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The Scottish Highlands in eleven days

Bruce — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 19:48:59 +0000

Scotland. Even the name of the country causes something to stir in my McKenzie blood. The last time I was there in 1994 we didn't get to the North Western Highlands and so in early September, between the high season/ school holidays and autumn proper, we drove 2845km (1768 miles) in our tiny 698cc car to scratch that itch. Here is our admittedly full but rewarding route and accommodation plan, complete with downloadable maps, KML files for Google Earth, and itinerary/ POI files for TomTom navigation devices. For more photographs, see here. Day 1: Home to Glasgow Although not itself in the Highlands (as demarcated roughly by the Highland Boundary Fault), Glasgow served as the staging point for our expedition. We arrived mid-afternoon after a long drive so had several hours in which to visit Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, the overrated SECC beside the black waters of the Clyde (not comparable to the Sydney Opera House as suggested), and the civic centre. We stayed centrally at the Thistle, a tired hotel not deserving of four stars (the window sill in our room had been used as an ashtray; we were flabbergasted to see a smoker puffing away in the corridor beneath a smoke alarm; housekeeping fit pillow cases inside-out, etc.). There's free WiFi for patrons at the Kama Sutra Indian restaurant—if you find yourself in the, err... position without it (excellent food with excellent service too). Day 2: Glasgow to Kilchoan Click thumbnail to enlarge imageRoute and points of interest for Day 2 Not far from ...

Get your GPS fix with RouteBuddy 2.2

Bruce — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:11:27 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

RouteBuddy is an application for Mac marketed as "iTunes for your GPS" in reflection of some interface similarities. It works with most GPS receivers to plot your live position on high-quality street maps, but can also import and export saved data to/ from some devices, applications, and online services. With full-featured and highly portable personal navigation devices increasingly affordable (e.g. TomTom, Garmin) and free tools available for direction-finding and location-sharing (e.g. Google Maps, Google Earth), you may be forgiven for wondering what gap in the market RouteBuddy aims to fill. This question set the brief for my review as I determined to assess its strengths and weakness against the tools you may use already. Disclosure: A single user license for RouteBuddy 2.1.1–2.2 with UK & Ireland maps was provided by RouteBuddy Ltd. for the purposes of this review. Tested using a 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo MacBook with 2GB RAM. Skip to: Prelude The RouteBuddy interface in brief RouteBuddy and GPS device compatibility Have software, need map Tracking Planning Navigating Importing Exporting Sharing Analyzing Plotting Managing Finding Summary and conclusion Prelude I gave up on Route 66 (now defunct route-planning software) with the arrival of Google Maps, but still largely relied on a spiral-bound paper road atlas—until I hired a car with "sat nav". After a false start with Navman, I migrated to the more Mac-friendly TomTom platform, which led me to discover the sport of geocaching. Then it was back to Navman, and then TomTom again, by which time I had caught up with photo geotagging—and that has become something of a preoccupation. Why am I boring you with ...

Restore itinerary planning to TomTom ONE v6

Bruce — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 09:02:46 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Hot on the heels of the "latest" map debacle, I've another bone to pick with TomTom. My TomTom ONE 3rd Edition (v6) came with customizable menus which permitted use of the itinerary planning functions. Did you know RouteBuddy could upload, download, modify, and re-upload TomTom Itineraries (routes)? Great—except that TomTom HOME didn't tell me it would remove the itinerary code when "updating" the ONE's software. I was, however, able to roll back from NavCore 8.010 to 7.166 and regain that lost itinerary planning functionality. Lost in translation If you had read this you'll know that TomTom aren't too proficient at communicating ("a free download" to TomTom means one time only, whereas "AVG is a free download" means what we all think it means). I guess that's why "update" means "removal of pre-existing functions" in TomTomese. Consider the following sequence: Sequence Event One TomTom's NavCore 7.x software for the ONE (v6) includes itinerary planning code, but no menu option Two A procedure for activating itineraries using SDK custom menus is documented by users Three TomTom "update" NavCore to 8.x on the ONE v6, covertly the removing itinerary planning code Four TomTom release a new ONE with the same version of 8.x software, which does include itinerary planning You may draw your own conclusions as to their motivation and level of commitment to existing customers. Not all change is good With a custom menu the "old" NavCore software afforded easy access to point-of-interest (POI) management and Itinerary planning: Custom main menus using NavCore 7.166 software After "updating" to NavCore 8.010 such customization no longer works, and the ONE's Main ...

TomTom latest map guarantee trap

Bruce — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:18:12 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Just bought a new TomTom with a 30-day latest map guarantee? Don't download any map update as prompted by TomTom HOME on the day you register your device. Why not? Because if TomTom do release a new map in 30 days time, you won't be allowed to download it. You may still be within 30 days, but you will have the map that was current on the day you got your device. If, however, you carefully count to day 30 before downloading any map updates, you will get the latest map as of that time. The ambiguous guarantee is not for the latest map within 30 days—it's for a map within that period. Once again: Don't download any map update as prompted by TomTom HOME on the day you register your device. We ordered a TomTom One v3 with Western Europe maps which we received on 21.04.08. We'd seen it discounted in PC World, but it was an even better bargain online. The maps that came with my TomTom Navigator 5 were very out-of-date, and too costly to upgrade in relation to buying a new device with better software. Since we are driving to the Continent shortly the latest map guarantee we'd seen on the packaging would be very timely, we thought, negating any concerns I had that the unit may have been sitting around for months and the maps already outdated. As a marketing tool it was an effective device. The misleading leaflet that isn't what it seems Inside the packaging was a leaflet ...

Geocaching with TomTom: a Mac/ Palm solution

Bruce — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 10:05:47 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Jeff Fort read my post concerning the installation of TomTom POI from a Mac. Jeff is into geocaching, and asked if I knew a way to get waypoints into TomTom Navigator 5 on his Palm from his Mac. While I'd heard of Geotagging (with reference to tagging images with GPS co-ordinates), my first step was to find out something about geocaching. Then I could start looking at the problem... According to Wikipedia: Geocaching is an outdoor activity that most often involves the use of a Global Positioning System ("GPS") receiver or traditional navigational techniques to find a "geocache" (or "cache") placed anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small, waterproof container containing a logbook and "treasure", usually trinkets of little value. Participants are called geocachers; those not familiar with geocaching are called geo-muggles or just muggles, a term borrowed from the Harry Potter series. Geocaching is similar to a much older activity called letterboxing. The major difference is its use of the GPS and the Internet. Err... interesting! The Geocaching.com website has a great tagline: "The sport where You are the search engine". An exchange of e-mail determined Jeff had the following requirements: To download a geocaching.loc file from http://www.geocaching.com; To use GeoNiche, a Palm app, to view the data when walking; To get the data in the .loc file into .pdb format for GeoNiche using the Java applet EasyNiche); To use the same waypoints in the file from 1. with TomTom maps in order to find the locations in the car. As Jeff explains ...

TomTom vs. Navman: I backed the wrong horse

Bruce — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 14:56:47 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Some 8 months ago I chose Navman over a TomTom GPS solution for Palm for several reasons that seemed valid at the time. Since then TomTom have released Navigator 5, and Navman have discontinued support for Palm. Curiosity got the better of me, and now that I've tried TomTom I've come to realise the true extent of the Navman's failings. I bought Navigator 5 and Great Britain maps (i.e. software only) on eBay, and used this with my existing Navman 4400 GPS Bluetooth receiver. For Palm or Pocket PC—not both Navigator 5 is not platform-specific: it will work out of the box on Palm and Pocket PC devices. According to TomTom: This TomTom License Agreement ("License") permits you to use the TomTom computer program and the digital (map) data included in the accompanying package acquired with this License on any single computer, provided the Software is installed on only one computer at any time and provided the Software is combined only with one (1) navigation system. This License is non-exclusive and non-transferable. To activate a map on a different device you must change the registered device code. However: Please note that you can only change your device code once within 6 months. Please contact Customer Support if this results in any issues for you. Install to Palm from a Mac This isn't actually a well-supported option, but it can be done whereas Navman requires a Windows PC. I found this page very helpful. There are three steps: Download the TomTom setup Application for Mac OS X here, then ...

Review: Navman 4470 GPS for Palm OS 5

Bruce — Sun, 13 Mar 2005 06:15:14 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Having experienced the utility of GPS navigation in a hire car in Austria some months back, I resolved to look into low cost but full-featured and transferable solutions. I placed a pre-order for the Navman 4470 in October 2004 and, after a series of slipped shipping dates, finally took delivery just 5 months later. My comments are based on initial use of this Bluetooth-savvy product with a Palm T3... Note: Navman no longer sell GPS solutions for Palm; there will be no new maps or software versions. See Updates below. Navman vs. TomTom I chose a PDA solution, rather than a dedicated in-car system, as I already had a PDA and prefer the higher resolution offered by Palm over the Pocket PC competition. Besides, with crime being what it is, I had no intention of leaving any equipment in the car so it had to be portable. For use with my Palm T3 the choice came down to two wireless products: the Navman GPS 4470 Bluetooth Receiver with SmartST Navigation Software for Palm OS5, or the TomTom Navigator Bluetooth for Palm. Both products have a comparable feature set, but I decided on the Navman: The Navman GPS receiver operates with user-replaceable and readily available (optionally, rechargeable) AAA batteries. Notice how Li-ion batteries in your Palm/ phone/ iPod/ digicam have a habit of holding less and less juice? This is the type of battery used by the TomTom unit. The Navman receiver has a superior operating time on battery (claimed 30 hours). The Navman is cheaper; the ...