netwalker.nl » navigation http://netwalker.nl exploring the web and random thoughts Wed, 22 Oct 2008 20:17:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Mobile Navigation – TomTom Alternatives http://netwalker.nl/2006/12/10/mobile-navigation-no-more-tomtom/ http://netwalker.nl/2006/12/10/mobile-navigation-no-more-tomtom/#comments Sun, 10 Dec 2006 21:53:28 +0000 walker http://netwalker.nl/2006/12/10/mobile-navigation-no-more-tomtom/ On my Palm Livedrive and Nokia N70 smartphone I have been using TomTom Navigator 5 and Mobile 5 until now and also until now I have been very positive about this product, except for the actuality of their maps and some missing features like GPS tracking.
Then this summer TomTom announced Navigator 6 and I was really looking forward to get this new version. But unfortunately neither the Livedrive nor the N70 phones belongs to the supported devices any longer, which in case the N70 is really amazing, considering that it is a very popular phone this year. Does this tell us something about the lifespan of gadgets nowadays?
Disappointed about this kind of product development where the share holder value is obviously more important that existing customers and the fact that TomTom has not answered any of my support questions, I feel it is time to find a better alternative.

Minimum requirements: the usual route planning features, customizable points-of-interest, detailed European maps, software only, maps from 2006
Preferred features: navigate to GPS coordinates, Mac OS X support, host computer software for route planning and POI management, GPS tracking

Palm Livedrive:
no products found

Nokia N70:

Remarks about Route 66 Mobile 7 S60:
The product includes a CD for installation/restore of the software and maps, but the manuals doesn’t even mention Windows or any other operating system as requirement. So it seem to me that there is no management software and Mac OS X is not being supported at all.
The maps are from Q3-2005. I did not find any information about recent map updates or even the option for those in the future (without buying the complete product again).

Remarks about Navicore Personal 2007:
Installer and Navicore Extension Editor are only available for Windows. Navicore plans to release an update of the maps one or two times in a year.
You can enter WGS84 coordinates and navigate to these. Car parking management can be used to keep track of your car’s location and elapsed parking time. Great feature!

Remarks about MobileNavigator 6 Symbian S60:
I didn’t find enough product information, not even a downloadable manual. The web-site is very irritating.

Remarks about Garmin Mobile 20:
Well, there isn’t much one can say. The product information is very limited. I thought I once read about GPS tracking being supported but have not been able to confirm this. I would like to have GPS tracking because often I still choose my own routes when we are traveling and then later I would like to have a detailed record of our route, so that we can map images and stories.

After a few hours of research my favorite is Navirore Personal 2007. The lack of Mac OS X support is not nice but I still have some old Windows PCs here and in the future I will probably be able to run Windows software on my Mac as well (don’t have an Intel Mac yet).

If you have any other suggestions or remarks, please let me know.

]]> http://netwalker.nl/2006/12/10/mobile-navigation-no-more-tomtom/feed/ 1