Does everybody have a GPS? If not you should.

C'mon dude... which model WAS IT?

One of the user-reviews about the Magellan 3100 said almost the same exact thing... I mean almost exactly.
 
I've got a TomTom One and I've been very happy with it. At the current prices, it makes a lot of sense for almost anyone. It usually does an excellent job of routing, but occasionally spits out a route I know isn't the fastest. I usually just start driving the way I prefer and it quickly reroutes. Many times it finds shortcuts and faster routes in areas I've been driving around for years.

A GPS gets you to your destination safer and faster. Without a GPS when you're searching for a destination or lost, your driving tends to be more erratic--slowing down to read street signs, moving across lanes, etc.--usually at night.

You still have to remember to use your brain with A GPS--no map dataset is perfect and it helps to question if the directions make sense. Also it's good to practice keeping your eyes on the road and just listening to the instructions rather than fixating on that pretty screen.
 
Now from a different point of view...

I used to be hardcore into the great outdoors. Off trail hiking, backpacking, mountaineering, sea kayaking, orienteering. Traveled all over the world, etc. When GPS became affordable and they removed the accuracy restrictions on it, I thought it was a godsend. I took it everywhere with me, made all kinds of remote waypoints. It was cool seeing things like dots out in the ocean where a tiny island is, and looking at the unit say 20,204' on top of a peak in South America. But when it came down to using it, as a navigation helper, or even a lifesaver, I found that I never used it for that purpose in 3-4 years of owing it. Not once - not even to walk down a mountain in white out. I think because I had been doing this for so long, and knew what I was doing, that no matter how accurate the GPS was, it didn't come anywhere near close to replacing the skills of terrain reading, topo map reading, or general direction common sense, and survival skills. This isn't to say I'm Bear Grylls, no. But I found that the GPS was dead weight, didn't do me any good, and I sold it, and never missed it.

Now, having spit that out, I think the newer ones with maps in them and touch screen functions are very slick, and driving in big cities, or even small, but unfamiliar ones, or hiking in wide open places like salt flats looking for a previous camera location, they probably are a godsend, and I completely believe you guys.

But for what the unit was, and still is, sold for at many places- helping you find your way out in the wild, and maybe save your life, I thought the thing was a dead weight.
 
yea GPS is real cool, I remember back two years ago when I was trying to develop my own custom navigation system (using the standard NMEA data stream and A star algorithms),

Its funny that GPS has some hidden features that they don't tell the consumer about, eg it does have an enhanced mode (I suspect for military use) that gives a much better resolution not available for the public use, I found this out when the last place I was working at they were developing a national tracking equipment.
 
MattinSTL said:
I'm curious what you mean by easy entering of addresses?

One of the things that I liked about the Mio (that I thought was unique to this company) is that when you enter an address it gradually blacks out keys on the keyboard... only showing possible letters for every address in the area... then before you even finish typing the name, if there's only one name in the city that fits, it goes there. Is that unique or no?
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I never used any Mio but Magellans allow you to start with zip codes or city,ST and then works down from there, greying out choices as you proceed; making it quicker to input full address. In my experience with Garmin and TomTom you have to start with street address and work your way to city,st. A much slower process in my experience. Especially annoying if you aren't 100% sure whether it is a St or Ave, or if the numbered road was NE, SW, etc. In the Seattle area that is critical (there is very little logic to how our roads are ordered).

I am sure that feature is not unique but a huge headache saver and worth looking for IMO. I would wager newer Garmins have it but the high-end one I got 3 years ago did not.

But still, the price drop compared to features you can get now-a-days is amazing compared to just a short time ago. I don't think you can go wrong with any of them.

Cheers
 
MattinSTL said:
Secondly... the TomTom has a really good reputation as well, but as I gathered through reading (perhaps incorrectly?) that a lot of the "extras" actually COST extra... like you have to pay or subscribe to get some of the functions that are simply part of some other GPS systems? Maybe I got that wrong? Like POIs and stuff?
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No, that's all free. The traffic service is an extra-cost option if you want that. And map updates cost. But normal usage and points of interest, etc., that's all free.
 
Anhar Miah said:
yea GPS is real cool . . . Its funny that GPS has some hidden features that they don't tell the consumer about, eg it does have an enhanced mode (I suspect for military use) that gives a much better resolution not available for the public use, I found this out when the last place I was working at they were developing a national tracking equipment.
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And just how do we access these hidden modes, Anhar? :)
 
I didn't realize the prices had come down so far on GPS systems.

I'm thinking of picking up a Garmin Nuvi 200 for my wife for Christmas. They're only about $200 at Amazon.com.
 
My day job is actually working for Garmin. Before working here, I didn't even know why I'd need a GPS, they are the future. The cell phone analogy is good, before you have one you don't know when you'd use it, but after, you can't live without it.
 
Meh. Wake me up when the accuracy is such that I can pinpoint the exact spot my car is parked in one of those huge parking structures, where like in a Seinfeld episode, I always seem to forget where I parked :)
 
I know in some situations where there isn't much to dilute the signal my Garmin comes in with about 3 feet of accuracy. Certainly enough to find my car in a big parking lot.
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Well I wish even I knew how, I'd love to tell you but the engineers never let me see the program code and test bed that they was running, just explained that it existed..

The accuracy in civilian models is increased via oversampling, and some of the navigation software makes some assumtion based upon vehicle speed and direction (i.e. if your travelling forward, in the next second your most likely to be travelling in the same direction) you can actually test this, swicth or kill the GPS signal randomly and you will see that the software "assumes" your current position (but not indefinately)

The military can change the SA (Selective availability[1]), and have access the unencrypted mode, but this is not available to us mere mortals sadly.


On a bright note, for those who hunger for more accuracy you can also switch the European Galileo positioning system[2] :) which I believe is more accurate than existing GPS, and the project has stated they will not implement SA or SD

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Positioning_System#Selective_availability

[2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_positioning_system
 
I believe the old Soviet "Glonoss" system has even more accuracy, or did or... someone needs to do a web search for more on it, the sat's may no longer be up.
 
I got a Magellan 2200t from Buy.com a few months back for $165. A refurb, of course, but an awesome deal for a model with text-to-speech (which is what I was holding out for). Now, Costco has a slimmer Magellan with speech for $199. Granted, I'd rather have a Tom Tom as they're Mac compatible, but I'll make due with my non-updatable maps for a while longer yet. Great for road trips.
 
Can you guys drag your finger on the screen to pull the map around? Like you would pull the pointer with a mouse pad? On my unit you can pull the map around and zoom in and out with your fingertip... and when you do this it stops showing progress so that you can drag the map over to find something... then you just tap it again and it resumes following the route. Is this a normal feature? Also I can tap a spot to see the POI around that spot... and I can tap-tap the POI to pull up the address and phone number. Is that normal on the other brands now?

I'm also wondering if most brands have a daylight changing to nighttime display?

I really dig the idea of being routed for right hand arrivals... and I know that the Garmins are reported to be the most accurate. If it really can get you to within 3' of your car that's pretty impressive. I can get to within 3' of a point as long as I set the coordinates... but so far I'm just moving around with finger taps... and that may be part of the reason why I'm not nailing my position exactly.

The GPS has been a bit of a learning process (although it's easy as pie)... but I can say that I haven't enjoyed any tech item more then this thing... at any price... I'm floored that these things work so well and I'm even more stunned at how few people have them! It is exactly as you guys say... it doesn't seem like anything to get excited about but after having one there's no going back.

It's great finally learning the roads in my area... my mind is totally blown by these things. I hope I don't have an accident watching the GPS though...
 
Self Correction:

The alternative mode that I was refering to is not related to SA, although SA does affect the accuracy, the mode I was thinking of was the P-Code, the public use is the C/A signal.

Some digging last nigt revealed that the P-code is encrypted with the A-code, this is what is needed to decrypt the carrier signal, and the "work around" is that an estimated value can be used, I suspect this is what the engineers where doing.

Ok now that my technical info has been revised I feel alot better :)
 
Barry_Green said:
No, that's all free. The traffic service is an extra-cost option if you want that. And map updates cost.
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They do? Just bought a TomTom and it looks like the map updates are free, too. "Use Latest Map Guarantee" in the TomTom Home menu.

Oh, and earlier Navigon was mentioned and dismissed.

I concur. Overpriced piece of doodoo. And badly designed: adjusting the position on the pedestal will usually result in you turning the thing off. And then you pray you can turn it back on again.
 
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