Text To Speech on Tom Tom 7

[slypher]

Originally Posted by rose1

Garmin XT is way better

I never tried Garmin. Can you make some comparisons as to why Garmin is better than TomTom?

Do they offer a trial so that we can try it out?

-s

[bwillet]

I've used both Garmin and TomTom fairly extensively, and I prefer Garmin. Considering you can find Garmin for only around $60 (search froogle.com), I think it's a steal. Here's a pros/cons list (all my opinion, of course).

- Garmin's maps seem to be a little better
- Garmin's routing is better
- Easier to enter addresses in Garmin
- Garmin has free traffic (though usually too delayed to be useful), weather, gas prices (very cool)
- Garmin can be a bit pokey, you always seem to be a bit further ahead than the screen shows, making it occasionally difficult to know where to turn in an unfamilar area
- TomTom's status bar is configurable. It annoys the crap out of me that on Garmin, you're stuck with your speed being in the lower left corner, and arrival time in the lower right. These are not changeable. Why do I need my speed displayed, when I have a speedometer right in front of me? Wouldn't it be much smarter to display remaining time, an arrow indicating direction of next turn, miles remaining, or even a clock?
- They both deal with detours differently. TomTom gives you more options as far as dealing with rerouting and detours, but Garmin's ability to eliminate a specific TURN (not a street) is more useful than anything TomTom offers, IMHO
- Garmin doesn't have all the different voices available
- TomTom's motion is smoother
- Garmin has fewer issues with built-in GPS (at least on Mogul and Touch)

[drurc8]

Does Garmin have TTS?

[rose1]

Originally Posted by slypher

I never tried Garmin. Can you make some comparisons as to why Garmin is better than TomTom?

Do they offer a trial so that we can try it out?

-s

Mainly because I hear with TOMTOM, you have to open up a GPS port before using it. This is called priming the GPS where as with Garmin XT, it gets a gps lock within seconds. Garmin XT does not have TTS but I really don't expect that from a mobile device.

As far as a free trial, you can d/l it off the garmin website and try it out.

[kenca]

i have both tomtom 7 and garmin xt. garmin is much better in canada. no tts on both.

[slypher]

Originally Posted by bwillet

I've used both Garmin and TomTom fairly extensively, and I prefer Garmin. Considering you can find Garmin for only around $60 (search froogle.com), I think it's a steal. Here's a pros/cons list (all my opinion, of course).

- Garmin's maps seem to be a little better
- Garmin's routing is better
- Easier to enter addresses in Garmin
- Garmin has free traffic (though usually too delayed to be useful), weather, gas prices (very cool)
- Garmin can be a bit pokey, you always seem to be a bit further ahead than the screen shows, making it occasionally difficult to know where to turn in an unfamilar area
- TomTom's status bar is configurable. It annoys the crap out of me that on Garmin, you're stuck with your speed being in the lower left corner, and arrival time in the lower right. These are not changeable. Why do I need my speed displayed, when I have a speedometer right in front of me? Wouldn't it be much smarter to display remaining time, an arrow indicating direction of next turn, miles remaining, or even a clock?
- They both deal with detours differently. TomTom gives you more options as far as dealing with rerouting and detours, but Garmin's ability to eliminate a specific TURN (not a street) is more useful than anything TomTom offers, IMHO
- Garmin doesn't have all the different voices available
- TomTom's motion is smoother
- Garmin has fewer issues with built-in GPS (at least on Mogul and Touch)

Originally Posted by rose1

Mainly because I hear with TOMTOM, you have to open up a GPS port before using it. This is called priming the GPS where as with Garmin XT, it gets a gps lock within seconds. Garmin XT does not have TTS but I really don't expect that from a mobile device.

As far as a free trial, you can d/l it off the garmin website and try it out.

Thanks for the info. FYI, I can prime tomtom using an astrolauncher link. This makes it so that i start tomtom and open the GPS port at the same time.

However, the features mentioned (such as the gas prices and it being easier to enter destinations) make Garmin appealing. I will be trying it out soon.

-s

[koolit]

Yes, TTS is available in TT7 maps. Search on the web (or torrents) and you will find it.

[slypher]

Originally Posted by koolit

Yes, TTS is available in TT7 maps. Search on the web (or torrents) and you will find it.

TTS is available, but the engine needed to actually "read" the TTS data is not in TT7 for the PDA. The particular map that I have does contain the files though. This is what prompted me to reach out to TomTom support for an official answer (which turns out to be the same answer that sadthai gave in post # 3 )

-s

[neogeek]

not all tomtoms use linux, I am pretty sure the 720 uses embedded windows, so I don't see why we can't get it from the one of those and go from there?

Update: After doing a little research Loquendo TTS engine can run on Windows Mobile 6 so I think it is still possible. If people want TTS now, iGo 8 has support for it, although it is a very bloated program.

Update x2: Nevermind, all tomtom devices are linux pna's. awell

[varunb007]

i couldn't get garmin to work but i have tried tomtom, iguidance, igo and destinator. i've decided to go with destinator because it has text to speech, is finger friendly and seems to pick up where i am pretty quickly (rather than being delayed, as someone mentioned about garmin). i wish it had traffic and other real-time features, but i guess that's what google maps/ms live search are for.