This means that Rosie is more or less as good as New Kate for routing around accidents and slow traffic.

Jury’s still out on which of the two makes the best device though.

The LIVE stuff really is very handy, and the one thing that would keep my from dumping the TomTom.

What I’m doing now though is having New Kate on the screen doing the navigating and Rosie’s satnav acting as a birdseye north-up roving map. They work quite well together.

I’ve also discovered that you can, er, download the latest updates from the interwebnetz so Rosie will at least have a post 2006 view of the road.

Now what I *really* want is a satnav feature that warns of fucking huge potholes (including ones that look like puddles) that will shag your wheels.

Perhaps the new night vision systems with pedestrian ‘painting’ could be adapted for this?

For me, the traffic is the cat’s doodahs – but that’s cause I’m on the M25 every day.

I have the TomTom remote control fitted at the front of the door pocket and I find this makes working the satnav quite straightforward and safe. The only problem being that some of the functions don’t work with it (e.g. you can’t drive the phone book), but otherwise it’s been well worth it for me, I use it nearly every day to replan routes on the fly (Also allows easy rejection of hands-free calls when people call just at the wrong point of your trip).

I’ve also used the Petrol station finder – which was brilliant when my usual place was inexplicably closed.

And hoping nobody calls you on the phone at a tricky navigation moment (as happened to me once when I was trialling the iPhone as a navigation device).

Background: Po is a 2005 Citroen C2 1.1L with no SatNav, iPhone is a 3G iPhone with TomTom satnav software and the screen mount with external GPS.

Viewing Experience: The iPhone is on the windscreen so provides a good view, however, Pos manual navigation is out of the windscreen making for a better view. Where the iPhone wins, though, is that it displays constant route information rather than the intermittent signs.

Route accuracy: The iPhones map is a little out of date now and sometimes it doesn’t realise that a turn is actually a continuation of a road (and by a similar token that a straight on might actually be a new road) but a quick check on the display clarifies everything. Pos manual system provides bang up to date route information but only to villages, towns, major roads and popular attractions. In addition Pos navigation system only works when in close proximity to the destination.

Ease of programming: Po wins hands down here since you just jump in and go. That said the iPhone allows a much wider range of destinations and further range with a quick input of the place name or postcode via the onscreen keyboard.

Ease of use when driving: While Po uses large, easy to read signs mounted on the road side I prefer the iPhones moving map and arrow indicators. Even though they are smaller and lower resolution you can see them at any time and there are voice prompts when turnings are coming up plus a countdown for the distance to go before the next instruction.

Sexiness of voice: Po does make cute beeps but these are not to do with navigation so the iPhone wins be default.

Convenience: The get in and go feature of Pos manual navigation is less of a hassle than getting out the holder, plugging it in, launching the TomTom app and entering in the destination.

Miscellaneous: Po does have a backup paper map which can be used when lost but this does involve stopping, finding the map, finding where you are, finding your destination and manually plotting a route. Complex routes are hard to remember and may take many stops. The iPhone picks routes based on average route times so may take you a different way during rush hour which can be a bit confusing.

Summary: For short journeys I don’t bother using the iPhone, but for everything else it’s a God send and has pride of place on the windscreen.