Help! That last Christmas gift.

NOT marine related but here goes... This morning my wife had to drive herself to work (I always drive - it's 80 miles one way thru multiple ugly traffic areas). It was raining and dark and she got lost. I got her location, used mapquest from home and guided her to work. Problem solved.

So I'm thinking... I need one more guift for her stocking - GPS nav for the car. I see lots of folks out there with them but never needed one so I am not up on them and Christmas is only a few days away. Someone here has to be up on these gadgets. What works and what don't?

We have both the TomTom and Garmin and hands down prefer the Garmin. Spend a few extra dollars and get the unit with charts for life available. It will save you money in the long run. Chuck

I won a Garmin in a drawing and never use it but my husband does and likes it.* One thing to consider with the turn by turn directions, the less expensive ones just say "turn right in x distance" where the "better" ones say "turn right on [street name]."* (the picture has the street*name but the*voice doesn't necessarily say it).* *this can makea BIG difference in unfamiliar territory or city driving where the GPS / you may not know exactly where you are and you end up turning on the wrong street.

Good point Jennifer and that is one of the big things I like about the Garmin over the TomTom. Chuck

What about destination address entry? I saw my cousin trying to enter an address and it came up with 4 matches. Anything to look for there?

TomTom is my choice. But, whatever brand you buy get one with the advanced lane guidance feature so that you know which lane to be in before the major traffic exchanges. My Tom Tom XL 340 S was on sale for $99.00. It has turn by turn directions, advanced lane guiiance and very detailed and up to date maps.

I can enter destinations by address, point of interest, lat. long., and several other ways.

I have friends with Garmin, Tom Tom and Magellen. Everyone says to get Garmin or Tom Tom because Magellin is not very user friendly.

Sure would be nice if you could get one both for the car AND boat.

Seems silly to duplicate toys with memory costing so little!

Watch out for TomToms map update, it is pretty much a rip off. You pay $80 to $100 for a map update and we saw absolutely no improvement in updating roads that were not on the GPS prior to the update and we travel the entire east coast of the US. Many of these roads were two or more years old. Chuck

-- Edited by Capn Chuck on Wednesday 22nd of December 2010 02:42:18 PM

carvendive wrote:

What about destination address entry? I saw my cousin trying to enter an address and it came up with 4 matches. Anything to look for there?

Click to expand...

This reminded me, my mom recently bought a*volvo.* She didn't want to spring for the $2000 package that included the built in nav and instead paid*the dealership to install a Garmin on the dashboard.* She and I went from her home in Mebane, NC, to Danville, VA the day after she got the car.* She tried to search for "Danville" and came up with several, but not one in VA.* Also it could never find her house (new neighborhood).* Dad said the dealership had given them directions to update the software (maps?) which they did, easily, and it now can find Danville, VA and everything else my mom has tried to stump it with, and it can find their home address.* So even though it was a "new" unit it did not have the most up to date maps--maybe it had been in stock for awhile??*

In any case, the input for addresses, finding points of interest, etc, seems easy enough from what I have seen.* A lot easier than with the idrive in the BMW!*

*We want to know what you get her and how she likes it!

FF wrote:
Sure would be nice if you could get one both for the car AND boat.

Seems silly to duplicate toys with memory costing so little!

Click to expand...

FF, Here you go with "nice" but at a price $850 - OUCH!

Garmin GPSMAP 640 All In One Marine and Auto GPS
The Garmin GPSMAP 640 integrates highly detailed marine and automotive street maps into one unit with a high resolution 5.2" touchscreen display.

A couple of years ago I bought a Garmin, don't remember the model now, it has the standard aoutomotive software but also includes a Marine mode with all the usual features, coastal US charts, routing, anchor alarm, etc. etc. works very well in either mode. This model now discontinued has keys which I prefer over the touch screen system.
Steve W

My wife has a Magellan she won at work several years ago. We thought we would never use it and are now addicted to the thing. I got her the Garmin 1390t for Christmas. Features include traffic updates, lanes, and bluetooth.

The best thing is the big screen for the older eyes.

Rob

37' Sedan

After a lot of research, I bought a Tom Tom and love it! Magellan was out, as I've seen them in operation and not pleased. Tom Tom seens to have access to the best map data, but even with the updates, it's behind. I have no idea how long it takes to update a major change in a road or fwy, but it's at least a couple of years.

If you want the exact turn by turn directions, you have to select a computer voice which can translate the directions and read them out. Mine has a pirate voice on it that I love, although it's not a computer one. He reads out directions in port and starboard, and sometimes says.. "You've got to reverse your course matey...I told you so, but you wouldn't listen..."

"FF, Here you go with "nice" but at a price $850 - OUCH!"

Well with electric toys at least it doesnt take long to move a single decimal place.

I'll check the January sales.

We've got a Garmin and it was the best addition to a car I've ever bought. Knowing exactly what time your going to get somewhere is a huge stress reliever. The mapping is a big help also. Imagine running your boat without a GPS.

"Imagine running your boat without a GPS."


OK,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Now what is supposed to happen?

I got a Garmin for free by signing up for a credit card (which was promptly cut up)* I'd never used one before, but now my wife calls it our "marriage saver".* What ever you get, you will love it................Arctic Traveller

I have been using my old Garmin Street Pilot since 2006, and wouldn't travel unknown territory without it. Having looked at other brands that friends have, I wouldn't have anything but the Garmin. Mostly because I seem to be technically challenged, and the Garmin is so simple to operate. We bought a Honda car with navigation, and find it's not nearly as simple to operate. I am so committed to auto navigation that I picked up another Garmin for back up, just because they were clearing an old model for $79.

We bought a Garmin 255W (wide screen) in 2009 for our driving trip to Prince Edward Island. Worked great, does what want it to do, use it all the time here.

But where it's really paid off has been on our international trips for work. When early this year we had to go to Abu Dhabi and Dubai for a couple of weeks we were going to be driving ourselves to our hotels and different shooting locations. The 255W comes loaded with the US, Canada, Hawaii, and Alaska. But it has a slot for an SD card in the side (like most of the other GPS units I assume).

So I got Garmin's SD card for the Middle East. Prior to leaving on the trip I entered all the locations we were going to have to drive to in both Abu Dhabi and Dubai, so when we arrived (at midnight) and got our vehicle, it was just a matter of bringing up our hotel and off we went. Never had to ask for directions or screw with maps try to figure out the signs.

For an upcoming trip I bought the SD card for Europe. Same deal, I'll enter all the places we're going--- hotels, airport and city shooting locations, etc.--- and we're set.

And of course, like Carey, we use it for domestic travel.* I've been going to Charleston lately to shoot in our new 787 manufacturing facilities there, and have all the locations that we go to stored in the Garmin.

The only downside is that if we go to Charleston and forget the GPS or it stops working, we're screwed because we've paid no real attention to where we're driving--- we just follow the GPS.** Toward the end of our second week-long shoot in Charleston my cameraman asked me where the Boeing plant was in relationship to the city.* Neither one of us had any idea even though we'd driven to and from it dozens of times.* We had to wait until we were in the van again and could zoom out on the GPS to find out.

-- Edited by Marin on Sunday 26th of December 2010 03:59:11 PM

Oh man y'all are off on the wrong tangent!!! And sorry I didn't see this earlier. You get her a Sprint HTC EVO!!! It has a screen just as big as any of these other doodads. You can literally speak into it and it will take you to wherever you want to go....yeah....speech to text....just say "Navigate...3282 Smith street...Houston,TX" and the Nav program pops up and you are on your way. Or another way of doing it that lets you be involved....you can use "chrome to phone"...an app on your phone and your google chrome browser where you can bring up ANY website(in this case mapquest) on your desktop and simply hit ONE button and it sends that exact website to the phone in question. She can then navigate with mapquest right there on her phone....or she likely would be "asked" if she wanted to use one of TWO NAV SYSTEMS on the phone....Google's version or Sprint's....both very capable.....Google having the power of google behind it and since you are connected to the internet...possibilities are endless. That means you can direct her navigation from your home desktop if she got lost....EXACTLY your scenario here. A phone like the EVO has basically rendered stand alone Car nav systems obsolete. SO much so that Garmin is sniffing around in the cellphone business. Oh, and did I mention it does about 12,557,284,309 different things....and it is a phone....and a camera(8mp)....and a video camera(720p with HDMI out so you can view your content from your phone to your widescreen TV)....and a wifi mobile hotspot....and....and....and....

I can simply say, "Navigate to Walmart"...and since it has an internet connection and it is google powered and it knows my location it will bring up a list of Walmarts beginning with the nearest one...I select whichever one I want and I am on my way. IT IS THAT SIMPLE!

This "phone" is a ridiculously powerful device for about $450!...worth every penny. Obviously it is discounted with a contract with Sprint.

Oh...and I almost forgot....a 10 dollar app will turn it into a very capable navionics chart plotter....how can you not have one of these things...
Slam dunk!

carvendive wrote:

*
FF wrote:
Sure would be nice if you could get one both for the car AND boat.

Seems silly to duplicate toys with memory costing so little!

Click to expand...

*


FF, Here you go with "nice" but at a price $850 - OUCH!

Garmin GPSMAP 640 All In One Marine and Auto GPS
The Garmin GPSMAP 640 integrates highly detailed marine and automotive street maps into one unit with a high resolution 5.2" touchscreen display.

*

Or, at a much cheaper price, always up to date, and so you have everything together in one compact all-in-one tool, one could just download the apprpriate ap from iPhone ap-store (if you have an iPhone, and if not, it's not a bad reason for getting one), for marine maps and street maps (we have found Tom Tom good here), and my son got a good marine set from there as well.* Side on the screen is acceptable in size it fits quite well in the oddments opening in most dashboards, or fits a suction cup holder.
Or....(having just seen John Baker's post),* there is that - the Sprint EVO, and still half the Garmin price.

*


-- Edited by Peter B on Thursday 30th of December 2010 12:12:09 AM

"if you have an iPhone, and if not, it's not a bad reason for getting one)"

Staff has cell phones , sorry but I'm not staff!

Why not shout yourself one for a late Xmas present FF, or would that be breaking your "old tech is the best" motto too severely......pity, because they are kinda fun as well.

FF....."The future belongs to those who manage change the best."
The older I get, the harder it is to accept change but I work at it constantly.

SeaHorse II wrote:

FF....."The future belongs to those who manage change the best."
The older I get, the harder it is to accept change but I work at it constantly.

Click to expand...

Don't know who is responsible for the quote, but it is one of the best summations of reality I've ever read.* As is, in fact, the second sentence from Walt.

*

I'll take a bow for the quote....Years ago, when I was converting my company to a computer system, I had key employees fighting the change I was trying to incorporate. I came up with this quote (I may have heard it somewhere else but can't remember) and tied it to their year end bonuses. The change in the company was dramatic.

SeaHorse II wrote:
The future belongs to those who manage change the best.
I'll take a bow for the quote....Years ago, when I was converting my company to a computer system, I had key employees fighting the change I was trying to incorporate. I came up with this quote (I may have heard it somewhere else but can't remember) and tied it to their year end bonuses. The change in the company was dramatic.

Click to expand...

The statement can apply to boating as well.* I mean actual boating.* Running your boat.* Because the environment we boat in is constantly changing, too.* Currents, wind, waves, visibility, traffic, debris in the water, the course you're following to your destination--- they're constantly changing your immediate situation.* Managing these constant changes, or managing how you and your crew react to them, makes the difference between a successful trip and a stressful one, or even a disastrous one.

Most accidents--- car, boat, plane--- begin with a relatively small event that gets cascaded into a final, disasterous event.* Much of the cascading is caused by the people operating the equipment.* They don't react fast enough, they don't react correctly, they don't notice something developing.

Being prepared and mentally agreeable to accepting change and managing it properly, as opposed to resisting it, can be the difference between avoiding a problem and having one.

This, I think, is the great contribution of technology, because technology can be used to detect and manage many of the changes we encounter faster, more effectively, and more consistently than we can.

*

SeaHorse II wrote:

FF....."The future belongs to those who manage change the best."
The older I get, the harder it is to accept change but I work at it constantly.

Click to expand...

In addition, I would say "The only constant is change". I don' t know who gets credit for that, but it combines well with your quote.

*

And then there is the other truth;

The only ones who like change are bus drivers and babies.