TT: downloadable new maps available

Starting today, TomTom is offering new map data for all their navigational systems. The new maps carry the version number 6.75 with content being based on the Tele Atlas' 2007.1 (January 2007) release.

Last year, TomTom users needed to be very patient until they finally released version 6.6 of the map material, which was back in November 2006. Almost six months later, interested customers can now download more recent maps. Besides the already available maps of Western Europe, several European regions, the United States, Canada and Australia, now maps for South-Africa, Hong Kong and Singapore can be purchased.

Changes

TomTom has released global information on a few specific changes in the new map content. Summing up of all changes would be ineffective, because there are far too many to fit in a news post. Tele Atlas is continuously updating their database from almost 50.000 (!) sources worldwide. Keep in mind that the data of this Tele Atlas release has been updated to around the end of 2006, beginning of 2007, and of course only changes that Tele Atlas were able to map themselves.

Apart from a continuous actualisation of the map data, a few other changes specifically for TomTom have been reported: a change in London's congestion charging zone, addition of the new A26 motorway in Germany, also new Points Of Interest in small French cities and villages, and the improved house number information for Italy, Spain and Portugal.

Price

TomTom has chosen to sell the new 6.75 map data only via their web shop. Hence, the maps cannot be purchased on DVD, CD or SD in the shops. Installation of the map material is very simple through TomTom's website or via TomTom HOME.

Pricing of various regional maps within Western European ranges from € 39.95 to € 59.95, and all region maps include the major roads of Europe. For instance the new map of the UK and Ireland (size: 252 MB) costs € 59.95. The price list of the other maps looks like this (with the size of the maps included between brackets):

• Western Europe (944,5 MB): € 99.95

• Poland, Czech republic, Slovakia, Hungary (233,2 MB): € 59.95

• United States and Canada (1400 MB): € 109.95

• Australia (Not Tele Atlas, but Sensis maps, version 13; 86 MB): € 199.95

• South Africa (27,8 MB): € 99.95

• Singapore (1 MB): € 39.95

• Hong Kong (1,6 MB): € 39.95

Lastly, there's now also a map of Western and Middle Europe available. This one includes, apart from the standard Western European map, all available data on Czech republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. This is also the only map which includes phonetic information which optimises the pronunciation through the GO 910's text-to-speech. This makes it a hefty download though: 1,7 GB, and it sells for € 109.95.

Navigator

The new map material is not only there for the users of the ONE, GO and RIDER, but also for those who use TomTom's Navigator 6 software. Users of Navigator 5 and Mobile 5 won't be able to use the new maps. For this group, version 6.6 of the maps remains available. When in combination with Navigator 5 a new map of version 6.6 is purchased in TomTom's map shop, Navigator 6 is automatically installed onto the user's PDA. This might render other map material present on the PDA unusable though, so upgrades for those maps will also be required.

The new maps can be purchased through the Map Shop on TomTom's site. Buying a map can be done from there in four easy steps. Users of TomTom HOME only need to select 'Buy Maps' in the application.