Treo GPS | My Favourite Accessory of the Year

I recently purchased the TomTom 5 Bluetooth, in part due to your previous comparison. I also selected the British woman's voice. I've been pleased with the advanced planning feature, too. What I especially like about it is the ability to change the route by pointing to a particular road on the map and making it replan so that it uses that road. Thanks for your reviews. I would never have noticed TomTom without them and it is now one of the best things about the Treo 650.

My only problem has been installation. The Mac OS X install procedure does not work as advertised from the CD, so I had to google for pages of people who had found workarounds. There are several competing workarounds and I can not yet tell which one is better because I wasn't very systematic when I used them, so I'm not sure which suggestions actually put me over the top.

Sort of off topic, but here is my favorite Treo 650 picture of the year: http://us.gizmodo.com/gadgets/cellphones/gizmodos-man-of-the-week-145434.php

I just can't bring myself to drop the money with the screen so tiny. I think one of the things that really draws me to the stock gps units in cars is the giant screen. I guess the audio will help a lot but still.

The screen size isn't really an issue and it's not that much smaller than some of the stand alone GPS devices. Been using mine for about six months and like Andrew I wouldn't be without it :o)

Brian, I have to agree with TazUk. The small screen size isn't an issue because the most important part of any navigation screen, the projected road ahead, is easy to see. Keep in mind that the distance from your eyes is dependent on how far away the Treo screen is from your eyes. I have used both the windshield mount and the ventilation mount, and I see everything just fine. By comparison, I have read complaints in car magazines by drivers who couldn't see their 6.5 inch diagonal navigation screens clearly because the sun was causing a glare problem or because it was too far away...a bigger screen but farther way from the driver's eyes.

I own the treo 600 and TomTom $ and have had similar very positive experiences with this software for the treo. The small screen size is not a big issue with the 3d projected road presentation which I use exclusively vs. the overhead view. This is definately my favorite application for the treo and thanks for the preview into the latest version. (I did receive the upgrade to version 5 but will wait until my next treo to load). So far as price, I was pricing out TomTom Go units and they are 4x what I paid for my TomTom software and GPS mouse..the demo unit I was playing with was also much slower and had fewer features. I do think that the treo screen may become landscape widescreen capable in the future to accommodate movies, etc as many other personal video devices have introduced. I can only see this as a positive for applications like TomTom Navigator. A++ in my book.

Okay, you've convinced me (beat me over the head long enough), that I'm ready to make the GPS accessory plunge... but as someone who is planning to move to the Treo 700w ASAR (As Soon As Released), I am hoping you could post a comparative review...

Thanks!

Brian

TomTom Navigator 5 runs on both PalmOS and Windows Mobile/Pocket PC and both versions are supplied with the package. The Bluetooth receiver will work on any BT enabled device so you should be able to run it on your existing Treo and your new 700W :o)

The screen size is definately not a problem - at least in a passenger car. A semi-trailer might be different.

Regardless there is one fact that will always keep me from using this solution.

You can't navigate and talk on the phone at the same time.

So I am 15 minutes from my destination and I have a number of unfamiliar turns to make. Then my phone rings and it is a customer I need to speak with. What do I do? Pull over and arrive late? Skip the customer call?

What if I am hours from my destination and take a call and I miss a turn? I could lose an hour of time going the wrong way. I am usually on the phone half or more of the time I am on the highway.

This just will not work for me or anyone who seriously uses both a GPS and a phone. Not when you can get a Garmin c320 for $400. Or even an i3 for $299 (a great little GPS).

Sorry, I just don't see the appeal and yes, I had one for a while and quit using it pretty soon after I got it.

Rob are you referring to using GPS on a Treo? if so then there's no problem with receiving calls whilst navigating somewhere. When you press the button to accept the call TomTom switches back to the map and carries on navigating. There was a problem where sometimes it didn't switch back but this seems to have been fixed with the latest update. The only limitation that I know of is you can't use two Bluetooth devices at the same time, so you need either a wired GPS receiver or a wired headset.

TazUk,

Really? That is good news. I saw this as an issue very recently -- like within the past couple of months.

Still, this is one thing I think I would prefer to keep separate. Garmin, Lowrance and Tom Tom make great, reasonably priced units.

I use the BT headset on my Treo almost all the time. And while I love my Treo, I am pretty careful that I only run what I need to run on it because with each new app seems to come more complexity and then more crashes.

I'm glad you like your Treo GPS solution. It's just not for me.

The TomTom unit is absolutely, utterly terrific, agreed.

However, on my Treo it will not do "advance planning" as described without the Sprint phone service being on. That's an annoyance when, e.g., I'm on a plane and want to program in my itinerary for when I land.

Other than that it is, all by itself, enough reason to own a Treo, and I already had plenty of good reasons to own one!

I have the GlobalSat BT-338 GPS and TomTom for my Treo 650 and after having tried many Palm GPS packages (incl Mapopolis, Delorme) it is by far the best out there. My only complaint is that it doesn't have bread crumb functionality - or at least not that I could find. If anyone figured out how to do that, please let me know.

BTW, regarding advanced planning and needing the phone on - I agree, it is annoying. However, I fly Monday to Thursday every week and have yet to bring down a plane turning on a phone on the plane.

dboehme, I make it a _point_ to leave my phone on whenever I fly just because I think it's such an antiquated and bass-ackwards rule. I haven't crashed yet either!

I got an installation error when I tried to sync Nav 5 on my Treo 650, but it partially installed. Haven't been able to uninstall Nav 5 from Treo. Had to hack WinXP registry to remove TomTom from HotSync program. Have been trying for weeks to get TomTom tech support to repsond. Their tech support has neither responded to e-mail through their website nor phone calls. I envy all who have had such good luck with the product. Am sure open to suggestions

How can I place an order? Your website never allows anything into the cart, it always shows it as empty and you provide not phone number to call to place an order. Please help.

W. Gil - the URL for the Treonauts Shop is http://shop.treonauts.com and the phone number is 800 394 2720.

Cheers, A.

I just purchased the Treo 700. I am trying to download emails from my AOL account but am not sure why I cannot get access to AOL.
Can anyone help?

I'm confused. Isn't there already a GPS function in the Treo 650? It does E911 locating. Do I need another GPS receiver?

Ive been using the Palm Navigator with Tom Tom Software bout 2 months for my Treo 650. Love it.

Sometimes it cant seem to pick the actual best route, but its nice when it changes as you go past its route.

Bluetooth connection issues sometimes, not sure who's to blame there, GPS or Phone, but its a quick fix.

I debated getting it, i have gps on a palm Vx, granted, old, but still showed me where i was going. Im very pleased i did, and wish i did sooner.

I went for the British girl too, sexier, at least to my ears. I saw you can even buy some, maybe, someday, but for now, doesnt matter.

If your debating, get it, like anything else, it will be outdated before you know it, but it works.

Love your site, keep up the good work.

I recently borrowed my brother's Magellan Roadmate 360 and I loved it. So now I want a GPS system. I am considering getting a Treo 650 along with the Palm GPS Navigation kit, but I have a coule questions.

First, I read on the Tom Tom site, that with the 2004 software that "TomTom Navigator on the Treo 650: The Phone feature of the Treo 650 must be switchced off while using TomTom Navigator. If a call is taken or made while TomTom Navigator is in use you will have to restart it and replan the route."

Is this still the case with the Navigator 5 software, or has this been fixed? I'd like to be able to just dock my Treo in the car while driving and be able to answer calls and use the GPS at the same time.

And my second/releated question is can I have both a bluetooth wireless headset and the bluetooth gps receiver connected to the treo 650 at the same time. And can they be used as the same time without loss of call quality due to constant GPS polling?

Thanks

That's odd, this site talks about how great the Treo 700 is with TomTom Nav 5, but when I called TomTom, they said that this phone is not compatible with Nav 5?

Chad - sorry about the confusion...

TomTom does not (yet) support the Treo 700w.

TomTom Nav5 works great with the Treo 650 while CoPilot http://shop.treonauts.com/content/accessories/10-41--569.htm is for the Treo 700w.

Cheers, A.

I have the 700w also and am very interested in the GPS system. Does anyone know the difference, better performance vs. short comings, between the Tom Tom and CoPilot Live Pocket PC 6 Bluetooth Bundle (includes a SiRFstarIII Bluetooth GPS receiver)? Is Tom Tom working on a 700w compatible system? Also, What is included in the latter's bundle package, windshield mounting? -Thanks, Thomas