[kazmi]

I LOVED TomTom on my old WinMo device....looks like its coming to the iPhone:

TomTom for iPhone

hopefully they will develop one for the blackberry? although I am a VZ Navigator user, I would love to see how it would work on the BB.

Thoughts?

[Jim W]

I always wondered how the cell versions of GPS compared to the devices like Tom Tom. This kind of adds to my confusion. Is the GPS more the software or the hardware? I would think if Tom Tom is making an app for a phone, then it must mean the software is the most important part and having a Tom Tom device is a waste of money?

[kazmi]

hmm..well the hardware is one crucial part of this...the older days, we needed a bluetooth gps puck...then came the built-in GPS chips...these days, with a-GPS, the satellite coverage is very comparable. The only issue is with software that uses network availability vs caching...for instance, VZ Nav uses network availability...you can run the software but it won't work on routes if there is no network coverage. Garmin and hopefully TomTom's apps dont rely on network availability for the route/map functionality...they download either at the beginning the entire route or as with TT's version on winmo, the software came on a dedicated 2GB SD card....with maps of the US and Canada standard...and then it only used the GPS to overlay on that map...

I hope that makes sense. My wife uses the nuvi and I the VZ nav...let's just say I have not had the need for a standalone unit for almost a year now....

[Jim W]

hmm..well the hardware is one crucial part of this...the older days, we needed a bluetooth gps puck...then came the built-in GPS chips...these days, with a-GPS, the satellite coverage is very comparable. The only issue is with software that uses network availability vs caching...for instance, VZ Nav uses network availability...you can run the software but it won't work on routes if there is no network coverage. Garmin and hopefully TomTom's apps dont rely on network availability for the route/map functionality...they download either at the beginning the entire route or as with TT's version on winmo, the software came on a dedicated 2GB SD card....with maps of the US and Canada standard...and then it only used the GPS to overlay on that map...

I hope that makes sense. My wife uses the nuvi and I the VZ nav...let's just say I have not had the need for a standalone unit for almost a year now....

Thanks, that explained it perfectly!


**edit**

and in case people wonder why the rating.......the GPS explanation is well worth it.

[burbunny]

I'd love TomTom to come to BB, as long as purchased maps for WinMo were transferrable - I'd hate to have to repurchase those maps!

[kazmi]

^right, that would be the ultimate but something tells me it wont be so. If you look at all their mobile offerings, they have kept their different softwares ,well, different - in the sense you cannot use maps from one for the navigation on another device. We may be out of luck there....I still have navigator 5 (?) on my old Blue Angel device...the software/UI simply rocks.

[kneeman]

Garmin has an app for BB. It downloads your route when you start and then if you drive out of cell coverage it still guides you to where you want to go you just can't change where your destination and get new directions until you are back in cell coverage areas.

As far as we have come I don't see why we can't all get sat phones that work everywhere, are the same size as the current phones. Then we can get rid of cell towers.