TomTom Go 720 Lets You Improve Maps As You Go
There are many sweet things about TomTom’s new $499 Go 720, but the most important feature is Map Share. If you’ve ever driven with GPS, you know how annoying it is when map data is wrong. Now, as you drive along, you can make five different kinds of correction on the fly.
You can say if a street is blocked (or unblocked), note a change in street’s direction, add a name or rename a street, add a point of interest, or remove or rename an existing point of interest. If there are other changes to be made—say you’ve discovered a new road—you can report those in to TomTom with the touch of a button. Find out how it works, and what else is going on with the 720, after the jump.
AU: Just got a release today on this GPS for the local market. No pricing as yet, and a release timing of ‘third quarter’. Q3 is only a month away, though, so if they’re keeping it vague I’m guessing that will mean September.
As you’re driving and you notice something weird, you can tap on the appropriate corrections icons. It’s not completely thorough, but you can get pretty detailed. Then you bring the 720 home and sync it via USB. The good news is that when you sync your changes, you can also subscribe to other changes. The bad news is that changes are not updated in real time. If I spot something, the absolute soonest you’ll get wind of it is a day later.
Even if you don’t sync, you will automatically see changes you made yourself, but if you do sync, you can also get, in order of trustworthiness: changes verified by TomTom, changes to assorted POIs you subscribe to, changes from sources trusted by TomTom, changes reported by “many” and changes reported by “some.”
Though Map Share is the biggest innovation, other cool features include:
• A slim design with 4.3″ widescreen
• An improved handsfree Bluetooth speaker phone
• Compatibility with an RDS-TMC traffic receiver (sold separately)
• The ability to record your own voice for turn by turn instructions
&bull A “Help Me!” menu in case of emergency, which tells you your exact position in a language that can be understood by 911 operators and pick-up truck drivers alike.
For more details, feel free to skim the slides in the gallery below.
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
when will the go720 be availible in Australia, and any idea of price?
it is apparent that no one can give a solid answer. Even having a TomTom account and posting a direct question to them. I asked them over their 24hr response system on the 27th last month and still not recieved a reply. Hope this is not a continued support response ie NIL.
I have a had a dealer quote Sept 7 to me in Australia.
We just purchased the 720 Go for Australia but have found that the share function has been disabled due to Sensis/whereis maps. But this was not advertised on the box that the function was not available!
I’ll be returning my unit shortly… almost everything else is great, but the primary selling point of the 720 is the Map Share feature, which is prominently marketed by Tomtom and every reseller, yet it has been disabled.
I encourage people to complain to the ACCC about this obvious example of misleading and deceptive conduct.
Have finally spoken to TomTom… they’re saying it’ll be MID-2008 before Map Share is enabled here!!!
Pathetic.
Read this before you purchase a TomTom
I just purchased a TomTom Go 720 and have found a major design deficiency in that you can only select by city first so if a street borders on an adjoining suburb then it is imposable to find the street unless you know what the adjoining suburb is, this floor renderers the Tom Tom useless unless you have a street directory handy.
I have explained this to their support and I found them a waste of time, this would have to be a problem for every TomTom user.
I am returning this to the retailer and will purchase another brand.
Brian
Brian,
Im also baffelled by this silly design decision also. Why would they believe you would know the suburb first, then the street name. Most people know what street they want as a destination.
For example, you might say 100 South Road, which goes through about 10 suburbs. How do you know 100 will be in a certain suburb.
It annoys me, as I cant work out if the software engineers actually used the product why they would do this. The only thing I can think of is that maybe they believe that you live in USA and your not going to use the device to just go to the next suburb, but the next city…??
I found the best way to address this is to use the city as the major city and then the offending street can be found – ie use Melbourne to find a street that crosses Blackburn and Nunawading. So the idea is start with your “big” city…otherwise you can waster a lot of time..
What about using UBD maps and getting it right instead of whereis/sensismaps.
A road near my place has had a piece missing even though it has been here for many years
RON
bought a ubd road map for $14.95 never failed me yet, and saved $500 by not buying a g.p.s purchased myself a few cartons of beer.Yes i am simple but i am Happy.