TomTom Navigator 3 Great Britain GPS software

TomTom Navigator 3 is the third in a series of GPS (Global Positioning System) or Satellite Navigation software for PDA’s and PDA phones. You can get the UK map version, quite expensive at £115.49, or the Western Europe map version costing £124.99. This is the cheapest I can find them, which are both web exclusive prices at E-Atay.com. I have the UK map version.

• • • INSTALLING • • •

Installing is pretty easy. Simply ...
...you’ll be able to find TomTom in the ‘Programs’ folder and the ‘Today’ screen. You then have to enter a serial and an Activation code to activate your copy of TomTom Navigator 3. That’s it.

9/10 – Quick and easy.

• • • CONFIGURING • • •

You would need a GPS receiver if your PDA does not have one built in. I have a Bluetooth receiver so I had to set up a partnership. In my case, it was to just turn on ... more

TomTom Navigator 3 is the third in a series of GPS (Global Positioning System) or Satellite Navigation software for PDA’s and PDA phones. You can get the UK map version, quite expensive at £115.49, or the Western Europe map version costing £124.99. This is the cheapest I can find them, which are both web exclusive prices at E-Atay.com. I have the UK map version.

• • • INSTALLING • • •

Installing is pretty easy. Simply put the CD in and let auto run load up the installation screen. Just select what you want to install when it asks (i.e. Program, Map, Demo, etc). You can connect your PDA to your PC while installing or you can plug it in afterwards for it to copy over the files. After a reset of your PDA, you’ll be able to find TomTom in the ‘Programs’ folder and the ‘Today’ screen. You then have to enter a serial and an Activation code to activate your copy of TomTom Navigator 3. That’s it.

9/10 – Quick and easy.

• • • CONFIGURING • • •

You would need a GPS receiver if your PDA does not have one built in. I have a Bluetooth receiver so I had to set up a partnership. In my case, it was to just turn on the receiver, turn on Bluetooth on my PDA and then go into the Bluetooth Manager and set up the partnership. After this, I was able to use the software. However, there are many other settings but all of which are optional. Some of the settings include whether to use 3D maps or not, what Pints of Interest to show, map colours, amount of detail, what navigational statistics to show, hardware button functions, etc.

8/10 - Quite a lot to set but most can be left as default.

• • • USING • • •

Simply set your destination by entering a town/city, then a street address and door number, let TomTom calculate your route and off you go! I found using the basic feature of navigation easy when I first used it. Navigation across the program is easy as the icons are nice and big and labelled. Input is via an on screen keyboard but you can use whatever your PDA provides as well.

Once set, TomTom will try to calculate a route and this is quite quick but if it can’t get a good satellite signal, it’ll ask you whether you want it to use the last position available as your departure point. When it eventually gets a signal (usually within a minute) it’ll take around 5-15 seconds to calculate a route depending on its complexity. It’ll then give you a summary of your journey with the journey time, your arrival time, distance, etc. This information is also on the Navigator screen when navigating by default. It takes around 7 seconds to recalculate routes so it’s not a problem if you decide not to follow original route. Throughout your journey, you are guided by a voice telling you where to go. Examples of instructions are as follows:

“After 100 yards, turn left”
“Make a U turn”
“Stay in the left lane”
“At the roundabout, take the third exit”
“You have arrived at your destination”

Etc.

With these, you will never need to ask for directions again! I have a woman’s voice guiding me but you can also have a bloke’s voice instead. A problem I find is that it is often difficult to hear the instructions while on the move because you rarely have complete silence. My PDA’s speakers aren’t that loud but some are louder than mine. You could however buy an in-car hands free kit with speakers or an in-car stereo to cassette adapters to use your car stereo speakers (but this means you sacrifice your entertainment for the journey). If you didn’t hear an instruction properly, you can take a quick look at the Navigator map where you can see a moving map with an arrow representing you on the map. You can also display the instructions in words if you choose. You don’t even need the map in the Navigator screen and can have just a big arrow telling you where you should go with a bit of text, if you prefer, but I find this boring and I wouldn’t be able to see shortcuts down side roads like I could with the Navigator map showing.

8/10 – Easy to use once you've got the hang of it.

• • • MAJOR FEATURES • • •

The Navigator screen is where you see the moving map while you’re driving and where you are. I can have a 3D map displayed while driving so it’s not like looking down at the roads from a helicopter and I can zoom in and out of it whenever I want. It is also here where most the options are. There is also a Map screen where you can look at an entire route that has been planned, set your Favourites and Itinerary destinations. You can zoom in and out of the map and move around the map by ‘dragging’ it with your PDA stylus. Itinerary is where you set ‘stops’ between your departure point and destination. This is a new feature.

Another feature is the demonstration. It can demonstrate a route once it’s calculated it so you can see what roads TomTom would take you before you even start your engine, or you can use this to see how you got to your destination.

Alternative route is another useful feature where if you know a particular route is congested or you know there are road works, you can have TomTom find you another route but it will automatically re-calculate a new route if you go off the original route. As well as this, if there’s a road block ahead, you can tell TomTom this and it will find a different route. Additionally, you can set what areas to avoid altogether. It can warn you of the Congestion Charge zone and even avoid it if you want.

The Points of Interest (POI) shows you points that may be of interest such as museums, post offices, petrol stations, etc as well as locations of speed camera. Speed camera and other points of interest can be downloaded freely from various places on the web. Speed camera locations may not be completely accurate because new ones may be added or old ones moved but I’ve found that most the ones I go past are there. You can also add your own POI’s.

10/10 - There are many other features!

• • • PRODUCT SUPPORT • • •

You can search their website or contact customer support. I haven’t had to do this as I prefer to just fiddle around with something until I get it working. Failing that, I’d just Google-it and see what results I get. Failing that, I’d look in the manual or the TomTom site. Never had to but it’s there if you need. The TomTom support section seems very helpful though.

8/10 – Not bad.

• • • BAD POINTS • • •

The biggest problem I find is that roads change. It may very well guide you down the wrong way down a one-way street so you will still need to keep a look out road signs. It tried to get me to turn right where it was left turn only. Also, it doesn’t necessarily guide you using the fastest routes. It doesn’t know what areas are jammed up with traffic. On a brighter note, you can just turn down a side street and TomTom will re-calculate a new route for you. If it tries to take you back down the busy road, don’t go there and it’ll work out a new route again.

Loading time is quite long sometimes but this also depends on your PDA specifications. On quite a few occasions, I've had to reset my PDA because it was taking ages to load. It was quick after the reset though. Annoyingly, it doesn't remember my Bluetooth GPS receive and I have to select it each time I load up the program.

I’ve found that some locations of door numbers are slightly off. Another problem that may arise is that some rural address would not have a door number and if the place you’re looking for is down a long road, it wouldn’t be able to guide you right to the door.

TomTom is dependent on satellites so cloudy days sometimes affects the reception. Going through tunnels or areas with lots of trees would mean you lose the satellite signal. Mine usually finds 6 or 7 satellites on a clear day. If it doesn’t find any satellites from your departure point, you can start your journey and TomTom will calculate your route as soon as it gets a signal.

Lastly, the software is quite expensive so that’s another bad point about it. Not just that, you would probably also need to purchase a GPS receiver if your PDA/phone doesn’t have one built in and these can be quite expensive as well.

EXTRA ADD-ONS

You can download all sorts of add-ons for free. One example is postcode support so you can find an address just by entering the postcode. Most these add-ons are free so that’s a bonus.

7/10 – As many of the add-ons aren’t official and aren’t supported by TomTom, they are all over the place. Some are harder to find and are more awkward to install. Most are useful, work great and free though!

ALTERNATIVE PRODUCTS

If you want Satellite Navigation, you don’t have to buy the TomTom. There are alternative programs from other makers (i.e. Destinator, Garmin). Some of which are probably cheaper but I think TomTom is one of the best ones out there because of its ease of use and number of features. If you do not want to buy a PDA and a GPS receiver unit like I did, you can buy a TomTom GO, which is a dedicated GPS unit. You can also buy bundled TomTom car kits with car mounts, GPS receiver with the software with some bundles including the PDA. I chose TomTom Navigator because I know people already using it and recommended it to me.

MY OPINION

A ‘MUST’ have piece of software if you have a PDA and drive. Especially if you have a hopeless sense of direction like myself. An excellent tool for finding places in areas you’re not familiar with. It does have problems with roads not being up-to-date on the map which can be quite dangerous but so long as you pay attention, then it should be okay. There are software updates to solve software conflict problems but I couldn’t find any to update the map. I think the maps are part of the program so maybe you need to wait for TomTom 4 for more updated maps. The software is quite expensive, which is another downside to it but overall, it’s excellent and highly useful to have. It can guide your road by road right to the doorstep of your destination. It’s jam-packed with features and very impressive. Just drive carefully or watch where you’re walking since you can use it on foot too! Highly recommended!

8/10 – Overall. It loses marks for the out-of-date map problem but still scores highly in my book.

Thanks for reading!
 

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