New (very clever) GPS

I am just breaking in my new TomTom GPS. My gawd is it different to my old one? it is like chalk and cheese.

It has some familiar features such as stored favourites etc but some things are totally different.

No longer do you enter a destination by town, followed by street then number. You just start typing (or telling it) the address, eg 56 bong bong... usually before you have finished typing the street name the address is at or near the top of the list it offers. It looks up points of interest at the same time so if you start typing in "petrol" or "service station" it puts them up too.

It connects via Bluetooth to my phone so all my contact's addresses are ravailable to it, it also puts any phone texts or notifications up on the GPS screen. (because here it is illegal to even touch your phone while driving). It can update it's maps but also any current route diversions, road closures or hold ups via the phone and change the route accordingly. However it doesn't interfere with the hands free phone connection built into the car - also Bluetooth.

You can talk to it to give instructions or route changes and it seems very forgiving, I told it to "close route" instead of "clear route" but it knew exactly what I meant. Because it has access to my phone contacts I only have to say a name and it looks up the address to create a route.

It will take a while to get used to but it seems very clever. In fact too clever, perhaps it will take over the driving? It includes as a matter of course free worldwide maps and updates. All this for much less than $300? absolutely incredible.