TomTom UK & Ireland for iPhone now available for £59.99

That headline was going to be “TomTom iPhone app now available in New Zealand”, but it looks like that its advanced time zone simply made that country the first in the launch list and the long-awaited application became available in UK earlier today.

At £59.99, TomTom UK & Ireland is one of the costlier iPhone applications, but the Western Europe edition costs another tenner. As everybody surely knows by now, it’s essentially the same software that’s used in TomTom’s range of in-car sat-nav devices, but the responsive iPhone screen should make it much easier to use.

More information, and a video review, after the cut.

TomTom for iPhone is a 241Mb download (Western Europe is 1.4Gb), which suggests that it includes full maps rather download them as needed — the solution used by some other sat-nav software. Although there’s no mention of downloadable updates, they’re sure to be included, although it’s unclear whether they’ll be free or paid-for in-app purchases. Since it requires onboard GPS, TomTom for iPhone only works on the iPhone 3G and 3GS models.

Few reviews have surfaced yet (probably because there’s no way to blag a free copy of the software), but Recombu has stumped up the cash and taken TomTom for iPhone for a spin on video. It’s not the most stringent test we’ve ever seen, but Recombu seems pretty impressed — with one caveat. When the iPhone receives a call, the application cuts out until you hang up. This isn’t much use if you’re relying on TomTom for directions and third-party restrictions are obviously to blame, but we suppose it is at least an incentive not to make calls while driving…

The other — far more significant — problem is that the TomTom iPhone cradle isn’t available yet. That  means that you’ll need to improvise if you want to use the application while driving and Recombu got around the problem by taping the iPhone to the car’s dashboard...

The expectation is that the cradle will be sold bundled with the TomTom for iPhone application and there’s no news yet on whether it will be available to anyone who buys the software in advance. So, our advice is to hold off buying until at least someone reviews the software properly — and perhaps until TomTom tells everyone what’s happening with the cradle.

[ TomTom UK & Ireland | iTunes App Store link]