TomTom for Android lands in Google Play store

mrg2003

I've been part of TTs beta program since the early 2000s, and have had the android for the past 6 months. We partner with TT to put it into various vehicles as an embedded application. The closed beta has a number of restrictions, similar to the apple one a few years ago, but it can be made to work on a number of platforms. I have had it working on an S2, and an Asus transformer, and a huweli , as these have been my demonstration platforms.
I can't see any technical reason why they will not, in time release it for more platforms.
The alternative is to use a custom rom, that has an abstraction layer that reports a different hardware layout to the application.
If you look on the forums, you'll find the detail.

I think part of the problem, is the rapid changes in the Android OS. JB has forked into two versions, and KLP (5.x) is due soon as well. TT have always put a lot of software protection in , that gets in the way of the OS. I think all the techies agree that, getting it to work on as many platforms as possible can only be a good thing. I think they are trying to be Apple, and failing.
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Mr.G

JTHM · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 22, 2006 Posts: 12

According to Engadget, TomTom say they will support almost all current devices by the end of the year.

...it would work on my JB Nexus S though (if I had enough space!)

topbanana4 · Lifetime Member Joined: Dec 11, 2005 Posts: 59

Has anybody found if they have the mapsettings file so I could copy the file from my tomtom go ???

dhn · Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2012 11:28 am Post subject:

The quote in the post by Lui-G about making the app work is affirmed here as well:

http://www.tomtomforums.com/t28678-android-phone-compatibility.html#post167154

See the post by mvl.
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David

NJSS · Last edited by NJSS on Fri Oct 05, 2012 12:19 pm; edited 1 time in total

Not available for my present Samsung Galaxy Note nor the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 which I am getting to replace it.

Worse still it's not available for my Motorola Xoom Tablet.

Surely TomTom have the wit & resources to port their app to the most popular Android devices?

It is interesting that most of the "early" phones on which TomTom may run, may have a problem with insufficient free memory.

AntonM · Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2012 11:49 am Post subject:

On the supposition that TT will get it right fairly soon, is it worth taking advantage of the introductory offer of £30.99 now and waiting for the problems to be sorted? Or does TT's reputation not support that assumption?

This is absolutely dreadful, and TT needs to "please explain". I get the impression of everyone at TT having iPhones with only one or two staff having androids just for laffs, and it works on those...

Surely... surely they didn't "hardwire" the resolution into the software?? ... I thought display resolution dependency was banished by the BBC Micro two or three decades ago!
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Anton

norm2002 · Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2012 12:18 pm Post subject:

My guess is that they are going to try to charge an extra £10 for the so-called HD devices.

angamb · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 14, 2007 Posts: 1

I downloaded the app on my Samsung Galaxy Note II and tried it for 15 minutes before refunding. But when I went back to Google Play later, the app was missing. I found it on the online version of Google Play but it stated my device wasn't compatible!

Now it did run absolutely fine on my device as far as I could tell.

During the trial I quickly concluded however that it's not a patch on CoPilot Live Premium. The menu's looked nice but there weren't many user options and the map display was basic to say the least. It costs a lot more than CoPilot and you don't get the free 1yr traffic promotion that CoPilot offers.

I doubt I will buying TomTom until they can match the PNA versions.

peterc10 · Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2012 2:17 pm Post subject:

As an ex-Tom Tom user I just want to reassure those people that still use it that there is life after Tom Tom. When I switched from WM to Android I was forced to chance from TT to Sygic. And boy am I glad I did.

Ok the interface is different but I am used to it now and it causes me no problems. As others have said it uses TT maps and traffic. I have never had any problems with its routing and their support is so much better and knowledgeable that TT's. So far I have had 3 major updates to the app as well as several minor ones and I can download the latest maps whenever I want them. And all at no extra cost. And finally it is cheaper than TT's "reduced" price.

I will not be changing back.
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Peter
HTC Sensation
Sygic GPS for Europe (No more TT "support"!)
Copilot for USA
Bury CC9060 bluetooth car kit & Brodit mount

Lui-G · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 22, 2006 Posts: 17

Well, the good news is that it does work on the i9300 Samsung S3 - unbranded stock ROM.

I legitimately purchased the app onto my old HTC Desire (under 50MB), then backed up the APK app using this method:
http://droidlessons.com/how-to-backup-android-apps-and-save-them-to-apk-file/

[ note that I will not 'share' the apk, so don't ask ]

After that, I got the apk onto my S3 and installed it.

Then I downloaded the maps...

It seems to be working fine, except for some minor cosmetic issues, none of which seem critical.

Note that the UI is radically different to the TT750 or even the iPhone version.

In the UI, there's many tiny buttons to press, which is harder to press than the larger buttons. I'm not sure if I like it yet. It works well, but the UI seems very clunky and undesigned - more so in landscape mode (just a bunch of floating rectangles) - though this could be the very reason why it has been held back, so they can make it look nicer on HD screens.

Anyway, I've finally got what I wanted. Now I just need some time to go and use it.

PS - it just froze my phone.

EDIT - after the drastic freeze, a reboot and clearing some space seems to have calmed it all down. It's stable and I'm glad I got it working on the S3 before waiting till "by the end of the year".

navtrav · Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2012 3:26 pm Post subject:

peterc10 · Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2012 3:35 pm Post subject:

M8TJT · Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2012 4:31 pm Post subject:

Yes, but in another thread where people are complaining about it here, they say they are not using TT data as an excuse for no delay times being displayed, so there seems to be a conflict of information which was pointed out in the thread but has not yet elicited a confirmatory response from Sygic.

@ Lui-G. Thanks for the backup link. Jolly interesting tro enable changes to be made to any app on a non rooted phone?

Rick-uk · Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2012 5:57 pm Post subject:

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