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SalesTeam
  - Joined on 08-04-2004
- California, USA.
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Part 3 of 3: Initial Feedback, Strengths and Weaknesses and Bug Fixes!
Reviewed by Mr. Justin (weatheryoko):
Let’s finish this review….what do you say? I’ve been using TomTom Navigator 6 for about a month now and I’ve got a good feel for what I like and what I dislike.
First of all, for Windows Mobile users who want TomTom Navigator 6 to work “properly”, your PDA must be running WM2003 Second Edition or later (See compatibility list here: TomTom Compatibility List. However, I’ve read on many forums that Windows Mobile users who only have WM2003 installed on their device are able to successfully run TomTom Navigator 6 with one exception: Screen rotation (i.e. You'll only be able to use TomTom 6 in "Portrait Mode").
Portrait Orientation
Landscape Orientation
HISTORY: In TomTom Navigator 5, WM users had a button in the “Preferences” menu that would allow them to rotate the screen by 90 degrees each time the button was pushed. In TomTom Navigator 6, TomTom has removed this button and relies on the OS to switch from Landscape to Portrait. In other words, the OS controls the screen orientation for TomTom Navigator 6. So if your OS doesn’t support screen rotation natively (i.e. WM2003 and earlier), then TomTom will always be run in the “Portrait” Mode. As I said earlier, some users of WM2003 devices apparently don’t care that TomTom will be “stuck” in Portrait mode and have reported that TomTom Navigator 6 runs well on their devices. NOTE: I do not have a WM2003 device to verify that TT6 will work properly on these devices. If you purchase TT6 for a WM2003, please be advised that it may not work properly (or at all).
Again, a compatibility list can be found here: TomTom Compatibility List . This list is by no means “All Encompassing”. For example, my device (Qtek 2020i) is not listed as a “compatible” device, yet the software works wonderfully. If your device is not listed on the Compatibility List, do some searching on some of the more common forums to see if other members have successfully installed TT6 on a WM2003 device. Here are a couple of good ones:
PocketGPSWorld TomTom Forum
GPSPassion Software Forum
1) Using TomTom Navigator 6. Once you’ve finished the tutorials, you’ll be taken to the Legal screen. 
Legal Notice.
Click on “I agree” to continue.
You'll be taken to the main screen. NOTE: The screen will remain “Black and White” until TomTom has established a GPS Lock. Once TomTom has locked your position, the screen will change from Black & White to Color. If you want to bring up the Main Menu, click anywhere on the map area (light blue circle), if you want the last Voice Guidance repeated (or to adjust the Voice Volume), click anywhere on the lower left-hand side (red circle), and if you want to see your Route Summary (a map with your route displayed), click anywhere in the lower right-hand side of the screen (green circle). 
Default Screen (No GPS Lock).
The Main Menu has 3 screens:
Main Menu: Screen 1of 3
Main Menu: Screen 2 of 3
Main Menu: Screen 3 of 3
And the Preference’s Menu has 5 screens. 
Preferences Menu: Screen 1 of 5
Preferences Menu: Screen 2 of 5
Preferences Menu: Screen 3 of 5
Preferences Menu: Screen 4 of 5
Preferences Menu: Screen 5 of 5 (NOTE that TomTom has removed the "Rotate Screen" button from TomTom Navigator 6).
2) I’d like to quickly cover what TomTom is advertising as “improvements” and/or new features to its latest incarnation of GPS Software. I pulled the following italicized quotes directly from TomTom’s website. According to TomTom, these are the improvements incorporated into TomTom Navigator 6:
Navigate to your contacts - It is now possible to Navigate to contacts saved on your device, directly from the menu in the TomTom application. This was a sorely missed feature in previous releases. This new “Navigate to Contacts” option is pretty good; however, it does not handle complex addresses well. For example, if your contact’s address has “Suite” or “Building” or other additional information, then it may have trouble finding the address. The program will do it’s best to figure out the correct address, but it will prompt you to confirm that it has the correct City, Street and House number. For what its worth, I’ve yet to find a piece of navigation software that can handle “complex” addresses well.
Navigate to coordinates - In the same way, you can also enter coordinates as your destination. I know some people really like this function in a GPS solution, but I don’t really care for it since I don’t use it. Maybe people are using it for Geo-Caching? I do know that TomTom offers you 3 different methods of coordinate entry (see below).
Signpost information - TomTom NAVIGATOR shows you the actual text of signposts you need to follow. This is definitely a nice addition to the software. When navigating on a highway or interstate, TomTom Navigator 5 would only show you the exit number. This could be extremely confusing in big cities where they typically do not display the exit number on the exit sign. Now, in Navigator 6, when you approach your exit, the common name is displayed on the upper right corner of the screen.
North Up 2D Navigational View - A north-up navigation view for better orientation during pedestrian navigation. This is also a nice feature. A lot times, if you were using TomTom for pedestrian navigation in the “Direction of travel at top” orientation, the screen would become erratic because you were walking slowly while TomTom is trying to figure out your direction of travel. Your GPS position would "jump" erratically, making it difficult for TomTom to figure out the true direction of travel. This would limit the usability of TomTom as a Navigation aide for walking around. Adding this map orientation prevents the screen becoming erratic.
TomTom Buddies - This great FREE service from TomTom combines instant messaging and navigation. Using TomTom Buddies, you can communicate with and navigate to your buddies directly from the TomTom application, as well as send them interesting locations you have found. To use TomTom Buddies, you must have a subscription to a wireless data connection, such as GPRS, UTMS or CDMA, either on your device or by connecting your device to a mobile phone with a wireless data connection. I didn’t get a chance to test this, but it sounds pretty cool. At any time you can hide your position from your buddies.
Arrival time / departure time - When you plan a route, TomTom Navigator asks you if you need to arrive by a particular time. TomTom then shows you whether you will arrive on time. Alternatively, you can use this information to work out when you need to leave. Again, this is a nice feature that displays ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) information in a slightly different manner. From my usage, the ETA portion of TomTom is fairly accurate, however, most of them tended to be a little on the conservative side. For example, when planning a route to the local mall (about 25 miles away), it would say it would take approximately 30-35 minutes to get there; however, as long as there was no traffic, I could get there in 25 minutes (I was doing the speed limit).
TomTom Traffic - In addition to up-to-date traffic information, TomTom Traffic now also provides information about dangerous driving conditions, such as icy roads, fog patches and high winds. I’ve used this for a while now and I’ve got mixed feelings about this feature. I question the accuracy of the traffic information TomTom reports to you. I’ve driven down sections of highways that are supposed to be clogged with traffic (according to TomTom), but in reality, the traffic was rather light. To be fair though, I remember a time when TomTom reported a brush fire along my route. I was surprised to see it. I haven’t really found much use for this feature because of the reliability of the traffic data. It may just be that the traffic data TomTom gets for the San Francisco area is just not that accurate. If you purchase the software, you get a free 1 month trial of TomTom traffic when you create your PLUS account. I would try it out and see if you like it. If you decide it’s something that you find useful in your area, you’ll have to pay a monthly fee to use this service.
Safety lock - Use the safety lock to disable many features and buttons while you are driving. This prevents you from being distracted by your TomTom as only the most vital buttons and features are available. As soon as you stop, you can access everything again. I really didn’t like this feature. I like the idea of it, but I found it to be a little too limiting. Certain navigation choices weren’t available when driving (see below and compare to the Main Menu). 
TomTom Weather - TomTom Weather now provides a 5-day weather forecast for free! I really like this feature and find it useful when planning routes across the Sierra mountains (i.e. are they expecting snow along my route). I also like the fact it’s free. The previous version of TomTom Navigator only displayed the current weather (i.e. no weather forecast). You can look up the weather forecast for any of your "Navigate to" choices. 
Run your device on your computer - Using TomTom HOME, you can manage content on your device, check for updates to your TomTom Product, make backups of your TomTom Product and check for real time Traffic incidents. TomTom HOME (covered in a previous blog) makes installation and back-up of your TomTom software easy. However, I could not get the “real time Traffic incident” function to work.
Choosing a destination - We've made it easier to specify your destination. We've also made it easier to enter an address. I’ve always liked the versatility TomTom Navigator gives the user when entering a destination. One can navigate to a: Favorite Destination, Address (which includes City Center, Street and House Number, Zip Code and Cross Street), Recent Destination, Point of Interest (POI), Point on Map, Latitude/Longitude, TomTom Buddy, or finally a stored Contact. 
Navigate to: Screen 1 of 2
Navigate to: Screen 2 of 2
If you click on "Address" (from the first screen) you’ll get the following additional options:
Submenu of “Navigate to Address”
Or if you click on "Navigate to POI", you’ll get the following additional options: 
Points of Interest (POIs) - You can narrow your search for POIs in more ways, making it easier to find the POI you need. Navigate to a POI near current driving location, near home, near destination or along route. You can also search for a POI by name. If you know the name of the POI you are looking for, simply search in Any POI category and enter the name of the POI. I remember when I first used POI navigation. I was using a Magellan device (i.e. Hertz NeverLost) along I-95 and I wanted to know what services were available at the next exit. The Magellan device would tell you the Gas Stations, Hotels, Restaurants, etc that were available at the next exit along your route. I always thought that this was an incredibly smart idea, but for some reason, few other software companies have since offered this navigation feature. TomTom 6 now allows you to search for a POI along your route. This is a GREAT FEATURE and kudos to TomTom for incorporating it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to look for a gas station with other software brands and it displays gas stations BEHIND you. To be fair, the POI database that TomTom uses is by no means 100% accurate or “All Inclusive”. From my experience, the POIs (if listed) are in the general area (i.e. within 100 yards of where TeleAtlas claims they’ll be). It should be noted that this is a MAPPING problem (i.e. TeleAtlas), not a software problem (i.e. TomTom). I do find that position of the POIs listed in NavTeq maps to be slightly more accurate than the POIs listed on TeleAtlas Maps. Additionally, I would like to mention one more good thing that TomTom “fixed” in TomTom Navigator 6. In previous versions of TomTom software, if you were searching for a POI, you HAD to select a category to search in. This could be problematic if you didn’t know (or weren’t sure of) the category. For example, if you wanted to find a local beach-park, would you search under: Beach, Park and Recreation, Rest area, or Tourist attraction? It could conceivable be located in any one of these categories. TomTom Navigator 6 now allows a user to search “Any POI category”. All you have to do is enter part of the name and it will search automatically for the correct POI. This a great addition that makes using POI navigation much easier.
Speeding alert - Notifies the driver if they’re speeding, even if they're not in navigation mode. I can’t comment on this because I could never get it to work. I don’t know if it’s a bug or if the map data doesn’t contain the Speed Limit information. Sounds like something I would want to use.
Easy call handling - Navigate while receiving phone calls. For those who will be using this with a WM phone edition, you’ll be happy to know that this works wonderfully as well. When a call comes in, TomTom automatically mutes itself and you’ll be prompted to answer the phone call. By automatically muting itself, your phone call won’t be interrupted by TomTom’s Voice prompts. When you’re finished with your call and hang-up, TomTom automatically “un-mutes” itself and restores the voice navigation. NOTE: I only tested my unit as a “hand-free” device (i.e. speakerphone). I don’t use a BT headset, so I can’t comment on that.
3) That’s the “Official List”, but I’d like to comment of a few other improvements that I’ve noticed:
Fast Start-Up – Previous versions of TomTom Navigator would take approximately 20-30 seconds to load once the program was launched. TomTom Navigator 6 now loads in under 5 seconds!
Expanded PLUS services – Now from your device you can “Check for Updates” for your software, “Download a Map”, “Download POIs”, “Download Additional Voices”, “Download Color Schemes”, Set up your Buddies and/or Send your Buddies an IM. 
TomTom Plus Services: Screen 1 of 2 
TomTom Plus Services: Screen 2 of 2
Clicking on the “Download More” Icon brings up the following options:
TomTom Plus Services: Download More
Auto Bluetooth – One of the things I really like about TomTom is how it handles connecting to my BT GPS receiver. I typically leave BT off on my device; however, when I lauch TomTom, it automatically starts the BT radio and connects to my BT GPS receiver without any problems. When I exit the application, TomTom returns my BT radio to its initial state (i.e. off). I’ve yet to use a GPS application that handles BT GPS receivers as well as TomTom.
Destination on the Left/Right – One of my biggest criticisms of the previous versions of TomTom was that it would not tell you what side of the street your destination was on. As you approached your destination, TomTom would simply say “Approching Destination”. Considering other navigation products on the market (i.e. iGuidance) have already incorporated this technology in their GPS Navigation Software (for example: iGuidance announces “Approaching Destination on the Right” as you approach your destination), I was always disappointed that TomTom didn’t do this. Well they have finally stepped up to the plate and now offer this functionality (albeit somewhat limited). TomTom 6 will now SHOW you what side of the street your destination is on when you ENTER AN ADDRESS. It still will NOT give you a voice prompt (i.e. “Destination of the Left”), but it will show you visually on the map (see screen shot below). I’ve only got this feature to work when I enter an address. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear to work when I navigate to a POI (i.e. TomTom does not indicate what side of the street the POI is located on). I hope that future releases will add voice prompts (i.e. “Approaching Destination of the Left”) and that POI navigation will be supported. 
TomTom now visually shows the user what side of the street their destination lies on (when they are navigating to an address).
4) I’ll finish up this section with my Pro’s and Con’s
Pro’s
a) If you don’t like the menu layout for TomTom 6, you can create a custom one. There are a couple of resources to do this. You can try either skuX’s Menu Builder
or you can try TomTom Menu Designer:
I should mention that 3 buttons are not available in these custom menus: TomTom PLUS Services*, Safety Preferences and Ask Arrival Time (toggles on/off). If you build a custom menu, you will not be able to select these options.
*NOTE: If you add the "Download Extras" button to your customized menu, you will get an abridged version of things to download/adjust on your TomTom PLUS Account. b) If you don’t like your choices for map colors, you can customize that too. You can use Color Scheme Editor found here.
c) “View Route” options. Once you’ve planned a route in TomTom, there are several ways in which you can view it. You can view your navigation as “Route List”, you can browse your route as a series of images (showing you the turns you’ll take along your route), you can view a route summary, you can watch a demonstration (or simulation) of the route, or you can simply browse a map of your route.
 View Route Options
View Route: Browse as Text (NOTE: If you tap on any of the directions (i.e Take the exit right onto Hwy 101 El Camino Real), TomTom will show you a graphic of the turn manuever (like the image below).
View Route: Browse as images
d) “Travel Via” is another nice feature. If you were heading to the grocery store but you needed to make a quick stop at the video store along the way, you could add this to your route using the “Travel Via” command. It’s allows for a very quick way to add an additional destination into your route without having to create an “Itinerary”.
e) Avoid Roads - TomTom again allows for extreme flexibility during navigation. During your trip you may want to avoid a certain road for various reasons (i.e. ice, traffic, etc). The user can tell TomTom to calculate an Alternative Route by avoiding a specified road. Additionally, let us consider the following scenario: Let’s say you just turned on your radio and heard that there has been a traffic accident reported 2 miles ahead of your current position. You can tell TomTom you wish to avoid a certain portion (i.e. distance) of the road you’re traveling on. You simply tell TomTom to avoid this road for the next 3 miles and TomTom will calculate an Alternative Route to avoid the accident.
f) Custom POI’s - TomTom allows the creation of custom POIs. This way you can save your favorite destinations into the POI database on your device. What’s really nice about this feature (for WM phone users), is the ability to add a phone numbers to your custom POIs. When a phone number is stored with a POI, the user can now call the custom POI simply by pressing the “Call Number” option and selecting the desired POI (The user can actually call any POI (not just the custom POIs) in the POI database that has a valid number).
g) Itinerary Planning - Itinerary planning is also a great tool for long road trips. The user can create infinitely (as far as I can tell) destinations and/or waypoints when creating an Itinerary. TomTom is one of the few navigation solutions that allows the user to SAVE their itinerary for future use.
h) Improved Voice Guidance - I’ve noticed TomTom has slightly improved their outstanding voice guidance. It seems they’ve added voice prompts to help prepare the driver for upcoming turns (especially when they are within quick succession of each other). For example, on one of the turns I take to work, I now hear “In 500 yards turn right, then take the second left” (Previously all I would hear is “In 500 yards, turn right”). It seems that TomTom Navigator 6 has put more emphasis on making sure the driver is aware of not only the current turn that needs to be executed, but also future turns that will occur shortly there after. This helps the driver to determine what lane to be in.
Con’s
a) One of the biggest problems I noticed was TomTom’s sensitivity to Storage Media when calculating a long route (>1000 miles). As I stated in the beginning, I was initially using an A-DATA 4 GB SD card that claims to have a read speed of 150x. I initially loaded the North America map and calculated a cross-country route from San Francisco, CA to Annapolis, MD. It took a whopping 34 minutes to calculate the route (see the clock in the upper right-hand corner). This is completely unusable! I couldn’t believe that TomTom was claiming Coast to Coast routing when it took 34 minutes to calculate a route! Out of curiousity, I loaded the North America map on my SanDisk Ultra II (plus USB) 1 GB SD card and tried the same route. This time it took less than two minutes to calculate the route. Much better. I also tried the same route, this time with the maps loaded on my SanDisk Ultra II (plus USB) 2 GB SD Card. It also took less than two minutes to calculate a coast to coast route. My advice to anyone who is planning frequent long distance routes: Buy a good, high quality storage card! 
Started Route Calculation: 8:02pm
Finished Route Calculation: 8:36pm
b) When loading the Voices onto your device using TomTom HOME, there currently is no way to “test” or “preview” the voice before installing it. I think users would find it helpful to “preview” all the available voices, allowing them to choose the best one to install.
c) Favorites is a way to quickly store some of your favorite destination. Unfortunately, TomTom has limited the number of favorites one can store. Users are only able to store 48 “Favorites”. Some users (such as myself) may find it troublesome that the number of “Favorites” one can store is limited. This isn’t really a big deal if you realize that you can save your “Favorites” as a custom POI. Currently, there is no limitation to the number of custome POIs you can store. I ended up converting all my Favorites to POIs and I actually like it better (because I’ve added phone numbers to my custom POIs and now I can easily call my custom POIs. I couldn’t do this when my favorite destinations were saved as “Favorites”.)
d) As a said before, I couldn’t get the Speed Alert feature to work. Kinda disappointing.
e) Previous versions of TomTom would “hijack” the system (Master) volume on your device and turn it up all the way. A lot of people complained (I’m not one of them) that it screwed up their MP3 play back. Well TomTom listened and now whenever TomTom is launched, it doesn’t change the system (Master) volume. This is problematic in a noisy car. (Quick point of clarification. There are two volumes: the Master or System Volume (controlled by the OS) and the Voice Guidance Volume (adjustable in TomTom). The two volumes are independent of each other. For example if you muted the Master Volume, but turned up the Voice Guidance Volume to the maximum, you would hear nothing. For all you Stereo geaks out there, this may be a better analogy: Voice Guidance Volume acts just like your Pre-Amp while Master Volume basically acts as your Amplifier). For clear voice guidance, you need the Master Volume to be turned up all the way! For example, I have the Master Volume of my device turned fairly low because I don’t want the interruptions of alarms or phone calls furing business meetings. I have it set low for a reason. When I launch TomTom, I can barely hear the Voice Guidance because TomTom no longer maximizes the Master Volume automatically when the program is launched. I’ve found a couple of solutions. One is free, the other will cost you about $10.00 (need to buy additional software). Here’s a link to the free solution (NOTE: you must install TomTom Navigator under the \\Program Files\ directory (i.e. it cannot be stored on a storage card) and you'll need to install .NET Compact Flash (which is free)).
Link to AximSite.com
NOTE: To install .NET CF, see instructions at website.
The other solution will require you to purchase SKScheMa from S.K. Tools.
S.K. Tools SKScheMa Download
I’m assuming most people are cheap and will go with option 1. If you want instructions on how to do option 2, let me know.
f) No Voice Prompts for what side of the street your destination is on.
g) No audible or visual cues on what side of the street a POI can be found.
h) No “Auto switching” between day and night. Several GPS navigation solutions will automatically switch between “Day Maps” and “Night Maps” when the sun sets/rises. The “Night” maps were created so that you (as the user) are not blinded at night by the bright colors/high contrast typically found on “Day” Maps. A third party application that is currently “under construction” may in the future provide this functionality. See:
ToolsTools.tk
Update 12/20/2006: The developers of ToolsTools have released version 2.1. This new version provides Automatic Day/Night Switching.
Second Update 01/02/07: I've tried for the last 10 days to get the Auto Day/Night Switching to work, but I couldn't. I'd hold onto your money if I were you (at least for right now). If I'm able to get it to work, I'll update this post.
Menu Layout: I think the general layout of menus is poorly thought out. For example: It shouldn’t take 4 screen taps to exit the application. This can largely be overcome by creating a customized menu.
Original Main Menu Options
If we customize our Menus, we can modify them so that the most common features are now available on the first screen of the Main Menu. Now it only takes two clicks to exit the software.
Possible better organization of the Main Menu Options?
j) “Favorites” may not be upgradeable from previous versions. Because I’ve used the last two versions of TomTom, I had created a decent “Favorites” list. It wasn’t huge, but I probably had ~30 Favorites in it. The “Favorites” data is stored in the file named <Map Name>.cfg (where <Map Name> is the name of the Map (i.e. West_Map.cfg)). When I upgraded from TomTom USA to TomTom 5, all I had to do was copy “West_Map”.cfg into the map directory and my Favorites were available to navigate to. It seems that in V6, TomTom changed some of the file names and file structures. First of all, the “Favorites” data is now stored in the file “MapSettings.cfg” and it appears to be in a slightly different format. I tried renaming my old “Favorites” file to “MapSettings.cfg” and it didn’t work. I have read at http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/ that some users had success in renaming their old “Favorites” file to “MapSettings.cfg” and it worked. Give it a try. It may work for you. It didn’t for me.
k) I wish TomTom HOME had a “Smart” back-up. In other words, I wish it would back up only the TomTom Application and personalized settings as opposed to simply backing up your entire Storage Card.
Although I actually have more con’s than pro’s, I still thing TomTom is the best overall solution available on the market today. After re-reading my post, I realized that I never commented on the quality of the routing. Let me say that the routing quality is very good to excellent. The routes that TomTom recommends make sense. I've compared the routes it recommends against the routes I would take (using local knowledge of shortcuts, best routes, etc) and it generally (9 out of 10 times) comes up with the route I would take.
What else can I say about the new TomTom Navigator 6? Can it be improved? Sure. Is it a good choice for beginners and experience GPS users? Absolutely. Does it give good routing/instructions? Absolutely. Would I recommend it? Yes. TomTom Navigator 6 offers a very powerful GPS Navigation solution to users and its uses an intuitive, easy to use GUI.
I hope you found this review helpful. Whether you liked it or hated it, please let me know. I’d like to get some feedback. I’d like to finish up with a couple of hints:
HINT: Do NOT delete the \2577 directory on your storage card. If this directory is deleted, your device may have problems recognizing which maps have been installed on your Storage Card.
HINT: If your display seems to be jerky when navigating (i.e. the map scrolls in a jagged manner vice smoothly), go into the “Preferences” Menu and click on the “Enable/disable POIs”. Remove any check marks by the POIs listed (thus removing them from the Navigation screen). This should help "smooth" your display when navigating.
HINT: If you want to move the location of the TomTom application from the internal memory to a storage card, do the following: With your device connected and sync'd with your computer, use the mouse on your PC and right click on the ActiveSync icon and select “Explore”. Find the TomTom directory under \\Program Files\ (it will be labeled “Navigator”). Move that directory to your Storage Card. Go to \\Windows\Start Menu\ and delete the Shortcut labeled “TomTom Navigator”. Finally, go back into the “Navigator” directory (which now resides on your storage card) and right click on the icon labeled TomTom Navigator.exe. Click on “Copy” and then go back to \\Windows\Start Menu\. Right click anywhere and click on “Paste Short-cut”. You’ve now successfully moved the application to your storage card! (NOTE: Editing the Registry is not required with TT6!)
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