Good european mapping

Bought this about 6 months ago and have so far used it all over the UK, in Norway, France, Spain and Majorca.

It's very easy to use and has some handy features. The one which allows you to view the map, zoom in, put the arrow on exactly where you want to go and simply press the"Go" button, is excellent; it makes touring abroad a doddle.

The maps seem to be pretty much up to date, and go right down to residential street level in all the countries I've visited so far. Other than the very rare detour down a narrow country road when staying on the main road might have been better, it's always got me where I needed to be and told me exactly when I'm going to get there.

The unit fits nicely in a pocket and a recharge lasts long enough to allow you to make several short trips without having to worry about plugging it into the lighter socket.
All the maps and POIs are pre-loaded, including safety cameras abroad.

Given the above features, the mapping included, the quality and the price, I'd definitely recommend this unit to anyone.

GOBSMACKED

I PURCHASED A IGIG FROM ARGOS LAST YEAR £79 I HAVE JUST PAID UNDER £12 FOR A 2 GIG FOR MY SONY W50 CAMERA TO SAY I AM DELIGHTED IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT, I THOGHT IT WAS WRONG CARD AT FIRST, BUT IT IS IN A CONVERTER FOR OTHER DEVEICES WHEN REMOVED WORKED EXCELLENTLY IN MY SONY W50 CAMERA GEREATRIC GEORGE

TOP CLASS GADGET

Well I himmed and haaaed about getting the TOM TOM Europe. Especially after reading the reviews. But I'm very pleased I did. Fortunately it arrived in time for my mammoth trip to North Holland. What can I say it worked like a dream, having previously had a bump from looking at maps whilst driving in Europe a couple of years a go - if you haven't got a map reader in the passenger seat this is even better anyway! It calculates the route - tells you how far you have to go until the next turning, also the total miles to go. You can easily recalculate the route to include an extra stop, if you're going via Ferry rather than Channel Tunnel as I was. But it really came into its own when faced with road closures. What can I say, with a simple tap it recalculated my route within seconds and I was being guided through back lanes I would not have stood a chance of navigating. I was left free to glance at all the lovely windmills whilst it gave me directions, a real treat. I was squeaking with joy at my new toy! What would have taken me an extra 2 hours ended only adding 20 minutes to my journey, thank you TOM TOM. As for all the problem speak about the Tom Tom mounting, I had trouble removing mine from the window, couldn't get it off without putting a blade end under it. I think it must be important to lick the sucker pad to create a good suction, but it was solid and firm for sure.
It also tells you where the speed cameras are surely this is cheating!? But hey pretty handy! I have plugged it into my MAC and it works fine with Leopard although I have not made a back up yet of the TOM TOM HD as suggested - I had the feeling this may take a few hours - an over night job to be left whilst I sleep. I give this bit of kit 5 stars for the price (£115) I think this is invaluable. Especially as with road closures alone - that getting AA Route-finder instructions off the net cannot foresee and help you with!
Unless you do a lot of traveling with work then perhaps it's something that the whole family can share for holidays or special trips away as might be considered a luxury. However I don't know how easy my mother would find it to work but she still can't do text messages on her phone, but for me the quick start guide was enough to get me working the entire thing easily within minutes. It's very straight forward to use and not at all complicated.

Do not download Tom Tom Maps + hopeless technical support

I downloaded a US Map for my UK TomTom Go 700 about a month ago. Since then I have been trying to upload it onto the device without any success. I have liaised with TomTom support several times and after having been advised to download the 50MB software twice, remove firewalls, use different computers, etc. , all without success, I have given up. I have asked for a refund and they have simply refused to refund. My credit card company has already paid the company and won't credit the amount.

I wonder if I have any legal recourse? Can TomTom refuse to refund once the software certificate has been issued as they claim? Surely any other product would be refundable if it does not work so why not downloadable software? Is Tom Tom just trying to frustrate the customer so they give up on the refund?

My advice for anyone is not to download any software for TomTom. In addition, with the level of support and care they provide no one should bother buying a Tom Tom, no matter how good it is technically.

My eventual solution was to buy a Magellan device with a pre-loaded North America map which cost me US$150 (the North America map alone on TomTom was GBP50!). The Magellan worked perfectly throughout and is as good as a TomTom.

Impressed

Bought this a month ago - whilst it's not stacked with extra features (no blue-tooth for example) it is a good entry level system and does no more and no less than I expected. The wide screen is excellent. My only gripe is the UK map in my system (although bought very recently) is at least 9 months out of date. Taking it with me to Spain in a fortnight to put in a hire car, so will find out how accurate the Spanish map is soon.

Also, visit garmin.com to download a whole plethora of vehicle animations - including the Black Pearl from Pirates of the Carribean, if that floats your boat. You'll need a USB cable as Garmin do not include this in the package.

In short - great for the price.

Very satisfied customer

I had this up and running in no time at all. The GPS reception is great and I would recommend going for the 305 over the 205 for the heartrate monitor. The software out of the bag is barely sufficient but there are lots of high quality alternatives available out there (freeware or shareware). Great for interval training or racing against your previous best. It is light and fits around your wrist well - not too big.

Counterfeit

If you want an original MS Pro Duo, then it's best to buy one from a retailer itself rather then a market place seller, as I recently found out when I received a counterfeit stick. Yes, this functions as a MS, but MagicGate NOT supported, and no warranty, so if it falls apart thats the money down the drain. And a waste of money too because you can pick this same fake MS as this off eBay for £5.99, buy now price.

Better than Sony NU-53!!

Having just returned to Amazon a brand new Sony NU-53 unit as it was near impossible tom set up with a c**p web site and instructions - this Garmin W200 is much much easier. Again like the Sony it's really disapointing to find NO AC adaptor in the box when these non-OEM are 99p on ebay! Penny pinching like Sony, but NOT like Sony this one found my home address, the maps are great and importantly there is a limited number of menu options so much easier to set up (via the cigar lighter in your car) The bracket works well even if it doesn't win any design awards as it's just plain ugly! My main criticism is the time it takes to 'warm up' each journey and it's not as good as the Tom Tom range showing the route ahead clearly but matches Tom Tom on useability and the map you're on. Overall recommend and I think Sony should keep making the best tv's!

Don't buy if you have a Mac

Do not buy this product if you have a Mac as the support team only have Windows tools to fix problems. I bought a new map but after installing it the device is"unable to store settings: file access error". The only solution from TomTom is to plug the device into a Windows PC and run a Windows exe. So I'm stuck with a device that either won't work or works with an out-of-date map. AVOID.

Excellent addition to the car.

Works a treat in a Focus with a front screen heater, soon you dont need the display (probally safer anyway) the directions are generally clear and helpful.
Minor Niggles -"left turn ahead" is not the same as"turn left ahead" it seems to suggest the former is an alternate route option. The beep for exceeding the speed limit is not always consistent - it will sometimes (very occasionally) suggest a lower speed than reality, but only for 20 yards or so.
Its routes out and back are generally not the same and probally takes account of estimated traffic speeds at different times of the day, still showed me some good alternatives i'd not have tried.
Oh, and the fixed speed cameras thing is great!

One of the best

The sat nav function is excellent and plans routes quickly. The menu system can be annoying when changing settings such as volume, which should be easy. Why not put a dial/button on the side! The voice activated functions are just a gimmick. The FM transmitter is rubbish but it could be my aerial/radio. Speaker is underpowered for routine handfree phone use but OK for odd occasions. I've not found the traffic RDS kit to be of any practical use. Everytim you lost bluetooth function you have to manually accept reconnection - stupid!

Not bad but a few flaws

This is the first Sat Nav that I have ever owned but I must admit that I took my time over buying. I did plenty of research and was p[lanning on buying the 610 model but the price of this dropped enough that I felt the extra money was worth it.

The Sat Nav works well and doesnt seem to have too many problems with the positioning of it. it seems to sit quite nicely into the car despite teh widescreen. I agree wit6h some of the other comments that have been made. the warning for the Speed cAmeras can be annoying especially if you havent updated the software (there were road works nearby that had a limited speed that have now moved but the Sat Nav doesnt realize). I have had trouble with the Taffic Master as it doesnt tell you always that there is a problem I sat the other day for 20 minutes in a Jam and it took 15 minutes to tell me there was a 1 minute delay, although it did tell me that there was a 20 minutes delay 200 miles away on my route (funnily that had gone by the time I got there).

The FM Transmitter with voice calls (thats all Ive used it for) is much quieter than other radio stations and so have to turn the radio up it is also slighly disorted when moving and not perfectally clear, but not too bad, cant hard wire it in from what I can see which is a bit of a shame cos that would allow a better quality I would think.

All in all I like it I find it easy to use and the information there is easily accessed. Definitely like the Speed Sign that appears when you are on larger roads like motorways to tell you your allowed Maximum speed.

Easy, cheap and functional. But you get what you pay for.

Truthfully it is hard to justify such a high score, as this is an item that does what it says on the tin, and nothing more. But that's all it's supposed to do, and it does it well.

No drivers required, XP just takes a couple of seconds to work out how to handle the device once plugged in and away you go. I've tested it with 2 different SD cards (16MB and 512MB) and they work with no problems, as does the 512MB MicroSD (trans-flash) card that I use with it.

The build seems solid, but too light for my liking, it feels as though more care could have been put into the build, but the build quality doesn't rattle and everything is secure. The material's shortfalls are justified by the price.

There are two potential problems that I see with this device, both are easily avoided with the most minute amount of care. The first is there is no indication as to which way up the cards should be inserted. You should find that they only go in one way, so don't force them too hard. It is fairly easy to find out by experiment how they fit in, but don't break your card in the process.
The potential problem I found is while it is connected to my PC. Now this may just be a problem with my not-quite-so-perfect PC or my incredibly old USB extension splitter thing that I used to connect it (which takes and external power supply). But I found that the device got very hot when using my MicroSD card in it, and it hadn't been left in for that long. Granted I had trasferred lots to it in a short space of time, but it still worried me a bit, you don't want your memory cards melting in there. So just a word of advice: copy you files, disconnect the device immediately, and only reconnect when you want to transfer files back. Don't work on files straight off the device.

Pity to concentrate on the fallbacks of what is essentially a very functional, versatile, portable and cheap device.

Heather

Great product,small,handy and ideal for travelling! what more could you ask for? only a 1p + postage!!And only 2 days delivery!! Brilliant!!Works well with my Sony S515!!Thankyou!!

Great for holiday journeys in the USA, useless for the daily commute in the UK

First the good. The software works very well, and the TomTom Home 2.0 application you need to get the latest updates is now available for the Mac as well as the PC. I found TomTom to be absolutely indispensible while travelling East Coast USA for three weeks and that was my primary reason for buying it. Road maps in the USA are difficult to follow (as the scale can change drastically from page to page), and TomTom got me from New York to Harrisburg PA, right up to the Adirondacks and back to New York again with absolutely no problems whatsoever. From that point of view, it was money well spent.

Here in the UK, the"traffic safety camera" alerts seem to work okay, but sometimes display the wrong speed limit or warn you of a camera that no longer exists. In fact TomTom can tell you your driving speed far more accurately than your car's speedometer and you'll be surprised how inaccurate the latter can be. TomTom can also tell you what the speed limit is for the particular road you're driving on (most roads), but again, the data is sometimes inaccurate, so don't rely on this. I suppose the golden rule is to watch the road signs, stick to just under the speed limit and ignore TomTom.

So, already it's starting to look negative and I'm only just coming to the bad features. First of all, the UK maps are horribly out of date. Many town centre road systems are completely missing (e.g. the inner ring road in Sheffield that was built between 2004 and 2007) and there are far too many places where TomTom's advice could either get you in trouble with the police, or even cause a collision (e.g. telling you to turn right or u-turn where the road signs say this is forbidden). In city centres, you are far better off switching TomTom off completely (or clearing your route) and following the road signs.

I have complained about this and TomTom wrote back saying that data takes a long time to collect, that they apparently send specially equipped vans around the country, but that they also rely on data from local councils. I will leave you to draw your own conclusions on that one.

There is a map share system, but it's horribly clunky to use and you'll be uploading your changes in vain, as they will never materialise into anything concrete from TomTom. Sheffield's inner relief road was officially opened last year, but has in fact been in use for a year before that, and the complete plans have been available on the loacl council's website since 2004. This seems to have passed TomTom by, so all you have are a bunch of roads that simply don't exist any more and TomTom thinking you're driving off road.

The traffic system is also flawed. Even when you do get updates, they are usually about 20 or 30 minutes too late. But the real problem is that these traffic updates are limited to Motorways and A roads so, even if you get a traffic update in time warning of heavy traffic, the alternative route proposed by TomTom will usually be far more heavily congested than the one you were originally following. So unless TomTom warns you that a road has actually been closed, you should ignore it. I commute from Leeds to Sheffield daily and find that I get far better advice from the local BBC radio stations.

All in all, TomTom is great for any casual journeys of over 100 miles where you're not too bothered when you arrive. It's a especially good in the US, as they muck around with their roads a lot less than we do. For daily commutes or any journey in which you have to be somehwere at a certain time in the UK, forget TomTom... use a map and listen to the local radio stations.

Like it!

By way of background I'm a part time runner, prone to injury and generally a gadget freak. Bought the original Timex Speed & Distance monitor when it was released as with family commitments I struggle to get to club or track sessions and thought it would be a useful alternative. Where the Timex didn't really hit the mark for this purpose the Garmin does. The realtime feedback is great, particularly the virtual partner. The course and interval options work well, there are nice touches like auto lap and size wise it's no problem. Where I would be concious of wearing the Timex receiver I happily wear this every run.

The bundled software is functional and useful rather than elaborate and could easily be enhanced with more features. The cynic in me says it's so Garmin can on sell the Motion Based monthly service:). So three weeks in I'm still exploring new ways of using it and all in all very pleased. Now wish I'd gone for the 305 for the heart rate monitor as well.

iPAQ 214 review

The iPAQ 214 has its quirks. The buttons I find too low in the device. If they were a little prouder it would be easier to change pages while reading e-books in bed at night. It is also not so comfortable in the hand as my older iPAQ h1930 running windows CE 4.20. I have only had the iPAQ214 for a few days but one thing that does irritate is the seemingly missing ability to scroll to the next page in a large documents. It scrolls to the next highlighted word, but that is not the same thing.
I tried a 4gig SD card to view the 3.3 gig Wikipedia I purchased but it would not work. But on the compact flash card it works a treat, so I am very pleased, as my old h1930 could not see anything over 2 gigs.
The larger screen is a nice bonus, and makes it suitable for night reading. The battery life is impressive, after reading for an hour and a half I still had 85% power left, way better than my old PDA.
Windows mobile 6 take a little getting used to, but I am sure it will be fine. Internet connecting could not have been easier. It is a nice bit of kit, not so convenient to handle as the 3.5 inch, but worth it.
I thought long and hard before buying this, and I am glad I did. Amazon were incredibly quick to deliver post free. It arrived the very next day after ordering. Apart from the low profile buttons which make it a little difficult to hold and manoeuvre the device without it slipping, I am well pleased. It does not feel as sturdy as my iPAQ h1930, and the back case is not so rigid. Also the stylus is a pain, the end piece that slots so neatly into the case when done, sticks into your finger when you write. Summing up. 7 out of 10.

Really, really good

I work on submarines and so, although we do have some 3 pin sockets, it is very hard to charge ipods etc when i'm away and the sockets are in almost constant use. I take the power monkey (i actually have 2) and from them i am able to charge my ipod, my ipaq 5550 and my nokia (for when we get alogside). It's simply excellent, you require relatively little time on the socket and one charge of the monkey seems to keep all my other bits going for ages. It holds its charge well and is really neat and compact to store (as space is obviously at a premium).

There are several little connectors which come as standard but you only take what you need, I had to buy one for my ipaq which cost £2.50 so little money for the high use i get. It comes with a set of international plug adaptors so you can charge the monkey just about anywhere you happen to pop up.

All in all i would argue that i put the monkey through some pretty hostile use and expect a lot from it and to be fair it delivers.

I would recommend it to anyone and a lot of my friends have started catching on now and are using them too.

Just a really good,practical, no nonsense piece of kit which does exactly what it says it does!

Great, but....

My first (and second PDA). Very handy little gadget. When it works it works really well. Here's the but: sadly it isn't very reliable. My first packed up after a couple of months - the screen stopped working completely. Amazon changed it - no hassle. Second one worked well for 6 months, then the keyboard key stopped working (annoying but not fatal /k is the shortcut). Now the screen input is very inaccurate, freezes regularly. The screen recalibration hangs for hours - you just have to keep touching the squares. Contact palm support - it is covered as it is under 12 months since I registered it - but Palm are impossible to contact. Email - forget it! Phone - round and round in answerphone circles! Webiste - forget it!

I really like my Palm, but it just doesn't work well enough for me to say 'buy one'. When I can afford to I will be looking elsewhere.

Best value

I looked at most of Wii component cables and found a wide variety of prices and instead of going for the highest priced one's choose these lowest priced set. I found they do the job very well, no bother and saved me nearly £20 as well over the highest priced cables.