TomTom US & Canada
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TomTom US & Canada

Our Review by Jeff Scott on September 15th, 2009
Rating: starstarstarhalfstarblankstar :: TOO MUCH, TOO LITTLE
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TomTom first announced their GPS app at the 2009 WWDC in June. Hotly anticipated, it's finally here. But, it came in at the most expensive option available. $100 seems to be a lot for an app these days. Is it worth it?

Developer: TomTom International
Price: $99.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0

iPhone Integration Rating: starstarstarstarhalfstar
User Experience Rating: starstarstarstarblankstar
Detail and Accuracy Rating: starstarstarstarstar
Functionality Rating: starstarblankstarblankstarblankstar
Re-use Value Rating: starstarhalfstarblankstarblankstar

Overall Rating: starstarstarhalfstarblankstar

TomTom brings it's great history and reputation in the GPS industry to the iPhone and gives us a fairly good though simple GPS app. Their app, while featuring the top quality TomTom IQ Routes and maps for the US and Canada considered to be top notch, is a little short on extra features.

Routing is one of the most important features of a GPS app. TomTom's routing options are very good, but very simple. It's difficult to create a route with more than one stop. Your destination selection is very well done including the ability to set a point on the map, point of interest from the database that comes with the app, a contact address, recents, etc.

The inclusion of IQ Routes, a TomTom feature that uses historical traffic data to determine the fastest route for the time of day you are traveling, is a welcome addition and seems to work well. In addition you can set the route for travel by car, bike, or for walking. Missing though are any routing features for saving routes for future trips, multi-stop routes, and editing of routes.

Of all of the GPS applications I've tried, TomTom is the most iPhone like. They've paid attention to the user interface and made it both iPhone like and kept the buttons large for quick use while driving.

And that's about it. What's there is really well done, but it's a bit short on features. TomTom is missing some of those cool features of the standalone TomTom devices such as live traffic and local fuel prices. And the routing features are only meant to get you from point a to point b, right now. Also missing are any form of lane assist and text-to-speech functions to speak the street names.

And unfortunately TomTom haven't announced any plans to add these features. In fact they've been rather quiet on any future plans. We can only guess that they will eventually be added but no idea if they will be free or a paid additions.

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The greatly anticipated TomTom car kit was recently delayed to October. This device allows you to mount the phone to the windshield and also includes bluetooth connectivity, a GPS antenna, and a power supply to keep the phone powered. Well that's what we hear, who knows what the delayed device will bring. Previously this device was announced for $99.

TomTom is a very competent on-board GPS device. Pretty well done, great routing, and great maps -- what's there is very solid. The problem is the price and what's not there. Currently TomTom is the highest priced GPS app, but very short on the extra features compared to dedicated TomTom devices or other iPhone GPS apps.

Note that this app was reviewed on an iPhone 3GS. Some iPhone 3G users have reported considerable lag when using this application but we were unable to verify.

iPhone Screenshots

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iPad Screenshots

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