back to article TomTom drums up upgrade for iPhone app

An update for the TomTom app on the iPhone is "coming soon". That's what TomTom is saying today at the IFA consumer tech show in Berlin. Version 1.5 is optimised for iOS 4 and contains one very show-offy feature - Navigate-to-photo. Users can "easily navigate to a location by selecting a photo stored in the iPhone gallery. …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Troll

    Ooohh...

    ..Navigate to photo is already in Copilot for Android at a fraction of the cost.

  2. Mike White

    Navigate to Photo

    not a new idea, Garmins have had this facility for some time now and it's actually quite neat

    Find a pic of a beauty spot you want to go there and go to that exact spot

    https://connect.garmin.com/photos

    1. Ian Michael Gumby

      @Mike White.

      Yeah. Like I said.. no brainer.

      But unless you have a Garmin phone, your sat nav device doesn't have a camera. So how do you load the pick on the device?

      That's the kicker. You get your coordinates via the geo tagged photo. You could easily have just had an API that allowed you to enter the coordinates manually and well off you go.

      I was wondering if anyone thought about this in terms of trying to patent it. Its really a trivial obvious thing to patent. But hey! What do I know? I don't work for the USPTO so what I and most people would think to be obvious, well... it may not be obvious to the blokes working there.

  3. Jan 0 Silver badge

    0

    Let's hope that they've figured out how to use the compass. Walking directions are hopeless without it. (You don't know which way to head off in.)

  4. Chris Holt
    Paris Hilton

    When have you ever wanted to drive to a photo?

    You take a photo as a memory of somewhere you have been - holidays or drunk with mates in the pub...

    If I have been there, I generally know where it is. If I have taken a photo of it I am generally not going back there again. And if I am in the pub, its 100yds down the road.

    It would be much better if they fixed HD traffic subscriptuion, that I am currently battling with...

    That will be all.

    Paris - because she *would* probably use it - 'nuff said

  5. Annihilator
    Go

    Lack of imagination

    "This sounds gimmicky to us, but perhaps this is a failure of the imagination on our part"

    Nope, definitely no failure there...

  6. Ian Michael Gumby
    Thumb Up

    Using a geo tagged photo is a no brainer.

    If you think about this...here's a good use case.

    We have friends who are visiting London on vacation.

    They have an incredible meal at a small restaurant that is off the beaten path (we're tourists right?).

    So they take a geo tagged photo of the front of the restaurant.

    My wife and I decide to visit London for Holiday. Our friends send us the pic and say... go check this place out.

    Rather than try and google the restaurant's name and try and find its address, we just use the picture's geo tag and say 'take us here'. The app does the rest.

    Sure there are other ways of doing this ... but this is a very convenient way of communicating the location. Not only do you have its location, but you can match the photo to the exterior building so you know you're at the right location. (100 W Smythe Street vs 100 W Smith Street ... you get the idea).

    Thumbs up because its a cute idea.

  7. Rob
    FAIL

    Why is it...

    ... that anything iPhone related has usually already been done.

    Copilot already has all these features and yes your right navigating to a picture is generally useless unless it was someone who has geotagging enabled on their phone and sent you the image, other than that if I was there to take the pic, I'd bookmark in Copilot while I was standing there.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Great feature

    I've just tried it with my Nexus One, found a geotagged photo in the gallery, displayed it on Google Maps, you can navigate to the marker with the free turn by turn Google Navigation app.

    I'd never have thought of doing that unless I'd seen the article! Admittedly it does take 4 clicks…

  9. SSR
    FAIL

    Where are the real features?

    Definitely file under gimmick.

    How about map updates, that include roads built 5 years ago but still not shown? Although I know TomTom don't produce the maps.

    Or some functionality updates? TomTom beats others hands down for navigation and with their traffic service (yes, I have CoPilot and Navigon), but on a normal commute I don't need directions, I just need traffic warnings. Yet I can only enable or disable audio for all. Adding a traffic warning only alert would make a lot of sense. Similarly for speed cameras, although CamerAlert is far better for that.

    Or how about allowing us to download maps and voices within the iPhone app, like the standalone devices can do?

    Or how about widening the available maps out to those already for sale on the standalone devices? They have much more choice.

    Shall I go on?

    1. Ian Michael Gumby

      @SSR

      I don't know what rock you've been living under but...

      TomTom bought TeleAtlas which is probably why Nokia bought Navteq. So there are 3 companies Navteq, TeleAtlas and Google which produce data.

      As to getting up to date roads, here's the thing... the world is a very big place. So when you have a finite fleet of cars that are equipped with GPS and camera that can only drive a finite number of routes per day... it will take years before you can re-drive some routes.

      So if you missed your shot of Mooning Google as they drive by your house, you'll have to wait a couple of years till you get your next chance. ;-)

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Actually, I'd want the reverse - kill the geo tags

    I am totally not happy with the iPhone geo tagging my pictures, so for those that like to keep some control over those data leaks, the bad news is that you first have to get them off the iPhone to work on them.

    The good news is that you *can* get rid of them. There are various tools to manipulate EXIF data, the most comprehensive one is a PERL command line tool "exiftool" by Phil Harvey which you can find at http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/. Being PERL it's platform independent, and if command lines are not your thing there are a number of GUI wrappers mentioned on the page. The tool can be used to view, edit and delete a wide variety of image metadata.

    For those in a hurry, the command line to remove all geo tags is -gps:all=, the full geo tagging command set is covered here: http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/geotag.html

    NB: Tomtom works for me, but they still haven't realised that the idea of a car is that you have your eyes on the ROAD when you drive, not prodding at yet-another-messages-you-don't-need to get back at a usable display. Maybe all developers use public transport?

  11. Si 1

    Multi-tasking

    The current version of TomTom on the iPhone seems quite happy to carry on giving directions even when running other apps. I'm not sure what extra multi-tasking TomTom think they can offer when it already does this.

    In fact I have to remember to quit the app otherwise it starts demanding I make a u-turn from my pocket in the middle of a meeting.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    STILL no Android?

    You're barking up the wrong tree here TomTom....... where's the Android version? Or are you too busy worrying about the J phone?

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Gates Halo

    Oh and....

    ... the WinMo version has had this feature for AT LEAST the past four years.

  14. Craig Vaughton
    Flame

    Does it have...?

    It may well behave with multitasking already, but could they please include a "close app" function? Because that would be much simpler than wondering why your battery is virtually flat after you've used TomTom and why your leg is getting really warm under your iPhone!

    £42 whatever, so you're saying I have to buy the new version rather than get it as an upgrade for either free or a lot less? Sorry, not going to happen.

    Flames for obvious reason.

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