TomTom Navigation Software Coming to iPhone

[OS X Dude]

This from Engdadget:

Apple's always been known for its amusingly-conservative disclaimers (you can't use iTunes to "design a nuclear weapon," for example) and it looks like the products-liability team at the Fruit has had their way with the iPhone SDK agreement as well, inserting a provision specifically prohibiting developers from creating apps "marketed for real time route guidance; automatic or autonomous control of vehicles, aircraft, or other mechanical devices; dispatch or fleet management; or emergency or life-saving purposes." Yep, that's right -- no real-time route guidance (or, uh, fleet management) allowed. That'd be a huge bummer -- except, of course, that TomTom has already come out and said that its app is ready to go on the iPhone. Assuming TomTom used the SDK and not the jailbreak toolchain, we'd bet that Apple is just covering its ass here and that it's worked out an agreement with TomTom to pass along any liability -- you can bet Steve doesn't want to get sued when iPhone users start careening into sandpiles and into oncoming trains. We'll see for sure when the App Store finally launches, though -- until then, it's all just cheap speculation.

Just thought i'd throw this in.

 

[bytethese]

We're well aware of how long a yard is. But in the US no one thinks in terms of yards. It doesn't bother me, but it bothers my wife. She would prefer feet, not yards.

"He's at the 120, the 90, the 60, the 30, touchdown!"

Just sounds weird to me not to use yards there.

 

[bytethese]

Just wondering if anyone has considered what will happen if you get a call while using TomTom? Since you can't have TomTom running in the background, how will it tell you about the upcoming turn as you drive along? Can't use Push as Push will have no idea where you are.

Pete

Just off the top of my head here...

It would operate probably like when you press the home button twice to control the iPod from Safari, etc. A little window might pop up and say "Incoming call from John Appleseed." with 2 buttons, Answer and Ignore. Then it may place a status bar on top like when you take a call but you hit the home button, the call is still active in the background, but you can do other things while taking the call.

 

[EglMtn]

This is one piece of software that I would be willing to pay a premium for. I was planning on purchasing a GPS device in August, but I would prefer to have it through the iPhone. Since it would save me several hundreds of dollars by not having to purchase an actual device I would be willing to pay $100 for the software.

 

[aswitcher]

For those interested in this thread utilizing tom tom software you may want to read this article just released. It's disappointing. They say the devil is in the details so here ya go:


http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/06/11/iphone.sdk..gps.nav/

Thats disappointing. I hope APple have something up their sleeve with Google. I would prefer to have the mature fully featured TomTom software than some early Apple version which probably will require a wireless connection for maps.

 

[jlanuez]

Google Maps doesn't have turn by turn directions (audio) as a traditional GPS. Wouldn't you want your iPhone to be ALL in one device.

You are correct! The current mapping where it does NOT have audio and you have to manually press a key for each new direction (turn), is useless while you are driving, espeically if you have used and like "real" (audio, auto turn-by-turn, re-routing, etc...) navigation systems in cars.

 

[kristoffer4]

Thats disappointing. I hope APple have something up their sleeve with Google. I would prefer to have the mature fully featured TomTom software than some early Apple version which probably will require a wireless connection for maps.

That sucks! Come on Apple quit being so like Microsoft.

 

[JimenyCriket88]

I cannot wait for the 3G iPhone to be released here in Australia, i am definitely getting the 16Gb version and the TomTom App when it is released, now all i'd like to know is what kind of plans vodafone will be offering that cover data usage for the iPhone. Anyone know?

 

[brandonb0013]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

I was wondering if it was an external feature. Can it be used on the iPod touch?

 

[baslotto]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

I was wondering if it was an external feature. Can it be used on the iPod touch?

Yes, it's already on the new white iPod Touch GPS.