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gpspassion
93402 Posts |
 Posted - 03 sept. 2009 : 00:12:13
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REVIEWED - TOMTOM CAR KIT FOR IPHONE
SiRFstarIII GPS + Patch Antenna - Loudspeaker - Bluetooth - Power In - Audio Out
iPhone 4 compatible with an adapter
Product page on the UK Apple Store : >> LIEN <<
Updated 20100909 : TomTom are now shipping a special iPhone 4 adapter with the Car Kit and taking free orders for the adapter for existing owners, see details on page 5.
Updated 20091016 : As announced by Apple when I placed my preorder on September 24th, the TomTom Car Kit was shipped yesterday and came in today, this is impressive timing! I haven't been able to take it on the road yest but here are some first comments and annotated pictures after spending some time exploring it and seeing how it interacts with my iPhone 3G.
1. COMMENTS
- The content : a pleasant surprise, a dashboard "sticking plate" is included and it will come in handy as an iPhone will be interacted with, conditions permitting of course, unlike a "standard" GPS once the destination has been programmed. There is a car charger too, outputting 1.2A, a bit more than the usual 1A, but the iPhone needs that based on my experience with other chargers. The miniUSB connector is straight so it might be a bit of an eye-sore...The manual is short but gives enough information to get started, like pairing the iPhone with the Bluetooth module of the car kit (you need to press the "jog shuttle")
- The form factor : the car kit certainly looks quite smart with a pleasant finish and even a "rubbery" bumper with the TomTom "hands" to dampen the impact of the bumps on the iPhone. In spite of the many features it packs, it remains light, but it's weighty enough to feel solid.
- The features : EasyPort (the screw-in suction cup premiered on the ONE v4 and XL v2 in 2008), SiRFstarIII GPS Module with dedicated patch antenna, loudspeaker with a "jog shuttle" to set the volume, Bluetoth for handsfree conversations, audio out (3.5mm jack), it's hard to do better and I don't remember seeing such a comprehensive car kit since the Seidio G4850 for the Dell x50/x51 in 2005 but it lacked Bluetooth as it was a PDA, not a Smartphone.
We'll get back to the GPS aspects in detail, but looking at the other features, everything works as expected once the mount is powerered. Fast Bluetooth pairing (mind the unusual 5555 code) for handsfree conversations (I suppose there is no hardware pin for a "mic in"), the loudspeaker is a bit louder than the iPhone's built-in speaker (arguably the best one on a smartphone) but has more bass when playing music and "cracks" less when pushed to its max level using the "jog shuttle" on the side. This speaker is certainly a welcome addition as it is the biggest limitation on the powered Carcomm mount I'm currently using
- The GPS feature : this is the most anticipated feature of the car kit with the built-in SiRFstarIII chipset. The performance of the SiRFstarIII chipset, the first "high-sensitivity" module launched in 2005 and regularly optimized since, is well documented and the use of a dedicated patch antenna inside the mount will help get the satellite signals where the is less interference than inside the iPhone, what with its large screen, wifi, bluetooth, gsm modules. This should finally bring decent GPS performance to the iPhone, on par with a standalone GPS system. The built-in module is the capable Globallocate Hammerhead II used successfully by TomTom on the ONE, XL, GO x40 and GO x50 AIOs but it clearly struggles in the "GPS hostile" iPhone environment and tends to lose the plot in dense urban areas as I found this week again in Paris.
As a reminder, the iPhone handles positioning in a "centralized" way using three sources in order of increasing quality : GSM, WiFi and the internal GPS. The SiRFstarIII module of the car kit is likely considered as an additional source with top priority. One open question is whether the external GPS can benefit from the AGPS assistance provided by most GSM networks.
Unlike on the Windows Mobile/PocketPC platform, there are no GPS tools available for the iPhone to dig in and see what's going on and run cold/warm/hot resets. Still, the first tests are encouraging since I quickly got a high quality position (according to Motion-X GPS) in my office. After disconnecting the power, the fix was lost and the positioning switched to the internal module that slowly got the fix back with a lower quality. Same thing with Google Maps, iGO, Navigon, TomTom or CoPilot.
It will be hard to measure but there's a chance the iPhone will offer snappier performance since the hosted internal GPS module will not by using any CPU cycles
Stay tuned for more...
2. ANNOTATED PICTURES
THE CONTENT OF THE BOX
360 DEGREE ROTATION (32 "notches")
   
SEEN FROM THE BACK - LOUDSPEAKER AND MINIUSB PLUG
FLEXED OR FOLDED
   
ZOOM ON THE CONNECTORS AND ON THE "JOG SHUTTLE"
  
A "BUMPER" WITH THE TOMTOM "HANDS"
Posted September 3rd, 2009 - Thanks to the FCC, we're getting a detailed and early preview of the much anticipated TomTom iPhone car mount, here is a link to their reports : >> LINK <<.
Apparently the FCC got involved because the mount includes a Bluetooth antenna, a feature we weren't aware of and that joins : power, loudspeaker, full GPS receiver (SiRFstarIII, see below)...everything but the kitchen sink !
What's interesting is that this mount marks the return of a SiRF chipset on TomTom products as they were no longer present in the current line-up. Previously SiRFstarIII based, the GO range was switched to Globallocate's Hammerhead v2 for the 740 and 940 models, while the ONE range was switched to Globallocate's Hammerhead v1 in 2007...ironically the iPhone 3G and 3GS models harbor a Hammerhead v2 chip.
As a side note, the mount is given its own topic in the forums as Apple apparently required that TomTom allow it to work with all GPS enabled applications for the iPhone...
Pictures extracted from the PDF :
SiRFstarIII on board...
...and a LARGE patch antenna !
...overall view
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Discounts and Assistance/Réductions et Assistance (Club GpsPasSion) / Où commencer? |
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wco81
USA
222 Posts |
Posted - 03 sept. 2009 : 01:15:28
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I don't see how Apple could make TomTom do anything. The app. is already in the App. store and even if Apple pulled it, it can't be a big part of TomTom's business yet.
That said, it's good to hear that other GPS apps. will be able to make use of the mount or have some kind of mounting option. |
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gpspassion
93402 Posts |
Posted - 03 sept. 2009 : 01:25:59
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| It would have made sense for TomTom to make this unique mount work only with their software, and trivial as well, back in the day ALK's CoPilot software only worked with their specific hardware, a CF GPS and a puck and later the sleeve. Better margins on software than hardware too, but yes, however they got there, with Apple's coaching or not, is their problem, now let's hope that mount becomes avaliabe quickly and at a reasonable price. I don't see it being priced below €99 though, so that could be $149... |
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SwissFreek
USA
54 Posts |
Posted - 03 sept. 2009 : 04:53:30
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Apple absolutely could control TomTom not locking down the device to their software: "make it work with everything or we pull your app." End of lucrative revenue stream for TomTom. Plus in order for hardware to work with an iPhone it has to get Apple's seal of approval (AKA they give you a little microchip to put I
in it) otherwise when you plug it it it says "this device is not compatible with the iPhone". So yes, as always Apple has complete control. That's how they do things.
Now on the compatibility side with other apps it may be simpler than that. Obviously power, sound, and Bluetooth is hardwired/built-in so that will always work no matter what. But if Apple built a way to feed the Core Location API off an external gps connected via the dock connector, then if that device is plugged in to the iPhone, any app that calls the Core Location API would get a GPS feed from the device seamlessly just like from the internal GPS or the cell triangulation or SkyHook. From an engineering standpoint that's probably the most logical way to do it, but it would require that Apple have that capability built into 3.0, which is very possible since TomTom announced they'd have this thing from the get-go. |
SwissFreek
CoPilot Live 8 (iPhone) - Garmin GPSMap 60CSx - Garmin Mobile PC v5 |
Edited by - SwissFreek on 03 sept. 2009 04:56:42 |
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wco81
USA
222 Posts |
Posted - 03 sept. 2009 : 05:36:58
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Just how lucrative are GPS apps. though?
They may be one day but they just got introduced.
TomTom had a competitive advantage with this thing, which they developed at some expense.
Maybe at this stage though, they don't mind other apps. using it if it means more sales. |
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SwissFreek
USA
54 Posts |
Posted - 03 sept. 2009 : 13:49:08
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Well if the thing costs $150 just for the device, without any software, I can't imagine they will be taking a loss on the hardware alone. After all, as has been reiterated ad nauseum, for $100 you would get the screen AND maps on an entry level device. So TomTom is letting Apple/the consumer foot the bill for the operating system, processor, screen, etc. Plus they are charging $100 for whoever buys their software, which wasn't developed uniquely for the iPhone so there's some economies of scale going on there. PLUS they are selling the hardware on top of that (and by the way, operating as a charger, bluetooth speakerphone, mount, and audio-out port, it might be worth looking at even for folks that have no intention of using their iPhone as a GPS; putting all those components together on their own would cost close to $100 or more when you assemble all the separate parts, and this combines it all into one device).
Yeah, I think they stand to make a decent sum of money from both products independently of each other. |
SwissFreek
CoPilot Live 8 (iPhone) - Garmin GPSMap 60CSx - Garmin Mobile PC v5 |
Edited by - SwissFreek on 03 sept. 2009 13:51:12 |
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paulkbiba
USA
5064 Posts |
Posted - 04 sept. 2009 : 21:06:46
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| This device may open the market to GPS on the iPod Touch, as well as the iPhone, so there be more here than just one platform. |
Don't forget the GPSPassion Club! |
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Dewi
617 Posts |
Posted - 04 sept. 2009 : 21:57:44
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Apparently TomTom's already announced that the car kit also will work with the iPod Touch:
Engadget reference |
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wco81
USA
222 Posts |
Posted - 04 sept. 2009 : 23:29:41
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That makes sense then, since iPod Touch have sold tens of millions units.
Still though, you can get a full PND for a couple of hundred bucks versus $200+ for the Touch and probably another $100 at least for these docks/mounts. |
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gpspassion
93402 Posts |
Posted - 24 sept. 2009 : 11:27:58
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Now available via the Appstore in Europe with a 2/3 week delivery.
Compared to what we already knew :
- not compatible with the iPod Touch
- commes with the TomTom software, so that makes it an excellent deal for those who haven't already bought it! |
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gatorguy
USA
648 Posts |
Posted - 24 sept. 2009 : 17:37:27
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GPSPassion, the offer has now disappeared from the appstore. Unclear whether they simply erroneously posted it before they meant to or is the offer is being changed in some regard. I know you have very good TomTom connections so perhaps you can get clarification.
continued - TomTom has now issued a press release clarifying that the mount price does not include the application, according to MacWorld.
http://www.macworld.co.uk/ipod-itunes/news/index.cfm?newsid=27256 |
Garmin 1695 / 760 / 255 / Navigon for Android / Navigon 8100T / Garmin Dakota 10 / Geomate |
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gpspassion
93402 Posts |
Posted - 24 sept. 2009 : 20:05:38
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| It did sound too good to be true...I just checked my order and unfortunately it only says "TX529ZM/A TOMTOM CAR KIT FOR IPHONE-ZML" no reference to the TomTom iPhone application, wonder if they'll contact me to explain the problem...doubt it. Too bad I didn't make a screenshot, but there's probably a reference somewhere that says that the descriptions are subjet to modification or something like that...we'll see ! |
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gatorguy
USA
648 Posts |
Posted - 24 sept. 2009 : 21:29:09
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| I can give you the cached screen shot if you need it. But that is a fairly hefty sum for the mount alone. Also as I understand it, the bluetooth serves only to communicate between the mount and iPhone and serves no other purpose. When you receive your mount I look forward to your review of it. It will be interesting to see how well it sells. |
Garmin 1695 / 760 / 255 / Navigon for Android / Navigon 8100T / Garmin Dakota 10 / Geomate |
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gpspassion
93402 Posts |
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gatorguy
USA
648 Posts |
Posted - 24 sept. 2009 : 23:40:03
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| Not yet. |
Garmin 1695 / 760 / 255 / Navigon for Android / Navigon 8100T / Garmin Dakota 10 / Geomate |
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gpspassion
93402 Posts |
Posted - 15 oct. 2009 : 22:44:55
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| Mine has just been shipped from...Holland, not sure if Apple has some logistics over there or if they are getting TomTom to ship it directly, but it should be with me tomorrow! I'm eager to try it out because I tried to use Navigon in Paris the other day around the "Sacre Coeur" and it got completely lost... |
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[TOPIC] TomTom Car Kit for iPhone - Reviewed
