You Know TomTom’s Comin’?

Ya know TomTom’s comin’? Yep… itp’s comin’ to the iPhone 3G S. It won’t be out for the iPhone 2G or 3G, only the 3G S. The reason why? Well the iPhone 3G S is much faster, it also has 16gb and 32gb hard drive options… more power and more space for a GPS application, but I know for a fact 2G and 3G iPhone’s can run GPS software because I used to have the TomTom program on my pocket pc. The reason they’re waiting is for the digital compass that’s in the iPhone 3G S.

But here’s the funny thing… freakin’ GPS devices themselves don’t have digital compasses. My custom-built TomTom installed in the center console of my Lexus doesn’t have a compass. It knows what direction it’s facing once you start moving. But when it first gets a GPS target lock, it has no clue what direction it’s facing until the car moves some. And that’s no problem.

So why is this a problem with iPhones?Why do they need a digital compass? Well they don’t, they can work without one. But there’s a few reasons why iPhones are coming with a compass. It all has to do with interactivity. Just like the accelorometer, the compass will be used for app developers to come up with exciting, creative uses, such as video games, to let you look around in a virtual world, ect. That’s why they added it in there, and not for GPS navigation apps. But that compass will help apps TomTom’s because I doubt the GPS in iPhones is as good as normal car GPS’s.

But this is one of the reasons I’ll be upgrading to an iPhone 3G S at some point. This system’s so good it rivals most GPS systems out there. It’s not better than my TomTom GPS system, so I won’t be using it when I drive my Lexus… But it’ll be amazing to have that because anytime I’m not in my own car, or I let someone borrow my car, I don’t gotta’ freak out about not havin’ a GPS system with me.

Right now things are a little better… I don’t have GPS built into my 2G iPhone, but I do have unlimited mobile Internet so if I’m out somewhere without my GPS, I can at least plan my route with Google Maps… and I can update my location and, although it’s not exact like GPS is, I can see how close I’m gettin’ to a turn or if I’ve past it. Or those times I’m walkin’ somewhere downtown, I can figure out where I am and plan a path back to the parking garage or whatever. And I can do the same thing if I’m riding with someone else in their car and they don’t have GPS.

But, having the iPhone 3G S and the TomTom app would make it so that I had a TomTom GPS built right into my iPhone. And, in fact, it’ll have more updated maps than other dedicated systems out there I’m sure, there’ll be many times people who have GPS systems built into their cars will want someone to use their TomTom GPS app instead. I bet they’ll also include traffic updates, something I don’t have on my GPS… until iPhones can start doing teathering through Bluetooth that is (and if T-mobile supports it).

Peace, J

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