TomTom GPS for iPhone 3G[S]

The wonder-boy of all cell phones, the Apple iPhone, has had an internal GPS receiver for over a year now (starting with the 3G model), but Apple wouldn't approve any turn-by-turn GPS navigation apps. All you could use it for was geotagging (for photos), pinpointing your location in Google Maps, or to work with location aware apps such as Twitter, Yelp, etc. With the introduction of the 3G[S] along with the 3.0 OS, Apple opened up its true potential.


All hail TomTom!

[Navigation views and menus work as it should when iPhone is tilted into landscape orientation]

I'm no stranger to TomTom, I used their PDA software on a Compaq Ipaq and then later on a Dell Axim. That was many, many moons ago. They had a version for the Treo, but I never got TomTom for it because the screen was too small. I somehow avoided the standalone TomTom GPSes that came out in subsequent years but ended up going through a couple of Garmin Nuvis. Now that TomTom has made its way the iPhone, it feels like being re-acquainted with a good old friend.

The TomTom app takes about 6 seconds to startup and up to 4 seconds to get a fixed satellite position. Most standalone units actually take longer to get a fix since they are booted up from being completely off. The GPS receiver in the iPhone is typically on all the time (or is in standby/low power mode), so it will get a fix much more quickly. The GPS antenna in the iPhone 3G seems adequate, but TomTom will soon release a "GPS enhancing antenna" that is integrated into a windshield mount/cradle.

Deep in the canyons of midtown Manhattan, the iPhone did have trouble tracking a satellite signal. No surprise here, as the tall buildings block out most of the sky; it's a situation that challenges all GPS receivers. It's a shame that TomTom doesn’t take advantage of the iPhone's built-in location based services in these instances (via SkyHook WiFi and Google's cell tower data). They'd have a winner of a product if they could integrate this!

Older versions of TomTom took much longer to start on my Ipaq (running Microsoft Pocket PC 2002). What was really lame, back then, was that you had to manually load up maps. Internal memory was slim to none, and memory cards were expensive and didn't hold much either. I usually had my home area maps pre-loaded, but would have to fetch the 7-pack CD set to load up other state maps when traveling beyond. Thank goodness the iPhone has a whopping 32GB of internal memory. The entire set of maps for North America, Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico easily fit (has a footprint of about 1.2GB).

Functionally, not much has changed since TomTom 2.0 for Pocket PC 2002. That's a good thing. It still maintains its fantastic 3D maps, ease of use, and contains a good selection of voices, with languages that include Chinese, Russian, French and more. (I miss the John Cleese voice, hopefully I can somehow import/hack it from my old software).

The original TomTom interface was designed around the K.I.S.S. principle (keep it simple, stupid). Icons are large and its workspace appears clutter free. It adapts to the iPhone's user interface quite well: flicking will scroll through menu items, and rotating the device will change the display to landscape mode. Even the keyboard works in landscape mode. Sadly, you can't pinch and zoom or scroll the map around while in navigation mode. You can only apply these gestures when "browsing maps".

TomTom's performance on the iPhone is quite decent. There doesn't seem to be any lag when operating its menus and screens. It doesn't seem to be affected while music is being played in the background. When the TomTom voice instructions come up, it will pre-empt your music or podcast. I find it annoying that it completely mutes your music when doing this. It would preferable if they can simply lower the music's volume and overlay it with voice instructions.

This is their first release, by all means a 1.0 product, so there is certainly alot of room for improvement. Compared to the typical standalone GPS unit, it's lacking some features. The most glaring omission is a live traffic data option (it'd be great if they can glean free traffic data from Google Maps). Also, you can't customize it much. I'd like to disable the speed limit notifications, change the vehicle icon, and load custom POI databases. You would expect all these features be present, but they're not. It leaves you to think that they've rushed it to market. Maybe they don't want to cannibalize sales of their standalone GPS models this early in the game.

All in all, it's great that TomTom has finally been released for the iPhone. Hopefully, they'll step up their feature set and provide it as a free upgrade to early adopters.

Verdict:
-wait for the next iteration and for the price to come down

Pros:
-great 3D map views
-easy to use
-integrates well with iPhone hardware/UI

Cons:
-no real-time traffic updates
-no pinch and zoom while navigating (although you can zoom in/out with tiny "hot corner" buttons)
-mutes your music playback when providing voice instructions
-doesn't use iPhone's location services when GPS data unavailable
-no automatic changing between day/night display modes
-customization is limited

Screenshots:

In search of a remote destination... Honolulu, HI

A simple POI search for tourist attractions in the area

This is a pretty good ice cream shop

Something a little tougher to throw at its POI database... and it comes through!

options page

night mode. notice the speed alert display, doing 64 in a 45