Customer Reviews

TomTom PDA Navigator 6 U.S./Canada Map DVD (Windows or Mac)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

There are two very negative customer reviews for the TomTom Navigator 6 software as of this writing, and for my first few hours' experience with the product I could understand why. The "quickstart guide" they bundle with the DVD is all the documentation you get, and there is little or no documentation specific to the dozens of devices they support with this release (in my case, a Nokia E61 Symbian Series 60 smartphone paired with the Holux GPSlim 240 bluetooth GPS receiver).

However, for those early adopters who are very comfortable with gadgetry and computing this is an unparalleled offering. First of all, there is no comparable software out there in terms of device support. Navigator 6 supports Palm OS, Windows Mobile, and Symbian UIQ & Series 60. Garmin's Mobile XT is the closest competitor and its Symbian support seems to be vaporware, just like their support for Mac OS X.

Speaking of Mac OS X, TomTom is the only GPS software vendor with a Mac client app for interacting with your device, something Garmin has been promising for more than a year and are only now beginning to deliver on for their personal fitness devices alone. TomTom Home was clearly not developed with the Mac in mind--a direct port of the Windows version as far as I can tell--but I give them credit for recognizing that the early adopters that are into GPS and mapping software are more likely than most to be using a Mac. Some of the bugs I found in the Mac app were very serious though: the backup tool for archiving your device memory is totally broken and fails very subtly to the user (i.e. I didn't know it had failed until I needed the backup and it was nowhere to be found). Also, for you Symbian users: be very careful that you choose the right version of the app for your device. I mistakenly chose Symbian UIQ instead of Symbian Series 60, which led to hours of removing installed files by hand to get the right version to eventually install correctly, something I could have avoided if the Mac software didn't have a bug that prevented it from cleanly removing the app from my Nokia E61 for me.

As for the navigator itself, it works like a champ. The map data seems to be far better than what was available on my previous GPS device (Garmin Quest 2), although it isn't without its quirks. For example, on a recent trip the voice navigation kept directing me to "keep left" on a stretch of highway that gently curves left, despite there being no offramp or other road affordance to deter me from keeping left. But it got me to an unfamiliar destination without getting lost, in an area of town where the Garmin often stumbled. The points of interest data seems extensive and up-to-date, getting me to a small barber shop that's been open for less than a year, and letting me call ahead to the current phone number to get on the waiting list.

After a couple of days of heavy use of the navigation app and map data, it has almost made up for the crucible that was getting it to properly install. Despite the initial pain, I'm very happy with the product. Again, I can only speak for the quality of the product on my Nokia E61 and Mac, and based on the blisteringly negative reviews from Windows Mobile users, your mileage may certainly vary.

This is a great product. I recently drove to Chicago with my Dell AXIM. I had no paper maps and I had no knowledge of any street names or highways. Using the software, I spent five days driving through downtown streets without any problems. The interfaces and menus are very to use even while driving without taking your eyes off the road for more than a few seconds. It is great for point to point navigation, and is probably the best one out there for the pocketpc.

But it is seriously lacking when it comes to advance planning. On the "Advance Planning" menu you can only plan a trip between two points, and you cannot insert any waypoints or stops. What kind of a trip is that? There is an "Itinerary Planning" feature which allows you to insert intermediate waypoints, but that option always insists on starting from your current (or last known) GPS position. I was creating an "Itinerary" from South Chicago to the North Chicago while sitting at home five hundred miles away, and the software insisted on starting the trip from my current location five hundred miles away.

It would also be nice if I could enable a feature that would alert me whenever I was near a POI. For example, while driving on the highway it would be great if a window popped to let me know there was a Starbucks within 1 mile from my position. I know Delorme Street Atlas can do this on their laptop version.

I had some difficulty getting Tomtom to come up with a new route when I made an unplanned turn. If I was a long way from my destination, it took several minutes to come up with a new routing. So my only option was to pull over and wait. Every time I pulled into a drive-through window or gas station it would "plan a new route" even if had strayed from my route by a mere 300 ft. Sometimes I had to pull into the parking lot and wait for it to calculate a new route, which not surprisingly was exactly the same as the route I had before.

I had read several conflicting reviews about TomTom Navigator 6 (TTN6) and was slightly worried about purchasing, especially as there was no way to trial the product.

Glad to say I needn't have worried.

The product was received within 2 days of ordering, and came in an impressive box with a quick start guide, instructions, DVD and registration card.

After buying a suitable 2gb microSD card, I got through the install on my elderly (2 years old) Dopod838pro (Cingulaer 8525, HTC TyTn) with no problems. TomTom home instals on your desktop and is quite a useful application to manage the contents on your phone (maps, voices, etc)

I had been using another type of navigation software (Mapking) and TTN6 seems to be faster and more stable. Its immediately apparent in the screen refresh rate.

The roadsigns appearing as they do on the freeways are extremely useful.

I was deciding between this product and CoPilot Live 7, which looked more impressive from a screen eye candy point of view, but after using TTN6 for a few days, I find its screen layout very easy to use, not flashy in any way, just very functional and well thought out.

Routing wise, I have only tried it in unfamiliar areas, so can't comment on how "smart" the routing is, but I can say I have never been dragged zig zag through small housing estates or asked continually to "u-turn" ahead after making a mistake and going off route.

Mentioning the off route capability, it really is an instant reroute, you hardly even notice anything happened.

There are cheaper options out there, as well as more expensive ones, but TTN6 for me seems to be just right.

I hope others have the same pleasant experience with it

Would have given 5 stars if there was an option to try first (would even have been willing to pay a small fee to trial it)

Please be aware that all products based on Tele Atlas maps (including TomTom) do not tell you what side of the street your destination is on. Most, if not all NAVTEQ products will do this. This limitation can be really frustrating when your destination is on a busy, multi-lane street, or if it is hidden in a large strip mall. You will have to resort to checking for odd/even street numbers - or take a 50/50 chance. This is a big negative for me, and I hope TomTom addresses it soon.

I purchased TomTom with a 6Gb micro SDHC card for my Glofiish X500+ phone. The program with all the maps of all of North America took up almost 1Gb of space, which left me with just under 5Gb of usable space for applications, games, MP3's, and video's. TomTom 6 really is great and so far has been spot on with directions. Probably the best addition I've added onto my phone. No complaints as of yet.

I only wish I had read the reviews on Amazon before I purchased the TomTom Navigator 6 product last month.

Here are just some highlights of the problems I have had:

1. U.S. Maps are not current -- Roads in Orange County, California, more than three years old, are not on the maps.

2. The Company has a poor upgrade policy -- I bought the program with maps, expecting the maps to be reasonably current. Until you start using the maps there is no way of knowing whether they are current, as it is not disclosed on the software product. I discovered that after my purchase, the Company upgraded the maps. A customer service rep claims the new maps are two versions later than my version. Of course, you can buy the new maps and download them, but at a price nearly the price of the entire software product with maps.

3. Traffic function -- If the traffic function worked, it could be better than Google's free traffic information, and worth the annual fee. Why? Because TomTom traffic is supposed to actually reroute you, not just tell you the location of traffic. The problems, however, abound:

(a) the server can be down an entire weekend (like last weekend) without advance notice, and all you receive is a server error message;

(b) it is a chore (almost impossible) to figure out how to purcahse traffic for the U.S. (and I wasted a few hours trying to figure it out), but here's the funky solution: to purchase U.S. traffic, you actually purchase traffic for Europe, and then tell TomTom's web site that your country is The Netherlands (of course, these instructions were obtainable only from customer service);

(c) the traffic system, although it will reroute you, does not make it easy to actually see where the traffic snarl is (unlike Google), as it only displays in a very small size reflecting traffic on the entire route.

4. Customer Service -- The Company apparently fails to give its customer service reps much flexibility. I learned in following up on a problem through the electornic customer service system that the customer service reps have routine written answers that may or may not fit your question or comment. I received the verbatim response twice to an email thread where I said different things.

5. Product quality -- The CD that I received only works some of the time in my Windows XP CD-Rom drive. I have not had this problem with other CD's.

I feel like I am a sophisticated computer and pda user, but this product has frustrated me. I'm going back to using Google maps. And no, I don't own stock in Google.

Hoping I'll make a better purchase decision next time.

This was the only product I could find that provides software and maps (only) for a GPS-enabled PDA/phone. I thus purchased it for my new HTC Touch Cruise PDA running Windows Mobile 6. I was suspicious finding both highly positive and negative reviews, but hoped things had improved since they were written. I was further encouraged when prompted to upgrade from version 1.03 to 1.5, but then the reality hit. Here is what you should know:

INSTALLATION--This remains a nightmare as reported. There is no step-by-step wizard and you are thrown into a program where you select the PDA operating system, the maps, and the voices. When I tried to install the program, a dialog box informed me automatic registration was not available and that I would need to manually register online. When I attempted that, the three 5-digit Product Code was recognized, but when they asked for a Device ID described as two 5-digit sequences from the PDA, I couldn't find one. I sought answers in the printed manual (very thin), the PDF manual (also anemic) and online TomTom Q&A files without success. After a full hour of searching the Internet, I in desperation disconnected and reconnected my PDA and now suddenly could install the maps. TomTom apparently found the hidden 128 bit "universally unique DeviceID," but would not memorize the product code that has to be entered each time you add another map.

There are many maps listed, but many of them overlap without specifying if they are standalone (they are) or combined into a single database when installed (they are not). Living in Colorado, I didn't know whether to install USA & Canada, Western US, UT-CO-AZ-NM, NV-WY-ID-UT-CO or all four. Unlike other products (like Garmin's MapSource), you do not see what states are included in area map selections (e.g., Western US did NOT include CO). I later concluded they provide multiple area combinations to minimize storage requirements on your PDA, but that is never stated.

Once finally installed, TomTom couldn't find a GPS signal. Since Google Maps automatically found the signal, I didn't expect needing to assign a COM port (I chose COM4) and serial bus speed (I chose the fastest). The installation guide was non-existent, and searching the PDF manual yielded no hits.

PROGRAM--Once installed, navigating the software is intuitive, and there are a number of customizable features. You have the ability to review your route, browse maps and display addresses by clicking on roads. I really like the ability to go to any address within my Outlook Contact Manager. Map detail is good, but I found missing road modifications three years out of date. Speed of calculation is excellent, and recalculation when going off track is remarkably fast. They have found a way to display much information on a small screen, and it is customizable. Auto zooming in and out around a turn point is smooth and excellent. Routing is sometimes serpentine and can take you through residential areas when only slightly longer arteries are preferable. There is a nice setting for auto, bicycling and walking speeds, although the calculated walking ETA is useless. The software doesn't report the side of street your destination will be found (like Garmin). There are too few POI's (points of interest) and their large font truncates most entries making searching a little difficult. The software also doesn't narrow down POI choices as you enter your search criteria. I finally wish this unit displayed available elevation information like some of the newer units.

SUMMARY--I have taken the time to write a review to help those who elect to buy this product. I have used many GPS devices (including TomTom), and while standalone units can be better at less cost, this is a credible tool to have on your PDA. It should not, however, take a fairly savvy PC user over two hours to muddle through the installation. I will keep and use this software because it does work and there is no alternative, but I hope TomTom is listening.

I've had two other PDA navigation products before this one and neither can even come close to matching the TomTom's features and performance. The detailed information like distance to next turn (as opposed to just the destination) is superior to the navigation systems that came with my new BMW and Acura (I bought the Tom Tom for rental car use). I've travelled extensively with it and haven't had a single issue yet. I am really impressed with the way it displays both the general map and the turning instructions on my tiny screen (plus lots of other info). I don't understand the issues others are having. I noticed some are refering to Nav 5. Perhaps Nav 6 fixed some issues? I'm using mine on a Treo 700p. Maybe it just works better on that platform? In any event, I can't recommend this program enough. It's amazing.

Software on DVD does not support Palm TX. I have tried to upgrade from Navigator 5.0 to 6.0. I have find out on another forum, that for Palm TX Navigator 6.0 has to be preinstalled on the SD card.

I purchased this program to use on my HTC Tilt. It was easy to load onto the phone, but getting everything tweaked so that it would work on my phone well was a challenge. I tried it out on a long trip that I know well just to see how it would perform. At first it was really frustrating because the display would freeze up, although the program continued to run because the voice directions still came in at the right time. I finally figured out that I had to increase the cache size on my phone - then the program worked like a charm. I did notice that the maps were not completely current and I am a bit frustrated that I have to shell out more money to get updated maps right after buying the program.