Back in the Saddle with the TomTom Go 720 GPS

At 5:13 AM -0700 5/29/08, Adam C. Engst wrote:
>>Adam You wrote: > 'Who knew being asked if you live in the United
>>States or Canada was a Yes/No question'? Of course it's a yes/no
>>question! You do, I don't. For anyone living outside the USA or
>>Canada (and, uh, that's most people in the world), the answer is
>>'No'. cheers, SImon Kershaw St Ives, Cambridgeshire, UK
>
>Well, true... But keep in mind that this is a TomTom Go 720 that
>comes with maps of North America preloaded! Somehow I doubt hardly
>anyone outside North America would be buying this unit.

        Mexico?


--
* Johann Beda - contact link: <http://xri.net/=j-beda> *
* Johann's MostlyMac Computer Consulting - <http://mmcc.beda.ca/> *

Adam: Garmin now has Mac software that can be used to update software, do trip planning, and a bunch of other stuff. While still in beta, I've not had any problem with it. [GPS MAP 478, nuvi 660, Street Pilot 2730]

http://www8.garmin.com/macosx/

Re utility of working on your mac: It's a heck of a lot easier to plan cross country or other potentially complex routes - even intra-state - on your computer than on the device.

Duncan

TomTom HOME's interface is not very nice, agreed. But there are good reasons to sync a TomTom device a couple of times a week. You get GPS fix data, which allows your PND to lock into satellite signals much quicker after a period of inactivity. And you get MapShare updates, corrections to TomTom maps provided by users like you. --Joao T. da Costa

Well, true... But keep in mind that this is a TomTom Go 720 that comes with maps of North America preloaded!

No, their products are localised. If I select this product from the TomTom site - and it knows I live in the UK - it says: "TomTom GO 720 comes with the latest and most complete maps of Western Europe. Door-to-door accurate navigation anywhere across the continent."

Interesting how the TomTom Go compares to my setup: I use an older
version of the TomTom software on my Palm T|X.
In my case, syncing maps etc. is done via the Palm Hotsync software plus
a TomTom installer. POIs must be downloaded with a separate application.
Connecting a Palm to the computer isn't straightforward, and TomTom adds
another layer of complexity. All in all, no better than the TomTom Go
solution.

The one thing I do like about the Palm is that TomTom can access the
Palm's address book. Instead of having to enter the address manually, I
can just choose an address from the list.

I also like the idea of having one general-purpose computer, instead of
having the navigator as a separate gadget.



Harro de Jong

Thanks for this reminder, Joao. I have not updated the GPS fix data for some time. On doing so I had to agree the EULA after the YES/NO USA question. I wonder whether the YES/NO relates to a different EULA for the USA/ Canada? I am in the UK. Or could it be that the GPS fix data is different? My TomTom was very slow in Delaware a few years back.

Yes the software is ropey in that it will crash during a backup. Maybe TomTom does not keep abreast of OSX updates.

Keith

As for the Canada/USA question ... first, to claim it's a yes/no question
requires that you be a logician, if not by training then at least by
inclination. A normal person, native speaker of English, seeing that
question will assume it's a choice question. Even if that person eventually
figures out the meaning (which I think is a good trick, since the meaning
still is not clear to me), they will have spent time confused.

Second, Adam's paraphrase of the question makes the question less confusing
-- Adam couldn't help improving it. ;-) The original, per Adam's link, is

>Are you from the USA or from Canada?

The second "from" makes it much more difficult to construe this as a yes/no
question. Basically someone reading the question is going to think it's a
choice question, reach the yes/no buttons, and backtrack. I'm still not
sure what I'd do.

You *could* make this unambiguously a yes/no question if you were reading
it aloud. Read it with a rising inflection at the end of the sentence and
it's a yes/no question, even though the from/from wording is clumsy for a
yes/no question. This is because *any* vocalization ending with a rising
inflection is a question to a fluent English speaker. A simple statement
with a rising end is heard as "is this statement correct". A grunt that
ends with rising pitch is interpreted as a yes/no question. This is deeply
ingrained in English speech. (I don't know about other languages.)

But if you just start to read this question aloud, you (if you speak
English fluently) will probably inflect it with the highest pitch in the
middle, making it a choice question, because that's the most natural
interpretation of the wording. Then you get to the end and find out your
inflection was apparently incorrect, or else the answers are jumbled. In
writing, you don't have inflection to disambiguate.

For these reasons, even if a logician can interpret this as a yes/no
question, it's extremely poor writing and UI design. And that was Adam's
criticism.

Edward
--
Art works by Melynda Reid: http://paleo.org

On Jun 8, 2008, at 4:47 PM, Edward Reid wrote:

> As for the Canada/USA question ... first, to claim it's a yes/no
> question
> requires that you be a logician, if not by training then at least by
> inclination. A normal person, native speaker of English, seeing that
> question will assume it's a choice question. Even if that person
> eventually
> figures out the meaning (which I think is a good trick, since the
> meaning
> still is not clear to me), they will have spent time confused.

I *think* it must mean "are you in either the United States or
Canada?". That's how I can make it into a Yes/No question.

But I wouldn't bet the farm on it (and I don't have a farm).

   -John

Adam -

Your review of the 720 was a lifesaver for me. I bought a TomTom 130.
I used it to get back to my hotel from the retailer after buying while
on a business trip.

Back at the hotel, I was just getting into reading the manual--I'm one
of those people who actually reads them--when I decided to update the
unit using the TomTom Home software on my Powerbook. Things started
nicely but, it turned out to be a big mistake.

I updated the GPS unit then I made a backup. That was easy enough. U
thought I was finished when I ran into the same problem as you: the
device would not restart "normally".

I know that I did not cause the problem by failure to properly eject
the device. I was especially careful after reading about your troubles.

After a couple of hours (off and on) of unsucessfully trying different
ways to get the thing to restart normally, I re-read your article.

I decided to erase the device using Disk Utility then I restored it
with the backup I made earlier. The restoration process took more than
30 minutes!

This time when I restarted the unit the normal splash screen appeared
and I was back in business. Thanks.

--
Curtis Tucker
Savannah GA