Boy, TomTom sure has chosen the worst possible time to release their Car Kit for iPhone, and to make matters worse, their decision to not include the iPhone app is now set in stone. That's right, the hardware alone will set you back the cost of a TomTom ONE nowadays, and the $99.95 app works on the iPhone 3G and 3GS without it. So here's the question: is the car kit worth the extra $119.95? To find out, we got hold of a review unit for a sunny road trip around London. Surprisingly, the car kit uses Bluetooth to connect the GPS receiver to the iPhone, even though there's a dock connector for charging. Bluetooth connectivity does have its advantages: according to TomTom it can work as a generic Bluetooth GPS receiver for any satellite navigation app on the iPhone, or any smartphones at all for that matter. They even confirmed that the car kit could potentially compensate for the first-generation iPhone's lack of built-in GPS, but since TomTom's app won't run on anything but a 3G or 3GS we'll have to wait and see if that's actually useful. Meanwhile, TomTom is cooking up a compatible app for the original iPhone and the iPod Touch, which could make the car kit more worthwhile. Info via engadget.
