Free GPS Guidance
Archive for the ‘Automotive’ Category
My friend and I went to a seminar away from home recently, held in a conference room at a hotel in an unfamiliar town. Well, wouldn’t you know that when we went out for lunch we took a wrong turn and got lost getting back. Who hasn’t ever done that? Anyway, we realized that the solution to our dilemma was to use her automotive GPS unit. Not having the exact address of the hotel with us, we just put in the town and the name of the hotel chain into the GPS device. This worked great! Step by step we got closer to our goal only to find that we were at another branch of that hotel chain, albeit still within the same city. I guess the moral of the story is to be as specific as possible, looking perhaps for the exit off the highway which was nearly across the street from the hotel rather than the name of the chain. Who knew that such a small city would have two? Well, lesson learned, we followed our GPS unit’s instructions back to the correct hotel just in time for our seminar to begin again. We live and learn; still, the GPS actually took us exactly where we asked it to, twice. I hope others will learn from my mistakes. Enjoy your travel with automotive GPS!
When you are driving down the highway and see something great that you feel you just Need to get back to later, but you are on your way to an appointment or maybe traffic is just crazy, and you just can’t stop right this minute, what do you do? Well, if the automotive GPS you are traveling with is a Garmin nuvi it is no problem at all. All you need to do is just reach out to that handy touch screen and ask to “view map”, then click on “vehicle” and “save location”, name it (anything at all if you are in traffic , just to be able to find it again), and you are done! How simple is that? Gotta love those GPS touch screen features on the go! Next time you see, oh a terrific garage sale or an interesting restaurant or maybe a side trip you want to take on your way home from vacation all you need to do is just save that location on your Garmin nuvi GPS. Nice feature. Simplify your life and save that location.
If you are looking for a serious, yet versatile handheld GPS you might want to consider the DeLorme Earthmate. The DeLorme Earthmate PN-30 or PN-40 GPS systems have a lot to offer. The DeLorme Earthmate GPS are great as handheld GPS systems, but with the right handheld GPS accessories such as the correct GPS mounts they become automotive GPS systems; and, since they are waterproof, can also be used on your motorcycle, bike or ATV as well, and there is no worry if you get caught in the rain on a hike or geocaching expedition.
With compact dimensions of 2.43 x 5.25 x 1.5 they are easy to carry, are equipped with STMicroelectronics GPS 32-channel chipset for reliable satellite acquisition and include dual-core processor for rapid screen re-draws, even with large aerial imagery files and 500 MB of available on-board Flash memory. With both you can download data directly to SD card while in the receiver and display Navionics Charts. While only the PN-40 has a 3-axis electronic compass which performs in any position and sensitive barometric altimeter for accurate altitude readings, both versions have many other great features.
Both the DeLorme Earthmate PN-30 and PN-40 are pre-loaded with US secondary and connector roads , pre-loaded worldwide highway and major road base map and include Topo USA with comprehensive street, road and topographic detail. DeLorme Earthmate GPS even include NOAA nautical charts and are WAAS-enabled and with their rugged rubberized housing they are waterproof to IPX7 for marine use. Both the DeLorme Earthmate PN-30 and PN-40 include support for high capacity SDHC cards , available at up to 32 GB and 65K-color daylight-reading screen for visibility in any light conditions. Include the facts that they hold up to 10 tracks (10,000 points per track), up to 1,000 user-defined waypoints and hold up to 50 routes they are terrific for paperless geocaching. And who would expect them to include an almanac information on tides, sun and moon phases, and hunting/fishing conditions? Since they run on 2 AA batteries (included) or available Lithium-Ion rechargeable you can always carry backup batteries in your pack so you won’t get caught without your GPS before you get home.
What more versatile handheld GPS systems can you imagine? Whether you are interested in automotive GPS systems, geocaching or using GPS on your bike, motorcycle or ATV or for marine use, the DeLorme Earthmate GPS are dynamite handheld GPS systems not to be overlooked.
Time for another product comparison; I am looking at two more automotive GPS units – the Garmin nuvi 255 versus the nuvi 775T. Both are excellent automotive GPS systems. The nuvi 255 is built more for the budget conscious traveler; whereas the nuvi 775T has more options to offer and increased functional capacity. Here are the functions that are basically the same in both:
They both have color displays to make it easy to read the screen. Both have rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, the battery lasting approximately 4 hours on the nuvi 255 and 3 hours on the nuvi 775T. Each has a high-sensitivity GPS receiver. Neither of them is waterproof, so I wouldn’t recommend using them as a motorcycle GPS unit; however, waterproof is not really an issue in automotive GPS. Both come with preloaded street maps and the ability to add more maps if you are interested, but the nuvi 775T includes transatlantic maps which can be nice when you travel to Europe. Both of these versions of the Garmin nuvi come with internal solid state built-in memory and are designed to hold 1,000 Waypoints/favorites/locations; the nuvi 755T also built to remember up to 10 routes. Each includes a basemap and accepts data cards which are not included, but it would be handy to have for additional memory. Neither of these Garmin nuvi versions includes voice-activated navigation, so you are not able to operate the device with spoken commands; sorry about that one as that is a nice feature, but is yet another perk to look for in other automotive GPS systems in future reviews.
Both include choice of route setup for either faster time, shorter distance, or off road and route avoidance to help you avoid highways, tolls etc., also handy features to have in automotive GPS units. Both of these versions of Garmin nuvi also are FM traffic compatible (with receiver and lifetime traffic included with the nuvi 755T) and are MSN® Direct compatible and have a speed limit indicator which displays speed limit for most major roads in the U.S. and Europe. Both also have the functionality of the Where Am I? feature to help you find the closest hospitals, police & gas stations, nearest address & intersection and ecoRoute™ which calculates a more fuel-efficient route and the ability to add custom POIs (points of interest), all great features to have in unfamiliar territory. Personalize either Garmin nuvi version by adding Garmin Garage™ vehicles and voices, a free service at Garmin where you can download car-shaped icons and custom voices to your device. Photo navigation in order to navigate to geotagged photos, World travel clock, currency & unit converter, calculator and picture viewer are also nice features available in both.
Now for more differences between the two: The Garmin nuvi 755T has a few more features which the nuvi 255 does not. The nuvi 755T has higher display resolution and a 4.3-inch diagonal screen compared to the 3.5-inch screen of the nuvi 255. Nuvi 755T also includes 3-D building view which displays buildings in 3-D, the ability to auto sort multiple destinations which provides the most direct route, and Bluetooth® wireless technology so you can connect to your phone for hands-free calling. Garmin Locate™ marks your position when the GPS receiver is removed from the windshield mount – this can be really handy to help you remember where you parked your vehicle. The included MP3 player, Audio book player and FM transmitter with headphone jack/audio line-out will entertain you on your travels.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention that both of these Garmin nuvi automotive GPS systems come with Garmin Lock™ anti-theft feature and touchscreen convenience. Well, I hope that helps to sort out the differences and advantages of each of these Garmin nuvi versions for you. Happy traveling!
Okay, here I am, staring at the New Year just around the corner (actually only hours away right now!) and realizing that I got so caught up in baking cookies and all the fun of Christmas, I was forgetting to blog. Had some great ideas, too! Well, today I did a product comparison for a customer, so I thought I would share it with all who may be interested.
Let’s look at the Magellan Maestro 4700 versus Magellan Roadmate 1470 automotive GPS. Both are pretty nice little automotive GPS units with quite a few similarities, but a few differences. First, both have AAA Tour Book/Assistance, Live Traffic Service, SayWhere Speaks Street Names, Points of Interest (although the 4700 accepts many more POIs than the 1470), both have 4.7-inch Touch Screen, rechargeable battery with approximately 3-hour life off the charger, and Pre-Loaded Maps of US, Canada and Puerto Rico. Both of these automotive GPS systems have Memory available for map storage, the Maestro 4700 being Secure Digital (SD) card compatible and the Roadmate 1470 is Micro SD card compatible. Now for the bigger differences; the Maestro 4700 has Bluetooth Handsfree Calling and Voice Command, but the Roadmate 1470 does not. Now, the Magellan Maestro 4700 has a little bit bigger price than the Magellan Roadmate 1470, so you need to decide if the extra bells and whistles are worth the difference in money to you on your GPS receiver. Lots of folks will feel that they are, then you just have to decide how they fit your budget. That would be a completely personal thing in my book. I hope this has been helpful to you and am looking forward to seeing you next year. Happy New Year to all!
Makin’ a list, checkin’ it twice… Well, here I am in my nice comfy chair, snack at my side, looking at those automotive GPS systems that are on their pre-Black Friday sale. Hmmm. Gotta figure out which one of those Garmin nuvi automotive GPS units I like best. There are so many things to like about each one! First, size – the nuvi 550 is the smallest and will fit in my pocket easily once I hit the sidewalks, the nuvi 1260T and nuvi 1450 are still pretty small but are much thinner, with the 1450 having the largest screen of all which will be easier to see while driving in hectic traffic. The nuvi 550 and 1260T both will have good pictures, but the 1450 has the most pixels, again easier to see in heavy traffic. Okay, color touchscreens on all three, that’s great.
While all are lightweight, the 1260T is nearly half the weight of the other two at about 4 ounces – I’m likin’ that in my pocket again if I head out on foot or bike ‘cause it won’t be bulky. Okay, good… All three have rechargeable batteries; with battery life between 3 and 8 hours on each, the 550 beats the other two out again, but I will just keep them charging while I am in the car. No problems there. All three come with preloaded maps and have the ability to load more – nice. All three use voice prompts and speak streets by name, I like that a lot, but none of these have voice activated navigation; well, I don’t really need that one, and it keeps the price reasonable.
All three will do detour calculations to get me back on track, but only the 550 and the 1450 will figure out the most direct route for me; although, all three models will help me avoid highways or toll roads – savin’ me money; and the 1260T and 1450 both include ecoroute to save gas. I like that. Oh, the 1260T is the one with Bluetooth, a handy feature to have; and that one comes with Lifetime Traffic included, oooh, nice. They all have world clock and a picture viewer, anti-theft (Great Idea) and are easily personalized with Garmin Garage. Ahhh, the nuvi 550, is waterproof and great for motorcycles, boats and geocaching! Well, I think I know which one I want for Christmas, oooops! I am shopping for everyone else!
Crazy, crazy stores Black Friday – I’m sure not joining in on that crush! Who wants to get up at O’dark-thirty and push and shove and stand in line with a bunch of other folks who are pushin’ and shovin’ and standin’ in line trying to get the best bargains. Not Me! I plan to do my shopping online, whenever it is convenient for me, with no other shoppers rushing me or confusing me or stressing me out. This is going to be eeeeasy shopping this year. With the house nice and quiet, got my little refreshments, my nice comfy chair, my computer and me. I’m liking this. I am checking out some pre-Black Friday bargains already online, looking at some automotive GPS systems and found some Garmin nuvi automotive GPS units already on sale! Who knows, I might finish my shopping Before Black Friday even rolls around. Yup, I’m talking eeeeasy this year. I’m crazy about eeeeeasy.
When looking for automotive GPS systems, it will all seem confusing at first due to the wide variety of pricing, features and brands. In fact, there are probably hundreds of models available today. Also, the price can vary greatly from model to model, depending on the features. When searching for automotive GPS units, you first have to know what options are available. Do you want just a standard system that can help you travel from one place to another, or do you want something more sophisticated with additional capabilities? If you just need something basic, then you should look at a price range at the lower end of the scale.
Some of the options available for automotive GPS include widescreen versus standard size, preloaded maps, touch screen to easily look up addresses and services, voice-prompted, turn-by-turn directions that speak street names to your destination, and some will calculate a more fuel-efficient route for you. Another thing to consider is if it is small enough and light enough to carry it with you when you get to your destination and the ability to continue to use your automotive GPS unit while wandering on foot.
Hey! It’s finally here! We have had several people looking specifically for a GPS device that would work specifically for truckers, the nuvi 465T – the first nuvi designed specifically for over-the-road truckers. The nuvi 465T is the first navigation device to provide the NTTS Breakdown Directory which is the most comprehensive guide to semi-truck repair facilities nationwide – including those offering 24-hour road service, created with over-the-road drivers in mind. Also, lane assist comes standard with this GPS receiver for truckers, which is especially helpful when navigating complex highway interchanges. It also provides specialized routing to support truck-related restrictions (customizable by height, weight, length, width and hazardous materials). Simply enter dimensions and load restrictions and nuvi 465T guides you according to your requirements, even including multiple-point routing so that you can take a more efficient route between multiple stops along your trip.
This lets you know what lies in your path. It displays warning information of upcoming road conditions to make drivers aware of possible hazards along the route such as sharp curves and steep grades. You’ll also get lateral wind warnings and notification when the road narrows. Also, with nuvi 465T’s integrated FM traffic receiver you can receive free alerts about traffic delays and road construction that lie ahead on your route. Simply touch nüvi’s screen to view traffic details or detour around the problem area.
You also get nuvi’s hands-free calling as the 465T integrates Bluetooth wireless technology with a built-in microphone and speaker. When paired with your compatible Bluetooth phone you are able to talk hands-free through the 465T while staying focused on the road. Simply dial numbers with nuvi’s touchscreen keypad to make a call, and answer calls by tapping the screen and speaking into its built-in microphone. It is the safe way to travel down the highway.
Well, it’s that time of year again, and up here in the North Country the snowbirds are thinking about taking flight back to warmer climes. It is time to be looking at automotive GPS units to help you get around all the obstacles that might be in your way, help you find the nearest gas station or restaurant and help you plan your route to save you gas along the way. There are so many options, let’s consider some of them.
For example, the DeLorme Earthmate BT-20 w/Street Atlas USA 2010 Plus is a smart, flexible GPS, mapping and routing solution offering both Bluetooth and USB connectivity which plugs into your USB laptop PC or ultra mobile PC (UMPC), or works wirelessly with your Bluetooth-enabled laptop, UMPC, PDA, or touchscreen phone. This DeLorme Earthmate GPS allows you to create driving routes automatically, with user controls for road preferences. It will help you locate 4 million places of interest such as restaurants, lodgings, attractions, truck stops, and businesses of all kinds.
Also, the nüvi 255W is a widescreen navigator with voice-prompted turn-by-turn directions that speak street names. It’s packed with millions of destinations and maps for North America. With its “Where Am I?” emergency locator, you always know your location. Simply tap the screen to get your exact latitude and longitude coordinates, the nearest address and intersection, and the closest hospitals, police stations and fuel stations. Garmin’s nüvi 255W includes many travel tools including JPEG picture viewer, world travel clock with time zones, currency converter, measurement converter, calculator and sports a sleek, slim design that fits comfortably in your pocket or purse.
So, go south if you will, but do it safely and efficiently with your choice of automotive GPS systems. There are many affordable automotive GPS units to choose from.