It's Getting to be Toy Season

[MikeRivers]

in addition to leaf raking season.

 

I keep seeing these cheap GPS receivers and remembering how much fun it was to play with the few times when I scored a rental car equipped with one. There are about for or five different models for well under $150 on Black Friday and, like $100 microphones, they all look and work about the same except for the differences that you never know about until you play with them for a while, some of which will really bug you.

 

I jumped the gun and picked up a Becker (they make the radios for some Mercedes models) in a pre-Thanksgiving sale yesterday. It's pretty cool, but like so many menu-based gadgets, either it or I (most likely I) get confused and often find myself on the wrong menu, or can't find the menu I found before that had the thing on it that I wanted to do. But it knows where my house is, it knows where Uncle Darrow's in LA is, and probably knows all the roads in between. On thing I particularly like about this one (and this isn't unique - others do it too) is that it can play MP3 files and has a removable SD memory card where they can be stored. I could take it on a trip, play music on the plane, then drive with the GPS.

 

I wanted to buy two different ones and do a flyoff, returning the one I liked the least, but the Office Depot store only had the Becker. My modus operandi for cheap electronics these days is buy-it-try-it-return-it, and so I'm thinking of going hog wild tomorrow (unless they sell out before I wake up) and buy a few more:

 

Navigon 2100T - $100

Magellan Maestro 3100 - $130

Tomtom ONE V3 - $124

 

I've read reviews of all of them - they all have their plusses and minuses. I've looked at all the manuals and web site pictures and there's no clear winner on paper.

 

Anyone have any experience with these? Anyone had one long enough for it to break? Must be lots of lost musicians out there who would find it $100 worth of helpful to get to the gig reliably.

[Anderton]

Make sure it's easy to update. My wife has a GPS in her car and things have changed so much since she bought it it simply doesn't know that lots of streets exist. It can be updated, but when she went to the Toyota dealer, he said the update CD cost $600!! That's bullcrap. You'd think that if you bought a car, the dealership could upgrade you for like $20 or something from the CD they have.

[MikeRivers]

Make sure it's easy to update. My wife has a GPS in her car and things have changed so much since she bought it it simply doesn't know that lots of streets exist. It can be updated, but when she went to the Toyota dealer, he said the update CD cost $600!!

That's pretty much the way it is with factory-installed GPSs, but these aftermarket ones are somewhat better. I think Garmin sells a new map CD for about $85. Tomtom seems to be about the most liberal. You can download new maps from their web site, and they also have some sort of system for user input to make corrections and additions that can be downloaded and applied. But I think there are only two companies who make the maps for these gadgets, so ultimately they're the ones who determine the charges.

[ggm1960]

What a great topic.

 

On our way home this afternoon (around 4:30 - 5:00pm) we passed Best Buy and couldn't help but notice that camping tents were set up out in front of the store. Now mind you this in eastern Iowa, it's been snowing lately and the temperature's been hovering around 30 degrees.

 

This, I believe is the season of Wii??????

[SpaceNorman]

I bought a TomTom One as a b'day present for my wife back in July. It never ceases to amaze me on how accurate and user friendly it is. I no longer get calls asking me whether she needs to turn left or right at the end of the freeway ramp (you know....the one you drove down 3 years ago - and can't remember if it was a "straight exit" or one of those that "J'ed" you around.)

 

It's even a plus for me ... because that British sounding chick voice give such good GPS that I've started making wrong turns just to hear her correct me.

 

It was worth it as $250...at $125 it's a steal.

[Super 8]

The prices for GPS's have sure dropped.

I bought a Garmin 7200 a little over a year ago for around $900. Great unit. I used the heck out of it. They can be had for around $600 now.

 

I can't tell you how many times that thing saved my ass or kept me out of trouble. Of course, there were a few times in got my into trouble, but those were pretty rare.

 

Loved the 7" touch screen. It was also really handy for a heads up display of the time and my speed. I never had to take my eyes off the road. It could also handle XM radio and MP3's but I didn't use it for that.

[MikeRivers]

 

On our way home this afternoon (around 4:30 - 5:00pm) we passed Best Buy and couldn't help but notice that camping tents were set up out in front of the store.

There are no bargains for the sane. I woke up early this morning so I put on my clothes and got to Staples about 6:10 (they opened at 6 AM). The Navigon and TomTom units (about $100) were all gone. The manager told me they only had 20 of each and they were gone as soon as the doors opened. They still had a Magellan but for $9 more I could (and did) buy one at Radio Shack without the wait, and picked up a TomTom there too for $15 more than Staples' price. They're on my bench now.

 

No clear winner yet, but it's still early. The TomTom package was probably the most difficult to open that I've ever encountered.

[MikeRivers]

For those interested in this little soap opera, here's a new chapter.

 

The offer of a free update to the current maps and firmware is a strong selling point for the TomTom units. I attempted to update the maps in the TomTom GPS before taking it out for a spin. I installed the "talk to the secret part of the TomTom web site" application on my computer, went to the Update My TomTom menu, and it told me that there were both firmware and map updates available. I did the firmware first and there were a couple of new things added to the user interface. That went quickly and smoothly. The map update was different. The download (a couple of gigabytes) took about 3 hours over my 768 kbps DSL connection. When the download was complete, it started on the installation and immediately quit saying "Internal Server Error."

 

Thinking that perhaps the download had been corrupted, I did it again, with the same result. The downloaded files are saved on my computer so I took a look at what was there. There are updates for US/Canada and Guam, each in its own folder. There's a ZIP file with the actual map (this should mitigate corruption during the download) plus a couple of other files, one of which, from its name, appears to be an activation code. It's a CAB file. Comparing the Guam (which apparently did update) with the US files, I saw that the US version of the CAB file showed a size of 0 bytes, and it wouldn't open as a Zip file as the Guam CAB file did. So I called TomTom's tech support (maybe a 3 minute wait on hold, even during the Black Friday weekend) and asked if I could get that one file and do the installation manually. Manual installation is indeed possible (a support guy walked me through it) but without that file, it doesn't work in the US. The last support person I talked with said that there was a problem with the web site downloads (she blamed it on the high volume from all the people buying new TomToms over the weekend and overloading things - though that wouldn't explain the same one file being corrupt through several downloads at different times of the day and night) and promised that it would be fixed by Monday. So for now, I can only play with the user interface and navigate in Guam with it.

 

Of course I had too much faith in the company's update working properly and didn't back up the original US map data files before updating, so I couldn't put it back to the way it was when I opened the package. It occurred to me that I could take it back to the store, tell them that it didn't work, and get another one, but it's more fun to learn about these things.

 

There are some things about the Magellan Maestro 3100 that I liked a lot - mostly that the user interface was familiar from using a similar design in Hertz rental cars. But like the Becker, I still found myself in the wrong menu too often, knowing that I've done before what I'm trying to do now, only now I can't find out where to start from. It has the least up-to-date maps (last quarter 2006) and didn't have a restaurant in its POI (points of interest) where we were eating last night even though it's been there for over five years. (it did know about two other locations of the same restaurant in the area).

 

So last night I went to dinner with a couple of friends who bought a TomTom OneXL based on playing with my Becker on Thanksgiving. We had the Becker, Magellan, and TomTom all set to guide us to the restaurant (had to look up the address on the web site and load it into the Magellan) and it was amusing to see that they each had their own version of how to get there. Since we knew where we were going, we took a route that deviated slightly from each of the units to see how they would react to getting us back on course. More than once, one told us to make a right turn while another told us to make a left turn at the same intersection, but usually with the idea of getting us back to how IT wanted to go rather than figuring out how to get there from where we were. Eventually all of them caught on, and by the time we got within about half a mile of the end point, they were all giving the same direction at the same time.

 

If you're still with me, I think that I'm getting a lesson here. This stuff is really cool to play with, but as long as I keep fooling around with it, I'll continue to find things that bother me. If I just accepted it and used it for what it's supposed to do, I'd learn where the commonly accessed things were on the menus and they'd probably all be OK. It's the same thing with audio hardware and software. When I start playing with a new piece for a review, I try everything I can think of but don't have enough time to really learn how to do it or when to NOT do it. But once I get down to actually using it in practice (where I'm probably barely using 10% of what it can do) it all becomes relatively straightforward and it stops fighting me.

[bbach]

I take it those of you who live in large metropolitan areas have a need for a digital map?

Here we just point our car in one direction and we get to the next spot.

 

Having been in the trucking business and making deliveries in downtown LA, Chicago, Detroit, etc, I guess I could see it, but I rarely found myself lost. Of course, I was going to a designated spot and usually had predetermined my routes through the roadways.

 

We sell $200 GPS systems here in the RV business, mostly to motor home customers who like to travel, but I've found our product to be very limited and quickly outdated. To date, I've never opted for the nav system in my new cars.

 

You probably get what you pay for.

[PBBPaul]

I've had a Garmin Nuvi 350 for about 6 months now and absolutely love it. I travel frequently and this thing has made my life much easier. It is small, has a great battery life and is very accurate. I like the text-to-speech capabilities that allow it to announce specific street names. When I bought mine, it was around $400. I'm sure that they've dropped significantly for the season.

[MikeRivers]

 

I take it those of you who live in large metropolitan areas have a need for a digital map? Here we just point our car in one direction and we get to the next spot.

These gadgets are good for two kinds of people. One is the traveler who needs to get around in an unfamiliar city, travels alone, and doesn't want to be continually looking at maps.

 

The other is old geezers like me who:

 

 

One problem I have with these GPS navigators has to do with short term memory. It gives me enough warning to prepare to turn (change lanes if I need to) but in slow traffic, I need more than one warning. If it's 30 seconds between the warning and the turn, I'm OK, but if traffic is slow and it's two minutes later than I have to turn (it always tells me when I'm at the turn) I can't remember if I'm supposed to turn left or right. Some announce the turn ("Turn right") and some just play a boing tone.

[PBBPaul]

 

Some announce the turn ("Turn right") and some just play a boing tone.

 

 

That's why I like Garmin's text-to-speech capability. It tells you several times in advance not only when to turn but which direction and onto which street. From a highway, it will say something like "In .9 miles, take exit number 375 on right, then keep left onto Main Street". It continually reminds you where to turn as you go through the exit. When I was choosing which GPS to buy, this was a major feature for me because I am almost always driving in unfamiliar areas. I also like that it has a huge number of restaurants, gas stations, attractions, etc... preloaded. So if I'm on the way to the airport and need to fill up the rental car, I can find gas stations very easily. Likewise with restaurants, stores or anything else I'd need.

[Billster]

 

Maybe I'm being unduly harsh, but what's so hard about preparing for a trip and reading a map? I'm not crazy about having to improvise if I make an unplanned stop on an interstate trip, but it just isn't that hard to read a map.

[Lee Flier]

The one thing that sucks about reading a map or even writing down/printing out directions is you have to look away from the road to look at your directions, and pulling over to read a map every 5 minutes sucks. If you're in an unfamiliar place or there are a lot of turns/streets to your destination, a GPS is great. Having the voice telling you where to go so you can focus on the road is a good thing.

 

Now that the prices on them have dropped so much, I might get one.

[PBBPaul]

Maybe I'm being unduly harsh, but what's so hard about preparing for a trip and reading a map? I'm not crazy about having to improvise if I make an unplanned stop on an interstate trip, but it just isn't that hard to read a map.

 

I agree with you - assuming it's a point A to point B trip with maybe a couple of stops thrown in. Consider one of my more recent trips... I was in a state I had never been in. I drove two hours from my hotel to my first of five meetings only to find out that my customer had to postpone for two hours due to a plant emergency. I was able to call my second meeting and bump it up, come back for the first (now second) and then proceed to my third. With my old Mapquest method of travel, I would have likely had to just cancel the first meeting and found myself with an hour of nonproductive time on my hands. Not cool.

 

The GPS is a Godsend for improvised business travel.

[Billster]

See, I have the directional sense of a migrating bird or Monarch butterfly - I've been driving in Boston for 20 years.

[Phil O'Keefe]

It can be updated, but when she went to the Toyota dealer, he said the update CD cost $600!! That's bullcrap.

 

Yeah that's complete and total gouging. I'd be furious...

[Super 8]

 

Maybe I'm being unduly harsh, but what's so hard about preparing for a trip and reading a map?

 

 

It's not terribly hard to do. But comparing a GPS to a map and compass is like....I dunno....comparing a typewriter, and an envelope to Email. Either one works fine, but Email works so much better. I can plan a trip, find a stop, set a new destination point on the fly, and have it efficiently planned in 30 seconds.

Reading a map while on the road is just plan dangerous.

Plus, I know exactly where I am at all times. I know exactly how many miles I have to go, and can tell you almost to the minute when I'll be arriving.

If I get confused over anything, I can pull up an overhead map of the area I am in down to street level detail. You simply can't do that with a paper map.

 

If I'm out somewhere I've never been and need to find a grocery store, or a Walmart or whatever, I can find it instantly.

 

An invaluable resource.

[MikeRivers]

Maybe I'm being unduly harsh, but what's so hard about preparing for a trip and reading a map?

Nothing hard about reading a map to plan the trip, it's reading the map or the directions I've written from the map that's difficult for me while I'm driving. I think I have it pretty clear, but then I get on the road (or actually on the city streets) and it doesn't quite look like it did on the map. So I catch a street sign, then have to unfold the map and find where I am. There isn't always a safe place to pull over, and traffic lights never stay red long enough when you need them.

 

You'll get old too, one of these days.