new tomtom devices

Thanks!

Does anyone have one of the new generation TomTom's? If so, do you use the traffic/smartphone option? If so, do you think it comparable to the internal traffic feature included on most existing TomTom's equipped w/ their 'traffic' power cord?

No one in North America has one of the new generation devices described in the above link. Those are just being announced for initial release in April of this year, so an answer about performance of *these* units is not possible right now.

However, these models are described as having TomTom's "HD Traffic" - which is already available in the current "GO LIVE" series of units like my GO LIVE 1535. That traffic info is normally superior to the traffic data that is supplied via the RDS-TMC antenna in the power cord.

The RDS-TMC data typically provides updates about every 15 minutes and the coverage tends to be limited to major highways. In my experience, the "HD Traffic" data is updated about every 3 minutes and covers many more highways and streets.

From the information provided, it appears that the difference in "HD Traffic" data between the new units and the current GO LIVE units is in how the data is transmitted and received. The current units include a built-in cell phone that receives a signal from AT&T over an older generation of cell technology. The new units use your own phone to receive the traffic data and forward it to the GPS.

FWIW, I have seen a claim by TomTom that if you use the traffic feature for an hour every day, the data usage on your phone will be about 7mb per month - which answers my immediate concern about the traffic data being charged against my phone's data plan, and the potential for a big phone bill as a result. If the 7mb per month figure is accurate, then I won't see any impact at all on my phone bill.

- Tom -