Bought TomTom XL340S but wondering if cell phone based GPS better?

Bought my first ever GPS from Target.... a TomTom
XL340S for $97.

I drove from Texas to Missouri while using it and the
maps were severely out of date!

This got me to thinking if GPS that is based on
cellphones system a better idea whereby the maps can be
loaded ON THE FLY from nearby towers such that only the
maps needed are being used and the maps are always up
to date!?

What do you think? Keep my TomTom or get maps on my
cellphone?

me@privacy.net said this on 11/29/2009 2:27 PM:

I'll be interested to see what other responses, but I just got a 330s
this week and as much as I went on line and updated and received 3
updates, the shopping center about 2 years old across the street is not
on the map.
Now, not to bad mouth tom tom, I checked google, yahoo, and mapquest and
all 3 of them didn't have it either. As a matter of fact only google
had the land plowed, the others were back in the days when it was forest.
Another user on a forum made a comment that most maps are horribly
behind on updates. As much as 3 years. Of course that was his opinion.

My daughter has an Iphone and she just looked up the Walmart over there
and its mapped for her with the google maps application for iphone.
Its not the same map as I get on the internet with IE. So they are
doing something diff. *Note this is just one road. I'm not trying
to say that all maps errors are going to be this way*.

Big_Al wrote:

It's a problem with all the mapmakers. The update cycle depends on where
the update relates to, how densely populated the area is, and when the
last survey plane flew over. My experience in various bits of Europe
suggests an update lag of between 3 months and 3 years. Minor things
like speed limit changes are picked up more or less at random, depending
on whether anybody's used the map sharing facilities to update them, and
whether they've been verified.

Then there's the licencing agreement between the unit makers and the
mapmakers, which can dictate a particular update cycle.

Just my two penn'orth.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

me@privacy.net wrote:



Thats unlikely. Give some examples of what you believe is severely out of date.


Thats there right now with the high end cellphones like the Nokia N96 etc.

And you can use google on a cellphone too.


Yes, work out why you believe its severely out of date, thats very unlikely.


You wont do that for $97

True Rod...... and something I thought abt.

I needed to go from Tyler Texas to Paris Texas and it
didn't know Hwy 271 existed and tried to take me
another route way out of way

I may stick with a dedicated GPS rather than cell phone
based.... but notice Garmin has a model out called Nuvi
500 that is good for car AND bicycling and hiking and
may trade for that model. That way I could get more use
out of a GPS since I only take driving trips once or
twice a year