Latest Tom Tom sat navs (1 Viewer)

[Camper634]

Does anyone know if you can put your own,or 3rd party,points of interest on the latest TomTom sat navs?I have read a lot of earlier reviews slating tomtom because this feature wasnt supported when they first came out.I am thinking mainly about the 6000 model.Thanks.

 

[DanielFord]

Third party, certainly, I have uploaded the LPG filling stations POIs to ours (my car is bi-fuel).
I would imagine therefore that it is fairly straight forward to create your own POI list, although I have never tried it.

 

[Camper634]

Thanks Daniel,is yours the 6000?If so are you happy with it?

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[BwB]

Do check that the specific model you're looking at allows you to add your own poi's. Some latest models have removed this feature. Don't know why, seems a backward step.

 

[DanielFord]

Thanks Daniel,is yours the 6000?If so are you happy with it?

No not 6000, not sure which model it is to be honest, but it's quite new.
I would recommend popping in to somewhere like Halfords, they will let you try out the model you are interested in.

 

[GJH]

According to TomTom Support you can not add third party POIs to the Go 6000.

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[Camper634]

Mmm,that was what i suspected.Cant understand the logic behind this!

 

[GJH]

Mmm,that was what i suspected.Cant understand the logic behind this!

Neither can I. Snooper have always had a similar restriction, which is one reason I would never buy one of their machines.

Mind you, I could never understand the obsession of all sat nav manufacturers with speed camera databases. Do they make a basic assumption that their core customer base are lawbreakers?

 

[DanielFord]

According to TomTom Support you can not add third party POIs to the Go 6000.

How stupid! Surely that is a massive backward step!

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[GWAYGWAY]

According to TomTom Support you can not add third party POIs to the Go 6000.

I wish I knew that before I bought one.

 

[pappajohn]

How stupid! Surely that is a massive backward step!

Believe me....tomtom are aware of folks feelings.....just read the tomtom user forum.

3rd party poi's will be reinstated at some point but it may be 2 or 3 major o/s updates from now.

Public outcry and demand saw the coords function restored after tomtom decided it wasnt a much used option.

 

[pappajohn]

According to TomTom Support you can not add third party POIs to the Go 6000.

Or the GO 50/500/5000.....and probably quite a few more.

TomTom used to rule the roost....now they just shit on the eggs.

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[Minxy]

TomTom used to use Microsoft software on the units however MS weren't happy and sued them from what I can recall so TT dumped MS and went to Linux based software instead and unfortunately TTs using this haven't had the same sort of development to be able to do what the old MS TTs did .... that's my understanding anyway!

 

[pappajohn]

Thats maybe why the old ones were so much faster to update, and at slower internet speeds, than the new ones.

My last map update took 5 hours at 4.5mb download speed.

 

[DJA]

The latest Go series do not accept 3rd party POI's at the moment. I noticed recently that people associated with Tomtom asked for volunteers to test as they work towards adding the facility to the new units. They got a lot of volunteers in a very short time. No indication has been given as to when they hope to roll it out.

They have taken a huge amount of flack about this and so are well aware of the feelings of their users.

Regarding the old units updating faster remember the sizes of the files on the latest units are much bigger than the old ones. The European Map on a TT120 via live is just under 3.5GB and the maps on the latest GO series are nearer 5.5GB. Not long ago maps were less than 1GB. If you have not got fibre optic broadband it will take a fair while to download.

I have been very pleased with my Go 5000 but you should be aware the operation of it is very different to the previous TT models. Once you ahve worked out the new way of operting these new units they are very quick. You can create routes with a good number of waypoints and then save the routes for later use. You can also change the order the waypoints are visited and then resave if you want. You can transfer your favourites from a previous TT model to the new Go units. You can have nearly 100 places in your favourites if you want.

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[pappajohn]

Just a thought.....and an operating system idiot.

But, if TT no longer share a bed with MS then the new function, when its implimented, will be LINUX code.

3rd party poi's will probably still be writen for microsoft windows so wont be any good anyway.

As said, i know nowt about OS's and various code so im probably talking bo!!ox.

 

[DJA]

Tomtoms were Linux based well before M S took them to court over patent matters. They had wanted Tomtom to pay licence fees to use the Patented items.

 

[Minxy]

Another thing with the newer TomToms ... you can't 'crack' them either!

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[Minxy]

Regarding the old units updating faster remember the sizes of the files on the latest units are much bigger than the old ones. The European Map on a TT120 via live is just under 3.5GB and the maps on the latest GO series are nearer 5.5GB. Not long ago maps were less than 1GB. If you have not got fibre optic broadband it will take a fair while to download.

Agree, but I seem to recall hubby mentioning that you can get them in smalelr 'chunks' rather than all as one massive map so if you don't want the lot you can download only part of it ... well I think that's what he said!

 

[DJA]

Hi Minx

What you are referring to is Map Zones. This is where you can download to your computer a large map like Europe but in chunks. You then download to the TT the Zone you want. This was introduced because some of the older units only had internal memory and no facility to insert a memory card. The thing to remember with this is if you do not download the complete set of Zones onto your computer you could not switch from one Zone to another zone without being connected to TT via the internet even if you have the zone you want on your computer.

More recent models have the facility to put in a memory card and then when the Map etc becomes to big for the internal memory the TT downloads the map to the memory card. The map however is tied to that TT unit. We have a TT 120 via which is about 3 years old and the current map (circa 3.4GB) has just exceeded the internal memory size when you add the operating software etc.

 

[pappajohn]

Question is....why are the map data files bigger than before ?
the old system worked very well.

Is there a secret program of super fast road building and altering since the old OS was used.....or is it tomtom having to rewrite the whole database in longhand.

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[DJA]

The maps are more detailed now even including 3D buildings on some. Also the Map downloads includes the TT POI's which now number over 3 million I think.

 

[Minxy]

They also have lane guidance displays now too, so that when you get to some junctions it changes the image on the display to show exactly which lane you need to get into.

 

[pappajohn]

3 million poi's....most of which are irrelevant and probably added to....not fully re-writen from scratch.

3D buildings on screen.....why ?........do we really need to know what a building looks like before we get to it........or more likely an unneccesary marketing gimmick.

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[pappajohn]

They also have lane guidance displays now too, so that when you get to some junctions it changes the image on the display to show exactly which lane you need to get into.

I'll give you that one....more useful than 3D buildings.

 

[DJA]

All POI's on a GPS are useless except the ones you want. The more of them on there the more chance of you finding what you need. Some have found the odd Aire listed.

Regarding 3d maps. Judging by the number who claim their GPS caused them to turn into a river or along a railway line the more detail we have on the GPS screen may prevent these instances as they for sure are not watching where they are going.

Also some maps now include road width detail and bridge heights.

 

[MitchandJenny]

Hi Ovalball. If you have an I-Pad, download TomTom the App.. About £60 and updates for a year.. Mitch..

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[Pudsey Bear]

Not sure about Tomtom physical units, but I've not found any Apps including TomTom where you can load your own POIs, certainly not easy to convert them to the desired format either.

I'd love to be proved wrong, with accurate and understandable instructions of course

I have TomTom and Copilot apps, bothe good, Co-pilot better, btu can't get my old POIs onto either so far.

 

[DJA]

Hi Laikavirgin

Have a look at POIeditor. It does various things including converting say Tomtom POI files to Garmin ones. You will probably find an answer there.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

I already have it DJA, but it's the apps not accepting them I'm having trouble with.

I have a 2006 TT and it does everything I need, but I want to get onto clearer screens which apps have, and a bigger screen so I got a 7'' tablet to use for CP and TT whcih work fine, but I tend to use the real TT or Maps.me app more as they have all my POIs on them, maps.me now does routing of course and even redirects as a sat nav, but no voices as yet, but it'll likely be one of the best sat nav apps out there before long, and it even totally free now.

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