Turn by turn navigation coming with TomTom for iPhone

Li0n I have to disagree with your comments on TomToms UI. I have used Garmin, TomTom and various inbuilt vehicle sat-navs and found the TomToms the most intuitive and easy to use interface. Whereas Garmin feels like something left over by the Russian Army from the cold war. As a testament to how easy it is to use, it is one ofthe few gadgets that I have that has full WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor). As an admitted technophobe it took her less than 5 minutes for her to work out how to use it.
Maybe it is a cultural thing, I find US users like the TomTom UI less, whereas Europeans seem to like it more.
Anyway pricing will be the crunch factor. I think as long as the price point is below that of say a TomTom1 and it delivers on functionality (real time traffic updates) then it will sell well. If it is priced more than a TomTom 1 then I think many people will balk at it

This is probably a dumb question, but will the Tomtom app work on an iPod touch?

I've used Garmin, TomTom and Lexus GPSs; and frankly I find TomTom's UI dangerous:

> Auto-zoom needs to include the next turn as this gives a visual clue as to what's coming up.

> Holding a Garmin's 'back' button down returns you to the map. Not with TomTom. You need to press the back button over and over again.

> When setting a nav destination on TomTom, I'm forced to begin spelling the city. Dangerous. Lexus immediately lists the 5 nearest cities, which covers most of my nav needs. Smart.

> Apparently if you want to find a coffee shop in TomTom, you can't just type coffee shops like you can in google maps; you first must select a business category. What? Well, some coffee shops are in restaurants, some in cafes, etc. That drives me nuts (literally).

I could go on, but my point is that I hope Apple totally reworked the UI, because I don't want to throw my iphone out of my car window, like i did my TomTom.

Now, I'd love to have this instead of buying a dedicated GPS for my bike. Does anyone make a waterproof enclosure for the iPhone that I can (RAM) mount to my bike/handlebars? Also does this let me program in my own routes?

This sounds very much like what I have been waiting for. My wife is happy (at last) to get a GPS device after another occurrence of getting lost around Brussels (5-years of this and now she caves...), my current GSM is about 7-years old, and I'd like a new iPod that can play rented movies from the iTunes Store. Sounds like a win-win situation to me, assuming that the software works well and that the price of the device in Belgium isn't too bonkers for the 32GB version.

Given how poor the iPhone GPS chip is I'm not sure I'd want to take the risk shelling out for this.

Any word on concurrent application multi-tasking?

It would be a boon to have, for instance on a road trip, the Tom-tom app giving you turn-by-turn navigation while "Cams Ahoy!" app warns you of speed cameras (of course, this could possibly also use push notification) while FM radio advises you of traffic and keeps you entertained.

I wish they would clarify on how the music playback and hands-free calling will work. I currently have a first gen phone, and found out the hard way that I couldn't stream music to my car headunit over bluetooth because of AD2P. I had to resort to USB, which means using the headunit to control the iPhone.

Now that AD2P is available on the 3GS, I should be able to stream it and control the playback with my iPhone, but how will it work in conjunction with a GPS app running?

Like the author, I just bought the TomTom Map Update service for $79 for my TomTom One 3rd Edition. The difference is that my TomTom stopped making sounds last week. No voice at all - nothing. A non-talking GPS is about as good as an iPhone with Google Maps. I need the thing to yell at me to get my attention. So...I'm wrangling with TomTom to get them to transfer the map update service to a refurbished TomTom One 130 which Amazon is selling for $50 after rebate. If they don't give in to transferring the service, I might just wait for this solution to be available.

I hope the software has a "send calls to voicemail" mode.

Imagine someone driving following the iPhone's directions, a call comes in, they pick up to answer it...

Just what our cities need: drivers who don't know where they're going, talking on the phone.

That, or a Bluetooth mode, although that's apparently almost as distracting for the driver. http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Danger-of-Hands-Free-Bluetooth-Headsets&id=2152783