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Posts Tagged ‘automotive GPS’
Every day, we rely a little more on GPS satellites for both work and pleasure. Along with items like your car GPS navigation system, many items in Google Earth (such as ships or real-time air traffic or for emergency position indicating radio beacons – called EPIRBs or PLBs) require GPS to enable us to see their current location.
The U.S. Air Force has launched a new satellite, the first in a series of launches aimed at replacing all 24 existing satellites over the next 10 years. These new satellites offer a variety of enhancements over the existing ones. The most important part of this project is to simply replace them. Numerous reports are concerned that the existing network may begin to fail due to age. This will obviously remedy that.
In addition, these new satellites will provide a stronger, more accurate signal. Rather than the roughly 20 foot accuracy that you currently receive, the new ones will allow for accuracy down to about 3 feet. In addition, the stronger signal will help more GPS units to function properly indoors, which could be a big boost for various augmented reality tools that are beginning to find their way into the marketplace.
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It is vacation time, camping time, again. Well, we wanted to find someplace new this year. We went looking for ideas of new campsites, wanted water for play and trails to wander. This is a new place, an out of the way sort of location I have never been before. Well, we packed our bags, packed the car, all piled in and started our trip by plugging in the exact address of the campground into our automotive GPS. A pretty drive and a lunch stop later we ended up in the most beautiful out of the way campground I have seen in ages. Wow, the view from our campsite is spectacular – right on the lake with mountains in the background. How much better can you get! Set up the tent, admittedly always taking longer than planned, and cooked our dinner over the outdoor fireplace. I moved the GPS unit over onto my GPS bike mount and took off on some back roads for an evening ride to discover some of our new area; that was fun. Ahhh, now it is time to rest by the fire. There will be time enough for wandering the trails with our trusty handheld GPS unit tomorrow.
Oh my, we get lots of calls requesting me to make a choice for folks so that they don’t have to decide which GPS unit to buy. Looks good on paper, but how can I know which features might be really useful or totally useless to each individual person. I could just decide which GPS unit I might prefer, but how would that information help a total stranger whose needs and budget may be totally different from mine? I feel like I really disappoint people when I try to point this out, but we are all individuals, which is why there are so many different versions of, for instance, handheld or automotive GPS units out there. Most of the manufacturers, especially Garmin, have really great interactive websites already where you can choose to compare several units to each other so that at a glance you can sort them out by which features you really want, which ones would only be nice perks and which ones are definitely yes or no features for you. Do you want it to be small and thin with a great battery life so you can carry it with you to find your way back to your car? Do you want lifetime traffic? Bluetooth? You get the idea. Anyway, once you have it narrowed down to possibly one or two favorites, it becomes simple to go back to Google or your favorite GPS store and see which one they have to offer, which types of accessories you will need and for what price they are offered. I just think it totally simplifies your shopping experience. I like simple. After all, I would rather be spending time exploring with my GPS unit than sitting in front of a computer trying to figure out all the pros and cons or entrusting my decision to someone who doesn’t even know me. Well, good luck in your search for the best GPS units for your needs and budget, and I hope this helps.
When you are driving down the highway and see something great that 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.
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, no other shoppers rushing me or confusing me or stressing me out. This is going to be eeeeasy shopping this year. When the house is nice and quiet, got my little refreshments, my nice comfy chair and 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.
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 or 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 and 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 it while wandering on foot.
Our daughter-in-law had quite a drive ahead of her this weekend to visit her mom. It would take at least two hours each way on strange roads. Mom had moved to a new place, and she did not know how to get there yet. The roads were strange and it started raining heavily while she was on the way. Traffic was building, and things were getting pretty confusing. It was a good thing she had her automotive GPS unit with her that announced the streets by name for her and told her which lane to be in for the upcoming turn.
Also, while she was on the road, our son called to check to see where to find their son’s shoes. With the Bluetooth technology on her automotive GPS, she was able to tap the screen to answer the phone and keep on driving. What a mom. She sure is a pro at multitasking!