[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Beware Fees with 'Free' iPhone App here

[srcharp]

No easy way to remove the charge?
Why not go into your features and select no I no longer want this?
Takes about 10 seconds and could not be easier to find

[marcschwartz]

How do you know that the TomTom app will be a one time charge? There are a lot of posts on Mac forums with all kinds of speculation as to the pricing model that TomTom will use. Now that AT&T and presumably soon TeleNav, will use subscription models, why wouldn't TomTom do the same. Somehow, they have to avoid cannibalizing their standalone GPS unit sales, while making their iPhone option affordable.

They could have you pay one time for the hardware and then charge you monthly for the app or even offer a software only option that will be a subscription model. Will you get free traffic or will you have to pay a monthly fee for it, as with many of the standalone GPS units? What about map updates? Will they charge you annual fees to get the updates?

With the AT&T app, you get traffic and the maps are updated automatically, since they are downloaded over the air when you get a route. They are re-downloaded if you go off route and need to be re-routed. No additional fees.

One needs to consider the costs over time for each of these options, whether you use them every day or not. You could pay a few hundred dollars for a really nice standalone GPS unit and then not use it. Buyer beware applies to all of these.

[lordmorgul]

Turn by Turn directions are completely unnecessary. Take 30 seconds to familiarize yourself with where the hell you're going and stop driving around blind. People who rely on these things for turn-by-last-minute-lane-change-I'm-going-to-die-turn directions are a serious road hazard...

[DanKDanK]

I use AT&T Navigator all the time. I have the unlimited data plan. The first free month I used it, I was shocked with a $46 charge for date for my free month--I did not have the unlimited plan then. But by that time I already saw it had value, so I signed up for the $10/month thing and the company removed the $46 charge. That thing gets me wherever I'm going, and tells me exactly when I will get there. I even used it a time or two on my "normal" routes and it found better, faster routes for me. I see that it saves me a significant amount of time and gas money, far exceeding $10/month. And its accuracy is uncanny. I'll keep it forever.

[bbvammy]

Stop at the curb.

Roll down the windows.

Ask for direction.

Free.

or do it like I do.

Go to a gas station and loop up a map.

Free.

[BenNanthio]

How exactly is this worth more than $0.01 than the plain old Maps application already included??