We saw photos of the TomTom accessory for the iPhone yesterday but now we have video of it. This is basically a little dock with a USB cable and a GPS booster. Not a huge deal but this could feasibly mean the end of standalone GPS devices, which is kind of important. What think you?
Would you replace a standalone GPS device with something like this? Do you already use something like this – maybe a BB or a WinMo phone tethered to the dashboard?
by
John Biggs
on
June 9, 2009
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I’ve been using a vent clip for my blackberry curve for a couple of years with Telenav and love it. One less set of charger cords and one less thing to carry on the road. (gps+cord+phone+cord)
Do they have a listing of supported car systems and such? What about pricing and how exactly does the GPS boost work?
I doubt the pricing will be very consumer friendly. They are going to scared of cannibalizing their standalone device sales. Getting TomTom the treo was pretty dam expensive as I recall. It’s nice that Sprint includes their nav stuff fro free with the palm Pre simple everything, paints a nice contrast to ATT pay more get less (hell is sprint had kept tethering on the menu I would have bought one this weekend). Since their is not much competition in the apple market place I imagine that tomtom will pretty close to the full device pricing but maybe they will through in a deal on traffic updates or something (but it’s not more then a year though)
How is this any different than TomTom for Palm or Windows Mobile? Why is it every time a company does something for iPhone, people act like this is something brand new, and have a ton of questions to ask about it? It isn’t like this is the first time you have been able to run GPS software, or even TomTom software on a smartphone. This isn’t at all different than what they have been doing for almost ten years, they have just added another platform.
Because *normal* people use the iPhone, and not just geeks.
It’s the whole reason the iPhone was “revolutionary” in the first place. Normal people finally decided they wanted a Smart Phone because the iPhone (unlike previous options) was actually *usable*.
The problem with that theory being that tens of millions of Windows Mobile handhelds sell every year (to this day more than the number of iPhones sold) , at it’s height tens of millions of Palms sold, and those “geeks” like doctors, lawyers, middle managers, real estate agents, plumbers, auto mechanics and accountants who bought the things in droves all went about their normal lives.
Oh wait, by *normal* you meant *normal* people like fashion models, actors, rock stars, rappers, celebutantes and the hipster bloggers who want to be them didn’t you? I suppose by that token by *usable* you mean so simple that even a model or blogger can figure it out.
The more interesting question is how the application behaves when it is tasked away from. Does it ‘cheat’ like Google Maps so that you don’t have to start from scratch reacquiring satellites and such when the app is brought back to the front?
I use nav systems a bit differently than the typical consumer trying to find their Starbucks. Well, I do use it to find Starbucks, don’t get me wrong. But how’s it going to work in the areas without phone service, let alone no 3G? When I tour on a motorcycle, my Garmin has XM radio, weather, and navigation, and I could be on some small 2 lane road in Utah, where the nearest cell tower is…nonexistent. I’m not ready to eBay my Garmin quite yet.
And to the those idiots proclaiming how great it works on Blackberry’s and Palms. LOL. I’ve had those, and they aren’t replacements for standalone navigations. They’re crap.
The reason “people act like this is something brand new” is because 1. the implementation will likely be stunning on the iPhone (particularly since AT&T hopefully has no reason to cripple it as they have the sad, sad SlingPlayer), and 2. there is a huge, ravenous constituency of iPhone common folk out there, as opposed to a virulent but comparatively small contingent of bleeding-edge geeks. I used my Palm T5 in conjunction with my Sony Ericsson T68i for YEARS to access internet services (and to tether to my Powerbook as well). This doesn’t mean that the same achieving the same on my iPhone is not a qualitatively unique and (and largely superior) experience.
A few years ago I purchased a stand-alone version of the TomTom navigator software to use in conjunction with my T5, along with a tiny Holux GPS unit. It didn’t work worth a crap, but I had fun trying. I finally broke down and bought a TomTom 720 Go, but I will not hesitate to snap up this iPhone kit and app when it becomes available. Hopefully the Sirius/XM app will materialize soon, too, and finally there will be one small, elegant unit suction-cupped to my windshield. This will be a good, good thing–since I can hardly see the road as it is!
Ok 1: the implimentation will probably be no different than TomTom Navigator 6 on any other platform, as it is still TomTom Navigator 6.
2: As I comment above (though for some reason my FB connect didn’t work) this whole “the iPhone is the first smartphone popular with anyone but geeks” meme, only works if the majority of the population is geeks, and non-geeks comprise a small minority.
I hate to break it to you, but the iPhone isn’t breaking any records for for smartphone sales. They are moving about 10 million a year, which is fewer than the number of Windows Mobile devices sold, and far behind the number of BlackBerries sold. It isn’t some breakout hit that finally made smartphones acceptable to “normal people.” That was the Treo, years before the iPhone was even conceived.
The only claim to fame the iPhone has, is finally putting a smartphone in the hands so celebrities not as smart as their phone, and those are hardly “common folk.”
I’d consider it after putting it toe-to-toe with my company-provided Tom Tom 330XL and seeing how it held up. What would really be a bonus is if it also offered RF so you could wirelessly transmit your music/directions through your audio system. Sure, I have an aux input that I can use, but the bonus of being able to go wire-free would be sweet, especially for those of us who like to have our phone/gps mounted on the left side of the wheel…
There is an application in the Apple app store that plays Sirius radio (finally)! It’s called Pocket Tunes.
It’s $9.99, but well worth it …for me at least
Hopefully Sirius will develop their own app, but until then..
I had telenav with at&t and It was only usable in the cities, if you traveled and lost your at&t signal you lost your map with tomtom and Iphone you will be able to travel anywhere not like the curve or pre or windows which are limited.
You do know that Garmin and TomTom make their software for WinMo, BlackBerry, and Palm, and have for years before the iPhone even came out, right?
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