Video: Apple partners with TomTom to bring "real" navigation to iPhone
By Darren Murph 
posted June 8th 2009 12:37PM
posted June 8th 2009 12:37PM
This one sure took awhile to go from rumor to real, but at long last, authentic TomTom navigation has arrived on the iPhone. 'Course, we would've personally preferred the Garmin touch, but at this point, we can't really find it in our hearts to kvetch. The app shown at WWDC today was surprisingly slick, and while the robot voice didn't exactly get our juices flowing, the currently unpriced TomTom car kit is definitely a boon for those looking to avoid standalone PNDs. Apple has informed us that the application will surface "this summer," though it didn't mention a price; in other words, we can't imagine this being cheap. You think TomTom wants a $19 app undercutting its $300 navigation systems? Doubtful. Video of the new setup is after the break.
TomTom demonstrates the world's first dedicated in-car navigation solution for iPhone at WWDC
TomTom develops turn-by-turn navigation application and new car kit for the iPhone
Peter-Frans Pauwels, TomTom's co-founder and CTO, demonstrated TomTom's navigation software in combination with a specially designed car kit on the iPhone- during Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco on June 8th, 2009.
The TomTom solution combines two new TomTom products to provide users with state of the art in-car navigation on their iPhone 3G:
- The TomTom navigation application for iPhone; an Apple version of TomTom's award-winning turn-by-turn navigation software, including IQ Routes and latest maps from Tele Atlas;
- The TomTom car kit for iPhone; a specially developed car kit for secure docking, enhanced GPS performance, clear voice instructions, hands-free calling and in-car charging.
Yawn.
Can you say dongle?
Many phones have real gps built in. Another bandaid from Apple.
Will the docking station have an option to charge the iPhone as well? Or will it be wireless and just strictly a docking station to hang from the windshield?
Taken from http://iphone.tomtom.com/
"the TomTom car kit that offers secure docking, enhanced GPS performance, clear voice instructions and hands-free calling, while charging your iPhone at the same time."
So we can assume that the docking station has a loudspeaker in the back.. that would be great!
In the photos it has a cable which one would assume connects to the cigarette lighter plug in your car. And considering how much battery life it will suck from the device, you can bet your house on it.
this took wayyy too long to come out.
By now i've gotten use to using the google maps app as my navi.
The PDA version sells for about $140 (plus add-on services), so this'll likely be in the same range ...
I only hope with the extra docking attachment it will work with the 1st gen 2G iphone, or I'll need to upgrade :(
You don't get GPS with the original iPhone. Nor will the 3.0 software completely work on it. Time to upgrade.
Anyone seen how it will handle music over the vehicle's stereo?
I really HOPE that TomTom doesn't screw it up like they did on the Palm. I paid WAY TOO MUCH to get it for my original Palm T5 (which still is easier to type on...) And all I can say is - traded the entire bundle for a full blown Garmin. I was raped over the coals on updates on a unit that if you tried to use it as anything other than a GPS - would lock up. Only to find that TomTom's support was even worse then the product so much that I'd never buy another Tom Tom device again.
$10 for v3 looks like a no question though for my 32GB Touch.
iPod Touch has GPS?
The low priced app won't cause them to lose money, all they have to do is charge $300 minus what the hardware manufacture costs. And then reduce/adjust the price more for increased sales due to the lower price.
I reckon that will make it cost about $60 or less.
Its good that its finally coming but why is it taking this long, and like many other members have asked.. how is this going to come into place with multitasking? Will you be able to listen to music and/or make a call while on the GPS??
On a side note, its great to listen to music on stereo bluetooth in the car and navigating with tom tom in my touch pro, hope u can do the same on the new iphone
What if your car already has built in ipod support?
How will that work?
The iPhones integrates GPS chip doesn't seem to be as good as the GPS of a PND. So that might be the answer to why it has taken them until now to let the cat out of the bag (considering TT already announced last year - once iPhone 3G was released - that they had the app running on it). And why would they offer there very own GPS car kit solution with it. For that to work, it needs iPhone OS 3.0, as 1.0 and 2.0 don't allow 3rd party apps to use the serial connection on the iPhone.
Just an idea...
$99 is reasonable for both the mount and an ITunes code to download the app. Any more and they are exceeding the prices for their entry level units in perceived value of a piece of software and a mount (even with the speaker and other feautures it offers).
The only reason why I wouldn't buy this is because the iPhone doesn't support multi-tasking, I don't think it's unreasonable to want to play some music in Pandora while using the GPS. Is it?
And nobody said that TomTom will be the ONLY GPS turn-by-turn solution for the iPhone. Unless I missed something, Apple hasn't granted the necessary APIs and other necessities to TomTom exclusively. So, I'd love to see Garmin come on into the game, too. Just because they picked TomTom to show at WWDC just might mean that they are they only ones with a product that is getting close to release. It doesn't mean that TomTom are the only kids with an interest in this.
Didn't the 3.0 SDK allow for turn-by-turn calls out to GoogleMaps? If so, then "Joe Developer", who has enough talent and time, could come up with a solution that fits the iPhone even better. It scares me when people take an interface and try to make it fit another interface, while trying to keep the first interface intact. It seems that usually the product is total crap, like fitting a square into a round hole. I'd like to see someone build a turn-by-turn from the ground up based on the iPhone with no previous interface to try to build off of.
Actually, you are not allowed to use Google Maps for turn-by-turn (part of the license agreement Google has for its maps which in turn is a condition of the license Google has with the map providers who provide the maps to Google.
What WOULD kick ass is if someone wrote a 100% free-as-in-beer turn-by-turn app for 3.0 that uses OpenStreetMap maps. Even better would be if there was a way to use this app to record GPS points and then use that info to provide data updates for OpenStreetMap
(either to fix wrong mapping data or to provide totally new mapping data for locations OpenStreetMap doesn't have)
does it speak the street names?
As long as I'm not paying an outrageous price, I'll be all over this when it's released. My TomTom GO will go into my wife's car and I'll finally have a decent car mount for my iPhone.
I'm also glad it was TomTom and not Garmin. Not only is the interface better, but in my case at least TomTom's maps have been better than Garmin's maps (which I find surprising since most "experts" seem to think TomTom's maps are worse).
Engadget: "You think TomTom wants a $19 app undercutting its $300 navigation systems? Doubtful."
Yeah, well, they better not charge too much for it, or no one will buy it, and they'll get nothin'.
Couldn't agree more. I've used all the major GPS's and I found TomTom to be the most usable of them all. One thing I quite like about TomTom is they haven't got sucked in like other GPS manufacturers and tried to make their maps look 'too pretty'. they keep the grpahics simple and concise, which means you can glance at the screen for a fraction of a second and know what you're looking at. This makes our roads safer. Also I like TomTom's address search interface with type-ahead support much more than I like any of their competitors attempts (or non-attempts) at the same thing. TomTom is still king.
While I'm stoked this is FINALLY coming to the iPhone (welcome to 2007), it's a good thing I know the Bay Area like the back of my hand, as AT&T works for SHIT. Every single time i make a call it gets dropped a minimum of twice... awesome. Glad i pay money for a shit service that never works. Seriously, the day this phone switches carriers, hell i'll take T-Mobile again at this point, i'm out. But i digress, turn-by-turn is awesome... now let's see how much it'll cost.
I think Tom Tom is the premier GPS system in Europe, it's certainly ahead of Garmin anyway. Maybe for the % population it's better for them to use Tom Tom?
Either way, I doubt it'll be too much of a difference.
I used to work in Dixons (an Electronics store) a few years ago here and we used to sell Tom Tom add-ons for those HP Mobile PC things...they worked out around £100-£150 with the adaptor, so they could be similarly priced I guess. I'm going to bet on £99.
I hope it stays in the $49-$59 price tops, hopefully lower. If not, I might as well buy a stand-alone. They could really charge something like $39, and then another $30-40 or so for the kit (for those that want that).
OK THE IPHONE CAN ONLY RUN ONE APP AT A TIME AND WHEN U RECIVE A PHONE CALL IT EXITS OUT OF THAT RUNNING APP SO HOW IN THE HELL IS THIS GOING TO WORK WHEN IF U GET A CALL....
There's a key to the left of "a" on your keyboard. Please press it, then pry it off altogether to avoid future embarrassment. Thanks!
TomTom app is not first navigation app in app store.
There is G-map which is the first navigation app in app store.
I know TomTom has voice prompts and G-map doesn't.
But i heard G-map also is going to add voice prompts and TBT etc in this summer.
I will update the review when i get TomTom.
THank you.
p.s How much is TomTom going to be?
Xroad's G-map may be the 1st turn-by-turn navigation for iPhone. I downloaded it from app store.
should have had gps standard, really why does it not have gps out of the box by now?
I love how every time an iPhone feature comes out that people want, all everyone does is bitch about how it should have been there before.. Do you just want them to stop updating the damn thing? LOSERS
And then you get the people that are like "My WinMo device could do this since 2004 apple sux lol". Everyone knows that all along, WinMo add-ons have been crap. Apple at least takes their time developing things for their iPhone so they don't suck and aren't full of bugs when they come out.
Ummm, what happens when you want to call someone while using navi and how much memory will this app use? I only have 400 songs and some apps on my 3G and it only has 3 GB left of memory. I also imagine that AT&T will want to get their fingers in this pie and charge some stupid monthly fee or access charge.
And to all of you who are wondering why AT&T will not have MMS ready at lauch- they are probably doing marketing tests to see how much extra everyone will pay in addition to SMS plans that are already overpriced by 50%.
The dock better have a built-in speaker cause there is no way you would ever hear directions in a car through the iPhone speakerphone. Volume is way too low.
It needs a strap-on steering wheel remote! How the hell are we supposed to control audio playback without fiddling with the screen? A strap on remote (like the one Scoche makes) with play/pause, skip forward, skip back, shuffle, and multi-function call answer/activate Voice Control is desperately needed. I have tried countless ways to get a system that allows for hands free calling, steering wheel controls and a connection to my stereo with a single cable going into my ipod (none of this having to charge a bluetooth speaker or headset crap, besides bluetooth sucks) yet I haven't found it yet. This dock does everything I need it to PLUS GPS except for the remote (btw, my car doesn't have built-in controls)! It seems like a glaring omission to me.