Mobile Fun Blog

TomTom iPhone Car Kit Release Date

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

Although the TomTom Sat Nav application was released a few weeks ago for the iPhone, the car kit to accompany it is still nowhere to be seen. Rumours of pricing and availability have been floating around for a while now, but this week TomTom have finally confirmed that the TomTom iPhone Car Kit will be available to buy in October.

More information is slowly starting to emerge on it’s features too.  The most surprising news is that the Car Kit can be used with any Sat Nav Apps. The Car Kit can be used for handsfree calling, music playback, turn-by-turn instructions and charging, although the GPS signal enhancements will only be available when you’re using the TomTom App.

If you don’t want to shell out the rumoured £115 for the car kit, there are a number of other options to consider. The best value is the iPhone Sat Nav starter pack which gives you a holder and charger for the iPhone, and the Jabra SP700 is a great bluetooth car kit that clips to your sun visor and can handle your calls and music playback and route them through your car stereo speakers in the same way as the TomTom Car Kit.  The price?  Less than £55 for both – that’s less than half of the rumoured cost of the TomTom kit for all the same features  - and best of all you won’t have to wait upto 8 weeks for them as they’re available to order now!

For more information on the different ways to use Sat Nav on your iPhone in the car take a look at my post on Using Sat Nav on the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS.

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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How not to use TomTom on your iPhone

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

OK, I’ve seen some pretty odd ways of using mobile phone’s over the years, but this one really made me chuckle. As you’ve probably heard, you can now get TomTom Sat Nav on your iPhone, and the whole world seem to be going crazy about it.

Quite a few bloggers are reviewing the new software and posting video’s of it being used – which is great, after all £60 is a lot to spend on a software download if it’s no good, but I really think some people need to plan ahead when it comes to creating a video review.

This morning I stumbled on this iPhone TomTom video review on YouTube which shows off how easy the software is to use.  They then take it for a spin in the car and demonstrate brilliantly how not to mount your iPhone in the car.

There are some things that sellotape shouldn't be used for!

Sellotaping your iPhone to the dash might be a quick fix, but just think of the mess that’s going to be left on his phone and dashboard when he’s done. Silly really, when for less than £15 he could have got himself an iPhone Sat Nav Pack that includes a rotating windscreen holder and car charger.

On the subject of iPhone holders, I’ve noticed that people seem to think that you have to use sat nav on the iPhone in landscape mode. As most phone holders for the iPhone 3G and 3GS are portrait, I’m guessing this is why people are resorting to sellotaping their phones to the dashboard, but what you may not realise is that Sat Nav works perfectly well in portrait mode too – in fact I prefer it. It means you don’t have to keep rotating the phone if a call or text message comes through and I find that you get a clearer view of what’s coming up on the road ahead. Admittedly, there’s not much in it, but do you really need to see all the side roads that you’re not going to be driving down?

CoPilot 8 on the iPhone: Landscape Vs Portrait

Easiest option of course is to just get yourself a rotating holder so that you can use your phone which ever way you want. The following iPhone car holders can all rotate for use in landscape or portrait mode:

• Griffin Window Seat for iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS
• Brodit Passive holder with Tilt / Swivel
• Brodit Passive Holder With Dock Connector & Tilt / Swivel
• iPhone 3G & iPhone 3GS Sat Nav Starter Pack
• iPhone 3G & 3GS Deluxe Carry Holster

Have you seen any other crazy ways of holding an iPhone in the car?  Share them with us using the comments form below!

(2 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

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TomTom for iPhone – pricing revealed?

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

It was announced back in March at the Apple Developers Conference, but until now further details have been very few and far between.. Until now.

We already know that the software and the car cradle will be available separately, and we’re now hearing that the car cradle will retail for around £115, but there is no news yet as to whether this includes the software or not.

UPDATE: TomTom for UK is available now in the iTunes App store for £59.99. No confirmed pricing yet on the car kit. iTunes Link.

iPhone TomTom Car Kit

Another image has surfaced of the iPhone TomTom Car Cradle, this time showing off a few more of it’s features:

1. EasyPort Mount from the TomTom ONE and TomTomXL
2. Built In Speaker
3. Volume Control
4. Microphone for handsfree calling
5. Mini USB Charging Connector
6. Audio Line out (for connecting to Car Stereo)

Sources are also confirming that a separate model will be available for the iPod touch.

We’ve not yet been able to confirm any of this yet with our suppliers, and we’ll post again as soon as we know more.

On a similar note, the rumour mill is also suggesting that CoPilot Live 8 is on its way to the App Store and will be available some time next week for around £26. UPDATE: CoPilot Live 8 is available now from the AppStore – iTunes Link

Decisions decisions…£60+the cost of the car kit for TomTom, £26 for CoPilot…

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(5 votes, average: 3.40 out of 5)

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The Ultimate Guide To Mobile GPS Applications

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

If you’ve read our Ultimate Guide to GPS on Mobile Phones you’ll know that GPS isn’t all about Satellite Navigation and turn-by-turn directions. Using a Bluetooth GPS receiver with your mobile phone will open it up to a whole range of applications that will allow you to do things you may not even realise were possible on a mobile phone.

This guide will run through some of the free and paid apps for Symbian, Java, Windows & BlackBerry phones for each of the 5 types of application – Sat Nav, Tracking, Mapping, Location Aware & Geo-Tagging.

amAze GPS

Sat Nav | Free | All Phones that support Java, Windows Mobile & BlackBerry

amAze GPS is probably the best free Sat Nav application available. While it’s not quite as pretty to look at, the features of this amazing free app really make up for it. It has detailed maps of Europe, North America and Australia, and unlike most applications that store all this map data on your phone, taking up valuable space, it downloads the maps as and when you need them. amAze will automatically rotate the map in the direction that you’re driving, and will even overlay your route with a satellite image of where you’re driving. Weather updates are included at no cost. If you want to reduce the amount of data being used, you can also switch to a simple mode that will just display an arrow pointing the way instead of downloading the detailed maps. Speed Camera alerts aren’t available just yet, but are coming soon. amAze GPS is easy to download and install.

The application is free, but as it relies on an internet connection and downloading very small amounts of data, we’d recommend adding an internet bundle to your account to prevent any nasty surprises on your bill.

amAze GPS works on almost any phone

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(12 votes, average: 4.25 out of 5)

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Using Sat Nav on the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

Since the iPhone 3G launched last year with built in GPS and the new iPhone 3GS launch this year, people have been calling out for a proper Satellite Navigation Application for it.  Well, after a long wait, iPhone OS 3.0 finally provides support for turn-by-turn navigation.

Navigon MobileNavigator for iPhone 3G & iPhone 3GS

TomTom were the first company to announce a ‘proper’ Sat Nav solution for the iPhone at last months Apple Developers Conference.  TomTom demonstrated the software and introduced the TomTom Cradle – an optional extra to help you get the most out of their mapping software, but they didn’t announce any pricing or release dates.  This week though saw the release of the first two Sat Nav apps, and surprisingly TomTom weren’t one of them!

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(19 votes, average: 4.16 out of 5)

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