TT5 Upgrade...initial observations

Nice ,neat package, comprising 6x CD’s…(apart from ‘Maps’, no idea what each of them are.) 1 x Installation CD, an ID code card, basic instructions, and a brief overview and that’s it.

Loaded installation CD…first message says that it can’t find something to do with Palm…hit OK. Then says delete this and delete that…too complicated for me…just press on with install…seems OK., after going online and inserting various alpha/numeric code numbers which must mean something to them.

Now for the maps, but which CD / Stich the first one in…hey presto..it’s for the UK…shame they didn’t label it. Half hour later, still loading…go for cup of tea….again after sorting out registration letters and numbers on line again.

And now to try it out. GPS seems awfully slow compared to TT3…and it’s quite a bit different to TT3, and not for the best in my opinion. Try and navigate to the ‘Post Code’ option, which is one of the selling points…keyed a local post code in, but now what ? No, ‘ok’ or ‘done’…just sitting there in limbo…what am I supposed to do…give up, as there is nothing in the handbook or even on line…hopeless. (Give me back my POSoft Postcode anyday.)

Now I try to personalize the navigator menu

pages, like I did on TT3, but hey, doesn’t seem possible…the options are fixed on each page. How annoying…I like to switch map views or exit all on the first page. And how do I get back to Windows easily…? Oh no, I have to exit if that’s what you want to do. Check out my POI Warner POI’s…they’re all there thank goodness, but wait, no sound warnings to go with them. In fact, Warner is not actually showing the little Green box that shows it’s monitoring…have to call them to see if it’s compatible with TT5. Meanwhile, have to use the built in TT5 sounds instead….not so flexible as POI Warner though, (where you can also use you’re your own)…just one advance warning only is available also with T5. Not all bad news though, roads are now named, and I like the choice of map colours,but I still can’t work out planning a route off line on the kitchen table…keeps insisting that GPS is not available, which I know.

It’s still early days, but I’m not too sure it’s worth the price of the upgrade…it’s really the latest maps that I was really after. I do feel though that the online ‘manual’ leaves a lot to be desired, in fact it’s total rubbish to a novice like myself…they really need a ‘Dummies’ guide…. it is just not comprehensive enough.

Couple of other things..how do you navigate to, say, St Albans, without having to put a full address in ? And now it won’t complete the route to a ‘favourite’ until GPS is available….(TT3 would always calculate the route before your eyes.)

So, it seems that it’s going to take a bit of getting used to…..trouble with software guys, they seem to like it to be as difficult as possible, ignoring the fact that it really should be simple, and more to the point, ‘user friendly.’

[Charlie]

That’s quite a long post so I'll just comment on a few things to keep it short.
If you tap on NAVIGATE TO then select POSTCODE on the next page you should have a DONE button in the lower right corner of the keyboard (this may depend on what options you have selected in Keyboard Preferences).

The reason you can’t customize it like you did with TT3 is because it makes it easier to provide support on the product when everyone is looking at the same thing on their PDA screen. I know from experience that when users move the buttons around in the menu it makes the support role twice as hard.

You exit in a similar way as you did in TT3 (or at least the way you should have been doing in TT3) by opening the menu and tapping on MORE twice and tap on EXIT APPLICATION.

To plan a route "offline" open the menu and tap on MORE then tap on ADVANCED PLANNING to be able to create your route before you head out.

To navigate to St. Albans without an address tap on NAVIGATE to then tap MORE to go to the next page and tap on CITY CENTRE then type in St Albans.

Hope that’s answered some of the points you've raised.

Thanks...I should have read your response before posting my PostCode one...however, I have tried each and every keyboard layout,large and small, qwerty, azerty, abcde, and there is no 'Done' in my bottom right corner...in each case it's 'Back.'

In fact, choosing between large and small layouts actually makes no difference...they're both the same size !