What a huge day at IFA for my employer, TomTom. This is a strictly consumer show so a lot of what I do in Maps didn\u2019t make it to the products in a direct way, we did introduce a lot of cool new gear. I think Pocket-lint did a good job of wrapping everything up:<\/p>\n
The Vio looks amazing, it\u2019s powered completely off your smartphone and is basically what we used to call a \u201cdumb terminal\u201d but design is great and it comes in multiple colors and it\u2019s a great price. You can be hands-free on your scooter and why make users by an expensive device when they can just piggy back off the technology already in your pocket. Genius. I\u2019d actually like one of these for my motorcycle if it\u2019s waterproof and can somehow be charged on the go. Details are sparse.<\/p>\n
The Curfer is a heads-on competitor to Automatic from what I can tell (remember, I just read the press release like you guys. I haven\u2019t see or heard of these products before today). I just ordered an Automatic Pro so if TomTom gives us employee pricing on these, heck, I\u2019m not even sure if the Curfer will be available in USA market but if I can get one for a discount, I\u2019ll put it head to head against Automatic because I think these are very similar products. <\/p>\n
The new TomTom Go is for automobile drivers, not motorcycle riders so I don\u2019t have a lot of use for it. In fact, in my car, I have Apple CarPlay and Volkswagen\u2019s MIB II Infotainment system which has Apple Maps so the Siri, messaging, calls and WiFi features in the new unit would be wasted on me in my car. If you have an older model w\/o the smart connected features brought to you by Android Auto or Apple Car Play, I think this is a very valuable proposition. You need a SatNav and now you have all of these amazing hands-free features! I love it. If these features came to the TomTom Rider, it\u2019d be an insta-buy for me. I have a Sena headset so I can make calls and reply to SMS using my voice but the Sena doesn\u2019t play well with the TomTom Rider & iPhone simultaneously (a fault of Sena\u2019s I hear). Moving all of those features to one device would be a blast. <\/p>\n
I think the more consumer products TomTom comes out with though, the harder it is for me to review the competitors. When I review an Apple Watch, Automatic Dongle or Fitness tracker, I have to keep in mind that my salary is paid for by TomTom. Remain impartial and fair or just simply not cover competing tech at all. It\u2019s a fine-line. <\/p>\n
As a consumer, I think these devices are amazing. It makes me proud and happy that I\u2019m working for a company that\u2019s working on cutting edge technology in the consumer space and in cartography (digital map-making). It really is a great time to be at TomTom.<\/p>\n
One thing to note, this has been bothering me for some time and if any of my readers also read http:\/\/geoawesomeness.com<\/a>, the EIC over there Aleks Buczkowski is a project manager at TomTom I believe in the Poland office. His blog is great and a recommended read for any of you. When I see articles like this in my stream<\/a>, it bothers me that he doesn\u2019t disclose he works for TomTom. I think it\u2019s a default requirement for any of us bloggers to make it abundantly clear that we work for a company we write about. I love tech and I love TomTom\u2026I also happen to be an employee of theirs. My employer knows of his blog as they know of my blog so obviously it\u2019s not causing us any issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What a huge day at IFA for my employer, TomTom. This is a strictly consumer show so a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2016-09-01T22:21:25Z","apple_news_api_id":"0905d1ce-18c0-45f1-86bc-df5645b4b070","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2016-09-01T22:21:25Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/ACQXRzhjARfGGvN9WRbSwcA","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_custom_appearance":"","csco_disable_excerpt_posts_layout":false,"csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-technology","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pb3IC4-1BL","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4499,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2015\/02\/17\/technology-tomtom-multi-sport-cardio-gps-watch\/","url_meta":{"origin":6185,"position":0},"title":"Technology: TomTom Multi-Sport Cardio GPS Watch","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"February 17, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019m really excited to be testing this device out. Can\u2019t say much about it so far but except setup was a breeze, battery life is great and I\u2019ll be at the gym later to verify accuracy and heart-rate. Really snazzy watch and very comfortable. 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We did some really amazing things here, best of all is the update size is measured in hundreds of megabytes instead of gigabytes. Customers download the map they want inside of the app for the countries they\u2019ll be driving. The really\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Linked"","block_context":{"text":"Linked","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/linked\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4653,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2015\/05\/01\/linked-tomtom-gps-action-camera\/","url_meta":{"origin":6185,"position":2},"title":"Linked: “TomTom GPS Action Camera”","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"May 1, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"via Engadget: TomTom, a company best known for its GPS gadgets and a line of watches for runners and athletes, is diving deeper into action sports. Meet the Bandit camera: a GPS action cam that'll beam footage to a connected smartphone. If you're in a hurry, and don't want to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Linked"","block_context":{"text":"Linked","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/linked\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4926,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2015\/09\/08\/linked-tomtom-is-alive-and-its-getting-into-self-driving-cars\/","url_meta":{"origin":6185,"position":3},"title":"Linked: “TomTom Is Alive, and It\u2019s Getting Into Self-Driving Cars”","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"September 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"via Wired: TomTom\u2019s spent five years working on the maps self-driving cars need, says CEO Harold Goddijn. It was a logical move: The industry is rapidly moving toward a future where cars do most of the work, and TomTom has the expertise to make the necessary maps. Obviously, I can\u2019t\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Linked"","block_context":{"text":"Linked","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/linked\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4815,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2015\/07\/22\/tech-tomtom-adds-geo-tagged-image-support-to-map-share-reporter\/","url_meta":{"origin":6185,"position":4},"title":"Tech: TomTom adds Geo-Tagged Image support to Map Share Reporter","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"July 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"via TomTom Map Share Reporter: NEW Add a photo of the situation A geotagged photo helps us to process your report and update our map. I work for a pretty cool company. We make maps for ourselves and a lot of very cool companies. When a customer tells us there\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Linked"","block_context":{"text":"Linked","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/linked\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"TomTom Global Mapping Van","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/353\/19741116681_a5fe0d7bbd_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/353\/19741116681_a5fe0d7bbd_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/353\/19741116681_a5fe0d7bbd_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4252,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2014\/09\/17\/life-four-years\/","url_meta":{"origin":6185,"position":5},"title":"Life: Four Years","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"September 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019ll keep this one short because I can\u2019t say a lot about my job publicly but in the essence of posterity, I wanted to post to this blog that I\u2019ve now been at TomTom for four years. 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