1. Navigating With TomTom's iPhone App

Figure 1: TomTom's Map Screen

Whether navigating to a destination or just driving around, you'll spend most of the time with the TomTom App looking at the map screen, shown above.

Let's take a closer look at the information displayed on the map:

1. Music Controls - Accesses the iPhone / iPod music controls
2. Displays the road you are currently traveling on
3. Navigation Mode - Lets you toggle between vehicle or pedestrian modes
4. Highlighted Route (the path you'll be driving)
5. Vehicle Icon
6. Remaining distance to destination, and speed limit information (current speed as well as posted speed limit)
7. Navigation instruction for the road ahead (tap this area to repeat the last spoken instruction, and to change the volume)
8. Remaining drive time as well as estimated arrival time

TomTom's map screen is nicely designed, and looks good on the iPhone's display. Map scrolling is very fluid, and the refresh rate is smooth.

Figure 2: Advanced Features

TomTom's iPhone App includes three sophisticated GPS features that are also found on TomTom's higher end standalone GPS devices:

• Lane Images - When approaching a highway exit or intersection, the app displays a photo-realistic rendering of the maneuver, and paints an arrow on the 3D view that clearly shows which lane you should be driving in.
• IQ Routes - IQ Routes allows the GPS to incorporate historical traffic pattern information when figuring out which roads to travel to a destination. IQ Routes considers historical traffic information for the time of day, as well as the day of the week, and adjusts the route accordingly.
• GPS Enhancer - The GPS Enhancer helps the TomTom app determine your location by utilizing nearby cell tower positioning data to triangulate your position.

Figure 3: TomTom's App Map Screen

In previous GPS reviews, I've often criticized TomTom's map layout as looking outdated, and almost cartoonish. But on the iPhone's small display, the simple map layout works well. It's easy to see the highlighted route, and the map scrolls smoothly as you drive.

Figure 4: Advanced Lane Guidance

When approaching a highway exit or intersection, TomTom's App displays a a photo-realistic view of the turn, as shown above, complete with large green arrows that indicate which lane you should be driving in.

Figure 5: Find Alternative

The TomTom App provides lots of route customization options:

• Calculate alternative - automatically calculates a new, different, route to the destination address. This is essentially a shortcut to tell the GPS "find another way to my destination"
• Recalculate Route - Re-calculate the original route
• Avoid roadblock - If you know a street is closed, you can indicate the location on the map and have the App route around the closed road
• Travel via - Insert a stop along the route

Figure 6: Find Alternative, Continued

One of the TomTom GPS App's most powerful navigation features is the ability to manually exclude a specific road or highway from the planned route. Tapping Avoid part of route lets you browse the list of upcoming turns and avoid a specific road (or multiple roads).

Figure 7: Avoid

Tapping Avoid part of route lets you browse the list of upcoming turns and avoid a specific road (or multiple roads). Tap on the road or highway you want to avoid to exclude a specific section from the planned route

2. Finding An Address

Figure 8: Main Menu

To enter a street address as a destination, begin by tapping Navigate To... from the Main Menu.

Figure 9: Navigate To... Screen

There are multiple ways to enter destinations. In this example I'll be entering a street address, though I could have also selected a previously found location, a POI, a saved destination from the address book, a Google Local Search, a set of coordinates, or a point on the map.

Tap Address to begin entering a street address.

Figure 10: Select Country or State

Begin by selecting the country or State from the alphabetized list.

Figure 11: Enter A City Name

Use the on screen keyboard to spell the name of the city. As you type, the list of matching city names is displayed.

Figure 12: Enter A Street Name

Next we'll need to tell the TomTom App the street name of the destination address. Use the on screen keyboard to spell the street name. As you type, the list of matching street names is displayed. Tap the correct street name when you see it listed.

Figure 13: House Number

Use the on screen number pad to enter a house or building number. Alternatively, you can tap Cross street to enter an in intersection instead of a house number, if desired.

Figure 14: Avoid Tolls?

With the street address fully entered, the TomTom App calculates the best available route to the destination. If the planned route will involve toll roads, the App will prompt you to ask if you'd like to re-calculate the route and avoid tolls.

Figure 15: Route Confirmation Screen

The destination address is now fully entered, and you can begin navigating to your destination by tapping Done, or make customizations to the planned route (such as avoiding specific roads, or viewing details about each turn) by tapping Options.

Figure 16: Find Alternative

One of the most powerful features of TomTom's App is the ability to browse a list of all upcoming turns and manually exclude a specific road from the route. Tap Avoid Part of Route to see a list of all turns, then touch the road or segment you want to avoid and the App will automatically re-calculate the route, this time avoiding that particular road.

Recalculate Route provides a quick, 1-touch way to have the App calculate a different route to the destination.

Travel Via... lets you insert a stop, or waypoint, along the planned route.

Figure 17: Map Screen

Tap Done and the App begins navigating to the destination.