inside or in a parking garage).
2) Try it out around town before you try it on a trip so you know it works and to get a better idea of how far say "800 yards" is. The voice will often tell you something like, "turn right in 800 yards" and I didnt have a good feel for how far that was when I first began using it.
3) It will tell you when to turn, when to stay right, and when to veer left, etc. But it doesnt speak street names (although the display does SHOW the street name of the next street you need to take).
4) The only power adapter included is for a cigarette lighter.
5) An in-car PDA holder with windshield suction cup or vent attachment is a necessity.
6) If you have a combination PDA/Phone, you may want to turn the phone off while using the GPS. I got a call in the middle of driving. If a turn had been coming up, I would have missed it.
7) If you get lost, theres nothing like a paper map that allows you to see the big picture (rather than a 3" x 3" screen).
8) Listening to your directions spoken with optional British and Australian accents is a "trip".
All in all, I am very pleased with my purchase and will take the Navigator 5 with me on all my future trips.
On: 2005-09-24
I ordered this unit and the GPS unit came with a RJ-14 connector for a laptop not for Palm.
 On: 2005-08-26
This is my first GPS product; it is installed on my Acer N35. I dont have a lot to compare to, but I can nonetheless say that this product has met or exceeded most of my expectations. I am told that as TomTom is a more popular brand, you will have a bit more support, a bit more coverage, and a bit more compatiblity. I should also add that I purchased Tomtom Navigator 5 EUROPE (as I live in France).
On another note, if you purchase a PDA/GPS in France, you have to be careful about the maps. Here, the PDA only comes with France/Monacco, so you need to purchase from Tomtom or another provider each map separately. The better way to do Europe is to purchase the PDA without maps/software and buy Tomtom Navigator 5. Buying all countries at once is much cheaper than one at a time.
Pros:
Excellent 3D rendering of where you are and where you are going, that puts you virtually where you are. If you are facing a lake, it will put the lake on the top of your screen. You to move about 5 feet or so and maybe 5-10 seconds for the system to orient.
2D map is fine.
There is also a nice night color map with blues, grays, and blacks.
Options to select by limited speed, bike, foot, etc.
Some amazing coverage such as each footpath on the city park.
Europe maps are very extensive, from the UK to Poland (though only about 17% of the latter).
I think that if it loses the signal, it assumes you are on track and keeps calculating and moving based on last direction and speed (great, for example, if you are going under a tunnel).
Voice commands are fine, nothing special but quick and to the point. Commands are in many languages that you can select from (even American and UK English).
Cons:
Does not have every address (does not have my work address which is a big building on a major street)
Install is frustrating. I had to reboot my computer and PPC several times, and worst of all I kept getting a "insufficient space in temporary folder" error (or something like that). I checked the Tomtom site, no help. I had to search around the net and found out that I needed to delete a setup folder on my temporary PC drive via the "RUN" command in the Start menu.
The Tomtom commands are a bit difficult, because they sound a lot alike.
No altitude readings (as far as I can see).
Dont let vendors fool you about the size of the memory cards you need. France, for example, requires a 512 MB card (it is about 350 MB).
I havent figured out if I can copy the maps to my SD card via my SD reader. Thus, via my PPC, it takes over an hour to copy maps to the card.
Selecting which GPS device you have is not clearcut. It took some guessing and experimenting on my part to get the built-in device recognized.
Still, as I said, over half of my problems were install related. Doubtlessly, once I have figured out all of the commands and after I am over my install gripes, I will be very pleased. This works great with the Acer N35.
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