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On TomTom site is available an updating to extend the compatibility of the software to other smartphone models. The direct link for updating: http://www.tomtom.com/support/index.php?FID=3576 |
Is necessary to buy a specific kit for the telephone to use. Generally every kit is compatible with several models
with similiar characteristics, as shown on the box of the product.
The smartphone used in this test is a Nokia 7610, based on the operating system Symbian.
We note with pleasure that also telephones of the family
Windows Mobile are supported.
Symbian and Windows Mobile
Modern cellular phones are computers in miniature with functions of
data management and advanced multimedia. To work they use operating systems studied for
mobile devicess, that allows multitasking and software
third party software installation. In this sector the field is divided between Symbian OS and
Windows Mobile for Smartphone. |
The navigation software is the recent TomTom version 5, preinstalled on a multimedia
card compatible with the telephone used. In the case of the Nokia 7610
is an RS MMC (Reduced Size-Multi Media Card), inserted in
the phone housing. An adapter is available to insert the card in the telephones with the
standard MMC slot (for istance Nokia 6681.)
After inserting the card and turned the phone on, the
TomTom application is ready to start: to launch the program,
select the TomTom icon from the program list. Remember to activate the Bluetooth of the phone and to turn
on the GPS receiver GPS supplied in the kit.
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Before using the GPS receiver, is better to keep it in charge until
the yellow LED turns off. To activate the receiver press for
two seconds the switch button and wait until the green LED starts flashing. This shows the coupling with the satellites.
At first start the receiver module could not be recognized (message: No
GPS device). In this case manually setting up it is necessary.
Select from the menu Change preferences ... Show GPS state... Set Up.
After having chosen the kind of receiver, the connection takes place automatically.
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The window GPS State shows the number of the hooked satellites, the quality of the signal, the geographic coordinates (Latitude and Longitude), the shifting direction and speed.
The position is shown by a blue arrow that fluctuates on the map of the road way. In
case of signal loss the map becomes grey.
Delay of GPS coupling
The coupling with the satellites could require some minute. This happens in particular if the navigator is turned off in a place and
restarted in a very distant place. Is a normal phenomenon
due to the numerous calculations necessary to identify the satellites and synchronize the receiver with the new position.
To shorten the time of research is better to remain
stopped till the sattellite locking does not take place. Generally two minutes are sufficient to complete the operation of coupling in worse cases. Normally few second are enough.
The phone is fixed with the suction cap support provided by TomTom. It adapts to almost all the phones and guarantees a good stability in every condition. Is important to find a position that does not disturb the vision of the street, without forcing the driver to turn the neck to look at the telephone. The central position under the rear-view mirror seems to guarantee a good visibility and security.
The GPS receiver GPS must be positioned near the windscreen
to have the view of the sky. The rubber covering allows to lean it
horizontally without slipping dread. Personally I've used the
cord in endowment with the Nokia 7610 to hang up the receiver to the rear-view mirror. Aesthetics is not faultless but the receipt is perfect.
Is possible to answer the phone and send calls while using the
navigation software, with a Bluetooth earpiece. During the conversation, the display shows the functions of the telephone
and then go back to the TomTom application.
The choice of the menu-items can happen from keyboard and with the joystick of the phone. To choose a voice type in the corresponding number
or press the joystick on the selection. To go to the following
menus type 6 or select the voice Next or use the direction
RIGHT of the joystick. To go back to the series of previous menus use the direction
LEFT of the joystick. The Service keys of left and right of the phone offer other options of confirmation or
cancellation. The key C is used to go out from a menu or to
go back when it is not available the option Cancel. From the voice Changes preferences one accesses a series of menu for the visualization and the user
interface characteristics.
After some minute of menus exploration, many functions of the software
are learned in an intuitive way, without consulting the manual.
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Is important to know that TomTom remains active even if one goes out of the window of the program and one use them other functions of the smartphone. To deactivate it and not weigh down the calculation
power of the telephone, is necessary to select the menu-item Abandon application or turn the phone off.
Here a short list of shortcuts for TomTom to keep to finger range:
| Joystick UP - Zoom in DOWN - Zoom out RIGHT - Increases the volume. In the routes, go to the following. LEFT - Decreases the volume. In the routes, he goes back to the precedent CLICK - Accesses to the menu |
Service keys LEFT OPTION - Menu access RIGHT OPTION - Summary state (shows the route) CANCELLA (C) - Activates/ Deactivates audio CALL ON - Calls the telephone number CALL OFF - Goes Out of the navigation program |
| Numerical keys 1 - Navigation to 2 - Finds an alternative 3 - Tomtom traffic 4 - Add to preferred 5 - Changes preferences 6 - Planning in advance |
Numerical combinations 32 - Shows traffic info 33 - Refresh traffic info 51 - Activates/Deactivates night vision 52 - Activates/Deactivates 3D vision 562 - Preferred manager 564 - PDI manager 661 - TomTom Weather 663 - Calls the number |
The visual navigation interface is subdivided in two zones. The superior zone shows the map with the names of the streets, the position of the vehicle and the points of interest. On top-right are shown the motorway exits. The lower zone (state bar) supplies exact informations on the manoeuvres to execute and the time & velocity parameters. The name of the street and the signal strength are also displayed. These indications can be modified by the user or removed to have a less crowded view. Manoeuvres are followed by vocal indications of excellent quality. The volume can be hooked to the speed of the vehicle, but in the practical use is better keeping it on 85%.
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Planning a destination is very simple. TomTom allows the navigation door to door so accepts addresses and street numbers. It can be chosen a precise address, a point of commercial interest, turist, cultural, even a zip code. Recent destinations are memorized and can be recalled at any time. Is possible to define a Base (for istance our house) that is selected with only a click.
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After setting up the destination, it is calculated the route and shown the relative map. In this phase is possible choosing the kind of way: fast, short, on foot, for bikes, ecc. For istance, the possibility of having ways on foot is particularly useful because suggests shortcuts for the pedestrians only!
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It is calculated the distance to cover and the mean
travel time. These data are continuously updated during the
trip to the destination. Toll ticket ways are evidenced to give the possibility of avoiding them before beginning the way.
If we take the wrong road the program automatically calculates
a new route for the selected destination. if is possible
the software suggests to go back, otherwise creates a new way
starting from the current location. In case of obstruction we can look for an alternative way or we can establish we wish to go by in a determinate place along the route. A function of big usefulness is advance Planning:
without need to undertake the way, we can establish departure and destination
at home.
The calculated route can be shown in numerous manners. The
text format shows the turns and the distances to cover, the graphic format puts the
focus on the manoeuvres to perform graphically. Is also
possible a Demo of the routing as a filmed simulated sequence
with adjustable speed.
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If we wants to study the territory is available the visualization Find Out map, that uses a slider to
navigate the map. The joystick is used to move the cursor and the numerical keys
from 1 to 9 selects the zoom factor.
Is possible to plan a route with multiple destinations
with a series of stop places. This route can be saved and recalled subsequently.
The potential users of this function are people who perform the customers' round. From the
menu Planning route there are the options to manage the route series.
The way can be shown in 2D or in 3D. The three-dimensional sight is more striking but often limits the global territory view. Personally I recommend the view in plant (2D), that offers a good detail about streets and points of interest like a paper road-book. Is also available the Night view for a more restful vision.
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The quality of the maps is remarkable. Are shown: senses of march, different kinds of street, railways and rivers with the valuable characteristic of the automatic zoom. When we are in closeness of a turn or a fork, the view enlarges the road place. A green arrow shows the manoeuvre in a clear way and offers a useful help to avoid mistakes.
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The standard road map is that one of all the Italy, contained in a
256 Mb card. Is possible to buy and install maps of single foreign resorts, activating
TomTom Plus services , described more ahead.
Not always the information of the maps are faithful to the territory.
Sometimes are indicated wrong march senses, marked as
practicable zones sluices to the traffic, in the worse cases some suburban roads
are marked as not asphalted strokes. The little commons and the zones in quick expansion are often penalized by the detail lack. These
errors are caused by an updating lack of the data of digital cartography, often based on informations not verified on the place. The maps of TomTom, provided by TeleAtlas
(http://www.teleatlas.com),
are updated every year, but for being in step with the urbanism and the road
growth, a net of capillary survey and updatings is necessary. For this
reason one of the services foreseen in the next future by TomTom
is maps updating via GPRS, directly on the smartphone.
Who wishes can signal maps errors and contribute to improve the cartography of its
residence place. After registering on TomTom web site the
user obtain access to the maps Feedback link. Is necessary
to fill in a form with the description of the problem and if possible
report correct latitude and longitude of the place to correct.
An excitant characteristic of the navigation systems is the POI
signalling (Point Of Interest), italianized in PDI. They are subdivided in categories (service
stations, hotels, restaurants) and are shown on the map during the
navigation.
From the menu Preferences Change preferences we can access to
POI management. We can decide what categories are shown, add a new category created from the user, activate an acoustic signal in closeness of the POI (and establish how many meters
before to emit the warning), etc.
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A POI can be associated to a telephone number and being called on the flight. (As shown by the symbol of the telephone cornet). We choose the menu Call number, select the category of the PDI and the address to call. With Select button or Call On key of the phone we arrange the telephone call, with Call we send the call. A function very useful for who wants some local references, because POI are bound to the position and are proposed in order of distance, by the more near to the far more.
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Is possible to complete the informations provided by TomTom, adding to the map of navigation, points of interest of any kind. The Internet community puts numerous categories
on the net among whom the more downloaded is the Autovelox, fixed and mobile, marked with readiness from the users of the Italian streets.
A reference web site is
http://www.poigps.com where registering is necessary, but it is
worth the submission. In the section Downloads there are numerous updated archives, in zip
format, that sweep from the structures for disabled persons to the beaches to the traffic lights!
The installation of POI is very simple. After unpacking
the archives, we have with one or more files with extension .ov2 (for istance autovelox_fissi.ov2). Next to these files are other, with the same name, but with extension .bmp (for istance autovelox_fissi.bmp).
Is the icon shown on the navigator, a simple bitmap file associated to the category of
POI.
To add the POI to the Italian map (but instructions are
valid for all the maps) is sufficient to copy the files .ov2
and the corresponding .bmp in the folder Italy Map contained in the
memory card of the software TomTom.
Connect the smartphone to the PC. Navigate in the folders of the mobile device, up to select the
memory.
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Select the folder Italia-Map and one copy from the PC the files to the smartphone
the POI files. Turn off and restart the phone to make
effective the modifications.
The receiver unit uses a chip SiRFstarIII and a
GeoHelix-SMP internal antenna. They are the most advanced
technologies available at present for portable GPS. The signal of the satellites can be received in any position, the high sensitivity allows
to thake the receiver in bag or pocket, the locking times of the
satellite system are very reduced. To this also joins the reliability of the
Bluetooth connection, always efficient even in presence of interference.
With the smartphone in the hand and the receiver in the pocket,
we can walk on foot without fear to lose the way. Forgetful ones like me, can also "mark" as preferred, the place where
the car is parked, to be sure finding it again. The autonomy of the receiver is sufficient for the whole day thanks to the
Lithium battery and the energy saving system. The device is
switched off after some minute, if the phone is far or turned off,
because it hears the Bluetooth connection lack.
Not all mobile phones can execute programs of assisted navigation as
TomTom Mobile. There is the need of a fast CPU and the support to
memory cards (SD or MMC), besides of a color display well visible
also in full light.
An excellent example of ready-for-GPS smartphone is the Nokia 7610,
powered by Symbian 7.0 operating system and driven by a 123 MHz
ARM series CPU.
It is a three-band (GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900) class
6 GPRS (3+1/2+2 slots), internal antenna, Bluetooth 1.1
support and naturally USB interface USB and software to dialogue with the PC.
The TFT display TFT is very luminous, with 176 x 208
resolution and 65000 colours with a good visibility. The acoustic yield is of good quality, without distortions on the spoken part and with a sufficient volume
level also in the urban traffic. Completes the endowment a
1152 x 864 pixel camera with digital zoom, for prints in 10x15
format of good quality.
The autonomy of work when used as navigator (display always
on and Bluetooth active) is about 4 hours. A worthy note particular: TomTom
Mobile signals in the navigation software when the battery
of the smartphone is almost low, showing once more the
remarkable integration between software and hardware of
support.
Using the GPRS net and the possibility of Internet connection,
is possible to increase very much the satellite navigator's versatility.
Realtime supplementary informationsabout the trip are shown and
software updatings can be offered directly on the mobile device.
Available services meet different requirements: realtime informations about the traffic, detailed maps of a town (in the European and non-European
region), meteo conditions of a specific place on the map, specific
POI for numerous categories, ecc.
How activate the PLUS services
Befar all registering on TomTom web site is necessary. To do it
you can click on the voice Create an account, in the square my account, or follow this link directly:
http://www.tomtom.com/support/myprofile.php?Language=7
After registration you can access the menu of PLUS
Services and choose what services to buy. Services are activated automatically for the registered user.
On the smartphone is sufficient to select one of the services (for istance TomTom Traffic) and put in the e-mail address and the password of
the TomTom account. The smartphone connects to the services
server via GPRS and unlocks the menus Plus. This procedure
is required only a time for all the subscription period.
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Who buys a TomTom product and make the registration
procedure, is granted to try the services Plus for a month. The procedure is described clearly on the site to the following link:
http://www.tomtom.com/plus/tips.php#tip1
TomTom Traffic
The service of traffic signalling is a help of big usefulness for whom faces the road. Be able to foresee
queues or obstructions along the route, allows to find alternative ways and save time. Knowing
there is a crash and avoiding the zone is even a help to the collectivity.
The traffic warning takes place with an icon on the right side of the display
to which can be associated a sound. The symbol of the kind of problem (queue,
crash, roadworks, etc.) is shown with the position related
to the planned route. With the joystick it can be looked at the detail
of the area with graphic and text informations. Now we can avoid the traffic zone and replan the
route. It can also be made automatic the recalculation of the way in case
of any traffic alert.
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Traffic informations can be updated manually or automatically to regular intervals. Updating requires few second and does not weigh excessively on the
GPRS connection cost.
The service Traffic also provides indications on the meteorological conditions (fog, thunderstorms, ice, etc.). An element to keep
under control when we travel in winter season.
The navigation system tried in this review, is part of a series of products that share the
same graphic interface and are destined to different user typologies:
TomTom Navigator
Is the solution for PDA devices. It is provided in different versions, depending on the operating system and the hardware of the
PDA. There are available complete kits with the PDA to guarantee the maximum compatibility, or only
the software for whom already owns a PDA (with integrated
GPS antenna). A clever choice for whom wants to add potentiality to the
personal PDA.
TomTom GO
Integrated solution for satellite navigation. In a shell that remembers a little television set
are contained all the components, antenna included. The software is provided on SD
card (Secure Digital) or internal Hard Disk, depending on the models. Commands are provided in a quick and intuitive way
thanks to "touch screen" TFT display with 320 x 240 pixel and 3,5 inches. The generous and rich
of bass audio, the Bluetooth support supplemented to connect it on a mobile phone and
use the services Plus, the excellent legibility of the characters,
make the TomTom GO the most sold model of the family.
TomTom GO exists in three models. The entry level GO 300 offers
base functionality, the GO 500 support handsfree phone and the device ASN (inertial
system that pilots the navigator also in absence of signal), the GO 700
has an internal hard disk to memorize numerous maps and a comfortable remote control.
TomTom Rider
Version for the two wheels of the TomTom GO, studied to resist to the bad weather and the vibrations. A
product compact and easy to install on motorcycle and scooter, thanks to the
assembly kit supplied with the product. The display has an anti-reflective treatment studied for the outside, vocal commands feel under the helmet with the Bluetooth
earphone in endowment, that also works as handsfree kit for the mobile phone.
TomTom One
Last born of the Dutch house, presents itself as a powerful
and versatile device, ideal for who wants all the advantages
of assisted navigation, without giving up the simplicity of use.
A TFT display of excellent quality, a fast CPU, a renewed system of satellite reception, reduced
weight and dimensions, make TomTom ONE a product suitable for the use in the car and on foot without compromises.
A product that until few years ago we would have seen only in the Captain's Kirk of Star Trek
hands, today has a price for all the pockets! The receipt sensitivity and the reliability of the software make TomTom Mobile version 5, the ideal companion
for modern smartphone. After have tried it is difficult to
renounce, above all in the metropolitan big areas, even if one circulates on foot.
The future reserves for us an always greater precision and the help of
terrestrial transmitters to cover the areas not reached by the satellites. Receivers will be always little and economic so to be included in the mobile telephones. The updating of the cartography and the information about traffic and meteo will play a role of big relief,
as happen for television services offered today on UMTS devices.
We can imagine travel agencies of the future, will give holiday packages
complete of digital travel: it will be sufficient to insert a chip in the
navigator to be driven step by step from a virtual assistant, toward all the destinations of the holiday!
Useful links
A few links useful to find answers:
Official link is:
http://www.tomtom.com/
Direct
Link for TomTom Mobile:
http://www.tomtom.com/products/category.php?ID=2
Link to the FAQ:
http://www.tomtom.com/support/product.php?ID=50 & Language=7
Link to the services tomtom plus:
http://www.tomtom.com/plus/index.php
DEEPENING: The GPS and his competitors
The first satellite of the system NAVSTAR GPS (NAVigation Signal Timing And Ranging Global Positioning System) was launched
in February 1978 from the American Department of the Defence. Placed in circular orbit
at about 20000 Km of height with a rotation period
of about 12 hours, he was followed soon by other throwings. In 1995 the 24 satellites of the total system were operating. New satellites were ever since launched, to replace the old ones (every satellite "lives" on average 7 years) and increase the precision of the system.
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The review was published on the portal Tom' Hardware s Guides Italy to the following link:
http://www.tomshw.it/mobile.php?guide=20051207
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