Tom Tom Go

It's sourced from a range of feeds including road side sensors, vehicle fleets equipped with transponders e.g. National Express coaches and Eddie Stobart to name a few but it's still patchy and not always accurate enough to be relied upon.

You need a better mobile then ;) My Motorola can happily negotiate a connection with my GO for the data feed for TMC whilst still being able to manage another bluetooth connection for handsfree voice. It's automatic too so long as Bluetooth is switch on.

Typically, here in the UK it's been a monopoly held by iTIS for a number of years

although RAC/TrafficMaster won a licence recently. The data is rather expensive to licence whereas on the Continent there are free Government supplied feeds as well as other commercial services which gives both choice and greater coverage and accuracy.

Printed maps versus satnav? No thanks ;-) I've used satnav loads of times to do things like jump from one auto factors to another, I drive to the first one, then if they don't have the parts I get the address of the next and navigate to that and so on.

Also Trafficmaster is very far from perfect, there were delays on the A303 near me during the winter that resulted in people being stuck in their cars in the snow on a major road for an entire night, but trafficmaster's website (I have an account) never showed it. They do an SMS alerting service that I subscribe to but despite its alerts covering some known traffic blackspots that I used to travel through, I rarely get alerts even when I know that the road has very long delays on it. They do have their cameras on the section in question too.

The following link is much better, and is free;

Tell me more about the iPod support!

I've had 3 GPS systems and IMHO I've never found a better solution than a simple sense of direction and a Multimap printout! But I would be interested in something that might connect to my iPod as my vehicle's stereo cannot be removed, and cannot support an iPod!

Matt.

Ah the silly people who go out in bad conditions in inappropiate vehicles (not landies...) then winge about getting stuck. B-)

TM has always had a problem when traffic becomes totaly stationary for a long period. This is fairly rare though.

Looks reasonable but the times I driven past those traffic information signs that aren't telling the truth is far more often than non reported stuff from TM. Last Friday the RDS traffic report was actually accurate for once, mind you they had had several hours during the day to find out about it. I'd still been on the road over an hour and being stuck in the tail back for 15mins before I heard it though.

I'll bet you there were landies stuck in the snow as well. Until it becomes legal to drive landies over people in crap cars, we'll always be stuck behind those who aren't prepared.

In the case near me that I was talking about, it wasn't just a few cars, it was several miles of tailback on a dual carriageway, quite why the police couldn't have closed the road upstream of the tail end of the queue and turned everyone around I don't know. It seems that ferrying people to local school halls to spend the night was easier. Chances are though after the snow that was coming down, they'd probably have just ended up with the jam being in both directions! Not to mention people just crashing into each other again, hmm on second thoughts perhaps getting them to kip down in school halls was the best idea.. They ferried people out in 4x4s though so it can't have been that bad.

GO 910 only at the mo, but hook up an iPod and you can access all the music from the GO's display (and remote) and play as you would normally. Playing through the GO's speakersisn't recommended but it will interface with the car's HiFi if you purchase the carkit or a soon to be announced Bluetooth Interface Kit for suitably equipped vehicles.

Naturally the iPod mutes when Nav instructions are played etc.

If your stereo has CD changer support, you can normally get converter leads to give you an aux in which you can then connect to the ipod, that's what I did. Failing that, a tape adapter or an FM radio transmitter for the ipod (technically illegal I think).

I've got one of those tape things, but it is pretty crap and the battery in the iPod leaves something to be desired when you do long trips!

It has a changer in the back, but I've not been able to find any sort of adapter, and the car doesn't have a head unit as such that I can take out and hack into!

Cheers anyway

Matt

You can power the ipod from the cigarette socket using common ipod accessories, and also take the line out from them too to get slightly better quality sound. I've never tried one of those tape things but I've been told the FM transmitters can be good.

Try taking it to an independent car audio shop (i.e. not Halfords) and talk to them about it, I'd be surprised if it's not do-able. You can dump the changer once you've got the ipod connected, most decent car audio places I've spoken to don't even recommend changers any more although they'll sell you one if you really want it, normally an MP3 player is recommended so they should be up to speed on connecting them.

I'll give that a go. I've just been Googling so far, I can usually find the info on the Internet if something is do-able!

The changer in the car is total crap, it jumps constantly - particularly on the French rural roads! so I'd be more than happy to dump it. The only problem I can see (if it was possible) is routing the cables back to the front to allow the iPod to be connected. As I understand it, the actual stereo unit is buried somewhere in the middle of the car!

Matt.

It's unlikely to have the cable wired directly into the back of the head unit then running all the way up the length of the car, that would make it a PITA to fit the dashboard on construction so there'll be a loom point or more likely a plug on the back of the stereo box. A decent hi-fi shop should be able to sort it for you, I'd suggest trying 3 or 4 before giving up completely.

You've got me curious now, what car is this?

|| You need a better mobile then ;) My Motorola can happily negotiate a || connection with my GO

I have a Motorola V3i and although the two units will recognise each other (phone reads Tom Tom, Tom Tom reads Motorola) they will not connect. TT says phone has no Bluetooth features. Phone says it has. According to the TT website, I need either a newer phone, or a newer TT, or both. And I haven't had either of them a month yet! That's a shame, as handsfree was one of the reasons I went for the Tom Tom over things like the Garmin Quest.

It's an Espace. Typical French weirdness!

Matt

|| Darren Griffin - PocketGPSWorld.Com wrote: ||| Matthew Maddock wrote: |||| I'll give that a go. I've just been Googling so far, I can usually |||| find the info on the Internet if something is do-able! |||| |||| The changer in the car is total crap, it jumps constantly - |||| particularly on the French rural roads! so I'd be more than happy |||| to dump it. The only problem I can see (if it was possible) is |||| routing the cables back to the front to allow the iPod to be |||| connected. As I understand it, the actual stereo unit is buried |||| somewhere in the middle of the car! |||| Matt. ||| ||| You've got me curious now, what car is this? || || It's an Espace. Typical French weirdness! || || Matt

I got the same effect by mounting a CD player in the 90 on the dash, so it was near-vertical. Smooth roads were fine, but the first sign of a bump and it was all over the place. Like when we had a Dansette record-player when I ws a kid and we delighted in jumping on the floor next to it - until parents arrived and stopped the fun.

On or around Wed, 3 May 2006 20:55:37 +0100, "Richard Brookman" enlightened us thusly:

My latest mobile does weird things with the interweb. Unless of course O2's download thing is just broken... It gets part way through the thing but then when you request the page with the actual list of downloads on it, it says "the page cannot be displayed".

It'll connect to the Beeb, for example.

might be 'cos it's a different handset, I suppose.

Both my wife's bog standard V3 and my SLVR connect fine. You have 'enabled' Bluetooth?

|| Richard Brookman wrote: ||| I have a Motorola V3i and although the two units will recognise each ||| other (phone reads Tom Tom, Tom Tom reads Motorola) they will not ||| connect. TT says phone has no Bluetooth features. Phone says it ||| has. According to the TT website, I need either a newer phone, or a ||| newer TT, or both. And I haven't had either of them a month yet! ||| That's a shame, as handsfree was one of the reasons I went for the ||| Tom Tom over things like the Garmin Quest. || || Both my wife's bog standard V3 and my SLVR connect fine. You have || 'enabled' Bluetooth?

Well, yes, otherwise the Tom Tom wouldn't recognise a "Motorola phone" in the neighbourhood, I guess. And the Bluetooth spiky B is diplayed on the handset. And the phone lists Tom Tom as a device after searching. It's just that they won't talk beyond the intial handshake. Tom Tom says connected device has no Bluetooth capability. On the site

under V3i there are only green ticks against the x10 Tom Toms (I assume the newest ones), not the 700.