GPS Car Navigation in Mauritius


GPS Car navigation mauritius

A very Good Morning folks!! biggrin 😀 Happy, Happy, Happy over the celebration of Brazil’s victory over Cote D’ivoire yesterday night!! However Kaka being red carded spoilt a bit the fun! Despite securing passage to the round of 16, @realkaka will miss Friday’s group finale against Portugal. For me, Brazil is the best! As Coach Sven Goran Eriksson said. “To beat Brazil, you have to be almost perfect.” I expect a Final between Argentina/ Brazil. I think Netherlands Fans would disagree with me on my last statement 😕

Anyway, let’s talk a bit about GPS Car Navigation in the streets of Mauritius.

I opened up the Apple Store and searched for Accessories for find a suitable car kit (since I am fed up with the inefficient utilisation of the iPhone in my ‘iCar‘ :D). The top product in the search results is: Tom Tom Car kit. Tom Tom Car KitApparently the car kit has cool features like:
1. Secure docking (I badly need this in the car!!, given my famous ‘swift’ driving skills which horrifies most of my  copilots :P)
2. Enhanced GPS performance (iPhone already has in-built GPS, the car kit enhances its signals, cool!)
3. Built-in Speaker – It enhances every voice instruction (Like “Turn right after 100 meters”) and allows hands-free calling
4. Easy charging – I contacted iShop Caudan Mauritius this morning, they are not sure whether their FM transmitter car kit (around Rs. 5900) charges iPhone 3GS, as they have not tested it.
5. Hands-free calling – Very Very Important, especially in Mauritius where you can get laws forbidding you to take phone calls with one hand holding the phone and the other driving. This feature would permit to receive calls without taking your eyes off the road, with the built-in speaker you can hear loud and clear

6. Music on the move– The ability to have your iPod library being played on your car speakers is something I have been longing for…The obvious solution is to purchase an FM transmitter available in the iShop for around Rs. 4900. With the Tom Tom Car kit,  an AUX out connector is required to be plugged in to the car audio system

Last but not the least, the Tom Tom iPhone App! This iPhone app comes separately to be purchased on the App store.The Good and pleasantly Surprising news is that Tom Tom Mauritius is Available on the App Store. The App is not Free (obviously you cannot expect all goodies in the world to be Free), but costs $49.99  (around Rs. 1637) on Apple App Store.

Another good news is that third-party applications like CoPilot are compatible with Tom Tom car kit. However a search on the App store reveals that CoPilot Mauritius is not available 🙁

Below are some cool video reviews of the Tom Tom car kit:

The Tom Tom Car Kit costs around $148 ( Rs. 4900), let’s add Rs. 1000 for insurance and shipping cost. So a total of around Rs. 7500 of investment is required to have a really nice GPS Car Navigation in the iCar. Hmm… I have to analyse the economic situation before going ahead…Anyway, it’s sure that sooner or later, I will think of it again as I am desperate for the iCar metamorphosis! lol

The problem is that:

  1. what about updates of the Tom Tom App for the new iOS4?
  2. what about the Car Kit being compatible with the iPhone 4 (yeah, in case if I upgrade)
  3. is Tom Tom Mauritius a Genuine one??? or another epitome of obsolescence like Google Maps for Mauritius. We have Garmin Maps for Mauritius yet.
  4. cannot use a Case on the phone with the Car kit or you need to take out the case everytime you use the car kit
  5. What about integration of other apps in the TomTom car kit like: http://www.navigon.com/site/us/en/mobile_navigator/iphone

Ashesh

Graduated from University of Mauritius, Young IT Specialist Award winner from BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, Part-Time Lecturer Open University of Mauritius. Loves to create websites and perform digital marketing. Blogging since 2007...

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