TomtomGo910
Latest
TomTom fesses up to Trojan infection in GO 910 navigation units
If you've recently plunked down $599-ish for a TomTom GO 910 portable GPS device, but decided to hop onto the interwebs real quick just before you plug that sucker in (yeah, we know, the odds are low), then it looks like it's your lucky day. Apparently the Netherlands-based TomTom just admitted to a UK security journalist that the TomTom GO 910s that were produced between September and November of 2006 have been shipping with a couple Trojans -- similar to Apple's little RavMonE.exe debacle last year. But not to worry: "The viruses that were detected present an extremely low risk to customers' computers," according to TomTom. Of course, relaying to the public such helpful information that TomTom was obviously aware of would be clearly out of the question, but it's nice to know that while manufacturing oversights caused a couple of Trojans to be introduced to unsuspecting PC users by spendy GPS hardware, they at least aren't the nasty kind. TomTom claims the problem has been corrected, and that "Appropriate actions have been taken to make sure this is prevented from happening again in the future." They also have some instructions at the read link for removing the viruses (win32.Perlovga.A Trojan and TR/Drop.Small.qp), which mostly amount to advising you to update your virus software.[Via Slashdot]
TomTom GO 910 portable GPS system reviewed
You might wish you had sprung for a GPS device before this weekend's little trip to the in-laws, which may or may not have involved two hours of being lost in a pair of cul-de-sacs, but we figured you'd still like to know what you're missing out on. The TomTom GO 910 heads the GO series, and sports a 4-inch widescreen touchscreen, Bluetooth, MP3 playback off of the 20GB hard drive, and extensive iPod integration. Sounds like most of the features function well and as advertised. There's quick and easy rerouting, clear directions which even include street names read aloud via text-to-speech, and an easy to use remote for those backstreet drivers. The only problem the reviewer had with navigation was an outdated POI database that guided him to a stadium which had been torn down five years prior. The Bluetooth connection offers up traffic and other information over your phone's wireless Internet connection, though, while the phone does have maps for Europe, the US, and Canada, there's no live traffic info for the US yet. The other main caveat with the player is the price. At $799 you probably afford to pay a man to dress up as a princess and drive you to wherever you need to be, but we're not sure if he would take as kindly to an iPod connector cable.[Thanks, Bob]
