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I was going to get a 920 for my birthday (20th April - put it in your callendar!) to replace my 910, but this now seems too close to release of the 930.
I'd appreicate comments or opinions on whether the 930 will actually be available end April/Early May and what the expected price would be?
I know no one knows for certain, but would appreciate predictions based on past experience.
Joined: Feb 27, 2006 Posts: 14902 Location: Keynsham
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 1:16 am Post subject:
nbg wrote:
I was going to get a 920 for my birthday (20th April - put it in your calendar!) to replace my 910, but this now seems too close to release of the 930.
I'll send you a card if you'll invite me to your party Be aware that TomTom are not renowned for meeting delivery targets! In time for July school holiday season might be more realistic. If they do hit the April/May forecast, I promise you I'll not buy one early to complete their Beta tests!
I have a sinking feeling all the previous information may be rosier than fact.
Those junction screenshots - STILL pictures, not moving - so you don't drive along them, they simply blot out your screen for some period of time? Will they cover Trafalgar Square, Swindon's Magic Roundabout etc, or are they just motorways? Just how useful to you is a photo of a motorway junction, probably one of the simplest navigation tests?
IQ average speed - How many people are allowing TT to collect data anonymously? I've seen a lot of posts saying "No way, Jose", including me!
Voice instructions. Judging by my devices, they had a VERY long way to go to make this worth the price. Have they really made enough improvement to be worth the candle yet? Have they introduced a voice recognition training program (you teach it to recognise your voice/local accent)?
Map corrections - that speed thing? I'm curious as to how TT would handle this SUCCESSFULLY. I suspect they'll already have sections of road with provision to insert an average elapsed time from start to end, rather than broken into bits. It might be they redirect you along a lengthy parallel route when just a short side trip would suffice. I suspect the data they have will be similar in coverage to their current speed limit coverage i.e. extremely sparse (so you'll never get to use the TT equivalent of a rat run because there won't be one). And in all of this, how do they get those average speed changes back to users? Will they be like so many Mapshare items, strictly for the benefit of TomTom, not sent out because they require re-drawing of the maps? For my money, I'd prefer them to give us the facility to input our own driving profile - let me define my normal average along a motorway as 56mph, not 70. I do a heck of a lot of miles a year, so I know that 70mph is impossible to average without greatly exceeding the speed limit, yet all these navigating devices seem to think it's normal.
Finally....
1. Will they be cutting down the map detail yet again to be able to carry this new fancy stuff? Latest maps have certainly gone downhill during my ownership of TT devices.
2. Will they have corrected all the current errors so that they don't repeat in the new devices? All three of my current devices have suffered the dreaded "crash my hands free during a call", the latest being the 920 doing it several times over the last seven days, most recently TWICE today - NOT funny when I'm on business calls. Any chance of a working Traffic service? Any chance of a stable TT Home?
TomTom worry me. They seem to have abandoned quality with the rush to bring out new gimmicks these recent years. Basic requirement for me is A to B accurately and hands free phone that works. I'll forego the fancy music player, picture frame, FM radio and suchlike. Just get me there unfailingly first, THEN start adding other values. _________________ Dennis
Joined: 02/11/2002 22:41:59 Posts: 11878 Location: Massachusetts, USA
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 4:40 am Post subject:
Just to be clear, IQ Routing is based on historical data (one year worth of it). It has nothing to do with HD traffic. As I understand it it is integrated into the map data, and there doesn't yet seem to be an option for an update of that data through TomTom Home (unless you buy a new map). _________________ Lutz
Joined: Feb 10, 2008 Posts: 22 Location: Calgary, CANADA
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 5:22 am Post subject: Re: Software
SpeedCam wrote:
I really hope that the lane change functionallity is also available to existing users, but my concern will be the amount of extra storage space required to store the extra data?
The way I read the explanation of how it works, it looks to me like they have some canned pre-defined generic graphics for all the possible combinations of junctions (eg. Total of four lanes with the right lane being the one to take). If this is the case it probably won't take that much extra storage space to have a hundred or so different graphics, a tag on each junctions to bring up the appropriate one and then of course the highway sign (which they were doing already, although not in a realistic way). I must say that the lane change capability is the one feature which intrigues me the most. I was about to buy a 920, which I need for a trip to Europe in July. We had a generic in-car GPS for our last trip a couple of years ago. I missed a number of turns and even the ones I didn't miss caused significant stress. When travelling on the Autobahn at 160 km per hour, there is not a lot of time between "Turn right in 500 metres' and "Turn Right Now!".
Now I have to wait for the 930 to be available.
Darren, I REALLY hope you can get your hands on an early version of the 930 to give us a review on these new capabilities. In the meantime I will of course keep a close watch on the forum for any info.
Joined: Aug 31, 2005 Posts: 15332 Location: Bradford, West Yorkshire
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 8:33 am Post subject:
dhn wrote:
I'll tell you one thing that bother me (and hope the concern is unfounded). We've all seen and many have experienced the problems when TT's servers are down or flakey and we get weird results as a consequence.
If I understand this IQ functionality properly, it's going to require even more demands on their servers as users upload accurate information. What will the impact be for all of us then as we try to get new mapshares, software updates, etc?
IQ Routes is integrated into the device as opposed to a GPRS thing (it's historical data as opposed to live data) so servers etc will not affect it's use.
HD traffic however is live but at present only functional in Holland and soon to be started in Germany with other countries in progress (ie TomTom in talks with mobile operators)
Joined: Dec 28, 2005 Posts: 2003 Location: Antrobus, Cheshire
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 11:52 am Post subject: Re: Software
Continental_Drifter wrote:
The way I read the explanation of how it works, it looks to me like they have some canned pre-defined generic graphics for all the possible combinations of junctions (eg. Total of four lanes with the right lane being the one to take). If this is the case it probably won't take that much extra storage space to have a hundred or so different graphics, a tag on each junctions to bring up the appropriate one and then of course the highway sign (which they were doing already, although not in a realistic way). I must say that the lane change capability is the one feature which intrigues me the most. I was about to buy a 920, which I need for a trip to Europe in July. We had a generic in-car GPS for our last trip a couple of years ago. I missed a number of turns and even the ones I didn't miss caused significant stress. When travelling on the Autobahn at 160 km per hour, there is not a lot of time between "Turn right in 500 metres' and "Turn Right Now!".
A friend of mine has a Honda Accord with their in-car sat nav. It's a year old and has the junction feature - very much like the pictures for the new x30s. Yes - they are 'generic' on the Honda - but they do look good and give you positive visualisation of the direction to take. My GARMIN just says "in xxx yards keep right/keep left" - useful - but a picture is so much easier to take in with a quick glance. _________________ Phil
Joined: 11/07/2002 14:36:40 Posts: 23848 Location: Hampshire, UK
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 11:58 am Post subject:
This Lane indication stuff is a welcome improvement. In the UK, motorway layouts follow a recognised standard and are by and large easily discerned. On the continent and in the US such additional information as provided here is invaluable.
In France I came across an exit that was actually the left two lanes of the motorway, the motorway itself continued on the right two lanes (the inside lanes)! And in the US you often come across 4 lane highways where the exit becomes the two inside lanes with the highway shrinking to two lanes for a short distance until the other two joining lanes meet and it becomes 4 lanes again.
In both cases it takes a moments inattention or confusion and then you find yourself kicked off the highway or in the France case stuck on it when you wrongly assumed you were exiting! _________________ Darren Griffin
Joined: Aug 31, 2005 Posts: 15332 Location: Bradford, West Yorkshire
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 1:19 pm Post subject: Updates on TomTom Go 530, 730 and 930 PNDs
Having got our hands on a GO 930 and having a chance to ask a few more questions about the new units and features we can now add the following information:
IQ Routing:
- Each road, on average, received about 1000 data submissions
- Over 500 million submissions were used to set up the IQ Routing engine
- The data is integrated into the maps
- It is NOT a plus service
- Data includes both the type of day (week day / weekend) and the time of day
- Route planning now adds an extra option of when you are travelling (today, tomorrow, week day, weekend)
- The feature can be disabled if required
Lane Guidance:
- Mainly covers motorways but is obviously dependent on the map data available
- Static image is shown 'covering' the main screen and has flashing arrows. Distance to junction is still shown on screen
MapShare:
- Street restrictions editing interface has been improved
- Can now confirm that changes to road speed are now added instantly to your map
Joined: 20/08/2002 11:51:57 Posts: 3859 Location: Essex, UK
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 1:21 pm Post subject:
Darren wrote:
In France I came across an exit that was actually the left two lanes of the motorway, the motorway itself continued on the right two lanes (the inside lanes)! And in the US you often come across 4 lane highways where the exit becomes the two inside lanes with the highway shrinking to two lanes for a short distance until the other two joining lanes meet and it becomes 4 lanes again.
In both cases it takes a moments inattention or confusion and then you find yourself kicked off the highway or in the France case stuck on it when you wrongly assumed you were exiting!
Dont forget the M25 at Junction 5 where the motorway peels off to the left or the junction of the M42 where you join from the right... We have some confusing junctions in the UK too... _________________ Mike Barrett
Joined: Mar 01, 2005 Posts: 1513 Location: West Mids
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 2:55 pm Post subject:
With the Lane Guidance, I would be interested to know how it would cope with junctions where there is 3 different routes to take. My local motorway junction is Spaghetti Junction (M6 J6) so it's lane 1 for M6(N), lane 2 for M6(S) and lane 3 to carry on to the really interesting bits.
Unlike others of this type, where you peel off onto a slip road and have time to choose your lane, you have to do this on the main carriageway as there's no time to move across afterwards.
I would expect it not to take into account the changing number of lanes during rush hour (not used at the end junctions). The IQ routing could though.
Does this only show at junctions with lane drops, just junctions where you have to turn off, or all junctions? _________________ Gerry
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