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1. SS2008

   August 4, 2011

   321 of 344 people found the following review helpful:

   
   The search for the best GPS, November 15, 2009

   By 

   SS2008 (Georgia) –

   This review is from: TomTom XL 340S LIVE 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

   (please keep in mind the date of this review, it is from Nov. 2009 and some things have changed since then)

   I have used many GPS devices such as Garmin, TomTom, Navigon, etc.. And in the end the TomTom products always seem to be superior. Every time I buy a new GPS, I sit in my driveway and do a few simple tests. The first is how fast is it ready to navigate. I don’t think anyone will ever be faster than TomTom. Second, how easy is it for me to find a local store I shop at every week… for example the local Kroger’s grocery store that’s close to my house. Again, TomTom can help me route to this very quickly and with minimal amounts of button pushing. To be fair, other devices may be able to find the same place, but not without having to scroll through 1000 POI’s, or without having to push 50 buttons… Third, I need weather and traffic, and as much information as I can get about where I am, where I am going, and what’s in between.. the more information the better as far as I am concerned. TomTom again is excellent in this area and now with a built in data connection provided by a cell signal, I can have all the information that I want, anywhere and anytime. I have tried the FM traffic version of this, and the MSN version of this, but MSN is going to stop offering this service next year (2010), so don’t waste your time getting a device that you plan to use MSN on, and the FM signal range and quality of data has left me a bit underwhelmed. Once again the TomToms “Live” feature has found a great way to provide real-time information to me regardless of where I am. Yes, this feature is free for the first three months, and then runs about $10 a month. If you buy this GPS, try the Live feature out for a week or so and if you don’t see the value, then go back to buying printed maps, because you are not ready for the future of GPS devices. One of the interesting features of the Live service is the ability to use Google search right from the device. At first I was not sure what use this would be, then I found myself in a situation where a location I thought should be a POI was not found on the device, or perhaps I was not looking in the right place, or had the category wrong… who knows.. But I went to the Google search feature, and told it what I was looking for, and Google pulled up some listings just like it does on your computer, and I selected what I wanted, and the device created the route from that. So for some reason if the GPS device can’t understand or find what you are looking for, then Google is there to fill in the gap. Another great feature of the Live service is the location of cheap gas! Yes, that’s right, the Live service can tell you all about the gas prices around you, and help you get to the cheapest. Who couldn’t benefit from that? Additionally, the “TomTom At Home” software that you install on your computer does a great job of updating the device, make changes to it or even plan routes or travel from it. Lots of GPS’s lets you update the device from the web, but none allow as much interaction with the device outside of basic map updates then the “At Home” software. If being able to interact with the GPS device using your computer is important to you, then I would suggest getting a TomTom for now. For me, this device has all you can ask for in a car GPS (PND for you tech geeks), and the price is right. The device is advanced, yet easy to interact with, so I feel even for a first time GPS user, or non-tech type of person, you would still be very happy. I have spent a long time on my quest for a great GPS device, and I hope this little bit of information will be helpful to you on yours.

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2. a gadget lover

   August 4, 2011

   363 of 369 people found the following review helpful:

   
   Good features for the price: $149, October 12, 2009

   By 

   a gadget lover (CA, USA) –

   Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)

   This review is from: TomTom XL 340S 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

   I’m pretty tech savvy and have used different GPS devices in the past. I chose Tomtom over Garmin mainly due to tomtom HOME support, better user interface: tomtom has more info on the screen including the street name you’re driving on.

   Most negative reviews here are from issues updating map which is larger than the old one (about 5 Mb larger) and causes error.
   but it’s simple to go around it.

   1. connect to home computer. turn the unit on. select Yes to connect. Tomtom Home will install on your computer.
   2. on Tomtom HOME menu, go to “Manage my ONE XL”. On Items on Device, click voices. you can back up then delete all foreign computer voices (recorded voice files are small, so doesn’t matter). just keep DAVE, and Susan computer voices( you need at least one computer voice for spoken street names). You should free up about 130 Mb (much more than you need)
   3. now you can update new map with no problem. it does take a long time. after you’re done, you still have 125 Mb extra to download customized items, map corrections in the future. customized car symbols are really cool, as are start up and shut down images. these customized items and map corrections are so small: tiny to 0.5 Mb that with > 125 Mb free, you can keep updating for years to come.

   Pros: 4.3 inch screen, great routing, advanced lane guidance (it does work well), IQ route (faster route based on historical traffic data), very quick GPS fix <30 sec (but you need to connect to computer at least every 7 days so that a GPS file can be updated to help fix signal quickly), a little longer for a cold start or if you forget to sync with your computer more than 7 days, but it’s still around 1 minute or less to fix the signal. also very strong signal, almost full bar inside my house. Text to speech (for spoken street names) is computer voice, so it’s OK. recorded voices are nicer but unable to do text to speech. the included Easyport mount is great, simple, stable.

   Cons: the screen brightness at 100% is still not as bright as I want (I also use Tomtom Navigator 6 on my smartphone with better contrast, brightness) but you still can see fine on a sunny day. The computer voices for text to speech are not as clear when you drive and play music.

   In summary, this tomtom has a lot of great features for the price. if you don’t need bluetooth (for hands free call with your cell phone, which is not good anyway because your volume always appears tiny to the other end), FM transmitter (which is not practical if you need to play your CD in the car), or live traffic receiver (which is spotty based on the info I’ve read), This 340S is the one to get. most people own smartphones these days with internet, so they can get live traffic, up to date points of interest from Google map, play mp3 and pictures. So you don’t really need those features from a GPS device (which is more expensive)

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3. T. E. Pickering

   August 4, 2011

   856 of 876 people found the following review helpful:

   
   great unit, but there are things you need to know., September 18, 2009

   By 

   T. E. Pickering –
   
     

   This review is from: TomTom XL 340S 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

   just received my new GPS today, plugged it into my mac, and installed tomtom’s mac version of their home software. everything has worked well so far and the free map update installed fine. there are two main things that purchasers need to know:

   1) space is very limited on the device. there is only 2 GB of internal flash memory and out of the box there was less than 50 MB free. the very first thing you should do is to delete voices in languages you don’t use. this will free up a couple/three hundred MB. they can get backed up to your computer so you could always put them back in the future. once a bit of space is freed up you’ll be able to update the device without issue. after removing spanish and french voices, running update which installed a new dave voice, and then installing the free map update i was left with 89 MB free. when i tried to run update before removing the voices, the unit warned me about lack of space and aborted without creating any further problems. maybe the mac version of home is more robust than the windows one in this respect.

   2) the device only supports USB 1.1 transfers which max out at a bit over 1 MB/sec and can be slower. so doing a full backup or a map update will take quite a while (1-2 hours) and this is normal.

   for me, those limitations are more than offset by the large, bright screen, text2speech capability, crowd-sourced map/route updates, and cheaper southern africa maps (we’re moving there soon). especially given the cheap sale price i found. i will provide updates as i put unit through paces on cross-country trip and then intercontinental move…..

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