Tomtom rocks the UI anything like it on PC

foobark · 08-15-2005, 09:59 AM

I started using TomTom on an Axim x30, and I was so pleased that I was pushed right off the edge of debt-free and built a car computer.

Now that my little computer is all assembled and powered I find that the gps software out there has a 360 degree suck radius. I know people speak fondly of iGuidance, but its UI and graphics are just painful. I think there's some skinning that can be done, but even the refresh rate is too bad that I don't want to spend any time on it.

So, has anyone out there tried Tomtom and know of a good comparison on the PC? It's pretty hard to go testing these gps software packages to see which ones work. The only thing tomtom misses is that it doesn't say the name of the street you need to turn onto.

For right now I'm going to try and go down the path of just trying to run a winCE (yes microsoft named an operating system wince) emulator or something on XP and just go with the software that works.

http://www.kuka-controls.com/ is supposed to have a sdk for running ppc programs on xp, I think. I'm going to try it.

Cheekz185 · 08-15-2005, 10:02 AM

Well if you dont wanna try any new GPS Software there is a TomTom Emulator for the PC that you can hack up. Here is the link:

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/show...omtom+emulator

Read about it at you will be very happy!

bLindmOnkey · 08-15-2005, 10:43 AM

according to the people on that thread using tomtom on the emulator is impractical because it's so slow. for now, IMO iguidance is the best navigation on the PC. In short, yes, the UI isn't all that great(everything is small, maps don't look so fancy) BUT, I have both TomTom2(on my PPC) and iGuidance 2.1(on my CarPC) and while TomTom has a UI far greater than IG, iGuidance has just as much functionality. The UI is not GREAT but very easy to use, and I must say that I find iGuidance's Voice nav to 1up TomTom's because the instructions are quite clearer than TomTom's. For example, iGuidance will tell you the highway to stay on while TomTom will not. ("Keep Left and follow the signs to I-95" as opposed to just "Keep Left ahead") Yes, TomTom is much prettier than iGuidance but functionality on both programs are superior in their own ways. As you have said there are ways to "skin" Iguidance to make it more user friendly and most of the ways are very easily done and exteremely useful(such as making the font size, car icon, zoom buttons, and road widths larger)
After applying those to iGuidance it's very usable in car.

You're not the only one who wishes TomTom made a PC version of their software. I and many other CarPC enthusiasts including you would probably jump all over a TomTom Navigation software if one were to come out for PC. As cheekz said, there's an effort to get the PPC version of TomTom running on a PC emulator which has been somewhat successful so far, but it's still far from 100% useful on the PC and until that day I and many others will still be using iGuidance.