14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Works as claimed, just about, November 22, 2007
This review is from: Tom Tom iPod Connect Cable and Audio Cable (Electronics)
Now I'm going to sit on the fence a little bit here. I bought a TomTom GO 910 a few months ago and bought the iPod cable at the same time. I also wanted to use the TomTom as a hands free kit for my phone, via Bluetooth.
Issue number one is cables! If you're using all of this then you will have four cables trailing over your car dashboard: TomTom power, external mic, iPod cable, cable to car stereo aux input. You can reduce this cable count by one if you have a car stereo that supports Bluetooth (I don't so have not tried this).
I paid to have all of my cables routed behind the car dashboard. They come out in a neat little cluster by the corner of my windscreen. The iPod connector comes out in the glove compartment (the cable is plenty long enough).
So, functionality:
No iPod charging! This is a pretty serious omission, especially for long journeys.
The on-screen iPod controls are OK, but not excellent. Relatively responsive, but clunky compared to the iPod itself (not entirely surprising).
There is no support for compilations, so the artist list contains artists who only feature on a compilation album. This is a bit annoying, but not the end of the world.
No support for album art.
It takes a few seconds to transfer the song list to the TomTom. I have about 4000 songs on my iPod, transfer takes 2-3 seconds.
Annoyingly the TomTom volume control changes the volume of the directions voice and the iPod. It would be better to have two volume controls, or to just have the iPod audio level fixed.
When the TomTom has something to say, the iPod is paused. This is useful, but it would be nicer if there was an option to just lower the iPod volume.
And quality:
There is definitely noise on the line. It's not noticeable when driving and listening to music, but when stopped in traffic listening to an audio book you can hear the noise.
There are some bugs in the system. Occasionally the TomTom loses contact with the iPod and I have to unplug/replug it. Also sometimes after I've been playing music the TomTom will go silent (no more talking) until I power off/on.
Overall I'm happy with the product as it means I can listen to anything from my iPod when I'm driving, and cost less than getting a new car stereo with iPod support, but it could certainly do with some improvements.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Poor Audio Quality & Limited Navigation, January 29, 2007
This review is from: Tom Tom iPod Connect Cable and Audio Cable (Electronics)
I love my TomTom 510. I love my iPod. So I thought, "Hey, a match made in heaven!" Not so much. The audio quality is quite poor - reduced volume, static, and frequent popping sounds. Furthermore, the iPod controls on the TomTom are very limited. For example, I often shuffle an artist or genre, but you can not do that on the TomTom. Also, I listen to a lot of podcasts, but there is no podcast option on the main iPod menu on the TomTom, only audiobooks. And, when you connect the iPod to the TomTom, the iPod locks up so you can only control the iPod via the TomTom. I would not recommend this product at all.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Easy solution to shoddy sound quality, January 28, 2008
This review is from: Tom Tom iPod Connect Cable and Audio Cable (Electronics)
Hey guys I was thinking about buying this for my TomTom but heard of the poor sound quality which was a huge deal to me. I normally plug my iPod in through the auxilary port of my car but that will be taken up by my nav system now.
What did I do? I went to radio shack and got an audio splitter for about $10. This allows me to plug both the iPod and TomTom into a single port with no interference. The only downside is no controlling iPod with the TomTom but I'm used to that anyway.
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