I recently bought a TOMTOM 940 LIVE and it's very clever indeed

[Lady Elanore]

I recently bought a 940 Live and as it is a pretty new model, I thought I would share my experiences of it so far.

The Good

The Size is fine and fits into a Bag or big pocket easily, once installed in it’s hinged case. The screen is the typical size of most of this range of TomToms and is pretty visible in all but direct sunlight. Also it is fairly loud and clear and the Blue Tooth phone connection works pretty well really, I find I have to shout up a bit on the motorway, but it seems to download the phone book from my TyTnII very quickly and easily (quicker than my BMW!). But what about the newer and more advanced features?

Well the IQ system really does seem to work (navigating around traffic problems) and the Advanced Lane Guidance really is a boon when you are approaching busy and complicated motorway intersections (it shows a picture of the entire width of the Motorway and which lanes are suitable for you to be in as you traverse the junction, great in rotten weather and nose to tail traffic when you can' t move across easily).

The FM Transmitter worked reasonably well (send your music to the radio via an FM signal) and once I realised I had to store music via the TomTom Software (it stored it to the Micro Card I added), it worked fine. You can’t stick mp3s directly onto the card if you want the TomTom to recognise it (probably a simple fix for you clever chaps). You simply tune your car radio to the frequency the TomTom advises, although this is adjustable if it causes co-channel interference problems.

The unit is very quick to find it’s position from a start, just a matter of seconds if you have downloaded the Quick GPS packet and navigates the car brilliantly, keeping up dead reckoning if you are in a tunnel/built-up area/etc (it has built in accelerometers and they work better than any previous system of this type I have used before) and rerouting very quickly if you make a boo-boo. Which brings me to the ‘LIVE’ features………WOW! These really are good.

Find a Google address is simply brilliant. The built in sim card logs onto Google and you simply type in your destination question/address in typical Google fashion and you are given the option to navigate there or ring the place. Simple and superb. It is an addition to the usual POI database and I can’t praise it high enough. Sadly even though the unit has a Sim card you can’t send an address directly from your computer and over the airwaves to the unit in the same way as you can with my BMW sat-nav, but there again, you don’t need to.

Live traffic is also a very clever system. It uses Vodaphone’s own triangulation of it’s Mobiles and TomTom use this information to work out the traffic flow. It is actually tracking individual mobiles on roads and is much quicker to respond to ebb and flow traffic. It certainly beats the TMC systems I have used and naturally it is incorporated into the IQ routing around the problem if a quicker route can be found.

It can do lots of other things too, like show you the local weather and search Google for things, all via the Sim card, as well as produce slide shows from it’s Micro SD card. I have changed my position indicator to be a little Mario Cart. This unit is so customisable.

One last feature. It can somehow (I don’t know how yet) be buddied up with friends who have ‘Live’ type satnavs and you can see where each other are in relation to yourself. Realtime tracking!! You can make yourself invisible too, just in case you aren’t where you are supposed to be

The Traffic Camera/Mobile Camera data base is supplied by Road Angel and I have always found that RA had the best data base for fixed cameras in the business. But………and it’s a big but………the 940 Live can update it’s mobile camera database on the movie via it’s Sim card. The theory is that if you detect a new camera you press a button, the co-ordinates are sent to RA and once confirmed (poss by a second or third confirmation??) the co-ordinates are transmitted to all the TomTOm Lives that subscribe to this service, within 3 minutes!! Also map alterations because of new roads etc are transmitted this way too. Fixed camera databases have to be updated via connection to your computer and hence it’s Internet connection.

The Bad

Well it’s not that cheap and if you have the brightness up full and the volume is high, the unit struggles to get much past 2 hours running on batteries. But that’s all I can criticise really.

A great unit and I am a big fan of the Road Angel Camera Database too:thumbup:

[sms]

expensive too, was looking at one this week and the 740 too.

[Lady Elanore]

I think it’s worth it though…………just. I have used one or two other types before, but this is the first one that seems to rival a built in Sat Nav for speed and dead reckoning. I will think long and hard as to whether I order Sat Nav with my next car. The down side is in order to avoid suction cup marks, I have a giant Bean Bag type of thing plonked on my dashboard:(

[L&KDET]

A handy tip for you Live users like my self, I fully rate it, its a good system, but on my first trip I had a problem where the traffic and the live connection failed, I could not get it fixed but I later discovered I had to reset the system, by holding the power button for about 15 secs.

Hopefully this may help anyone else get out of trouble too!!

[Lady Elanore]

A handy tip for you Live users like my self, I fully rate it, its a good system, but on my first trip I had a problem where the traffic and the live connection failed, I could not get it fixed but I later discovered I had to reset the system, by holding the power button for about 15 secs.

Hopefully this may help anyone else get out of trouble too!!

Not had that yet, but good shout for the future. Have you tried the buddy feature and if so, how does it work? Do you need to pair the 2 units via Bluetooth to start with?

[L&KDET]

I'm not sure to be honest, I think you need to know another users name or something. I will go look at mine, I had forgot about this untill now.

[Lady Elanore]

I am wondering if it is something to do with your email address as this is what is displayed when ever you connect to TomTom.

[sms]

what is the difference between the 930 and 940 i notice it has live on the 940 box but the 930 did traffic updates anyway?

[L&KDET]

I have sent you a PM

[Lady Elanore]

what is the difference between the 930 and 940 i notice it has live on the 940 box but the 930 did traffic updates anyway?

The X40 range have live updates to mobile traffic cameras, Google search for Address etc. You could see what is different in my above review and let us know. Does the 930 use the Vodaphone triangulation?

[sms]

dont know thats why im asking as ive always used the one range as my job involves multidrop so i dont want anything expensive as if its nicked i rather it be a cheap one, however im looking for a 740 or 940 or even the 730 or 930 next year for CZ trip.

[Lady Elanore]

dont know thats why im asking as ive always used the one range as my job involves multidrop so i dont want anything expensive as if its nicked i rather it be a cheap one, however im looking for a 740 or 940 or even the 730 or 930 next year for CZ trip.

Sorry I assumed you had the 930:O. If it wasn’t for the better dead reckoning and FM transmitter I would have gone for the 540 probably. The World maps feature is wasted on me. Currys where doing a good deal on the 940 a couple of weeks ago. £50 off and a £10 voucher, plus you get £50 of fuel after 28 days.

Edited 29 November, 2008 by Lady Elanore

[sms]

i was looking at that, i only need uk maps and main routes to CZ lol, wasnt interested in US and canada maps, maybe they do a discount for removing them lol

[Lady Elanore]

I have sent you a PM

Whoo hoo, I have found you and seen where you last used your TomTom!!!! I have even tried to send you a message which should be in your TomTom inbox thingy. It begins with Ooops coz I thought I sent one earlier by mistake.......this was in fact also a mistake:D

[anewman]

How much does the mobile phone side of it cost? As it uses Vodafone I guess you could plonk an ASDA PAYG sim in it to save on the cost - much cheaper on the GPRS data services.

[sms]

noticed today looking in comet that the live thing is a subscription service :(

[skoblah]

noticed today looking in comet that the live thing is a subscription service :(

Its called HD Traffic - free for first three months and then £7.99. It may not be useful if you drive same route everyday or where there are no alternative routes you can take in case of jams.

[skoblah]

what is the difference between the 930 and 940 i notice it has live on the 940 box but the 930 did traffic updates anyway?

930 can use RDS TMC or GPRS via mobile to get traffic update but 940 is way better - it has GPRS integrated in the unit itself.

[Lady Elanore]

How much does the mobile phone side of it cost? As it uses Vodafone I guess you could plonk an ASDA PAYG sim in it to save on the cost - much cheaper on the GPRS data services.

The sim is used for TomTom functions, any calls are made via Bluetooth and your own mobile.

The traffic information the new IQ system provides is way better than TMC, really it is in a different class. I travel to about 100-200 different locations every year (depending on work) and a Sat Nav is so useful for me, I really wouldn’t want to go back to maps, especially as navigating busy City Centres and street level mapping is so good with Sat Nav systems.

[Burnsey]

Would totally agree there. The whole maps thing is just about fine when there are 2 of you in the car, but when you are on your own (as is usually the case on Business) satnav is much safer and reassuring, esp with the POI (for food, cash, fuel etc - found my poi's have phone numbers on my navman and it can put you through) and bluetooth phone connection. Not quite up to the standards of your TomTom but I only go to about 10-20 different places rather than 200!

[krissis]

Hi, i have the tomtom 740 Go, today i turned it on and i have no sound, have played about with it an cant seem to get it working? any ideas? this is the 1st prob ive had, its basicly te 940 just without USA maps, apart from this its been fantastic.

[krissis]

Sorry I assumed you had the 930:O. If it wasn’t for the better dead reckoning and FM transmitter I would have gone for the 540 probably. The World maps feature is wasted on me. Currys where doing a good deal on the 940 a couple of weeks ago. £50 off and a £10 voucher, plus you get £50 of fuel after 28 days.

did you get your fuel? mine came with a 40 quid fuel, but i got confused on dates and missed the dead line,

is it only the go that have tomtom buddies?

sorry for the double post

[L&KDET]

I missed out on my fuel vouchers, think it was a con to be honest. It kept saying you can't activate them yet.

Also the HD traffic is not as good as one would hope! Every time I have been for a mid distance drive it has failed to pick up closed roads (due to road works) and even had a road closed for about 7 weeks, when it was infact open all the time, therefore taking me miles out my way!

I wrote to them and they just sais, sorry we r constantly improving! The next day guess what, I got sent down a closed road, then it wanted me to plough through an alley way to get to a road on the end of a cul de sac!!!!