Hi Everyone! A couple of weeks ago, Joe Kee asked if I’d be interested in writing a blog on my experiences with the latest release of TomTom Navigator for PPC (TomTom Navigator 6). ABSOLUTELY! Over the next week or so, I’ll try to cover everything from installation/using TomTom HOME on your PC as well as using TomTom Navigator 6 on your PDA.
I’d first like to mention a quick thank you to Joe and the folks over at BuyGPSNow! for sending me a review copy of the software. I would also like to mention that I’ve never written a Blog (or a review for that matter) before. Please bear with me. My self-editing skills leave a lot to be desired. That said, if you read something in this (or hopefully future) reviews that either doesn’t make sense or is grammatically incorrect, please PM on this site’s forum. I’ll try to answer/correct any PMs I receive as quickly as possible.
I must warn you, this blog series will be long. I’ll try to cover as much information as possible that new and current users of TomTom products might find helpful. Throughout the review, I’ll highlight some “Nuggets” (i.e. Tips) that I found in the user’s manual or online. Hopefully, they’ll make your “TomTom Experience” a little better.
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DISCLAIMER: I’m a HUGE TomTom fan. It is my preferred navigation application and I use it almost daily. I will try to keep my review unbiased, but you, as the reader, should know this ahead of time. Additionally, this review will focus on the application itself. It will NOT focus on the accuracy of the maps. For those who may be new to the GPS scene, software companies (like TomTom, iGuidance, Mapopolis, etc) design navigation software. Rather than trying to develop a piece of navigation software and concurrently create their own mapping database, TomTom and other rely on other companies to provide accurate, highly detailed maps. This makes sense when one realizes that the proper surveying of streets (and the Points of Interests found on those streets) on a State/Province/National level takes a lot of manpower to accomplish. Street data is gathered from a variety of sources which include both manual surveys as well as collecting data from previous surveys conducted by local municipal agencies. It’s too big of a task for a company the size of TomTom (and others) to accomplish. So instead of developing/maintaining their own map database, TomTom (and others) have chosen to purchase their map data from a mapping company. There are two primary providers for map data: TeleAtlas (which is what TomTom uses) and NavTeq. Both mapping companies provide very good-to-excellent quality maps over most of the United States and Europe (They cover other areas too). The quality of the mapping data varies on where you live/drive. Some factors that influence the accuracy/quality of the map data include: how long the roads have been there, when the last survey was completed and whether or not TeleAtlas/NavTeq has verified and incorporated this survey into their databases. Both companies have very stringent quality control methods, so updates sometimes take a while. Although both companies provide very good quality maps for North America, there is a general consensus among GPS navigation users that NavTeq maps are SLIGHTLY better (i.e. slightly more accurate) than TeleAtlas maps for navigation within North America. As stated above, it is location specific and depends on when TeleAtlas/NavTeq have updated their database. Where I live, I have found that TeleAtlas maps are a little bit more accurate than NavTeq (although the NavTeq maps are very good too). If you want to check out the maps where you live, go to:
http://www.google.com/maps
(To look at NavTeq Maps)
http://www.geographic.com/teleatlas/mapyouraddress/us/
(To Look At TeleAtlas Maps)
This might help you in determining which maps are more accurate in your area. Although I am comfortable with maps from either company, my personal preference is to use NavTeq maps. As with many other users, I find NavTeq Maps to be more accurate (even though they too contain their fair share of errors).
Next Blog Entry: Installation!