Upgrading maps, from Nav5 to Nav6 questions and comments

[mowog]

Hi: I've been using Nav 5 on a Treo650 and a Palm TX. I decided to upgrade the maps and followed the TomTom site which said I was ordering the correct product. Well, I get Nav 6 as the map upgrade and try to install it. It fits on a 2G SD card but doesn't want to work on my Treo as I don't have enough free memory, and I don't see any way of getting enough. It loads and works fine on the TX with the exception that it said "no GPS device available". It did this during multiple cycles, but now it seems to be finding my receiver (the palm unit PR230). I guess I'm wondering why it would not find, but is now finding the GPS receiver? I went back to nav 5 on the Treo , but I'm not totally confident yet with the 6 on the TX. Luckily I always have the phone anywhere I would be using the TX.

The new maps are great so far, even having some streets that mapquest doesn't have yet. (are they same source? Navteq?) Big improvement over the old ones as far as up to date content.

Am I the only one who finds installing TomTom to a palm devices a royal pain?

Bob

 

[Pedro2NR]

Sorry to hear about your frustration.
I don't have any experience on upgrading the new maps for the PDA.
I sure hope another user may help.

 

[Internetpilot]

Unfortunately, I haven't tried updating to TTN6 maps for my Palm Tungsten|C myself. I bought a TomTom GO700 and upgraded it instead. I kept having problems with my Palm Tungsten|C and even a new Palm T|X not properly charging while hooked up to a wired GPS receiver and driving on long trips. The same cord would connect the Palm device of choice to the GPS receiver, power the GPS receiver, and SUPPOSEDLY charge the Palm battery. Well, after the Palm battery would reach a full charge, rather than continually trickle charging the Palm battery, it would just stop charging. Four or so hours later, my Palm would automatically shut off with an almost dead battery. It was a pain. I was never more "GPS happy" than when I moved on to a TomTom GO700, and now I just use my Palm device as a PDA.

FYI, I went from a Palm Tungsten|C to a Palm T|X, selling my T|C on eBay. Man, did I regret that! I eventually sold the Palm T|X on eBay and bought another T|C from a Palm forum member, and I'm a happy clam again. The Palm T|X couldn't run apps like TomTom, Mapopolis, PocketTunes, etc., because it would "crap out" from not having enough heap memory. For some reason, Palm put like only 1/4 of the heap in the T|X that it had in the T|C. The T|C is a diehard workhorse that just runs everything without a hitch. I did not have a good experience with the T|X at all. I strongly suspect that you're having the same heap memory problem on your Treo 650.

As for the install being a pain -- I did a review of the three most popular GPS apps available at the time (click HERE for the review). TomTom clearly beat Mapopolis and the DeLorme products, but they really took a hit from me for a lousey install process. With a couple of patches/updates, they greatly improved upon it, but it still requires some manual corrective work and I really don't understand why they do the install the way they do.