Customer Reviews
Great when it works - but far too flaky 
2006-02-22
The GOOD news is that this is a full featured GPS solution that is easy to mount in the car and can navigate to contacts in your address book. Maps are detailed and the POI (Point of Interest) database is fairly extensive.
The BAD news is that it all too often fails to connect via Bluetooth. Installation of software and maps is error prone (do not follow any of the 'advanced' hints in the manual - they scrambled my SD card).
Only buy this product if you like puzzle solving and have a great deal of patience. If you are expecting an out of the box solution that is 100% reliable - look elsewhere.
Buyer Beware of Software and Support 
2006-01-30
If you intend to use this with a Tungsten E2, think twice. For the E2, the instructions require you to install the navigator software directly on an expansion card (not the device). The installation software does not give you the option to install the navigator software on an expansion card. The software vendor (TomTom) has no customer service telephone number, and did not respond to three weeks' worth of e-mail requests for support. When contacted for assistance, Palm first directed me to TomTom's website. Then they regurgitated information already posted on Palm's website (none of it helpful). Then, their e-mail system refused delivery of my last three replies to one of their messages. This GPS Navigator will end up in the trash bin.
Terrible OnLine Support-TomTom Navigator on Palm Life Drive 2006-01-02
I've had Navigator on my LifeDrive for 3 weeks. At first I downloaded all the maps that I wanted onto my pc but when I hotsync'd it would hang. I submitted a question to TomTom and never heard back from them. I finally figured out how to delete the files from my pc and reinstalled using the "Other maps" option and only installed one state which worked. Once I started using it in my car, my Palm would find the TomTom GPS device less than 25% of the time. I updated my question on TomTom's site explaining the new problem and here I am 3 weeks later returning the product. Their support is horrible! Palm got back to me right away and suggested that I get a replacement but I am not willing to run into another problem down the road and have to deal with TomTom's lack of support again. You can also send a complaint but the address is in the Netherlands. When it worked, it was great but unfortunately it did not work enough.
So cool it's absurd 
2005-11-17
If you've got a Treo 650, You Don't Need A GPS Device. Simple as that. The smaller-than-a-small-filet-mignon gps device talks via bluetooth to your 650, which attaches to your windshield via a well-engineered holster. The charger charges 'em both, or not, as you see fit. The instructions are clear and to the point. The installation instructions are slightly out of date - you don't need a card reader to make it happen, after all - and the user experience is, in my case, outstanding. If you've got a 650 and you ever drive somewhere unfamiliar, BUY IT.
Cool toy, but not a useful tool 2006-07-03
I have been using the Palmone Navigator with my TX for about eight weeks. Most of my comments are based on a comparison with the built-in navigation system in my Lexus.
Software installation is fairly easy. However, you need at least a 256 MB SD card to load more than a couple of states; I recommend a 1 or 2 GB card.
While the concept of a TX doubling as a navigation device is intriguing, the realty of it is rather sobering. It is a cool toy, but if you have to plan routes for your job or any other meaningful purpose, this is NOT the right product.
The pros are:
- Inexpensive in comparison to built-ins und stand-alone products
- Unit can be used in different locations and cars and even while walking
- One device serves multiple purposes
The cons are:
- It can take up to several minutes after starting the unit to acquire a satellite signal. This is not the case with my car's OEM navigation system.
- The maps are outdated and not as precise as the OEM nav system: I live in Phoenix, AZ and my neighborhood (built seven years ago) as well as most of the freeways I take to work and back don't exist on the software. More recent updates are not available (I checked the Tomtom website).
- Navigation is often not precise enough (e.g. it tells me to make a left in 50 yards, when I have already passed the intersection where it wants me to make a left). I never have this problem with the built-in navigation.
- Look-up function for addresses and phone numbers is clumsy and doesn't display actual address until you map it.
- It tends to freeze at least a couple times a day, requiring a soft reset.
- Lost connections to the satellite receiver or lost satellite signals also tend to disrupt the navigation on longer trips with stops.
Overall, the unit is too unreliable to be used as your only navigational aid. If you need navigation to get to your travel destination, you are better off with a stand-alone unit. I truly wish I had better things to say about this device since I really like the concept, but the reality just doesn't match the marketing.
North American maps are crippled; not ready for prime time; deficient for cross-country navigation 2006-06-01
The following design limitation needs a spotlight:
The maps are cut into sections, and users cannot navigate from one section to another. So for example, if you want to travel from Ohio to New York, navigation is not possible using both the eastern (New England) map and the midwest map because the software cannot cross the boundary of a map. TomTom has provided a haphazard band-aid solution- they include a U.S. map containing only major roads. So even if you have the space to store full maps, you're simultaneously stuck with redundancy, and loss of resolution if you want to navigate across a boundary. Some folks who live on one of their boundary lines will want to avoid this product for local navigation.
Other issues:
* Nags. Everytime TomTom boots, Americans must click through a legal notice. North American maps do not record the fact that you already agreed previously, and there is no way to disable it (it's intentional). The European maps work as you might expect. That is, the legal notice nag screen is disabled after seeing it for the first time on each European map.
The nuisance of this nag screen is amplified by other anomalies - the TomTom software is slow to boot and shutdown (since it executes directly off the MMC card). Moving the app to the internal memory doesn't improve the speed enough to make reboots acceptible. Speed is hindered further by the softwares failure to find the GPS device if the software executes before the device is powered on with 3 satellite signals detected. It also takes the device quite some time to find the satellites because of its low senstivity. When it does find the satellites, the user must exit the app and reload it, acknowledge the legal notice again, in order for the app to query the GPS on its status again.
* The software is substantially locked down, and they put the user through several hoops to get the software activated. The user ends up entering a product code and a device code (on their website) to get an activation key, which then must be entered on the device. The user is then expected to keep track of three different registration numbers if they want to be able to reinstall later. The installation software is installed on the desktop in single user mode, so if you're logged into your machine under another account, you cannot change maps or maintain the software in any way.
* If the sky is overcast with dense cumulus clouds, the device won't find any satellites because it has a SiRF II chipset (thus a sensitivity of -152dbm).
* Users must exit the application to get an address from the address book that they want to navigate to.
* The database of casinos is under populated.
* Speedcam (aka safety camera) databases are not provided. European users must subscribe to a TomTom "Plus" service to get photocop alerts. North American users must subscribe through a third party. (BTW, there is BT GPS receiver that has speed cam proximity alerts built-in, which will execute independant of the s/w).
* There is a spontaneous termination bug. I was on a course and TomTom died out of the blue. I had to rerun the app and agree to the legal notice to continue navigation. (UPDATE: It's evident from the binaries that the code was written in C)
* There is a spontaneous return to initial point bug when viewing a demo of a route.
* Given the reception insensitivity, nags, and crashes, this device is worthless as a backup GPS for aeronautical navigation. I initially thought it could be useful in a pinch in the case of an electrical failure enroute, but I would not even bother bringing it into the cockpit. A handheld with a SiRF III chipset or MK3 chipset would be more suitable as a backup.
* Software and maps are distributed on nine CDs (NA version), when they could have just delivered it on a single DVD.
* The most current maps are over two years old at the time of this review.
* Package is only bundled with maps for one continent.
STILL WANT TO USE THIS PRODUCT?
* Those who still choose to buy this product should find out when TomTom will have updated maps and buy shortly after (that is, after the old map CDs have been sold), because TomTom does not offer free map upgrades, not even one, because they want to sell maps to you seperately as a "plus" service. (UPDATE: sometimes they offer one free upgrade)
There are copious hacks for Garmin software - nothing for TomTom at this point.
What's good about it?
* It mounts to a motorcycle windscreen with the suction cradle, and the GPS box can be conveniently velcroed to the master cylinder. There's no need to wire power for trips under a few hrs.
* You can get Master Yoda's voice for it.
Buggy... Terrible Tech Support 2006-05-17
My advice is that you need to find a better gps program (other then TomTom) rather then spend your money on this one.
I recently installed this program on my E2. The first attempt failed and I had to eventually do a hard reset on my palm and reload the program (even after deleting it, the program left something on the Palm that made it not want to load).
If your going to load a lot of the maps you better have a lot of time or get a card reader/writer. I would guess that to load the Western US you will need at least a 512MB card and you will spend the better part of the evening doing it.
After loading it I took it out on the road to try. The screen is okay, but some of the small data print items are almost impossible to read while you're driving.
The maps are very good, but when I deviated from my the planned route it wanted me to take a road that I know to be a deadend to get back on track. Not good if you where towing a 32' trailer, which I do on many trips. Not good for your confidence in taking a route that it suggests.
I next took it out on a 300+ mile trip. I set up waypoints so it would go on the route I wanted. This seemed to work on the way out, but on the planned trip back it kept wanted me to take a main road that I had intentially tried to avoid. At almost every corner it wanted me to turn back to the other route even though it was displaying my current route correctly.
Finally there is the subject of customer support. You better hope this program loads right and you don't have problems because their (TomTom) customer support is terrrible. You can't get to a human. You must use email. They will send you an automated response with automated solutions and then ask if that helped. It took a fully 7 days to get this automated response back from them. This is unacceptable.
Overall I would not recommend this program. I absolutely would not buy the TomTom stand alone units. At least I have my Palm E2 to use for other things and not a piece of junk that I can't trust to use...
It works if you don't mind resetting 
2006-03-31
I bought the item at PALM store directly and got a good discount ($160 that one day, not including the pda which was purchased earlier). Synching the bluetooth with my E2 sometimes takes 10 minutes with constant turning off both items and turning them back on if they don't sync. Sometimes a hard/soft reset is required. This could be headache-ful if you are trying to do it while driving! Absolutely do not recommned that.
On the software (which is my biggest hurdle and one that I am still getting used to)
The software is intuitive enough, colors are way much better than the $1800 bigger screen solution that came with our new Accord. However, the software takes more work to upload, not a manual written with great care nor logic. What's more, it takes a lot more digging to find out how to get to an intersection instead of a specific address. Screen layers could be improved. The address database does not include phone numbers which is a drag because if you are driving to a store, you would want to know sometimes whether they are still open. The Honda's solution is our on the road yellow pages, saves us the bucks in calling 411. This i think is a major corner cutting on TomTom's part.
Very cool, but maps could be more up to date 
2006-02-25
I bought one of these for my new Palm TX after seeing it work on a friend's Palm T5. It is a very cool product and is as easy to use as I anticipated. I've had a lot of fun with it already, navigating familiar routes around town. The GPS device (at least in my case) finds satellites (as many as 8) in less than a minute and the Bluetooth connection works fine. It runs at least 2 hours before needing a recharge if you're using it outside of a car. The GPS unit is small enough for a pocket if you're walking or cycling. A cable is provided so you can keep it on charge in your car. My main interest is in using it while on the road in strange cities while using a rental car. I'm now quite convinced it will do that task well. The voice direction feature is very effective and only makes itself known when course changes are coming up. This generally eliminates any need to look at the PDA while driving, although a pedestal is included for mounting the PDA for quick glances. If you leave your planned route, the software rapidly recalculates to provide new suggested routing. This is a good thing, since the maps are not as up to date as I would have expected. There is a selection of voices in English, plus many more in foreign languages. I should also note that the software will run in full screen mode on the TX, either portrait or landscape and will recognize graffiti, although not caps for some reason.
This is not a perfect product. While I found the install to be easy, it was not completely clean, generating an error report on initial hot sync (problem removed as per advice I found on the Palm user forum, although I think the error is bogus). Install requires entering 3 rather lengthy keys, one of which you have to get from Tom Tom's web site to activate the product (and you had better write them down!). Tom Tom's documentation doesn't cover the TX, which is basically equivalent to a T5 but in contrast has 128Mb memory rather than 256Mb. Knowing that map files are huge, I bought a 2Gb high performance SD card I found at ZipZoomFly.com for $89 to hold the maps (the sum total of which exceeds 1Gb). The manual indicates that the user chooses where to install maps, but the install automatically sends them to the SD card. The package has 8 CDs worth of maps, but 6 of them are just individual component maps that duplicate the map data aggregated on the first 2 CDs. Loading maps via Hot Synce is very tedious, so after loading one that way, I loaded the rest via my computer using a card reader (very easy ... the software on the CDs makes this simple to do).
So what's the downside? 1. This is not a Palm product ... Palm sells it, but relegates software problems to Tom Tom, who in turn will blame hardware if things don't work as advertised, very much buyer beware. 2. The maps are not very current (I estimate 2003-2004) and Tom Tom is not providing regular up dates, either free or for sale insofar as I've been able to determine. 3. Not everyone has been able to get this stuff to work on their flavor of PDA, TX or otherwise ... I only have 2 apps on my TX other than the stuff Palm supplied (Big Clock and WorldMate), don't use VersaMail (since I can read email via the web), and don't have any other Bluetooth devices I'm using; ie. I'm not doing anything else with the PDA that might affect this product.
The ultimate test is that my wife, a technophobe, can use it successfully, which perhaps is recommendation enough.
Followup: I used the GPS while in Houston, and it greatly helped in navigating in from the International airport and around town. It probably took it 2 minutes to recognize satellites initially, after which it found them consistently in less than a minute. The only downside was where new road construction was not on the maps. I opted for an alternate route in from the airport and it nicely reset its routing to my target destination, which is where I needed the actual help. After dinner, it flawlessly directed me to my hotel. The voiced suggestions were very effective. My 4-star rating stands intact.
