More to come....

Next on the review list - Bluetooth Headsets.



VS

The Motorola H700 vs the H300.

Tom Tom One GPS

Pros: Fast satellite acquisition and amazingly strong receiver (I acquire satellites indoors where most GPSs fail), fast route calculation, ability to manipulate routes, entertaining voice customizations, solid, reliable operating system, stable suction cup bracket (no shake) that fits nicely in car.

Cons: SD card contains all settings so if it dies when you're not near your computer and back ups you're in trouble, no custom route creation, no way to save routes, software a bit flaky on the Mac, somewhat of a hassle to mount onto suction cup bracket (until you get used to sliding the unit into the grooves on the bottom), a bit more pricey than the competition.

Price: $449-$499 CAD

Web site: http://www.tomtom.com

Bottom Line: The TomTom One performs flawlessly out of the box - novice users can start using it right away by turning on the unit, selecting "navigate to" and entering a Point of Interest (POI), address or map location. Seasoned GPS users will appreciate the ability to enter latitude & longitude destinations and although the lack of a custom route creation feature may give such users pause, working with the unit, one quickly discovers that the "find alternative" option is much faster and just as accurate as entering a route manually.

What's In the Box
The TomTom One includes:

• DC Adapter
• Suction Cup holder
• USB cord
• SD Card with maps
• CD with TomTom Software and Manuals
• Quick start guide
• Maps for your area (in my case, United States, Canada and Guam) on an SD card.
  

Missing is an AC Adapter for charging in the house; the TomTom One can charge through the USB when connected to your computer but make sure it's connected directly and not via a hub. I haven't tried this out yet as I usually charge in the vehicle, but there are reports that it charges very slowly so make sure the unit is turned off.

Other reviews describe the TomTom One as a "no frills" navigation system or a system ideal for the "first time user". While these statements aren't false, they short change the TomTom by implying it is overly simplified. Such statements inadvertently dissuade advanced users from purchasing the TomTom, which is a real shame because the unit more than meets the needs of veteran GPS users who typically prefer to avoid the non GPS extras that make up the high cost of other units or the dumbed down features that diminish the usefulness of a GPS system.

Operating System
It is important to mention that what makes the TomTom such a pleasure is it is very stable compared to devices running Windows Mobile. I used a Mio PDA GPS for a year and although it had acceptable features and maps, it would crash often. When I went shopping for a new unit, I made sure to get one that did not run Windows Mobile. The TomTom uses Linux as evidenced by its GNU licence agreement and so far it has proven to be very solid with no crashes or lock ups.

The TomTom One, like many so-called automobile GPSs has a touch screen to navigate around the system; click anywhere on the screen to activate a menu of items (icons which include text below them - which is great since I am not very good with icons). From the first click of the screen, users can navigate to a destination, find an alternative to TomTom's suggested route, set preferences and much more (you can read all this in the manual). A nice feature of the screen is the ability to customize the map colours or switch from daylight view to nighttime view (a more monochrome selection that reduces the glare of the screen in your windshield).

Navigating
To begin navigating, the TomTom One requires a satellite lock. Like all GPSs it needs to see 3 satellites to function. I was very impressed with not only how quickly the TomTom One acquired satellite lock but also how strong its GPS receiver is. I've owned several GPS units from the early days (when they just switched to acquiring satellite lock in parallel mode vs serial mode) and I have never experienced such a strong receiver - I was able to try it inside Futureshop!

Users can select routes by clicking the "navigate to" icon then selecting from the options of Home (a nice feature - you add your home location so you can always get there in a couple clicks), Favorite, Address, Recent Destination, Point of Interest (POI), Point on Map, or Latitude Longitude.

Selecting Address allows the user to navigate to a city, street number, zip code or cross street/intersection. Selecting any of these sub options brings up an onscreen keyboard and the TomTom guesses as you type so you can select your desired city, street, etc. as you type. The nice thing is the TomTom remembers previous selections so if, for example, you wanted to navigate to Hamilton, ON and you already had in the past, it appears as a selection in the list so you don't have to type it out a second time.

Finding your current location is easy - click the arrow on the map to display where you are in latitude and longitude. The TomTom One also shows you your speed (you can turn this on or off) and ETA (I often use the TomTom One for this alone - I know how to get somewhere but I want to know when I'll arrive). Clicking on the bottom portions of the screen quickly bring up the volume and the route.

Find Alternative
Although the TomTom One will find the best route for most destinations, with destinations that have many possible routes it will create one that you may want to alter. I find this feature indispensable as I use it instead of creating custom routes (the TomTom doesn't have this feature) and by using it correctly, I find I can create the route I like much faster than creating one manually (as I did with previous GPSs). Don't be fooled by the Itinerary feature. You can create an itinerary but navigating the waypoints is done manually - you select the next one to go to once the previous is reached.

Once the TomTom One has created a route, users can select the details button then view the route (I love the browse as text option but you can view the route as images, overlaid on the map as a summary or as a demo). If the route is not optimal, users click out of the view route screens until they are back to the main page where they can enter the Find Alternative Menu. The TomTom presents them with the following options: Calculate Alternative, Avoid Roadblock, Travel Via, Recalculate Original, Avoid Part of Route.

The trick to using this feature successfully is to use a combination of the two sub-options, Travel Via and Avoid Part of Route. Travel Via allows users to select the address, recent destination, point of interest, point on map, or latitude and longitude for the TomTom One to alter its route to travel via. I usually select an address and enter a cross street. The next steps to refining your route is to exclude those areas you don't want to travel by going back into the Find Alternative menus and selecting Avoid Part of Route. The TomTom One shows the list of waypoints and clicking one of them removes it from the route - TomTom One then recalculates the route based on these new parameters. Selecting Avoid Part of Route a couple of times usually satisfies the most complex route entered by the most picky user.

Voices
The TomTom One includes several voices - I suggest removing the ones you are not using to free up space on the included SD card. You can choose from several languages and several dialects (accents). Be careful if you would like an American voice with metric announcements as although you set your TomTom One to navigate in metric, the voice will announce in imperial measurements. There are American voices for both imperial and metric so you just have to make sure to select the correct one.

The voice can be turned off, volume set or adjusted so that as you drive faster, the voice becomes louder - I find this feature great for highway driving.

A fun feature is the ability to download, for a fee, more entertaining voices. You can even download John Cleese's voice. I'm not sure that I'd be in the mood to be entertained when I was trying to navigate through an unknown city, however.

Navigational Features at Your Fingertips
A nice feature of the TomTom One, is the ability to touch certain areas on the screen to see more information. Clicking the right bottom portion brings up the details of the route complete with latitude & longitude coordinates on the upper right. Clicking these coordinates takes you to a graph of the GPSs & the latitude and longitude in large characters.

Updating the Unit
The TomTom receives updates to its firmware and software through the TomTom Website and the TomTom Home software (included). When researching what type of unit would be good for me, the TomTom Website was the easiest to find updates to maps and applications. By connecting the TomTom One to your computer via the supplied USB cable, you use the software to download updates and purchase services (like the weather), extra voices (some free, some for a cost) and additional maps (for a cost). A nice feature is that free things (like some voices) are available via the site so if you inadvertently delete a voice, you can retrieve it at no extra charge. See a more detailed description of TomTom Home, below. This makes changes to maps a fairly painless upgrade.

TomTom Home
Upgrades and downloads for your TomTom One, are done by connecting your unit to your computer and using the TomTom Home software. As mentioned in the Cons section, the TomTom One application is a bit flakey on the Mac. It will quit for no reason (sometimes during crucial tasks such as restoring the settings from back up) or freeze the finder. I have no experience with the PC version of the software.

I use TomTom Home mostly to download updates, maps, and voices but the backup and restore features are absolutely crucial because the TomTom One stores all its information: maps, user settings, favorites and previous destinations on its SD card. SD cards aren't the most reliable pieces of media - pulling one out at the wrong time can damage it, making it unusable. SD cards are still an excellent storage option; the advantage to storing information on SD cards is you don't have to worry about a damaged hard drive and you can easily replace a broken one without taking the device apart yourself or sending it in for servicing.

However, what happens if something goes wrong with your SD card when you're out driving and away from your computer? To deal with this, I bought a blank SD card - the TomTom One needs a 1 GB card and I copied my back ups onto it; you can do this through the software by backing up your TomTom One with its original card inside it then restoring the backup after putting in the new, blank card. You can also plug in the SD card to a USB port via an SD card reader and copy the files that way - on the Mac, the TomTom Home software stores the backups in the TomTom directory in the Documents folder). I keep the back up card with my TomTom One so should something happen to the TomTom One's card while out and about, I won't be left with a lifeless unit.

Battery Life
I've read that battery life is only a couple of hours, which is in line with most of these types of units. I always plug mine into the car AC charger so I cannot verify these claims however, turning down the screen brightness and turning off the unit when is not in use are the best ways to increase battery life. Remember, the unit is doing a lot - it has a strong receiver that it uses to maintain contact with satellites while calculating, playing audio and displaying everything on its screen so don't be too surprised at its battery consumption needs.

Extra Features
The TomTom One comes loaded with extra pay for features such as traffic updates (if available in your area) and weather forecasts. To use these features, you require a Bluetooth data connection and the desire to pay for the data these services require. You also require a compatible phone. I connected my phone to the TomTom One but I have not used the services. Fancier TomTom models allow you to view SMS messages on the TomTom screen and take phone calls. I had hoped I would see the call display on it but I can live without this feature.

Accessories
The TomTom One does not have the option of many accessories. There is an extra suction cup mount you can buy, the AC charger for the house, a case (I keep mine in a camera case) and a longer suction cup mount. Fancier models include the ability to hook up your iPod to the TomTom and select your songs through its screen so you can buy the iPod connection cables for them but the TomTom One does not have a lot of extra features so it does not have a lot of accessories.

Conclusion
All in all the TomTom One is a great GPS unit. It peforms its core functions extremely well and allows you to take advantage of more advanced route calculation (find alternative, enter latitude and longitude) and see at a glance where you are on the map, how fast you are going and how long it will take you to reach your destination.

There are more expensive units out there if you want fancy things like iPod integration and mobile phone hands free calling but I already use a bluetooth headset for my phone and I am satisified with plugging my iPod into my car so I just wanted a nice, accurate GPS and the TomTom One more than fits the bill.

Greetings

I hope to use this blog space to review devices (mostly technical) I have bought or used that I've found useful in my daily life. I intend to document information that I found challenging to find out, for example if the OS of a certain GPS was Windows Mobile or the company's own OS or if waypoints could be created manually then put in a custom route. These are the things not easily answered in a store.

So, let's hope I actually do post here. I have a lot of ideas but they're all in my head right now fighting to get out but being pushed back in by obligations like work, going to the gym, playing with my pets and trying out the new stuff I buy!