New TomTom ONE XL

TomTom have announced a new in-car GPS unit, the TomTom ONE XL, with a larger 4.3 inch screen and sleek new design. The screen is actually slightly larger than its big brothers', the GO 510, 710 and 910 (but it is only .3 of an inch!).

The ONE XL is also now capable of getting traffic data and speed camera locations along with the other TomTom Plus services.

TomTom ONE XL will be available across Europe, the US, Australia and South Africa from May 2007. The UK variant comes with two map options:

- TomTom ONE XL for UK & ROI at £249
- TomTom ONE XL for Western Europe at £279


Pretty pricey considering the existing ONE is £179.99 with UK maps and a GO 510 is only another £20 more than an XL with UK maps! And as far as I can tell the only difference between a GO 510 and an XL is that there is no bluetooth handsfree or iPod control on the XL.

The new screen and inclusion of Plus services is nice but are they worth an extra £70 over the old ONE and only £20 less than a GO 510?

Maybe not if you just need directions and none of the extra stuff. I donno, it's all so confusing.

Gadgets of 2006

Before we get into the 2007 stuff (and next week there's plenty going on with CES and Macworld), I thought I'd have a quick look back at my 2006 gadgets.

It was a good year, an excellent one actually. At the beginning of 2006 there were a couple of things I was really hoping for in the year to come - a new iPod nano with at least 8GB capacity and a redesigned Nintendo DS.

My wishes came true and both were delivered (and duly purchased) in the form of the 2G nanos and DS lite. I love them both (in sweet black).

Other highlights were my TomTom GO 510 sat-nav, Sennheiser CX 300 earphones to go with my new nano, Plantronics Voyager 510 bluetooth headset and last but in no way least, my Nintendo Wii.

I'm really pleased with all of my gadget purchases in 2006 and can happily recommend any of them. But if I had to pick one that was the stand out favourite, which would it be?

It's a hard choice. I now don't really go anywhere in the car without my TomTom, it's excellent and I love the traffic updates and bluetooth hands free features.

But what about the DS, playing New Super Mario Bros. was simply awesome, not to mention Brain Training and Mario Kart DS. And then there's the 8GB nano, I use it almost every day and think it's about as perfect as an MP3 player can get.

Or should it be the Wii? I don't think I've had it long enough yet to truly decide. I love all my gadgets, it's like asking me to choose my favourite child (I imagine).

But I have to choose one. And it has to be the iPod nano 8GB. I'd wanted one from the moment they released the original in 2005 - 4GB just wasn't enough for me. The 2nd generation nano is everything a great gadget should be - small, sleek, gorgeous and brilliant at what it does. It's what the nano should have been in the first place but Apple got it right second time around. I honestly can't fault it in any way.

The Wii would probably have pipped the nano to the top of the list if it had been around a little sooner in 2006 but it feels more like a 2007 product to me as I only really started playing it over Christmas. The DS lite comes a very close third and TomTom fourth.

So there you go. 2006 was a great gadget year. What will 2007 bring? Maybe a new Mac or will I finally take the plunge and grab an HDTV and Sky HD? Who knows, I'll keep you posted.

What were your favourite 2006 gadgets? Post in the comments and let us know!

Free TomTom Traffic Updates, sort of.

How about not paying a yearly subscription for TomTom traffic and instead being able to use the over the air RDS-TMC traffic info instead? Any lucky 'GO' users out there can make the one off payment for the RDS-TMC Traffic receiver and make use of the free service to replot and avoid traffic incidents.

So what are the differences in terms of the service? Well, the RDS-TMC is going to require fm radio signal and a source that provides the information, this is obviously going to vary location by location, versus the GPRS on-demand nature of the TomTom Plus traffic system. The RDS-TMC wont work on every TomTom device, so 'ONE' users like myself will not have this option. Also the RDS-TMC has a limited number of messages, so its likely that the more expensive (in the long term) TomTom Plus service is more suitable if you must have the latest, most detailed traffic info.

At around £68 its not bad value, depending on how well it performs in the field. Of course you do have yet another attachment (the RDS-TMC Traffic receiver) to take with you, versus the omni-present mobile phone which connects you to the TomTom Plus service.

You can check it out on the TomTom UK website here or google it to your heart's content.

I would be remiss if I didn't chuck in a quick mention to any TomTom owners, mac or pc, who dont have the rather good TomTom Home software, for managing their beloved device. When I bought my 'ONE' it didn't have any mac software available, now it does. Recently installing it and allowing it to update my TomTom firmware gave 'Jane' a very nice face-lift. All gradients everywhere and some improved/re-vamped icons. Added functionality included the ability to navigate to Latitude and Longditude also the arrive by time function - where you can put in a time which you wish to arrive by when you plan your route. TomTom Home can be downloaded from this page on the UK site.

Tags: TomTom, GPS, RDS-TMC, Traffic Receiver, Traffic updates, Radio, TomTom Home, firmware, latitude, longditude

Tom Tom One, two, three?

Old news from an international point of view (US got this a couple of weeks back) but now Europe and the UK will have the pleasure of the smartly re-designed TomTom One. But for whatever reason its not totally straight forward. You see the TomTom One (the original) isn't going anywhere, in fact its still on the site and more expensive then the new TomTom One. Possible reasons include the different processor speeds (slower in the new unit). In addition to this, there are two flavours of TomTom One (new) a local version and a Euro version, with maps to suit.

Regardless this has got to be one of the sexiest and slimmest top notch navigators out there. My personal experience with the original TomTom One has been a fantastic one, a complete liberation for someone who equates Up and Down the country with my personal altitude and direction at that particular time, homing pigeon I am not.

Tags: TomTom, GPS, Sat Nav, in-car navigation system, gadget, satellite navigation, maps