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Is it just me/my hardware or is GPS over Bluetooth absolutely rubbish!?
I tried a Holux GR-230 unit first but had the usual problems in getting it connected. When I finally did, I was apalled by it's performance, usually failing to get a gps lock at all.
So I ditched it in favour of a Rikaline GPS-6031-X7. It picked up far mor signals and usually obtained a lock almost instantly. However, it's accuracy is very disappointing. Positional accuracy - it's usually ok on a motorway or dual carriageway but at slower speeds, it jumps all over the place, forwards, backwards, in the middle of fields hundreds of yards away - and that's the worst time for it to happen 'cos it's when you slow down for a junction that you actually need it. The second issue is directional accuracy - it often shows me driving sideways as it's so sloooooow to update/recalc the direction.
If this was my first experience of gps, I might be able to forgive it without a benchmark to judge it against. But I've used Navman with an iPaq, a LAM1 unit with my Nokia 9210 and a (cheap) CF device with my Dell Axim and they all performed far, far better! I know that TomTom Navigator 2 isn't the problem as it performed flawlessly on my Axim (PXA255).
So what's going wrong? Is it the bluetooth devices, or the bluetooth technology, or the XDA II? Will O2's bluetooth update improve matters?
I can no longer rely on this and I'm going to have to start taking map backups - something I've never had to do before and really defeats the object.
Any thoughts, experiences, comments, answers?????
Ged.
I think your problem could be the gps receiver.
I am using the Navman 4400 with my XDAII. It took some time and a couple of patches (from this site, thanks guys) to get it to bond via bluetooth, but now it's setup, it works great. It seems to be very accurate and tells me to exit roundabouts just at the correct time.
It's a bit slow to get the initial fix when first switched on (about 2 minutes) but once connected I have no problems.
Is the gps receiver positioned by a heated screen? If so, this will block the signal and produce the problems you describe.
Have you changed your car? Some newer cars have reflective windshields that can cause problems.
Cheers
Thanks guys. I know of both of the issues you describe but I drive a 3 year old clio 172 - no heated/reflective screen. The receiver usually sits on the dash and receives a very strong signal from upwards of 6 sats.
I've now emailed Rikaline too so we'll see what they come up with (if anything).
I am using the Holux GR-230 and it works flawlessly with towas latest patch 1.0.1.2, a very accurate gps based on my own observations with tomtom2.
Hi guys
I have recently received my new XDA II from Orange (know as SPV M1000)
I am using it with the Fortuna Clip On GPS, Tom Tom Navigator and a Jabra 250 headset.
So far I have had no problems with the GPS, it works every time. On a rare ocasion I have to reset the phone to get the head set to work but this is very rare.
Not sure if orange have modified the software but it all seems to work.
I'm beginning to think that it's the XDA that's at fault. I know TTN2 is ok, you guys aren't having any probs with bluetooth gps devices in general, and I'd have to be extremely unlucky to have TWO faulty gps receivers from different manufacturers!
Persuading O2 that it's faulty is another matter though.
i work in the in car navi business and a 3 year old cleo does have a metalic winscreen apart from the hatched area around the rear view mirror (for use with toll tags and other antennas).You will nead a re-radateing antenna mounted externally to get propper reception as the cleo also has a faradays cage effect making radio reception within the cab area very difficult.(they are a ***** to work on)
pinkslayer, shove it in somebody elses car, or slap it on the roof of yours and see how it go's in that location.
Should know my car a bit better really!
I had tried mounting the Holux in front of the rear view mirror but this didn't help so I didn't bother trying the Rikaline. And my wife has a clio too so no point trying it in hers.
So even though I'm locking on to 5-6 sats, it's still not sufficient!? Or is the metallic screen just causing additional latency?
Its not the number of sats, its the strength of the signal received, I have seen 8 sats showing but tomtom wont attempt a route until the signals are strong enough for a lock,
Rikaline GPS-6031-X7
hi all
i use a Rikaline -x7 with TomTom Navigator 2 on my xda ll with the bluetooth pach from
http://bluetooth.i-networx.de/index_e.html
and the update is slow when taking corners (ie the map is slow to turn to the heads up position) or if you come of a motorway/ dual carriageway thats not on the calulated route it will take some time to acknowledge this
but i do not have the problem of it at slower speeds it jumps all over the place
As for accuracy my old tomtom wired gps was better
but the Rikaline-x7 is usable
Thanks peops. I've now tried mounting it on the rear parcel shelf and also stuck it to the shaded area above the rvm but to no avail (even when it was back on the dash this morning, it took 11 minutes to get a fix and another 5 before it could calc direction - cloudy day!). As soon as it's dry enough, I'll mount it outside the car and see how it is.
I don't really want to do down the re-radateing antenna route as the whole point of having portable equipment is that you can use it anywhere and in any vehicle.
Im using the Rikaline GPS 6031-X7 and Im really happy with, no problems at all in fact I think its brilliant............
I'm using the fortuna clipon in a landy with heated windscreen. It doesn't seem to affect the signal (with or without the screen on) and I have to say i was expecting problems with it. It has been the only thing about the whole BT GPS/XDAII setup that I haven't had problems with..
Technology eh!
I've run a search on the forum but can't see anything that specific on this as far as guidance goes. dunno if this is gonna sound noobish but here goes.
GPS + tom tom.
would I be correct in saying that if you don't have a contract, ie you are on pay as you go, then GPS won't work cause data transmission needs to be part of the contract?
It's just, that up till now I always thought that being pay as you go I wouldn't be able to use GPS on my XDA unit.
however, I'm now wondering if I've got this wrong as a lot of the GPS units are bluetooth so I'm starting to wonder if I'm some kind of moron.
help advice etc appreciated to clear up my misunderstanding.
GPS use GPS satelites they dont have anything to do with the gsm network
you can use tomtom gps with pda's which are not phones
if you want
so as long as I have a gps receiver that is bluetooth compatible it won't use up any call credit etc and I will be using the likes of tom tom on the XDA 2s?
have I got that right? so I would pair the gps reciever to the phone and that would be about it.
gps dont use gsm ever no matter if you use it 24/7
and first swollow your sim card it dont mean anything unless you set tomtom or something up to get traffic or spycam stuff over gprs
you simply cant get gps from gsm they are 2 100% seperate things
gps is free and require it's own antenna you can use bluetooth ones
or you can use wired ones
it's all the same
p.s. your picture show you have a xda1 if that is the case then you dont have bluetooth and need to get the wired gps antenna look at tomtom's site which one is compatible with xda1
Tellan, sounds like u r confusing gps and gprs data. Gps is part of a sat nav setup(no cost for signal), while gprs is used to transfer data to and from ur xda(charged by how much data is transferred).
You may have found that u cannot access the internet on payg o2, this is not a fault on either the xda or the settings you may have. O2 dont allow it on payg in the UK! Though there are settings available that give u free access on payg, pm me if u want them.
Back to gps look on ebay uk and you will find a supplier selling the older style (leadtek 4951, I think) with all cables required for car fixing & xda charging for approx £40 delivered. Got myself one couple of months ago and it works great.
Word of caution dont bother with Tom Tom 5 go for TT3, 5 is full of bugs and can cause lots of problems. I had to resort to a hard reset to get things working properly.
Hope this helps, if u have any queries just ask again.
aaaah. that's were the confusion lies.
BTW I now have a XDA IIs coming and I will be selling my loyal XDA 1 shortly once I have everything transferred over.
right, so now I need a car kit and tom tom 3. what's a reasonable price to be paying for that stuff.
I'm asssuming with the car kit for the XDA IIs that I'm needing it to charge in the cradle as GPS munches battery power for breakfast.
BTW I'm going to get a 2400mah battery. from what I've seen on the web it's only a shade bigger at the back and will still fit the standard case.
any particular BT GPS recievers that are heartily recommeneded over the top of others.
If you get a wired gps it will charge the phone and gps, you will then just need a cheap mount. Look on ebay and you will get it cheaply. Just search on www.ebay.co.uk for "xda gps"
Dear All,
before to buy a Tytn II, I'd like to understand if the GPS comes upgraded by the future's ROMs (I think yes) or is necessary a future hardware change ???
P.S.:
I have a Tytn with the GPS Fortuna ClipOn BT, and I don't know is better to change the GPS receiver or buy the new one with GPS included.
Thanks a lot
Ciao ...
ritmia said:
Dear All,
before to buy a Tytn II, I'd like to understand if the GPS comes upgraded by the future's ROMs (I think yes) or is necessary a future hardware change ???
P.S.:
I have a Tytn with the GPS Fortuna ClipOn BT, and I don't know is better to change the GPS receiver or buy the new one with GPS included.
Thanks a lot
Ciao ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Buy the new phone - its worth it. The GPS works fine & the phone has a lot more oomph (CPU memory etc)
Seconded, get the Kaiser and off load your BT gps. My Wizard is now relegated to my wifes car with my old BT gps and that is her SatNav solution. I am well happy just having the Kaiser as the gps works as well if not better, and I only have to carry one device around.
Had a bluetooth GPS unit connected to my AXIM as my GPS system before I bought this phone.
My AXIM crashed, battery died flat dead, so I had to use my phone as backup. Used the built-in GPS with TOMTOM on my Kaiser and it was AWESOME- worked perfectly!
Get this phone you won't need anything to supplement it what-so-ever...
No. The Kaiser built-in GPS chipset can't compare to BT-359 SIRF III. It sees less Satellite; also, many of them are invalid signal, that means these satellites were grey. With the ones are blue, the signal keeps going up and down. Sometimes, for somewhat reasons, Kaiser loose the GPS fix (you see the map turn around) even in the clear view sky, then you loose your current position.
If you're driving in the crowed sky area (e.g NYC), stick with bluetooth GPS SIRF III chipset receiver.
Read more here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=339257 I had used the BT-338 then upgraded to BT -359 which is slimmer, sleeker but lack of external antenna connector and less of batt. time life.
i have tomtom - works faster.
tilt gps - far worse. but it works at 95%.
ritmia said:
Dear All,
before to buy a Tytn II, I'd like to understand if the GPS comes upgraded by the future's ROMs (I think yes) or is necessary a future hardware change ???
P.S.:
I have a Tytn with the GPS Fortuna ClipOn BT, and I don't know is better to change the GPS receiver or buy the new one with GPS included.
Thanks a lot
Ciao ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Frankly I doubt the inbuilt GPS is going to be as good as an external one. (I reserve my judgement till my Tytn II arrives. However, your decision should be based on expense too. Do you mind spending out the extra for inbuilt GPS by buying a whole new Smartphone?
If yes then no problem because you can still use an external gps. If you want to keep the cost down get an external one. I bought an i-blue 737. The device cost me 30UKP and it's never ceased to amaze me how good it is. This will pick up 7 satelites anywhere in my home regardless of where I am. No need to go near a window, the acuracy is astounding with WAAS + EGNOs enabled and 115000 baud coms.
As I say I doubt the inbuilt one is going to match this but it probably will be fairly decent.
Disclaimer: this is just my opinion.
Nghiem said:
No. The Kaiser built-in GPS chipset can't compare to BT-359 SIRF III. It sees less Satellite; also, many of them are invalid signal, that means these satellites were grey.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True for the reception quality, but not for the TTFF which is much shorter with the QualCOMM chipset than with a Sirf III (less than 5 seconds in most cases).
The degradation of the signal due to obstruction (when inside a car for example) is virtually identical to a Sirf III chipset.
The only real weakness with the QualCOMM chipset for the time being is that it has major problems getting a fix when moving quickly. I tried several times to get a fix while moving with ~450mph with a clear view to almost all satellites and the QualCOMM has a very hard time to find more than 2-3 useable satellites. Even after 5-10 minutes no useable position can be determined. Moving quickly to get a fix should not be a problem at all for any GPS chipset.
But I have high hopes that those "quirks" will get fixed with a future firmware update.
The Kaiser has an antenna port specifically for the GPS undeneath the battery cover. I don't know if a battery cover can be found that exposed it more gracefully but I imagine with a small antenna would augment the signal nicely.
That being said, without using an external antenna, I'm actually quite impressed with the accuracy. I wouldn't have anything to compare against it but it's always been dead on for me.
I use TomTom 6 but I've played with google maps and Windows Live Search.
I have noticed it can take a long time to get the first lock on occasion, and especially so when driving at speed. Not really a problem for me, as you usually plan where I'm going while the car is stopped.
-James
Since GPS works with as little as 3 sats, and 4 for 3D positioning, why does everyone worry about getting 7 tuned in? Seems a bit anal to me.
The Kaiser GPS IMHO is a tad slow to init, but other than that, it's worth every penny to not have 2 devices to handle at times. I've never had a problem loosing connectivity, so I'm 100% satisfied with the Kaiser. YMMV of course.
Now if HTC would use a decent CMOS sensor in the camera, then I'd call the phone perfect. But that's another thread...
Dear All,
thanks to everybody about the answers ... I think I'll upgrade my GPS receiver (is more cheap). In this moment, I wait other tests about the GPS of Tytn II.
Ciao, ...
scottwilkins said:
Since GPS works with as little as 3 sats, and 4 for 3D positioning, why does everyone worry about getting 7 tuned in?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because the more satellites you are evaluating, the more precise the position gets and in case you lose track of one of the satellites, you will still be shown a valid position.
Adding to that, the RAIM functionality of GPS receivers for an even more precise position while getting rid of most common GPS erros only works with 5 satellites or more.
So, while it's true that you only need 3 satellites for an 2D position, this fix will not be very precise (due to lack of crosschecking with other satellites and typical GPS calculation errors which happen all the time) and you will lose your position as soon as one satellite disappears from your view.
However GPS receivers which can track more than 12 satellites at any given times are useless because there will never more than 12 satellites visible at any specific point of the earth, most of time you can only track and use a maximum of 8 satellites simultaneously.
vacsed said:
I tried several times to get a fix while moving with ~450mph with a clear view to almost all satellites and the QualCOMM has a very hard time to find more than 2-3 useable satellites.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't your F15 eagle have built in sat nav?
I saw a friend who just got the HTC Tilt and had a TomTom navigation program installed on it that worked without pairing it with a bluetooth gps receiver.
I know that the xv6700 has the built in gps (for 911) and was wondering if anyone has gotten a navigation program to work with this phone without purchasing an additional BT GPS Receiver.
NOPE!
If you do a search you will find this question has been asked lots of times!
Sorry, I too hoped it would work!
Works Fine
I use the Tilt with TomTom everyday. It works fine using the built in GPS.
I'd love to see a hack to be able to use TomTom on my xv6700....anyone come up or leading up to one ?
I have a XV6700 with TomTom but in order to get it to work I had to go and get a Bluetooth GPS antenna. The built in GPS chip does not work with TomTom only E911. Using it with the bluetooth it works REALLY great.
HTH
Once and for all, the 6700 has E911 GPS only, it cannot be used wtih turn by turn gps applications. If you really want/need some form of inaccurate navigation and don't want to buy a bluetooth gps unit, your options are Microsoft Live Search, Google Maps, or Navizon.
This thread should be closed.
Apache GPS
I've recently upgraded the Titan to the new radio version that allows for built in functionality. Does anyone know if the new Apache radio will work, or if a newer one is coming out?
as many times as this has been posted and with the post above yours you still ask this question. the apache has no real fuctioning gps chipset. it functions for 911 location only. end of story
i would like to beg to differ, the 6800 does not have a dedicated GPS chip but the same GPSone chip the 6700 has... it may be a newer version of the chip but it does the same thing the 6700 does. if someone who isnt closed minded cares to take their time to try to extract the information from the 6800's radio firmwares and impliment it on the 6700 it should work.. the only thing that could stop us from using that chip is if it is hardware locked. all you have to do is redesign the radio firmware and put it into an existing kitchen rom... I will try to figure it out but ive never worked with building custom roms before and it will likely take a long time to get anywhere... i am sure someone who is any good at kitchen roms would be willing to take a crack at it
yeah but you miss the big picture. a chip isnt worth a hill of silicone if you dont have an antenna to hook to it
madmattco said:
yeah but you miss the big picture. a chip isnt worth a hill of silicone if you dont have an antenna to hook to it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, if the problem is *also* that there is no antenna attached, will it be possible to solder a connection from the chip to use the phone antenna??
willfck4beer said:
So, if the problem is *also* that there is no antenna attached, will it be possible to solder a connection from the chip to use the phone antenna??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But if there is no antenna attached, then how is the e911 getting its gps signal fix?
Jeff
most do it by triangulating between 3 or so cell towers
the program GPS Today has a feature that can used cell phone tower based positioning instead of a GPS receiver. i've never tested it because i have a 6800 with fantastic GPS, but its worth a try. Its free and pretty damn cool, so that would be crazy if the solution was that easy. try it out.
http://m.geoterrestrial.com/
There was a long thread about this over on pdaphonehome a while back. In short:
YES, the PPC-6700 DOES have stand alone GPS functionality. There was an email from HTC posted where they confirmed this. The reason it does not work stand alone is because Sprint requested it be disabled (I guess they wanted to charge for their own navigation package). But there is built in GPS that can use cell tower triangulation and regular GPS. Some people actually had the Verizon version working in a roundabout way for a while.
I went so far as to install Sprint's Nav software after I got on a plan that included navigation (for my wife's Instinct). It ran fine, but could never get a signal.
Sorry to bump an old thread-
Since the GPS hack is out for the XV6800, can it, or something similar be applied to the PPC6700?
iornslave said:
i would like to beg to differ, the 6800 does not have a dedicated GPS chip but the same GPSone chip the 6700 has... it may be a newer version of the chip but it does the same thing the 6700 does. if someone who isnt closed minded cares to take their time to try to extract the information from the 6800's radio firmwares and impliment it on the 6700 it should work.. the only thing that could stop us from using that chip is if it is hardware locked.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Umm, I'm not sure where this info came from or what planet this phone came from, but it is completely inaccurate. Here's the story and please, DO NOT post anymore "Can I" questions on this as it is not a viable issue.
The 6800 (known by HTC as the Titan) has the Qualcomm MSM7500 "cell phone on a chip" chipset. This includes their GPSOne gps solution. It is an integrated GPS receiver for the phone. It is unique to the Qualcomm systems as it is their technology. In essence, it is a standalone gps receiver as it requires drivers to run and can be used independently of other functions.
Now, the 6700 (known by HTC as the Apache) has the Intel Boulevard chip. It is not a "cell phone on a chip" solution as the MSM7500 is. The 6700 would have had the Qualcomm solution (maybe not the 7500, but equivalent for the time), but legal matters complicated things and HTC signed with Intel instead. The Apache HAS gps built in as does EVERY cell phone made after a certain date set by the government requiring ALL cell phone manufacturers to include a GPS solution for E911 location requirements. These solutions only need a 2D fix and are not processed in the same manner as an NMEA enabled GPS receiver. As it would be possible to intercept these signals and process them through an intermediate driver, it would be practically worthless as the fix is only approximate (30 meters+-), half or all the data is tower triangulated (aGPS) and the value of the fix is geek value only.
So, if you want to mess with it, go ahead. Just remember, a seperate GPS receiver is a lot less hassle and a lot cheaper.
I have searched for this on here but I don't know if anyone other than me has noticed how slow the GPS on these phones are.
I just upgraded from the BlackJack II and on that phone using Google Maps I could get a fix on 4 or more satellites in less than 10 seconds (counted cuz I was bored one time) And I could get that kind of response moving or sitting still.
On the AT&T Fuze that I now use I have noticed that using Google Maps it can take upwards of 1 - 2 minuets sometimes, if I'm sitting still I've seen it take around 20 or so seconds.
Has anyone else noticed this? Is there something to change or just something that I have to learn to deal with?
Thanks All!
wingman1487 said:
I have searched for this on here but I don't know if anyone other than me has noticed how slow the GPS on these phones are.
I just upgraded from the BlackJack II and on that phone using Google Maps I could get a fix on 4 or more satellites in less than 10 seconds (counted cuz I was bored one time) And I could get that kind of response moving or sitting still.
On the AT&T Fuze that I now use I have noticed that using Google Maps it can take upwards of 1 - 2 minuets sometimes, if I'm sitting still I've seen it take around 20 or so seconds.
Has anyone else noticed this? Is there something to change or just something that I have to learn to deal with?
Thanks All!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, i also have the BJ II and am upgrading to the Fuze soon...(phone coming in this week)
on the BJ II, it took me more than 5 minutes to get a GPS lock(TTFF), maybe 2-3 minutes for a warm fix... hmm.. happened on both BJ IIs i got (warranty replacement because of botched official WM6.1 upgrade)
i also have a Bluetooth GPS unit that can do TTFF under 30s inside a house
believe the Fuze might be using a Qualcomm chip, while the other two uses SiRF III?
Ya, I don't know, my BJII was blazing fast when it came to the GPS. I didn't use a bluetooth GPS, I just used the internal GPS.
well, my BT GPS was used for my x51v pda as a navigation device in my car, while the BJ II GPS was more regarded as a 'in-case-i-get-lost-and-really-really-lost'
wingman1487 said:
I have searched for this on here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't believe that you tried very hard. There are literally dozens of threads dedicated to this issue, including some very informative ones.
FWIW - I have had zero complaints about GPS performance since flashing to the latest official AT&T ROM/radio. The original ROM was awful for GPS management.
Ever since I updated to the latest official HTC ROM I've had zero problems with the GPS. I'm sure its more of the radio than the actual ROM though.
hotfixes for gps
Check the official hotfixes on htc website
http://www.htc.com/www/supportdownloadlist.aspx?p_id=140&act=sd&cat=all
well, i got my fuze, haven't really tested the GPS yet, but its' good
indoors, second story(highest floor), TTFF under 3 minutes... not as good as my standalone BT GPS, but definitely better than my BJ II who can't even get a fix outdoors...
EnergyROM 6.5 latest from 22 July, Radio 1.14.25.35, A-GPS disabled since i don't have a data plan, on at&t's edge network
Get a registry editor (like PHM or Resco) and try these changes...
These will work for AT&T (note: the AT&T aGPS servers seem to be having issues within the past few weeks, so I've been using the Nokia ones)
HKLM\Software\HTC\SUPL AGPS\
APN = wap.cingular
DynamicURL = supl.nokia.com
EnableAGPS = 1
GPRSConnection = MEdia Net (make sure you have MEdia Net as the name of your connection in your connection settings)
GPSMode = 2
Network = MEdia Net
ServerIP = 66.35.235.25
ServerPort = 7275
ServerURL = supl.nokia.com
TimeBetweenFixes = 5
TLSHostName = supl.nokia.com
HKLM\Drivers\BuiltIn\RIL\
AGPSNVSetting = 1
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\GPS Intermediate Driver\Drivers\
RetryWaitOnError = 1
SleepOnNoData = 1500
You need a 1.12+ radio version for aGPS to work (1.13, 1.14, 1.16 are all fine).
You need a ROM with the At&t drivers after March 1st (5.08, or 5.11 or newer).
With these settings, I get a fast lock using Garmin Mobile XT. By the time I start it, hit "I Agree", and about 5 seconds after that I have a lock (so maybe 20 seconds at most).
The above work great, lol... I've been messing with the GPS due to the stupid HTC server going down and up.....yeahh.
Thanks!
Still no update from Garmin
well, did an outdoor test... clear sky, near a train station but nothing over 1 storey.
don't have A-GPS(disabled data connection since i didn't have a data plan), QuickGPS(the one that downloads the almanac over the internet) was valid for at least another 4 days
lock within 30 seconds... ... believe it to be semi-warm start...
After trying a most of the the fixes I learned how to deal with the GPS problems. We shouldn't forget that these Phones will never behave like GPS devices. Luckily I only use the GPS function for fun so it wasn't the main purpose that I bought this phone for.
bedobela said:
After trying a most of the the fixes I learned how to deal with the GPS problems. We shouldn't forget that these Phones will never behave like GPS devices. Luckily I only use the GPS function for fun so it wasn't the main purpose that I bought this phone for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i think that my Touch Pro is good enough and CAN be a GPS device if i get iGo or Navigon WM software(both has TTS, 3D, lane assist and roadpost view)... and a car charger
looks like i have a generic car charger-> USB thingy that should work with the extUSB cable, so the question is whether to spend $90 on the GPS software
My Fuze works almost as good as a standalone GPS unit, plus Garmin Mobile XT offers quite a few nice online features (endless POI with Google Local, Fuel Prices, Traffic, Flight Status, Weather, etc).
Garmin does have some delay compared to other programs, but its not much worse than their standalone units. It doesn't say street names either.
iGo works pretty good, but has some flaws (atleast for me). I don't really like the routes it picks compared to Garmin, but it seems to pick similar routes as Google Maps does. The ETA time is always off. It shows a 5 hour trip as a 6+ hour trip and doesn't get accurate until you're within about 30 minutes. It has TTS, Road Signs, and Lane Assist as someone else mentioned. For POI's you're limited to map updates or loading your own POIs.
I never liked TomTom because the maps in my area are still outdated for certain subdivisions, which is because of TeleAtlas.
With working aGPS, it can get a fix as fast, or faster than a standalone unit.
I've used it for multiple 5 hour trips and one 10 hour trip. When I used Garmin, I also had a standalone Garmin unit and they were identical for routes and spoken directions.