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Apple Begins Shipping TomTom Car Kit in U.S.

After hearing that they will delay shipping of the TomTom kit until December 2nd, I decided to give my local MacStore a call (not Apple Store). It was only $99.95 with no sales tax in Oregon. $10 more than Bottom Line Technologies, but I have the TomTom kit in my hands right now :)
 
Good for you Marvel2. How about a review after you use it. Tstreete did a great one but another perspective is always welcomed.

BTW do you use Navigon? Did you get the Live Traffic update? Love to hear how they each or both worked with the kit.

Thanks,
Mike
 
The key for making this purchase for me is to have at least the option to allow the calls to come in through the car's speakers while using the built-in mic on the dock.

Also, the youtube video shows the guy had it stuck on his dash with the adhesive? Anyone have driver's point of view, pictures with it mounted with suction on the windshield? There's no way I'm sticking this thing to my dash.
 
marvel2 said:
After hearing that they will delay shipping of the TomTom kit until December 2nd, I decided to give my local MacStore a call (not Apple Store). It was only $99.95 with no sales tax in Oregon. $10 more than Bottom Line Technologies, but I have the TomTom kit in my hands right now :)
Click to expand...

What is the name of the store that you got it from? I'm curious to know if I could find one in my area
 
ticman said:
Good for you Marvel2. How about a review after you use it. Tstreete did a great one but another perspective is always welcomed.

BTW do you use Navigon? Did you get the Live Traffic update? Love to hear how they each or both worked with the kit.

Thanks,
Mike
Click to expand...

I'm going to use it for a few days and a couple trips around town first before I give a review. But my intial impressions of the kit is that it works just as advertised. Doesn't feel cheap, BT syncing is very easy and syncs every time I plug the phone in. Speaker volume is clear but may need to be louder. I still have to give it some time and adjust to my liking first (my car is pretty loud). And yes, I am using Navigon, but I have not yet downloaded their Live Traffice update.


CKtoph said:
The key for making this purchase for me is to have at least the option to allow the calls to come in through the car's speakers while using the built-in mic on the dock.

Also, the youtube video shows the guy had it stuck on his dash with the adhesive? Anyone have driver's point of view, pictures with it mounted with suction on the windshield? There's no way I'm sticking this thing to my dash.
Click to expand...

Per the manual, calls will not come in through your car's speaker but instead the TomTom car kit's speaker.

I currently have the kit mounted on my windshield but I also tried mounting it on my dash. If you do not want to put that adhesive on your dash, buy a Sticky Pad and lay it on your dash. Now mount the TomTom kit as you normally would on the sticky pad as if it were glass. It sticks and works very well. Alternatively, you can put the adhesive disk on the sticky pad if you want the suction cup of the TomTom kit to cling to a hard plastic surface. When you leave your car, just peel the Sticky Pad off of your dash and it will not leave any residue. Essentially it is a GPS friction mount. Or you can buy this, but its just too big for my tastes.


Jape said:
What is the name of the store that you got it from? I'm curious to know if I could find one in my area
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Here is their website. They are an authorized third party Mac reseller sort of like MacMall, but with a physical location. You can try calling other third party Mac resellers in your area if you don't have "The Mac Store" in your area.
 
marvel2 said:
I'm going to use it for a few days and a couple trips around town first before I give a review. But my intial impressions of the kit is that it works just as advertised. Doesn't feel cheap, BT syncing is very easy and syncs every time I plug the phone in. Speaker volume is clear but may need to be louder. I still have to give it some time and adjust to my liking first (my car is pretty loud). And yes, I am using Navigon, but I have not yet downloaded their Live Traffice update.

Per the manual, calls will not come in through your car's speaker but instead the TomTom car kit's speaker.

I currently have the kit mounted on my windshield but I also tried mounting it on my dash. If you do not want to put that adhesive on your dash, buy a Sticky Pad and lay it on your dash. Now mount the TomTom kit as you normally would on the sticky pad as if it were glass. It sticks and works very well. Alternatively, you can put the adhesive disk on the sticky pad if you want the suction cup of the TomTom kit to cling to a hard plastic surface. When you leave your car, just peel the Sticky Pad off of your dash and it will not leave any residue. Essentially it is a GPS friction mount. Or you can buy this, but its just too big for my tastes.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip. How do you feel about the speaker volume on the unit for calls so far? Also, do the navigation instructions come through the car's speakers at all?

I'd still be curious to see how it looks when stuck to the windshield. I've heard some say that it's too hard to see on the windshield.
 
CKtoph said:
Thanks for the tip. How do you feel about the speaker volume on the unit for calls so far? Also, do the navigation instructions come through the car's speakers at all?

I'd still be curious to see how it looks when stuck to the windshield. I've heard some say that it's too hard to see on the windshield.
Click to expand...

Mounting it horizontally on the lower left corner of the windshield, near the steering wheel, works pretty good for me. Good visibility and more importantly you don't loose site of the road ahead. Try it.
 
CKtoph said:
Thanks for the tip. How do you feel about the speaker volume on the unit for calls so far? Also, do the navigation instructions come through the car's speakers at all?

I'd still be curious to see how it looks when stuck to the windshield. I've heard some say that it's too hard to see on the windshield.
Click to expand...

I'll let you know when I take a call on it. This is really the first day I have had it. I do not have the TomTom kit plugged into my car's stereo so navigation comes through the speaker of the TomTom kit. What I can remember from the user manual (I don't have it with me at the moment), even when the TomTom kit is plugged into your car's stereo via an auxilary cable, calls and navigation instructions will still come from the TomTom kit and not the car stereo. I currently have no way of checking because my car does not have that input in its stereo.

As far as visibility on the windshield...it's going to vary on what type of car you drive and where you place it. I'm assuming you have never had a GPS unit in your car. It takes up just as much space as most other GPS devices.
 
My concern with A windshield mount is all the wires hanging down. Two if using power cord and speaker cord.

Thoughts or comments?
 
marvel2 said:
I'll let you know when I take a call on it. This is really the first day I have had it. I do not have the TomTom kit plugged into my car's stereo so navigation comes through the speaker of the TomTom kit. What I can remember from the user manual (I don't have it with me at the moment), even when the TomTom kit is plugged into your car's stereo via an auxilary cable, calls and navigation instructions will still come from the TomTom kit and not the car stereo. I currently have no way of checking because my car does not have that input in its stereo.

As far as visibility on the windshield...it's going to vary on what type of car you drive and where you place it. I'm assuming you have never had a GPS unit in your car. It takes up just as much space as most other GPS devices.
Click to expand...

I have a Garmin in our coupe, but the Garmin's screen is obviously bigger than the iPhone's. We had it mounted on the windshield for some time before the suction wore off, to which we ended up getting the sand bag platform which is working out fine.

We decided not to get the Navi package in the new sedan so I'm debating my options for getting one. Basically, I'm deciding between just getting a nice stand alone GPS on Black Friday or getting the TomTom kit.

My concern isn't so much the space taken up by the kit. My concerns before committing to make a purchase are:
- Will I be able to view the navigation maps and instructions with the same visibility as I would with a standalone GPS?
- Will I be able to hear the turn-by-turn instructions with the same audibility as a standalone?
- Will people be able to hear me (and be heard) with the same, or comparable, clarity as if I were using a built-in bluetooth car system?

EDIT: Ticman actually brings up a great point also with the wires. Maybe the dashboard mount is the way to go. Which leaves the only concern left being clarify of calls.
 
CKtoph said:
Which leaves the only concern left being clarify of calls.
Click to expand...

I went on a drive on my lunch and received my first call through the TomTom kit today. What I can say is that the speaker clarity was good and the mic picked up my voice suprisingly good for the distance I had it from the driver's seat. I had it mounted on the windshield. However, I did find myself talking a bit louder than normal to ensure the mic would pick up everything, and it did. Throughout the conversation, the person I was talking on the phone with never asked me to repeat anything. I was able to carry on a conversation throughout my drive as I normally would in my car - hands free :p

The speaker volume on the TomTom kit leaves a little bit to desired in my opinion. I found myself constantly moving the volume switch up, but wasn't sure it was on its highest setting because it isn't a 'dial' type adjuster. Although the speaker was loud enough to hear, I wanted it a little louder. However, this may be because my car does not dampen road noise very well. I'm sure your sedan will be much quiter and the speaker volume will be adequate. The speaker quality is clear enough to hold a conversation.
 
Interesting Jape. Now let's see if they send us a confirmation email. They have been quite good about it the past.
 
CKtoph said:
The key for making this purchase for me is to have at least the option to allow the calls to come in through the car's speakers while using the built-in mic on the dock.
Click to expand...
Can't be done. When plugged into the aux port, navigation instructions and music comes through the car speakers. Only phone calls come through the dock speakers.

The only way I know of to reliably route phone calls through a car's stereo system (without some kind of professional add-on) is this: get one of those little adapters designed to allow you to use regular stereo headphones with an iphone; run the adapter from the iphone's earphone jack into your car speakers, and then position the mic on the adapter for calls. Works OK, but can generate feedback during calls for the person you're talking to. And it means you're plugging in both at the bottom and the top of the iphone everytime you set it up in the car. TomTom seems to have gone for one-handed installation of the iPhone, which meant they had to use bluetooth for calls, because calls can't be routed through the dock port.
 
ticman said:
My concern with A windshield mount is all the wires hanging down. Two if using power cord and speaker cord.

Thoughts or comments?
Click to expand...
These are full sized, so you might want to download them.
landscape.JPG

portrait.JPG

rear.JPG
 
ticman said:
My concern with A windshield mount is all the wires hanging down. Two if using power cord and speaker cord.

Thoughts or comments?
Click to expand...

You just need to be a little creative to get around that. I did this for my Garmin Nuvi, and if I were to run this Tom Tom thing, I would find a place to mount it somewhere in the cockpit and do the same:

Wired an aux cig adapter in the accessory box so it is out of site. It is wired so it turns off when the vehicle is shut down and powers up when the vehicle is on.

24609.jpg


Extended the wiring and ran it up behind the dash, up the pillar, and across the headliner to the mount. Like I said, you probably can't mount the phone this way (EDIT: Looking at the pics above, it does seem you can mount the phone this way), but the concept remains the same for mounting around the dash area. Extending the wiring for the Nuvi was a little more extensive than it probably is for this Tom Tom thing, because the traffic alerts are built into the adapter (which acts as a receiver) so I think there were a total of 13 micro wires that needed to be soldered individually.

24608.jpg


Full view of cockpit. No unsightly wires

29446.jpg


So get to it. It is possible to clean up the mounting solution.
 
Great pictures, Tstreete! Where you mounted yours was exactly the area I was thinking for my ultimate mount. I just have to make sure there is enough clearance to swing into landscape mode. Thanks also for the "clips" info as that might be great for keeping some semblance of order the to cord issue.

Now one of the remaining issues would be after taking the iPhone out of the dock, do you just leave the dock or actually detach it and hide it in the console or glove compartment. i am betting that it just stays on the dash--a feature that might concern me give where I have to park from time to time and gps theft seems to be on the rise.

One final question, Tstreete and that is did you use the adhesive disk on the dash and then the suction dial mount? Just curious.

Thanks again,

Mike
 
sorry guys but on closer review of the pictures, it does look like the adhesive disk is mounted on the dash and the dock to the disk.
 
ticman said:
Now one of the remaining issues would be after taking the iPhone out of the dock, do you just leave the dock or actually detach it and hide it in the console or glove compartment. i am betting that it just stays on the dash--a feature that might concern me give where I have to park from time to time and gps theft seems to be on the rise.
Click to expand...
I live in a small city and generally garage the car at night, so I can get away with leaving the dock on the dash on a routine basis. If I do leave it parked on the street over night in a not-so-safe area one of these days, I guess I'll remove the dock and take it with me.

The nice thing about being able to leave it on the dash is I use it more often, for shorter trips than I did when I had a less convenient arrangement -- e.g., if I want music on a trip of five miles, or to use the gps for navigating a country road at night or bad weather, when it helps to know if there's a sharp turn a quarter mile ahead.
 
Blt

well tomorrow could actually be the day BLT ships of tomtom car kits:) It seems that a lot of people have canceled, because there back ordered number went down. Hopefully they will overnight it...lol ;)
 
LOL Jape--i like your positive thinking. I keep looking for an email update from them saying that they shipped it. Only time and patience will tell.

Interersting that a number have cancelled. I gave it a thought as the local apple store has them but the thought of saving almost $30 kept me from doing so.
 
I keep on looking at their real time up dates on there website, hoping to see a change.... Lol. I wonder when shipments usually come in. You would think big shipments like that come in the early morning or late at night, but who knows.
 
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