Thinking about my first GPS
 

Does anyone know anything or has any opinion, good or bad, about Nextar X3i GPS?

TIA

My gps purchases have been made at Semsons.com and BuyGPSNow.com. Both sites have forums where you can research devices and get advice.

Consumer Reports did a full report on about 30 GPS devices this month, though not that particular model. Might be worth checking out.

My advise? Stick with the big names; TomTom, Garmin, Magellan or Navigon.

I'd stay clear of the 100's of little brands as their support (and map updates) might not be as easy to get access to...

I have a Tom Tom One and I am not at all happy with it.
Even though I do updates, it is missing tons of roads and businesses.
Yesterday, I was searching for this obscure store in Charlotte, NC called WalMart. According to my TomTom, there aren't any. (There are, I looked on line).
The other day, it had me go 2.5 miles, through a series of back streets, to get to a store rather than simply going past it and doing a U turn.
It seems that the TomTom does not have the ability to search beyond the destination route for a better, quicker alternative.

TomToms: I find the POIs and shops and the like are pretty rubbish, but the mapping and routing really rather good. I have the 910.

There are around 20 million businesses in the US; it's not possible to load them all on a GPS device.

If you find stores are missing, load them through TomTom home, or head to sites like http://www.poi-factory.com/ and manually load all the chains you need.

I've got the 930 here, and the POI database is brilliant; even the most obscure stores seem to be loaded on it. I've loaded some of my own files too (home depot, Costco).

I've been very happy with my Garmin Nuvi 360 from Costco. Maps and POIs seem to work great. I also like the MP3 player. I can use it on the plane to both listen to music and know where we are at. It even comes in handy for walking the dogs to know how far/fast I have walked, but it is a bit bulky to carry in a pocket on a walk.

In CLT you are much better off with Target and even TomTom knows that ;). There are 3 Targets within 2 miles from me, and the closest WalMart is 8 miles away.

I’m considering my first portable GPS unit and this thread and others have proved to be very helpful. And thanks to flyinbob for the heads-up on the Consumer Reports review of GPS units.

Mrs. Cholula has had a built-in unit in her last few cars and I nearly always get a GPS unit in a rental car. But have never had one for my personal car.

I’m leaning toward one of the higher-end Garmin Nuvi or TomTom units and I have a question I don’t see answered here or elsewhere. To update the maps or POI via the internet, do these GPS units require a Windows OS? I’m a Mac guy and I know some of the earlier GPS units required a Windows machine.

Thanks.

I have the Garmen Nuvi 350. I love it. It is easy to update and 99% of the time I agree with the routing. I took it to Europe last year. Although I did not drive, it came in handy. More than once it pointed out a closer Metro station. Saved me some steps^

Both TomTom Home and the Garmin POI loader work on the Mac (real Mac versions).

Depending on what kind of phone you have you may want to consider something like Garmin XT software and, if necessary, a bluetooth GPS receiver. On my Samsung Blackjack II (built in GPS receiver) the Garmin XT software works great with voice guidance (no text-to-speach beyond roads with numbers), 3-D view, re-route, lane/interchange display, millions of POIs, and updatability. All it is lacking is a touchscreen. It's available on MicroSD for $75 and includes all of North America on a 2gb card as well as MiniSD and full-size SD adapters. The version that includes a Bluetooth GPS receiver (if your phone doesn't have one) can be had for around $100. Both versions are compatible with WM2003, WM5, WM6, Symbian, and Palm OS. I chose this solution particularly for business travel since it is one less device to have to pack/carry. It also has a walking mode and public-transit mode for urban environments. So far it has been very useful. One consideration is it drains battery pretty quickly... about 3 hours on a full charge where the phone by itself gets about 3 days standby and around 7 hours talk time.

I was considering adding an in-dash unit to my car (along with video and bluetooth) but this made much more sense all around based on price and portability.

Garmin has a webupdater for Mac.
http://www8.garmin.com/support/colle...t=999-99999-27

With Garmin (as I'm sure with others) there are a couple different upgrade proceses.

The webupdater is for firmware upgrades only and is free.

To update the maps you must purchase a new mapset. New units come with a code for 1 map upgrade that you must use with the next set. I bought mine in 2006 and it came with like NT8. I lost my code so I never upgraded to 2008. 2009 just came out and I had to pay for the maps.

A new mapset will come with new POIs, but I just recently started a thread about how I've resorted to just getting custom POIs off the internet because even Garmin with their market share can't keep up.

I have a Nuvi 660. Great screen. Takes maybe 2 trips to get used to the navigation and interface, then you know exactly what things mean. I couldn't imagine renting a unit unless I always rented from the same company. My coworkers will rent the Hertz Neverlost and the interface just seems so hard to navigate compared to Garmin. Nuvis will speak street names.

The whole fact that the Nuvi 660 has hung around so long speaks for its technology, but i don't use the FM or bluetooth (or MP3 or audiobooks, etc), but I do like the Nuvi because it fits in my purse easily and it ALWAYS in my purse!

I recommend a "friction mount" if you will be using it in many various rentals as I do. The suction cup on the windshield would fall off or never come off.

Good features to have
Spoken Street names
good brand behind it for upgrades (Garmin, TomTom, Magellan)
quick satellite acquiring (my nuvi is slow at this)
Good routing and quick rerouting

Pay extra for spoken street names. You need to focus on reading the street name on the sign itself, not your unit.