7. Setting System Options

There are so many options available, in fact, that I wish TomTom would let you create a custom menu, showing only the features you care about and in the order you want. This would be a nice add-on that could easily be managed through the TomTom HOME application. For example, if you wanted a custom theme that only had 3 or 4 of the features you use most often, you could save this as "my theme" (also allowing you to save your map display preferences, colors, etc.).

Figure 49: Changing the preferences on the ONE

To enter the preferences menu, tap "Change preferences" from the Main Menu.

Figure 50: Preferences Menu 1 of 3

Figure 51: Preferences Menu 2 of 3

Figure 52: Preferences Menu 3 of 3

By default the ONE (and the TomTom GO series) ships with a reduced list of options available. If you want to see all the options available, you have enable "Show ALL menu options" on page 3 of the preferences menu. Prior to this release of the TomTom interface, the main reason you wanted to show all the menu options was to enable the "Clear route" button (which for some bizarre reason was hidden by default).

Figure 53: Show All Menu Options

Tapping on the "Show ALL menu options" displays a splash screen letting you know all menu options are now available.

Figure 54: Compass preferences

Remember how I mentioned that TomTom lets you customize almost every aspect of the navigation experience? Look at how many options there are for displaying a compass! (personally, I like having the arrow showing my heading).

Figure 55: Preferences menu 6 of 7

Yes more options... Setting the owner information allows you to configure a password for the device. Turn screen upside down makes everything bass akwards (not sure why you'd need this, but if readin' things upside-down is your bag, then this is the GPS for you!). Start-up preferences lets you change what the TomTom ONE does when you first turn it on: you can set it to show the map, continue navigating where it left off when it was powered off, or ask you for a destination.

8. BlueTooth

Figure 56: Pairing via Bluetooth

The TomTom ONE includes limited Bluetooth support. It uses Bluetooth to communicate with a compatible Bluetooth enabled cell phone, but only for data transfer required to use TomTom PLUS services (such as traffic, weather, buddies, etc.). You cannot use the ONE as a hands-free speakerphone for your cell phone. For some odd reason I wasn't able to successfully pair the ONE with my Blackberry 8700c. The Blackberry found the ONE, but I was never able to pair the two. TomTom Support says this is because the Blackberry cannot report data to the ONE (only voice), so it's currently incompatible. As a result, I was not able to test any of the TomTom PLUS services, either.

9. The Trouble With Tele Atlas

Damn -- just when I was all set to declare the ONE the absolute best GPS I've ever tested, the Tele Atlas mapping issue came up and tempered my excitement with a healthy dose of reality. The simple fact is that Tele Atlas is not as good as NAVTEQ in North America.

To prove this, I fired up both the TomTom ONE, which uses Tele Atlas maps, and the Garmin StreetPilot c550, which uses NAVTEQ maps, and entered 112 Henry Sanford Road, Bridgewater CT as my starting address, and 100 Main Street, Westport MA as my destination address. Take a look at the very different results:

TomTom ONE (Tele Atlas)	Garmin c550 (NAVTEQ)
	Right on CURTIS RD Right on Chritian St Left on Sarah Sanford Rd W Right on Sarah Sanford Rd E Right on Hut Hill Rd Right on South St Left on Purchase Brook Rd Right on Spruce Brook Rd
	Right on Britain Rd Right onto I-84 E to Waterbury Exit 27 right to I-691 E to Meriden / Middletown Exit 11 left to I-91 N to Hartford / Springfield
TomTom Estimated Drive Time: 3 hrs 31 minutes	Garmin Estimated Drive Time: 3 hours 2 minutes

I know this area very well, and although both units will get you to the same destination, the TomTom ONE will take a route that is almost 30 minutes (14%) longer. Not only that, in the above example, the Tele Atlas powered TomTom ONE is trying to route us along the most congested main road in the area, so we'll likely also run into traffic, making the trip even longer. NO question about: the NAVTEQ chosen route is a much faster route.

Just for a sanity check, let's look at what Yahoo! Maps gives us for the same starting and destination addresses:

1. Start at 112 HENRY SANFORD RD, BRIDGEWATER going toward PLANZ LN - go 0.6 mi
2. Turn on CURTIS RD - go 0.2 mi
3. Bear on CHRISTIAN ST - go 0.8 mi
4. Turn on SARAH SANFORD RD - go 0.7 mi
5. Turn on HUT HILL RD - go 1.7 mi
6. HUT HILL RD becomes MINOR BRIDGE RD - go 1.3 mi
7. Turn on SOUTH ST - go 0.7 mi
8. SOUTH ST becomes BROWN BROOK RD - go 1.1 mi
9. Turn on PURCHASE BROOK RD - go 0.7 mi
10. Turn on SPRUCE BROOK RD - go 1.9 mi
11. Turn on S BRITAIN RD[CT-172] - go 2.1 mi
12. Continue to follow CT-172 - go 0.3 mi
13. Turn onto I-84 EAST toward WATERBURY - go 20.2 mi
14. Take exit #27 onto I-691 EAST toward MIDDLETOWN/MERIDEN - go 8.7 mi
15. Take exit #11 onto I-91 NORTH toward SPRINGFIELD/HARTFORD - go 6.7 mi
(rest of the trip truncated since all three sources were the same from this point on)

Total Drive Time on Yahoo! Maps: 3 Hours 3 Minutes.

Yahoo! Maps (also powered by NAVTEQ) routes us the exact same way as the Garmin StreetPilot, and had the same estimated drive time.

It's a real shame, actually, because I like the TomTom ONE quite a bit better than the StreetPilot c550, or Magellan, or just about any other GPS I've tested. But at the end of the day this is a navigation device, and is only as good as the maps that power it. I regret to say that I cannot currently recommend a GPS for use in North America that uses Tele Atlas maps. Ugg - what a bummer. This is one slick little GPS -- hey TomTom: How about showing North America some NAVTEQ love?!