TomTom New Zealand

This is an amazing piece of software that I can't believe sits on my phone and weighs in at 86Mb! Steve Jobs needs to revise his introduction of the iPhone I think, as he described it as 3 devices in 1. Wrong! Now add a GPS unit to that! Even people who have not shown much interest in my phone have suddenly started taking note that now it's a GPS unit also.

The software is exceptionally easy to use and has been adapted to work well on the iPhone, with simple menus and map zooming using the pinch motion. It very much feels like an iPhone app. The menus can seem a bit complex at first (sometimes Apple tries to be helpful by making menus cycles back to what you were actually looking for and TomTom does this also) but for someone who had never used GPS in his life, I was up and running in 5 minutes....and I know there is so much more to come from this application! That said, I imagine that as I search for streets and areas that are unknown to me, the search section might seem a little awkward.

It's not prefect however...I noted that on a few occasions (particularly as you were getting near your final destination) that it would say thinks like "Turn right, then..." and silence. Obviously these are glitches that can be resolved. At the same time, Help Support is a little lacking. For the cost of the app, I'd like to see a PDF manual on the TomTom site. I may not need it that much, but I just worry I'm missing the true capabilities of the phone and I won't find out by checking the TomTom website...whose current iPhone help isn't always actually for the iPhone.

I find the graphics are quite suited to their purpose and love that you can adjust colours for day and night time driving...handy for someone like me with slight colour blindness. The kiwi male voice sounds like a kiwi, but the female voice certainly doesn't (personally I like Irish Kathy, but I'm not sure what I lose by not picking a Kiwi voice?) but I hope also that perhaps more voices can be purchased as add-ins in the future.

Overall a superb app, but you need to appreciate the cost involved. I'm concerned that additional maps for other countries look to be an outright complete purchase ($105 for Australian maps for example, even though the NZ app is $120?!) rather than an in-app purchase to expand on what you have. If I was heading to Australia (for example) I think it would superb if I could just add in the road data for NSW at say a $20 purchase, rather than having to buy a complete new app. I also think the car-kit is going to be a 'must have' item and can't wait for that to come and support the use of the phone.

Truth be told, I don't do that much driving that requires a map, but I think I don't care. This is the type of app that blows me away and I want it on my iPhone.

On my phone!! I don't think I'm going to stop being amazed by that!!

[Updated as TomTom have now put a lot of support material on line]