4. Powering on the TomTom GO 910 for the First Time

The first time you power on the 910, you are presented with an extensive list of languages to choose from. One thing you notice right away is the high resolution of this bright screen. The graphics are modern and nicely designed, and everything looks sharp on the high quality screen.

Tip: be careful not to accidentally tap the screen while the unit is turning on for the first time. I did this and accidentally tapped a foreign language I could not understand, and had to perform a hard-reset to get back and choose English US.

Before proceeding with the setup process, the 910 asks you to confirm that language. Choosing yes advances the first-use wizard. Choosing No returns you to the language selection screen.

Not sure why this step is needed. Seems like TomTom could remove this screen altogether from the setup wizard.

A nice feature: the GO 910 allows you to configure it for either left-handed or right-handed use.

Units of measure are set to either miles or kilometers. TomTom should consider making this automatic in some cases. For example, selecting US English as the language should automatically also select Miles.

Time preferences: military and standard time options -- with and without am pm.

Setting the clock. I was somewhat perplexed why the GO 910 asks you to set the time. In order for GPS navigation to work, the GPS device must receive a time code from the satellite that is accurate to within millionths of a second. The GPS already knows the exact time, so this step seems odd. I could understand choosing a time zone, but not setting the time. To make matters worse, in my testing the GO 910 kept loosing the correct time, and would suddenly jump ahead or back by several hours. Another call to TomTom support confirmed this to be a "known issue" and was told I could download beta code to fix it, or wait for the next firmware release for a permanent fix.

One of the most impressive areas on the GO 910 is its extensive library of realistic sounding voices. Some are computer generated, some are actual human voices. All sounded fantastic - the best on any GPS I've ever seen! NOTE: if you choose a computer generated voice, the GO 910 will perform text-to-speech on any navigation prompt, and will say the name of the highway or road. If, however, you choose an actual human voice, no text-to-speech is possible, and the GO 910 will simply announce the basic maneuver (i.e. "Turn Left in 1/4 mile" as opposed to "Turn Left onto Route 66 in 1/4 Mile").

If you choose a computer generated voice (we did), it can perform text-to-speech on street names.

Map region selection. The TomTom GO 910 includes North America, Europe, Guam (??) and the Canary Islands (finally! A GPS for the Canary Islands!). Pro loaded maps of both Europe and the United States is a major plus for the GO 910. If you frequently find yourself crossing the Atlantic, then maps of both continents is important to you. For a long time TomTom was the only major manufacturer that shipped with maps of Europe and the US. Thankfully, Garmin is releasing the nuvi 670 later this year, and it will also ship with pre-loaded maps of Europe and North America.

Setting the Home address allows you to navigate back home at the touch of a button. If you choose no, the first time you press the Home icon, the GO 910 will ask you again if you want to enter the Home address.

The guided tour is so brief, that, in our opinion, it wasn't really very helpful.