TomTom Navigator 5 System with Maps of the US and Canada for Compatible PDAs

by TomTom

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0009PD3OQ
• Item model number: 1H00.081
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #128,420 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

With the TomTom Navigator 5 System with Maps of the US and Canada for Compatible PDAs you never need to be lost again, wherever you are, whatever you are doing. TomTom's Navigator 5 software is designed for people who already own a PDA without a built-in NMEA 0183 GPS receiver. This package provides a wired GPS receiver and all the Navigator 5 software with maps of the complete US and Canada, which once installed on your PDA will let you know not only where you are going, but exactly how best to get there.

The TomTom Navigator 5 software is not only effortless to install, but easy to use with a touch-screen user menu that gives you an intuitive navigation experience, and an inherent portability that lets you take it with you anywhere, whether in your car, on your bike, or on foot. This software gives you the convenience of millions of pre-installed POIs (points of interest) from restaurants to gas stations, allowing you to search by proximity to your current location, along your route, near a specific city and more, even including the ability to set automatic alerts as you approach, as well as letting you plan your route to fit your requirements.

Navigator 5 not only guides you from door to door, but can navigate directly to contacts from your PDA address book, complete with stopovers and itinerary planning for routing to multiple destinations while adding stopping points. The user-friendly interface features a tip system for when you are just getting started, an optional compass display, and the ability to show a route demonstration so you can better know what things are going to look like in advance.

TomTom's Navigator 5 system provides you with crystal clear 3D graphics, and allows you to improve the readability by customizing the dynamic status bar. Suitable for almost anybody, this navigation system will also guide you from door-to-door with easy spoken directions that come in 30 different languages that include with the European languages such options as Chinese, Thai, Japanese and more, as well as providing 18 different languages for its user interface.

Full of smart extras and additional options, the TomTom Navigator 5 system supports a wide range of TomTom Plus services and downloads. TomTom Plus lets you receive real-time, up-to-the-minute traffic information, with jam alerts and road condition warnings, as well as use instant messaging and more to keep in touch with a selected group of people, including tracking their location. TomTom Plus is an optional, cost-based service that can be accessed through Navigator 5 at any time.

The Navigator 5 system encourages you to get from A to B as quickly and easily as possible, and comes with the smallest and lightest wired GPS receiver possible, so it easily fits in your pocket or bag. The TomTom Navigator 5 software and GPS receiver is compatible with most popular brands and models of PDAs, including; PalmOne, Sony, Acer, Airis, Dell, Fujitsu Siemens, HP, Imate, O2, Qtek, and T-Mobile.

What's in the Box
Navigation 5 software with application and maps of the US and Canada, wired GPS receiver, full user's manual, installation guide, quick-start guide, and product code card.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If you have a Bluetooth PDA, it's a great alternative to pricey all-in-1 unit, October 26, 2005

By 

John Rowe (Cary, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: TomTom Navigator 5 System with Maps of the US and Canada for Compatible PDAs (Electronics)

Why pay for another small computer with a touchscreen when you already have one? The TomTom Navigator 5 with its CDs of maps and software is less than half the price of an all-in-one unit. One advantage over the all-in-ones is that you can put the Navigator way out on your car's dash to receive a good signal while keeping the PDA's screen closer to you (or even with someone in the back seat). In my looking around, it appeared that TomTom is one of the better GPS software companies. Their software was definitely easy for me to figure out. I paired the Navigator GPS receiver (about the size of a double-thick iPod nano) with my Treo on a recent trip to New York. It worked great.

MY EXPERIENCE SETTING IT UP: To set it up you need to load the software onto your PDA, visit the TomTom site, and enter in some passwords. Then it's time to load the map(s) you need. Warning: one state can take 50 MB or more (make sure you have room on your PDA's expansion card or buy a bigger one). Loading maps for NY, CT and MA totaled about 75 MB. Transferring that much info to your PDA takes about 10 minutes. Then it's time to register the maps which requires going back to the TomTom website.

Getting into the software, I went to the "Points of Interest" option, chose "Airports", selected Laguardia Airport, and saved it as a favorite. I then went to the "Hotels", selected the one I was staying at and saved it as "home". It got me right to the hotel with only one confusing direction near the end of the trip. While at the hotel, I found that I needed to go to a grocery store. I found one in the "Stores" portion of "Points of Interest" and it navigated me to it perfectly.

THINGS I LEARNED:

1) You need to be out in the open for the GPS to pick up satellite signals (don't try to use it inside or in a parking garage).

2) Try it out around town before you try it on a trip so you know it works and to get a better idea of how far say "800 yards" is. The voice will often tell you something like, "turn right in 800 yards" and I didn't have a good feel for how far that was when I first began using it.

3) It will tell you when to turn, when to stay right, and when to veer left, etc. But it doesn't speak street names (although the display does SHOW the street name of the next street you need to take).

4) The only power adapter included is for a cigarette lighter.

5) An in-car PDA holder with windshield suction cup or vent attachment is a necessity.

6) If you have a combination PDA/Phone, you may want to turn the phone off while using the GPS. I got a call in the middle of driving. If a turn had been coming up, I would have missed it.

7) If you get lost, there's nothing like a paper map that allows you to see the big picture (rather than a 3" x 3" screen).

8) Listening to your directions spoken with optional British and Australian accents is a "trip".

All in all, I am very pleased with my purchase and will take the Navigator 5 with me on all my future trips.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FLEXIBLE AND THOROUGH, August 26, 2005

By 

SuperSchtroumpf (Lyon, France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: TomTom Navigator 5 System with Maps of the US and Canada for Compatible PDAs (Electronics)

This is my first GPS product; it is installed on my Acer N35. I don't have a lot to compare to, but I can nonetheless say that this product has met or exceeded most of my expectations. I am told that as TomTom is a more popular brand, you will have a bit more support, a bit more coverage, and a bit more compatiblity. I should also add that I purchased Tomtom Navigator 5 EUROPE (as I live in France).

On another note, if you purchase a PDA/GPS in France, you have to be careful about the maps. Here, the PDA only comes with France/Monacco, so you need to purchase from Tomtom or another provider each map separately. The better way to do Europe is to purchase the PDA without maps/software and buy Tomtom Navigator 5. Buying all countries at once is much cheaper than one at a time.

Pros:

Excellent 3D rendering of where you are and where you are going, that puts you virtually where you are. If you are facing a lake, it will put the lake on the top of your screen. You to move about 5 feet or so and maybe 5-10 seconds for the system to orient.

2D map is fine.

There is also a nice night color map with blues, grays, and blacks.

Options to select by limited speed, bike, foot, etc.

Some amazing coverage such as each footpath on the city park.

Europe maps are very extensive, from the UK to Poland (though only about 17% of the latter).

I think that if it loses the signal, it assumes you are on track and keeps calculating and moving based on last direction and speed (great, for example, if you are going under a tunnel).

Voice commands are fine, nothing special but quick and to the point. Commands are in many languages that you can select from (even American and UK English).

Cons:

Does not have every address (does not have my work address which is a big building on a major street)

Install is frustrating. I had to reboot my computer and PPC several times, and worst of all I kept getting a "insufficient space in temporary folder" error (or something like that). I checked the Tomtom site, no help. I had to search around the net and found out that I needed to delete a setup folder on my temporary PC drive via the "RUN" command in the Start menu.

The Tomtom commands are a bit difficult, because they sound a lot alike.

No altitude readings (as far as I can see).

Don't let vendors fool you about the size of the memory cards you need. France, for example, requires a 512 MB card (it is about 350 MB).

I havent figured out if I can copy the maps to my SD card via my SD reader. Thus, via my PPC, it takes over an hour to copy maps to the card.

Selecting which GPS device you have is not clearcut. It took some guessing and experimenting on my part to get the built-in device recognized.

Still, as I said, over half of my problems were install related. Doubtlessly, once I have figured out all of the commands and after I am over my install gripes, I will be very pleased. This works great with the Acer N35.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Doesn't Work at Critical Moments, July 31, 2006

By 

S. Nay (Wenatchee, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: TomTom Navigator 5 System with Maps of the US and Canada for Compatible PDAs (Electronics)

Update: I wrote the review below based on my experiences with TomTom Navigator for Palm, which was version 4. I've seen v5 in operation but have not used it myself. From what I saw, TomTom has resolved some of the issues that I mentioned, but there was no way to test for signal problems.
*****
I've owned TomTom Navigator for my PDA for a while now, and I just can't recommend it. There are many things to like, but the problems with the software outweigh the good. A couple of good features:
+ Nice 3D map view.
+ Interface desiged for fingers, not a stylus.

But the main problem:
- Sometimes it just refuses to see the GPS signal, which means it's no good at all. I have a wired GPS antenna, so it's not a bluetooth problem. It could be working fine, then I'll switch to the address book to look up a phone number and then switch back to Navigator, and it says it can't find the GPS signal. It had no trouble finding it 30 seconds before, and nothing has changed, but it will not find it no matter how long I wait. I've tried to work with TomTom on this and they replaced my cradle and gave me some setup steps to try, but the problem is still there. If a GPS device can't find the signal, all those pretty maps are worthless. I'd say that it works at least 90% of the time, but that 10% is a killer, especially when you're on a trip to an unfamiliar city and you need to find your way back to the airport in time for your flight.

A few design problems:
- The "Major Roads of the USA" map is just roads; it has no POI information. So if you're on a long trip, you have to switch maps to find a hotel or restaurant.
- Map groupings are limited, so you have to load individual states or predefined groups. You can't plan a long trip and load just the states for that trip in one installation.
- Maps don't switch automatically. For example, if you're in Massachusetts and you drive to New York and you have both maps loaded, it won't switch to the NY map automatically.
- POIs don't have any useful information, such as addresses and phone numbers. You can't see an address for a POI even though the Navigator obviously knows it. And there are no phone numbers that might let you call a restaurant or hotel and make a reservation.
- You can't pick a POI for another location. If you're in city A and you are driving to city B and you want to have dinner there, you can't search for restaurants in city B. All POI searches are based on your current location.
- POI list doesn't tell you enough. For example, supposed you want to find a McDonalds. (I don't know why you would, but it works for the illustration.) So you go to the Restaurant POI list and you type in "mcd" and you see a list of McDonalds restaurants, and their distance from your current location. But that's all. Some other GPS systems at least tell you which direction, which is useful to prevent you from selecting one that you passed or that is completely out of your way. The list could also tell you what city, again to help you select one that is on your route.