just received my new GPS today, plugged it into my mac, and installed tomtom's mac version of their home software. everything has worked well so far and the free map update installed fine. there are two main things that purchasers need to know:
1) space is very limited on the device. there is only 2 GB of internal flash memory and out of the box there was less than 50 MB free. the very first thing you should do is to delete voices in languages you don't use. this will free up a couple/three hundred MB. they can get backed up to your computer so you could always put them back in the future. once a bit of space is freed up you'll be able to update the device without issue. after removing spanish and french voices, running update which installed a new dave voice, and then installing the free map update i was left with 89 MB free. when i tried to run update before removing the voices, the unit warned me about lack of space and aborted without creating any further problems. maybe the mac version of home is more robust than the windows one in this respect.
2) the device only supports USB 1.1 transfers which max out at a bit over 1 MB/sec and can be slower. so doing a full backup or a map update will take quite a while (1-2 hours) and this is normal.
for me, those limitations are more than offset by the large, bright screen, text2speech capability, crowd-sourced map/route updates, and cheaper southern africa maps (we're moving there soon). especially given the cheap sale price i found. i will provide updates as i put unit through paces on cross-country trip and then intercontinental move..... TomTom XL 340-S 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Navigator
I'm pretty tech savvy and have used different GPS devices in the past. I chose Tomtom over Garmin mainly due to tomtom HOME support, better user interface: tomtom has more info on the screen including the street name you're driving on.
Most negative reviews here are from issues updating map which is larger than the old one (about 5 Mb larger) and causes error.
but it's simple to go around it.
1. connect to home computer. turn the unit on. select Yes to connect. Tomtom Home will install on your computer.
2. on Tomtom HOME menu, go to "Manage my ONE XL". On Items on Device, click voices. you can back up then delete all foreign computer voices (recorded voice files are small, so doesn't matter). just keep DAVE, and Susan computer voices( you need at least one computer voice for spoken street names). You should free up about 130 Mb (much more than you need)
3. now you can update new map with no problem. it does take a long time. after you're done, you still have 125 Mb extra to download customized items, map corrections in the future. customized car symbols are really cool, as are start up and shut down images. these customized items and map corrections are so small: tiny to 0.5 Mb that with > 125 Mb free, you can keep updating for years to come.
Pros: 4.3 inch screen, great routing, advanced lane guidance (it does work well), IQ route (faster route based on historical traffic data), very quick GPS fix <30 sec (but you need to connect to computer at least every 7 days so that a GPS file can be updated to help fix signal quickly), a little longer for a cold start or if you forget to sync with your computer more than 7 days, but it's still around 1 minute or less to fix the signal. also very strong signal, almost full bar inside my house. Text to speech (for spoken street names) is computer voice, so it's OK. recorded voices are nicer but unable to do text to speech. the included Easyport mount is great, simple, stable.
Cons: the screen brightness at 100% is still not as bright as I want (I also use Tomtom Navigator 6 on my smartphone with better contrast, brightness) but you still can see fine on a sunny day. The computer voices for text to speech are not as clear when you drive and play music.
In summary, this tomtom has a lot of great features for the price. if you don't need bluetooth (for hands free call with your cell phone, which is not good anyway because your volume always appears tiny to the other end), FM transmitter (which is not practical if you need to play your CD in the car), or live traffic receiver (which is spotty based on the info I've read), This 340S is the one to get. most people own smartphones these days with internet, so they can get live traffic, up to date points of interest from Google map, play mp3 and pictures. So you don't really need those features from a GPS device (which is more expensive)
This is my 3rd Tom Tom and i always buy them refurbished beacuse they look and work new (Comes with a 6 month warranty) ! I got the unit out of its box and immediately hooked it up to my computer. After a few seconds the unit started and connection was made ( if you never had a tom tom unit, it will download the software for you) i immediately clicked on "latest map guarantee" and it told me that there was a new map available and it was free for me to download ! It took me afew hours to do the download and get the new map and now i have a brand new map in my refurb unit :) I turned the unit on when i was in the car for the first time and it took 5 seconds for the unit to find where we were !
The screen is very big so it is very easy to enter address and do the settings. The lane assist feature is great now i know where to stay on the highway and never miss a turn. I used it under the train tracks( Bronx NY) and just like my older tom tom never lost any signal and kept up with my speed and turns. IQ routes are great it knows where there will be traffic (gets this info from mapshare not live traffic but uses historical data) and suggests other routes for you to take. Map share is great so even if your map gets old you still get updates from other drivers so it is like getting free maps everytime you hook the unit up to your computer.
Update 10/3/2010
I have been using this device for about 7 months and i am still very happy with it and not willing to upgrade or change it to another yet ! My rating is still 5 stars because this unit never failed on me ! did it give me 1 or 2 bad turns ? yes it did but this is acceptable and it was minor. Battery is still great gives me over 1 hr without the cord. Everything works perfectly so as i said before don't think twice just buy this refurbished unit !'
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