GPS Navigation Systems?
 

I keep seing more and more GPS systems for sale everywhere and now even target is carrying them! They run about $500 to $1000 but are they really as good as the commercials make them seem? Are they really going to be able to accurately tell you what turn to make and when and not get you lost?

Sorry but I am always skeptical of new things ;)

I couldn't get around without my Garmin C330, but there are many different models to choose from. I've seen the C330 advertised recently for around $300. Only real complaint is the screen washes out a bit in direct sunlight.

It's the perfect size for traveling and using in a rent car. You can program in the addresses before you leave.

IME, it's been very accurate, taking me to some out-of-the-way places. Also very useful is the points-of-interest database that can find you millions of restaurants, gas stations, stores, parks, beaches, etc.

I have a GPS system built into my car, and I bought a portable one to take on trips when I am going to rent a car. I love them. I used to spend a lot of time lost in strange cities. Now I can get where I'm going easily and I feel free to drive around and explore if I have free time. Last summer I rented a car and drove around Maine. I just followed interesting roads and when I was ready to get back to my hotel (or wherever) I just input the address and had the GPS give me directions to wherever I had to be. Having a GPS system has made life much easier for me. I haven't had any problems with either of the systems I own and I feel much safer driving now than I ever did before.

I have a Garmin eTrex C, which I plug into my laptop sitting on passenger seat or passenger lap (the then newly designated co-pilot).

This way, I can preplan and layout my route at home from say the airport to hotel to whatever....after that, it's keep the "arrow" on the line and no problem.

Honestly, it makes travel/driving so much easier, especially areas you're unfamiliar with and of course overseas.

The fact that many will also point out gas stations, food, rest areas and more is another bonus.

I have a portable one I take wtih me when I travel and I couldn't picture traveling without it. Even if I planned out every turn on paper or something an accident construction whatever could cause me to change my route and the GPS handles it all.

Need to pick up a co-worker for dinner? Tap in their address and off you go.

Yes they are that good, they will say bear left in 1 mile, things like that.

I love the Garmin line, many good things to say about them but if you search for GPS here you will hear some good things about some other brands people own.

You can certainly get a portable one with maps for less then the prices you quoted.

So some of the advertised GPS navigators/handhelds say they come pre-loaded with US maps. What happens when you want to use it in nother country? Does the GPS automatically download the right maps when you switch it on and it realizes you're in Italy (for eg)? Or do you need to download the maps yourself? Is there an additional cost for the extra maps? is there a monthly/annual service plan you need to sign up for over and above the purchase of the unit?

You'd need to buy any additional maps and either download them from a DVD to the internal memory in the GPS, or some manufacturers offer some of their maps on external storage cards you can simply plug in to the GPS. For example, the list price for Garmin's Europe maps ranges from $174.98 to $299.99, depending on the version.

Garmin (and I'm sure Magellan and others as well) offers periodic updates of its maps, I've updated my Garmin twice in the last 18 months. First update is usually free, then $75.

If you've already got a Bluetooth, SDIO or CF enabled PDA, you may want to consider a Bluetooth GPS "puck" and software such as iGuidance. Turn-by-turn directions, POI (points of interest such as restaurants, gas stations, museums, parking, etc), storable "favorites," and pretty much every feature available in the dedicated units.

Bundles with the receiver and software are well under $200 . . . the Bluetooth receivers are about the size of a "C" cell battery.

I use iGuidance 3 on my Dell Axim X51v along with a GlobalSat BT338. Satellite acquisition is in the 15-30 second range, route calculations are reasonably fast, and the POI database is quite good. You can also customize the map sets loaded onto the PDA to conserve memory (I bought a 4GB CF card for my PDA an loaded everything on it, though).

I have a Garmin iQue 3600 -- which is a palm device with a built in GPS. The screen is smaller than post car based systems, but at 3.8" diagonal is larger than the typical handheld and works fine for me. I have a car mount at home (which sometimes I take on trips). It also plays MP3 and you can read eBooks on it so it is a multi-purpose device. Sadly discontinued by Garmin :(

That being said, when "Betty" finally goes to the great recycle bin in the sky, I'd be inclined to get another PDA with a bluetooth GPS as PorkRind has.

I have a Garmin (Can't recall the model number) and paid $900.00 for it. It's really great. It routes you around any accident or traffic tie up. We used one in Ireland and never got lost once. When we got home we immediately went out and bought one.

A much cheaper solution is a GPS receiver that plugs into your laptop + mapping software for the laptop. It works great, but it is really awkward in practice since you have to have the laptop sitting on the seat next to you. Go with a dedicated unit. My wife loves our Garmin Streetpilot.

Mio 330x has been showing up at places like CC and Staples for appx $200.

Also plays MP3's out of the box.

The software is "overlaid" on top of a Windows CE operating system. You can hack the unit, load an SD card with whatever software you want in addition to the GPS mapping program (ie spreadsheet, notepad, calculator, Doom, etc) and you are off to the races. An SD card can also hold additional maps (Canada, Europe etc).

Native maps are 3-4 yrs old but an update should be coming soon. Also, the supplied package might not be the best if you are doing lots of offroad/tertiary road travelling. For the 98% of us that stick to paved roads, the software should be fine.

The GPS comes with a USB cable for connection to your PC/laptop. There should also be a way to download the NMEA string generated by the GPS so that you can use the GPS with your own PC map package (ie Fugawi for offshore and aviation sectionals or one of the MS/DeLorme programs for more detailed mapping)

Got mine last week and I am still on the learning curve. So far, so good.

I use the VZNavigator software on my Verizon LG8300 phone.

Despite the very small screen, this is an amazing piece of very useful software.

Used it earlier this week finding locations in San Francisco. The small screen wasn't an issue becuase the voice output for turns was loud, clear, and easy to follow.

So...yes, these portable GPS car navigation systems are great.

After debating for several months I ordered a TomTom One for myself for Christmas. I had mixed reviews from people on here, but lots of people did like it. It is also small enough to drop in your shirt pocket whan you get out of the car.

I ordered it from Abe's of Maine for $429 with a $100 mail in rebate, $329 seemed like a good deal to me. On TomTom's website they have a map update available for free until the end of March so it should be pretty current.

After much input from everyone here, I purchased the TomTom GO910 for my partner for Christmas.

I tell you... he loves it. It has US, Canada and Europe maps all loaded. It does not use memory cards... has 20 meg of memory... and the maps and software use about 4 of that. He has also downloaded all his IPOD music onto it... and uses his cellphone via bluetooth with it.

One great feature is that it tells you the name of the street you should turn on... not just "TURN LEFT" or "TURN RIGHT".

I highly recommend this one... I also bought it from Abe's with a $100 rebate.

William

I've got a Garmin c330 and want to get European maps for it. I find I can get either Garmin MapSource Europe Metroguide DVD or a similar-sounding (but twice as expensive) Garmin MapSource City Navigator Europe NT on SD. Other than the fact that one is a DVD and one is an SD card, what is the difference? I've looked and looked and found just about zero information. Is it the same data with the the difference being that the SD card in the more expensive version is included and pre-loaded?

Good question, Garmin doesn't really make it clear what the differences are.

Checking the forums and reviews on these, it looks like City Navigator (the more expensive one) has some additional routing features over City Select/Metroguide. I'm not sure there is much of a practical difference and would look seriously at the cheaper alternative.

There's some discussion of this on the Brighthand forum:

http://forum.brighthand.com/archive/...hp?t-9661.html

Is this street nming feature on all of the tomtoms or just that model? I was thinking of getting the portable system.

OK so this thread has piqued my interest in buying a GPS system. I currently live in LAX, thought probably don't need it for driving around the LA area. I often travel to Europe with mainly walking but also driving in countries such as Italy, UK, Finland. Will also be moving to Australia. We will be on a driving holiday in Ireland in July where it would also come in useful.

So I am interested in something I can use in both cars and handheld, have maps for US, Europe, Australia, and be the most cost effective balancing basic functionality (though the street naming feature sounds nifty).

Given the above considerations, and over and above the comments already made in this thread any other suggestions (especially given cost of acquisition plus additional maps or whether maps included).

Thanks

You never need directions to travel around LA? I live in a small town and use it when I'm going somewhere I've never gone before.
I have used my Garmin Nuvi 660 in the US and Canada in pedestrian mode. It even puts a realistic ETA for walking. Since i'm walking and not driving, the direction of a one way street doesn't matter.

I can't say anything about Europe though since I haven't been there since getting my Garmin. I think getting the removable SD card would probably be the easier option since I don't want to wipe out my US maps.

I'm a Garmin fan (don't work there or have any stock in the company, just a happy user.) They've got a lot of different models and I think their underlying mapping is hard to beat.

Some of their models also can get real-time traffic info if you wanted to get around those LA traffic jams!

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who found this confusing.

I asked Garmin what the differences were between these products and which I should use with my StreetPilot c330:

• City Navigator Europe
• City Navigator Europe NT
• MapSource Europe City Navigator
• Mapsource MetroGuide Europe

Here is their reply:

TomTom 910
 

I echo the excellent reviews of the TomTom 910.

I bought one as a Christmas present for my wife and we immediately took it to England for a three day ride around the Cotswalds before going to London. It took us in the rental car exactly where we wanted each time. Had all the roads, and even the speed cameras in memory.

In one case we had absolutely no idea where we were and we just asked it to take us back to the B&B and it found a route, with no name, that took us back quickly and directly. Very useful when it gets dark at about 4pm this time of year.

The really cool part was I bought the John Cleese voice from the website and I felt like he was right there in the car. I suspected that we might be re-routed to Fawlty Towers, but alas, no.

I found the device excellent for those traumatic "roundabouts" (traffic circles) that are used in the UK. Before even getting to the circle, Mr. Cleese advises what to do. "Enter the roundabout, second exit". The unit also shows you visually what to do, so the co-pilot can help by screeming directions at you. Great fun. IF you miss the exit, he waits patiently for you go "go around".

Looking forward to using it locally in Houston, too.

My new TomTom One arrived a couple of days ago. I love it. It is fast, doesn't keep telling me it is recalculating when I ignore it, it just does it. I have loaded points for geocaches by latitude and longitude and it works great for that.

I noticed that several of the GPS units I looked at only have the lower 48. I'm heading to Alaska in a couple of days and am glad the TomTom covers it as well. The TomTom also comes with a Guam map. I have spent a couple of months over there for work and hope to go back. Nice that this will cover it.

In the box there was a slip of paper for one free premium voice. I was thinking about getting John Cleese as well.

Over in the Nuvi section of GPSPassion someone has posted a link to a Garmin webpage where you can download a World basemap for free. It looks like it would be absoutely useless for navigating in any city (no city streets, just major highways), but for navigating between cities it might be passable. I was mostly interested in having some sort of general map if I happened to use my Nuvi in Europe so this might do. Garmin also sells a worldwide map CD for $116 list that's a little better in cities but still not very good. You can view the maps (zomm, scroll) online before buying them.

My dad, a retired LEO, is in his mid 60's. He currently owns and operates a repo business and bought one of the Tom Tom One's. He loves it! He's never been known as being on the cutting edge of technology ;) , but it's so simple to use, he thinks it's the neatesat thing since sliced peanut butter :p

Sounds like a good plan for part of my tax refund. I want one now :D

Safe travels
Tim

Based on mostly some of the posts in this thread, and the $100 rebate, my new TomTom 910 came in a few days ago. I have to say that even though I haven't used it for more then the most basic point A to B stuff yet, I totally love this unit. I figure that any GPS that has my street built into it can't be all that bad. :rolleyes:

It's pretty intutitive, though some of the menus are not where you would expect them, it's dead on accurate so far, it's quiet when you want it to be (for example, it doesn't constantly beep or annoy you when it's recalculating), and it's incrediby fast at it's route selection.

It will be coming over to Europe later in the spring, having those maps build in were a huge plus.

is there still a 100$ rebate for the tomtom?

I think it ended last Saturday.

You had to be careful where you got it, as some stores were authorized to sell it with the $100 off already and not eligable for the rebate (amazon for example).

Buydig had it for less then Amazon (after Amazon's 100 rebate) and then you get another $100 from TomTom.

I bought myself one of the Garmin 360s for Christmas;) and I absoultely love it

I particular like the fact that its only 5 ozs smaller than my Palm E-2 love that I can stick in my shirt pocket rather than leave in the car with WAAAS capability ( do the Tom toms have this/) I can actually use it when on foot.

The Europe maps are expensive but a friend tried an on-line demo (link was provide by Garmin) for a small village in Spain where his wife's family is from and found it very accurate

mike

i have the garmin c320 but i can't see very well because of how large it is. so now i bought an acura unfortunately it's not interface wise as good as the garmin

I had my TomTom 910 set to the computerized American female voice when I took it to France. I quickly discovered that "roundabout" (France, too, is full of them) is not in her recorded vocabulary, so she had to guess at it, as she does with street names. I switched to the computerized British woman, who knew how to say "roundabout," and is easier in general to understand.

I love my TomTom 910.

On my PDA
 

I am using Inav on my IPAQ HX2495. It is ultra portable, and I still have the ability to use it for emails and web browsing at the hotel. Tried the laptop route but too bulky for the car, and not easy to view when checking the route. I can still preplan at home by enetring all my favorites, and adding a new destination on the fly is simple but should be done at a stop. I have tried Co Pilot and Tom Tom but prefer Inav.

I was reading a PC Mag articles on GPS nav systems and it said in particular to handheld/mobile systems, that a GPS cannot tell direction unless it is going at least 10mph, thus making the handheld units (used for walking) not a good idea. Is this true?:confused:

Here is a whole thread on the subject that was here previously. I usually don't preach about "doing a search" but it might have been beneficial in this case.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...eferrerid=5290

Not in my experience. It might be more accurate at a higher speed, but my Garmin Nuvi can sense me moving it around at arms length while standing still. The speed and direction are smoothed out over a couple of seconds so it pretty much reflects what's going on unless you're dodging alligators or something. I've used the pedestrian mode on the Nuvi once and it looked OK to me - it certainly told me I was walking down the street in the right direction, and it showed when I turned down the wrong street (just testing :) ).

EDIT: I guess you're reading this article. I will mention that the guidance I received in pedestrian mode was specific to a pedestrian - it directed me down the Atlantic City boardwalk, which I think it would not have done if I was in automobile mode (at least I hope not).

I have a Garmin GPSMap 60 CSx. It has the ability to switch to a "Pedestrian" mode, and I have not had the problem you describe when in this mode. It tells direction and gives an accurate estimate of how long it's going to take to walk to a destination.