Mel B Posted April 2, 2007 Share Posted April 2, 2007 No this is not a belated April Fool joke! My hubby has been doing some exploring of the various navigation software aids on the market. TomTom is the one most people know about but a new one on the market last year was "iGo", only really for sale abroad but it is now making its way into the UK market place. They really have come on in leaps and bounds since last year, now with full "real" 3-D mapping, where buildings, trees etc are shown as structures, have a look at their website to see what I mean: http://www.i-go.com/en/ Mio hardware (PDA) uses the same software base and the Mio mapping is actually iGo's mapping (Tele Atlas) but the Mio interface isn't as user-friendly as iGo's. The iGo software has some really nice touches such as now automatically detecting your GPS device, tilt and swivel mapping, and what I would call "intelligent options" in that if you start to type in the name of the city/town you want to visit, it will grey out letters that there is no point in pressing as no city/town in that country exists with that key combination, eg if I was looking for Hull, after the first letter, H, it will then grey out such letters as B, C, D etc so you are left with a selection of letters to choose from which stand out. One thing iGo does better than TomTom is that on our particular machine (Mio PDA) it picks the satellites up and keeps contact with them better. Another useful feature is that it predicts when loosing the route through tunnels etc and keeps the mapping running at your expected speed, "travelling" with you so comes out of the other end virtually when you do, unlike TomTom which totally looses the plot and then has to re-establish contact with the satellites when you exit the tunnel. The only downsides we have found are: 1) some of the voices are a bit crappy - truly old-school English 2) the routing sometimes a little bit weird Out of the two we still favour using TomTom for the time being but iGo is a really good second to them and iGo seem to be doing a lot more development work than TomTom. The new iGo software now incorporates free TMC (Traffic Management) info so long as your satnav can receive RDS (like most car/van radios). We know there are other satnav software systems such as Via Michelin etc but none of them are parcularly outstanding, to us these two seem to have a battle looming on the horizon. Has anyone else seen iGo and tried it out? What do you think? *-) Forgot to say, iGo has a setting so you can select your type of transport from the following: Pedestrian, Bicycle, Car, Taxi (!), Bus, Lorry, Emergency (!!) You can also indicate whether or not you can undertake U-turns, unpaved roads as well as the usual toll roads, motorways etc. My hubby is still playing with iGo so I may post some more info if I get any! 8-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billbaillie Posted April 2, 2007 Share Posted April 2, 2007 Hi I prefer an AA or similar map rather than sat nav. Having said, I wouldn't trust Google Maps for directions. Have a look at these driving directions given by Google maps for this international journey. http://tinyurl.com/35nlfy (Cut and paste into browser address bar) If you're in a hurry, scroll to direction number 33. :-S Enjoy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miami Posted April 3, 2007 Share Posted April 3, 2007 Personally, I prefer to use Autoroute on my laptop as the maps are better than any of the satnavs. When it is not practical to use the laptop I use TomTom. All the satnavs use one of only two mappers and having used both of them I find that neither of them are perfect.After all, they are only a guide. The best asset is commonsense and a good paper map! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derek500 Posted April 3, 2007 Share Posted April 3, 2007 Mel B - 2007-04-02 9:06 PM Another useful feature is that it predicts when loosing the route through tunnels etc and keeps the mapping running at your expected speed, "travelling" with you so comes out of the other end virtually when you do, unlike TomTom which totally looses the plot and then has to re-establish contact with the satellites when you exit the tunnel. I run TomTom 6 on an Acer pda and it greys out, but carries on predicting when in a tunnel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Posted April 3, 2007 Share Posted April 3, 2007 Interesting Mel, Thanks for all the information, the site is good in showing about the product but it lacks availability and prices, do you have any information in those areas please? I am currently in the market for updated software and in particular mapping but although I am happy with my current producer, I am less than happy with their upgrade prices. I have tried Tom Tom 5 & 6 and whilst a lot of people like it I don't so I am looking for something different this may fit the bill if the price is right. TIA Bas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted April 3, 2007 Share Posted April 3, 2007 being a garmin user I have considered TT as well... I would also look at the "Acer 630" as it offers a lot for a very reasonable price and is being well reviewed at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted April 3, 2007 Author Share Posted April 3, 2007 derek500 - 2007-04-03 8:57 AM I run TomTom 6 on an Acer pda and it greys out, but carries on predicting when in a tunnel. Derek500 - I admit that TomTom does try to keep going but in our experience we have found that it just looses it eventually, even going through the Dartford Tunnel and that's not really a long one. Basil - I'll see if my hubby can find out about prices etc and let you know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Way2Go Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 Which PDA you choose is somewhat immaterial and is down to map accuracy, the visual appearance and ease of use. What you should be concentrating on is the satellite receiver.With most PDA purchases you will also need to buy a satellite receiver. The latest ones have a SiRF Star III Chipset and should enable you to drive through tunnels where the signal should automatically switch from vertical to horizontal until you emerge from the tunnel again. It should switch back to a vertical signal again and lock back on to the satellite.You need to compare like with like in this respect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trigrem Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 I agree with Way2Go, the sat receiver is important. I recently had to replace my PDA so took the oppurtunity to purchase one with Bluetooth, I also purchased a Holux Gps receiver with SirfIII technology. I now find I get a gps position transmitted to my Pda and displayed on Tom Tom even sitting in the middle of the house. So I am expecting better GPS positioning when travelling through tunnels or thick tree cover. Having said that I never had a problem with the old settup. Except once in Italy in a long tunnel when the road split half way along the tunnel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel E Posted April 6, 2007 Share Posted April 6, 2007 Miami, Yes, there are only two main suppliers of the map data, but each SatNav supplier writes their own software to find and display the routes. And there is an amazing difference in the ability of that software to find usable routes, and also in the input/output routines. Having written, some 28 years ago, the first commercial software to find routes through a digitised map of the UK, I have first hand experience of how easy it can be to get it wrong if either the data doesn't have enough detail (eg., doesn't distinguish between a cart track and a minor road) or the software isn't written to use this data (presenting you with routes through the cart tracks!). TomTom - and most of the others except for Autoroute - have one major failing in that their software does not allow you to change average driving speeds on diffrerent types of road, so that the routes chosen are insensitive to whether you are driving a truck resticted to 40mph on single carriageways or a car restricted only to 60mph. This is important for us motorhome drivers. HOWEVER, TOMTOM is the CLEAR MARKET LEADER!! So, as I've said before, I'll go with TomTom and avoid yet another BetaMax disaster! Mel E ==== Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted April 8, 2007 Author Share Posted April 8, 2007 Mel E - 2007-04-06 6:39 PM HOWEVER, TOMTOM is the CLEAR MARKET LEADER!! So, as I've said before, I'll go with TomTom and avoid yet another BetaMax disaster! Mel E ==== Hence why we prefer a PDA rather than a dedicated SatNav unit, we can change the software if we like (which we have) to something we find better to use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogerrichards Posted April 8, 2007 Share Posted April 8, 2007 I have had many systems over the years and now have a Tom Tom 700 which also enables me to use it as a handsfree phone unit via bluetooth. I find it excellent and am able to update the software via my PC easily with the Tom Tom Home utility. Like every system it also depends how it is set up. For instance I wouldn't ask it to navigate via the 'shortest route' if I was in a MH. Select 'fastest route' and you will be directed mainly by motorway and major roads. The only system I had which kept accurate track through tunnels etc. was a Panasonic which also took the pulse sync from the speedometer and therefore at least knew how far and fast you were travelling when out of satellite range. Personally I don't think you will ever replace a paper map for initial route planning (Ive always been a map freak and spend hours pouring over them) I have hundereds of maps from all over the world! On the other hand you will never replace Sat Nav for getting you there once you are on the road. And getting you back when you take a wrong turning. Roger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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