seamus

I've been using TomTom Navigator since I bought my first PDA/Phone back in 2004 while I was in stationed in Germany. In my quest for the ultimate all-in-one device, my research led me to choose TomTom. At this point, I now had:

Phone
PDA
Navigation Software
MP3 Player
Movie Player (thanks to some innovative "computer programmers")
Meeting Un-boring-izer (games)

all in one device.

At that point, TomTom was still fairly new in the game but it had a cool, easy-to-use interface, was straight forward enough for my wife to grasp it's use () and had oustanding coverage of Western European roads. It would take me anywhere I wanted (got lost one time but I couldn't even find myself on a paper map that time so I don't really count that).

+
Great coverage
Easy to use with gloves (large touchscreen buttons)
Huge POI (points of interest) database covered everything from gas stations to castles

-
Can only navigate to one point over the fastest route (not daytrip friendly, although I learned some techniques that allowed me to explore without getting lost)

After returning to the US, I found that TomTom had not yet taken off here and that the US maps I spent a good amount of money on, while useful to get in the vicinity of most places, were difficult to use on the many backroads in farm country. Updating last year to Navigator 5 coincided with the cool SueSue and ScottScott commercials and TomTom's increased popularity. This did away with a lot of the road issues and they added some more functionality (itinerary planning and Contacts Navigation).

The itinerary planning did away with Navigator 4's problem of only being able to go straight to a location and then having to reprogram to navigate to another location. The Contacts Navigation allowed you to navigate to any of the contacts already stored in your device .

+
Still good nav (after update to Navigator 5, it was much improved)
Itinerary planning allowed planned nav over preplanned routes
Can quickly navigate to any stored contact

-
Itinerary planning was a little difficult to learn (not too hard but not intuitive)
In order to navigate to a contact, you have to come out of Nav mode and open Contacts
All planning has to be done on the PDA
Updates are hard to track
To update maps, you have to wait until all maps are updated and released

Navigator 6

I just received the updated set of maps/software and I'm pretty happy so far. Updates I've found so far:

TomTom Home: computer based update and software management. When you plug in to your computer, you can open Home and instantly see what maps/voices/etc are installed and make changes without having to stare at a little screen and guess. The second biggest plus so far.
Satellite Imagery: browsing the map in Navigator 6 at certain zoom levels lets you see satellite imagery of the route/area you're looking at. Neat at most for now, could be a great function at a later date depending on what they do with it.
Contacts Navigation: you can now navigate to a stored contact without having to leave the navigation mode.
Safety Features: you can now enable a safety feature that disables certain buttons so you can't accidentally tap one while you're driving. Not that anyone would be playing with buttons while they're driving.
Updated/Refined Navigation Options: there are some new/refined navigation options. You can navigate to just about anything you can think of now: zip code, center of city, location on a map, lat/long data,etc.
Arrival Time: After planning a route, TomTom will ask if you have to arrive by a certain time and keep you updated if you'll arrive on time or not.
New Map Options: There is now an option to put the whole map for the US and Canada on one SD card (864mb file). Older versions had only regions (South East, Mid West, Plains, etc), individual state maps, or adjoining states with backroad detail (mainly a function of SD memory card size). I only had a problem with this once in my travels but it was still a pain as I ran off the map. This is the biggest plus I've found so far.

I don't use the Plus Services so I can't vouch for these though it does have:

Traffic (updated from Navigator 5): can download traffic updates and it will automatically reroute to avoid the situations (only in certain areas which I take to mean large cities)
Weather (updated from Navigator 5): can download 5 day forecasts
TomTom Buddy (new): a new service that will allow you to navigate to a buddy's location. It will also allow you to send messages to your TomTom Buddy.
Safety Camera Warning (new): Will alert you to the location of known traffic cameras (only in certain areas although I've only seen these permanent "safety cameras" in Europe)
Miscellaneous Download Options (updated from Navigator 5): You can download maps, voices and other software stuff direct from TomTom without plugging in to your computer.

So far, I haven't actually had to travel far with it. The known errors in my neck of the woods are gone (except one - it still doesn't like navigating onto military posts). I have planned routes as far as phobiaphobe's place in Canada and it hasn't missed a step. And it actually has my tiny little cul-de-sac on it so it appears to be a very detailed map. I still have to plan trips on the PDA so I'm hoping they add that functionality to TomTom Home or allow it to interface with already available programs like Google Earth in the future.

But you can work on your language skills with it and impress your friends. It has about 40 free languages and about 70 different characters.

seamus

Now, it's worth twice as much with this voice.

__________________
Ducit Amor Patriae

Richard Herald, The Gentle Giant

The nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools.
--- Thucydides