Trial Version?

bal_singh · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am Post subject: Trial Version?

Do TomTom make trial verisons of Navigator 2 available? Its just that I dont want to dish out the money and then find I'm not happy with the software. Would like to try it out first.

DavidW · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am Post subject: Trial Version?

There's no trial version, I'm afraid. I can't see how it would be feasible, as it would require the map data to be distributed with some kind of time limited activation or similar. It's not that feasible to download the whole lot - the CD is quite full. Maybe in the future we'll see limited period activation possible (it would be useful for those taking a holiday abroad, for example), but at the moment TomTom don't offer it.

The reviews really do give an excellent feel of what Navigator is like - particularly the one here on this site.

There's a demo version of CityMaps in English for four cities (none in the UK) that is unlimited, apart from having no GPS support, available here. CityMaps doesn't have all the features of Navigator 1, let alone Navigator 2 - for example, it doesn't support voice navigation - but it may give you an idea.

If you want a look at the maps, I believe the same maps are used in TomTom Maps On-Line. You can get that here and use it totally free of charge for a month (after that, it costs 5 Euros per month).

David

Dave · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am Post subject: Trial Version?

One thing I would like to see and I'm sure it's possible with a little bit of interaction with a seperate program is to be able to create a demo like we do now on the Pocket PC, but to be able to put that demo (with the maps only for that demo) into a single file, and have a demo executable that can play this back on the PC or Pocket PC. This would allow people to see the demo working like if they were driving a car, and they wouldn't then need TTN2 to play back the demo, so it would work great for things like this.

trafcam · Regular Visitor Joined: 30/10/2002 11:57:49 Posts: 155

I saw something that seemed to be saying it would display the Pocket PC screen on your PC display, similar to the look of the PPC emulator (or the Palm emulator, for that matter) but actually shadowing what's going on on the PPC. The idea was for presentation work, as you can connect a PC to a projector quite easily. If I've read it correctly, you could then use something like ScreenCam or Camtasia to record the video and make an AVI out of it.

If I could only remember the product I'm thinking of.... If I find it, you can bet I'll be posting a demo on our site as I've been trying to give more of a feel for how it works for a while now.

trafcam · Regular Visitor Joined: 30/10/2002 11:57:49 Posts: 155

Yep, found it. I haven't tried this, but it sounds like it might be quite useful.

"Remote Display Control for Pocket PC

With the Remote Display Control application, you can display actions on a Pocket PC, including user input, remotely on the display of a desktop or laptop personal computer. This is a great tool for demonstrating the power of the Pocket PC to a large audience. It also allows developers to test their applications for the Pocket PC on a larger screen.

Remote Display Control uses TCP/IP, and it can work with ActiveSync® connections via Ethernet or dial-up. "

Download it from:

Microsoft Remote Display Control

DavidW · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am Post subject: Trial Version?

I have SOTI's Pocket Controller - Professional on my setup, which is like Remote Display Control on steroids. Certainly you can capture video from the Pocket PC (using any codec on your machine) - but there's one big snag. It doesn't capture sound (there isn't even a facility to pipe sound into the host PC's sound card via a cable) - which makes it less than useful for producing a TomTom Navigator 2 demonstration!

What do people think? Is it worth me producing a MPEG-4 coded AVI file of Navigator in action, bearing in mind that there'll be no sound.

David

Parky · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am Post subject: Trial Version?

David,

It will only be like me listening to TTN2 on my Ipaq 5450, you don't hear the sound on that either. Jocking apart, it would give newcomers an idea on what goes on when using TTN2. I think it would be well worth while.

Alan

Dave · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am Post subject: Trial Version?

I'm going to talk with TomTom to see how feasible it is to run up a program to allow this to be done on the PC or Pocket PC. I'm sure there virtually there, as they can play back a route, all it needs is a runtime program to do the trick.

bal_singh · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am Post subject: Trial Version?

Cheers Dave. You do that!! Lets hope they listen and give us something helpful.

trafcam · Regular Visitor Joined: 30/10/2002 11:57:49 Posts: 155

OK, how about this for another convoluted solution. Use Remote Display Control or Pocket Controller, have a graphics card with a TV-out, and wire it to your video recorder. Wire the headphone socket on the PPC to the audio-in on your video recorder. Make a tape of the demonstration. Get a video capture card and play the tape back into your PC, recording it into an AVI.

Simple, huh?

Or find someone who has a camcorder and record an actual trip, then use the video capture card to get it into AVI format.

aero · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am Post subject: Trial Version?

Or get TomTom to post a Demo on their site like ALK have for the Co-pilot

Demo

Warning! Run Demo at your own risk! (tedious in the extreme!)

	PocketGPS
	Web