The once broken hyperlink to the TomTom Car Kit in the US Apple Store works now, meaning Apple has started selling the car kit in US dollars.
The GPS enhancing, car mounted kit ships in two to three weeks – for free – and is going for $119.95. Like I said before, this car kit looks like it will compliment the iPhone’s best navigation app very well.
I use navigation apps a lot, I have a horrible sense of direction and travel a lot. So I say this with some authority: TomTom is the superior mobile navigation program in the App Store. I happen to have four on my springboard now, Google Maps, MotionX, Navigon, and TomTom, and I’ll give you my unsolicited opinion on them all.
Google Maps is what it is. It frequently makes mistakes and sends users on fantastic detours, but has its namesake’s information clearinghouse behind it.
MotionX GPS Drive is a really good navigation app. For its price, you can’t beat it. It is miles ahead of Google Maps, no pun intended. I’ve used it a couple of times and have been beyond impressed by it. The only criticism I can think of is its speed; it’s a bit slow. Calculating new routes and launching the app after a phone call isn’t exactly quick, and I found myself guessing at a freeway off-ramp as I waited for MotionX to reload.
I want to like Navigon; it looks beautiful and functions smoothly, but it just doesn’t work. I live in a big city off of a major street, and Navigon just can’t seem to find my address. This makes things difficult, to say the least, and hard to trust the app when dealing with unknown addresses. Furthermore, I’ve been unable to use the app on two separate occasions because of “insufficient GPS service,” that didn’t plague the other navigation apps I possess.
TomTom’s IQ Route isn’t just a good-sounding gimmick, it does what it says it does: finds the fastest route. TomTom calculates the speeds driven on roads by their users, rather than just road speed limits, to find the quickest way from A to B. When I’m driving in a strange town like Salt Lake City, I am constantly pleasantly surprised when IQ Route sends me on a shortcut that Google Maps would have never thought of. I’ve never had a problem with my ‘GPS service’ on this app, and the app recovers speedily from interruptions.
I stand by my endorsement of TomTom, and recommend it if you want a professional grade GPS service and are willing to pay for it. If you don’t want to spend a lot, MotionX is the way to go.
I disagree completely. There is no way Tom Tom is better than Navigon OR MotionX. It lacks basic features that any GPS app should have.
Does anyone know if Navigon fully supports the TomTom car kit (E.G. FM transmit, External GPS)? I know TomTom supports 3rd party apps but I want to know if Navigon supports TomTom’s Car Kit
If it worked on the Touch I’d buy two of them right now… too bad Apple is assuming the Touch is a “gaming platform”. They’re totally missing the boat.
I also can’t agree here. I’ve used both TomTom and Navigon, and hands down Navigon is the winner. TomTom doesn’t even include an itinerary feature for planning an entire day worth of locations, or a complete trip. The “insufficient gps” you receive on navigon has nothing to do w/ the app, and I regularly get the same thing from tomtom, it is related to the phone. Exploring the map is cumbersome, and unintuitive. I just all around thought TomTom was a letdown, I wrote their customer service and asked about the missing features and they said “The iPhone app is not as full featured as our stand alone navigation units”.. to which I wrote back “Why? It’s a better, more sophisticated processor, with a full OS behind it, why would it lack features your standalone units contain?
I too am waiting to find out if the GPS chip works w/ navigon, if it does, I’m sold on the car kit, but will still leave the app in the appstore off my phone
Surprising review, since after all this time Tomtom has plummeted to 2.5 stars on the app store whereas Navigon gets a consistent 4 stars. Every other review I’ve seen rates Navigon higher. I have not used it, but most other reviewers find Tomtom mediocre- like they expected to skate by on their name alone.
Their app requires a $120 accessory to work like it should?
I review these applications for Asian manufacturers of Smartphone. I have and do run simultaneously. I agree with your review. With their version one the MotionX is the best solution and really works. We were all surprised that that was possible. It is only iPhone so if you also you Blackberry or Samsung, you cannot use. Otherwise, MotionX is proper solution for iPhone users and they will constantly improve. Impressive.
Sorry but this article has obviously been written by someone that has no objectivity and probably received some kickbacks from tomtom…
It’s a poor reviewer that down-scores an app because his personal address isn’t on it. Navigon is excellent and so much easier to follow with a clear graphical display.
TomTom’s 1984 Commodore 64 graphics just aren’t up to the job.
If you have a jailbroken iphone and an old BT GPS module around, why pay $120 to Tomtom when you can get a small utility to allow your iphone to use the external GPS receiver for better accuracy? It costs 8euros and then Tomtom, Navigon, Copilot, G-Map or any other GPS software can use the external GPS instead of the weak built-in one… of course, it’s not as “polished” as the tomtom solution and if you have money… go for it… but still, much cheaper and then you only need a cheaper holder and can use that old GPS receiver that you did not know what to do with…
http://www.roqy-bluetooth.net/roqyGPS.html