Apple has included a Maps application from Google on its iPhone but without a connection to a GPS it’s impossible to get your realtime position and you can use only with a “real” navigator who sits at your side e reads you you the turn by turn directions listed on the iPhone.
But there’s another way to integrate TomTom (at least the x10 series and probably the new x20 series) with iPhone and both sides of Apple’s gizmo: the cellular side and the iPod side.
We tested a TomTom 910 (but the tricks works also with 510 and 710 models) that has cellular bluetooth connection capabilities and with a 25 euros cable, can directly control the iPod, access to its content trough playlists, artist, albums, podcast and audiobook (as you can see on this former video).
Until yesterday you could connect an iPod and a cellular phone at the same time but now with the iPhone you can use a single device since the two coexist inside the iPhone chassis.
We first tried the iPhone connection with a standard bluetooth pairing: all you have to do is to go to general setting, Bluetooth and activate it, on the other side you have to make TomTom search a new device, find the iPhone and wait for the pairing pin to be input trough the phone keyboard, then you can access to the iPhone’s AddresBook, transfer it to the navigator and let it make the calls on its keyboard or trough the transferred AddressBook list.
TomTom x10 acts as a speaker phone and on your iPhone you can choose what “speaker channel” you’d like to use.
Since iPhone hasn’t a tethered mode to act as a modem you can’t access TomTom internet services like you can do with other cell phones.
But iPhone is not only a phone, it is also an iPod so you can access its content trough TomTom special interface that gives you quick access (at the low price of a 25 Euros connector) to playlist, album, authors, genres, podcast, audiobooks, selecting them on TomTom’s touch screen: we have connected the iPod cable to iPhone’s dock and even if a writings advices us that the peripheral may be not compatible we were able to do all the operations done with our iPod.
Starting up the interface you can choose to activate or not the Airplane mode, if you dismiss the request you can still use the cellular radio of the iPhone and make call simply accessing to the phone menu of TomTom navigator or answer calls trough its speakerphone when they arrive and silence the music playout.
iPhone/iPod tracks are played trough TomTom or routed trough a car stereo connected to the iPhone but you can use a simple minijack (with the proper size of the plugh) connector to output only the iPhone audio signal.
Anyway… If you have a TomTom X10 series you can almost completly control every iPod and phone side of the iPhone keeping it in a safe place in your car.
We can’t wait to test the same capabilities with new X20 series coming out at the end of July with voice navigation commands and other facilities that could turn the TomTom + iPhone experience in the most easier and integrated post sale navigation system.
Check the photogallery and the video on this page.
La versione italiana di questo articolo è su questa pagina di Macitynet.
