Bobmeister -- that's really useful information about battery life. Off to europe next week, and tossing up whether to pay 10 euro a day to guarantee in car GPS, or to buy TomTom for iPhone if the car turns out not to have GPS. Sounds like I'd def need some form of backup power (passenger could plug into laptop, or stump up for car charger). It's a real pity that the TomTom car cradle is not yet available, as it sounds like that will turn it into a pretty sweet device, esp. as the cradle has a more sensitive GPS chip built in. The Europe maps are quite expensive though ($179), so I could just shell for the GPS in-car guarantee.
Ended up buying the Sygic MobileMaps as it's got maps for Australia and New Zealand under the $85 price tag, whereas the TomTom one charges $120 for NZ alone.
"Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads." - Doc Emmet Brown
Getting a decent GPS signal is the key to this. I purchased an el-cheapo holder that sits in an air vent.
While it works a lot of the time, sometimes you just get a "Poor GPS signal" message and there is no real reason for it. If the Phone was closer to the windscreen base so that it had a better view of the sky, this would resolve the reception issue.
For example I went from the North Shore to Auckland Airport this afternoon and it worked perfectly out there. When I turned around to come home, I set it for "Home", but got a "Poor GPS Signal" most of the way. It was still the same sky, but I was heading in the opposite direction (brilliant deduction) and maybe the angle of the satellites was different.
I think the Tom Tom iPhone cradle will be a must for the app when it comes out.
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