TomTom iPhone kit now being sold through US Apple Store
By Ross Miller 
posted October 25th 2009 5:07PM
posted October 25th 2009 5:07PM
[Via App Advice]
posted October 25th 2009 5:07PM
Apple iPhone 3GS
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
I already got it, and i really love it. It works great. GPS-Fix is instantly!
$20-$30 sold, $130 kiss my a$$. Such a rip off, stupid.....
Three words TomTom....GFY
Wooow, the past few years and the app store have really cut down your guys' sympathy for anything over 20 bucks. I mean honestly, they need to make a profit, don't they?
has an separate GPS receiver, works with non-TomTom apps (eg Navigon, Goole Maps etc), works with iPhone 2g, look here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71cGSFVwu1E&feature=player_embedded
Greez
i'll wait for it when its in the bargain bin.. how does this plus the software = a good deal..
when a stand alone gps is way cheaper.
Agreed. I'd been waiting patiently for this Tom tom kit but the price combo is a joke, well sadly rather it's not a joke.
The kit is more expensive than you can get an iPhone for in AU.
I too shall keep waiting patiently, since I already was
I don't know. I like my Palm Pre. It already includes a GPS and Sprint Navigation. Hook that up with my Motorola MOTOROKR T505 bluetooth speakerphone/fm transmitter -- and I can listen to MP3s or Pandora and do the turn by turn GPS thing at the same time. It just works. Don't know why anyone would need to buy more equipment or pay for software.... (get the Pre, K?)
Sprint navi, does that have a monthly charge though, telcos love service charges
@Cy re: sprint navi -
no additional cost for the sprint navi. it's included with your service. It's pretty slick. I had my doubts until I bought the Pre and began using it.
Not to mention the fact that the Sprint Pre, or for that matter any WinMo phone running TomTom can actually multitask, so that you don't get closed out of the navigation app when you get a phone call, or if you decide to play music, etc.
My car will be broken into and this $120 cradle will show up on eBay.
I think it's only flaw is that for those of us with an ipod ready deck in our cars, ie. we just plug the iphone/ipod cable right into the iphone to play music and charge, there is no way for us to still take advantage of that feature. It seems a bit annoying to me to have to go back to analog 3.5mm plug from the digital usb cable. Unless of course if there is some kind of adapter for the charger, I haven't seen the other end of it yet. Anyone know?
No built in speaker but a nice holder here http://thoughtout.biz/PED3-Auto
also if the dock provides more accurate positioning than thats telling me that the software alone is not as accurate as it should be!
I have Navigon and couldn't be happier! Accurate, street naming, 3D viewing, etc.
This is insane!! A GPS system at this price that (1) switches off whilst you take a call and (2) doesn't output through the car speakers, and (3) costs £60 for the software, but has poor GPS reception until you pay an extra £99!! I have tomtom on my T-mobile windows mobile that is 2-3 years old, and even that can handle all of these effortlessly. What a huge step backwards!
I'm going to stick with other options for GPS, though I may go for the Co-Pilot software for the iphone (£26 for software is a fair deal, and the reviews are good so far).
There are several mentions for other cheaper in-car cradle options. I'm looking for such an option that can
- charge the iphone
- transmit music & calls through the car speakers.
Can anyone recommend one?
Well you've got cheap 5$ china kits from ebay that work perfectly fine with charging too, but as for audio, you would probably need an aux input on your car so you can just take a standard 3.5mm jack to jack and use it to play music while having gps navigation through the car stereo, but you need an aux jack in on your radio...
@Gazcam
it's not in-cradle and it doesn't charge the iPhone, but for transmitting music and calls through the car speakers I've used the Motorola MOTOROKR T505 bluetooth speakerphone/fm transmitter. If you look around you can find it for about $65 shipped. Pairs with your phone through bluetooth and transmits to an FM station.
Ah, okay it's as easy as that? I'd heard that the lack of a line-out on the iphone means the audio quality is poor from the headphone out - is that my misunderstanding?
It would be nice if GPS was reliable / working correctly on my iPhone 3.1.2. Right now the best it seems to be able to pull off is about 500 feet..not even close to being GPS :(
what a joke
You mean this TomTom program for the iPhone?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHFtUhDh71s
I don't think any 120 dollar dock is going to make it useful.
Wow that is horrible. After being in the hole $220 that's the kind of performance you get? That's completely unusable. I've never seen that bad of performance on any phone I've had that's used GPS navigation. Even Verizon's stupidest dumb phones do better than that.
this car kit gives GPS support to the iPhone 2G, so i'll be purchasing it for that reason
LOL for an extra 50 bucks you can get a dedicated GPS that has a larger screen, and a decent speaker, and touch screen. Plus ANTI glare coating.
Things that are dedicated are so much better. For instance if you have a lan party, using a dedicated local game server is WAY better than a shared local service, or a shared internet server.
I'm just fine with my tom tom GPS with the 4.3'' screen
Wonder when its coming to Australia... although its bloody expensive.
Here in Canada you can find plenty of stand alone GPS units that will be much cheaper than this dock and app together. Will also offer free lifetime traffic, etc. What's more we still don't know if this TomTom app in App store will ever get new maps, or they will just release a new app "TomTom 2010 Q1" and again ask 99$ (I'm waiting if this will actually happen).
I have stand alone TomTom device and maps are updated quarterly, each time though you have to pay 69 Euro (~104USD).
Dock though looks very nice, I was always wondering why there is no dock that can charge and use this same connection for audio, instead of connecting yet another cable at the top.
http://www.sendstation.com/us/products/pocketdock/lineout-miniusb.html
BOOM! It's like magic.
@Fancy Shmancy: Yeah, but the SendStation dock doesn't work with the iPhone. Only works with the iPod. I know, I tried it. Look at their page, they don't claim compatibility with the iPhone.
yo
im gonna have it
test
I'd love to get this but a) it's too expensive, I can get a dedicated GPS cheaper than this, and b) Most importantly what happens when you get a phone call or what to listen to music? It's going to disconnect the map from the service. Until the iPhone has multitasking capability this strikes me as a waste of money.
120.00 for a plastic iphone car kit!!!! tomtom what a deal!..........ppfffttt really?!?!?!?
Use Waze found at http://www.waze.com It's free!! And with the money you save, go buy one of those heavy beanbags to cradle your junk.
Overview of features by TomTom:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn0lJFHXMB4
apparently this dock is pretty awesome.
$120?
Ahhha.... Ahhahahhahahha... AHHHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHA!
Sure, I'm biased as heck... but you can buy a Garmin Nuvifone for $99 on the same network with the same plan. Sure, the Nuvifone is no iPhone, but this $120 isn't for an iPhone... it's for a cradle!
I bought one but 2-3 week time on site is misleading. The Apple site says it won't ship until December 4th and arrive a week later. Hopefully the estimated ship date is just wrong.
For me it was simply a matter of one less thing in my briefcase when I travel. The price is ridiculous but one less device and charger allows me to more stuff I actually need versus many special purpose devices.
Buying an iPhone GPS app is fine. Go ahead and do that. As you say, its one less thing to carry with you when you travel. But I wouldn't buy this cradle. You can get a perfectly good cradle for $19.95 at Best Buy from Griffin. And lots of others available at reasonable prices as well depending what you're looking for. Sure they don't have the "enhanced" GPS chip nor the bluetooth speakerphone, but I don't personally need those. The GPS inside the iPhone has worked fine every time I used it, not sure why I'd need a different one. And when forced to use the GPS in the Phone I either use my bluetooth earpiece, or pair the phone with the rental car, or just don't take calls while driving...
anyone know when this is releasing in canada? on the canadian apple store under shipping it says "currently unavailable". i called apple stores around here and they claim they're not getting it? =\
one word installous
anyone had better luck with a simple windshield mount? assume u will need some type of charger either with it or separate b/c the nav app eats the battery so much
Copilot live has been brilliant- never lost the GPS signal once- so not sure why it needs enhancing???
Halfords windshield mount £16
halfords car charger £8
job done well
Not in the Australian Apple Store. Bloody typical!
bah, when I first heard it, I thought it was a great idea. Simple, convenient and seems sturdy. Now with the 120$ tag behind it, I'll go cry myself to bed. That piece of plastic at most costs 40 dollars. No seriously features warrant such a big price hyke. Good job tomtom, you just ruined your name... again.
I ordered it through Apple's online store and it's arriving tomorrow (arrived today but nobody was here to sign for it). I think there was an error with their online store allowing it to ship already instead of waiting for their official US release... awesome
Hi,
Thank you so much for providing this useful information. I hope this will help many readers.
The Digital and portable radio transceiversRedLaser is not perfect. To an extent, it is still a work in progress, but it is getting better with more features on the way and is well worth the two bucks. Why did this excellent application get only 2 stars out of five at the iPhone store? I suspect this has something to do with the typical technically-challenged iPhone user, who would be taking a picture of a product box instead of the label and who would be holding the camera sideways while trying to scan the stocking barcode instead of the UPC. I went through my garage, randomly picking up boxes from my recent purchases: RedLaser works just fine, if you use it properly and if your hands don't shake too much from excessive drinking.