TomTom navigator

Last summer I got a TomTom navigator system for my Palm Treo 650 phone -- map and software runs on the phone and there's an external BlueTooth GPS receiver.

It's been pretty excellent. Not perfect, but excellent.

On the plus side, it basically works the way it needs to. It gives directions well, shows maps and other useful information at the right time and right way, and helps me get where I'm going without much fuss.

Downsides on the interaction are few. It doesn't remember many recent destinations at all (just five), even though there is screen real estate for twice that many. It forgets if you've asked for a walking or no-freeway route if you quit the Navigator and restart it. It doesn't give any indication that it's about to say something -- it just blurts it out, which often interrupts conversations in the car. Small-time stuff.

Actually, the worst things are not so much about how the interaction works but the fact that it seems to expose Palm problems.

The consistently worst thing has been when navigating, I can't answer an incoming call with the button on my BlueTooth headset. I haven't actually figured out how to reliably answer in any way. Generally I end up having to return the call by leaving the Navigator app and listening to voice mail and calling back.

It fairly often crashes my phone and causes it to restart (fortunately never when driving or on the phone as I recall).

The map data is quite good, but new development and no left turn rules or map data have inconvenienced me a few times.

I'm not sure whether it's map data or navigator design, but there are a number of times (usually Ys -- merges or splits in roadways) that the direction given is different than what makes sense to me (I'd say go straight when it says to bear left), or doesn't give a direction when I think I need one. Fortunately, the visual display shows what I need to know.

There's some combination of turning the phone off and on and going in and out of the GPS BlueTooth range that causes the software to not be able to get the GPS signal. Relaunching the software generally fixes it.

A few nice notes:

Jane's voice is excellent. Clear and authoritative, but not pushy.

Other systems I've seen have said out loud things like "Off Route!" or "Recalculating" when you don't follow their directions. TomTom is silent while recalculating and shows a progress bar as it does so. As soon as it figures out what to do, it starts telling you.