[nylug-talk] OT - city wide GPS question???

[VaibhaV Sharma]

On Jan 1, 2007, at 2:53 PM, Ajai Khattri wrote:

> On Mon, 1 Jan 2007, Bob Mariotti wrote:
>
>>
>> Current services such at hop stop certainly allow one to plan out the
>> public transportation, but once in the area, its not much help.   
>> Also,
>> the POI database for the area would be a great convenience.
>
> Funny, Ive been looking at similar solutions. The most portable  
> ones Ive
> found are the Garmin nuvi range (a lot of Radio Shack stores have  
> these).
> They come preloaded with street maps but some of them allow you to  
> augment
> that with data on SD/CF cards.

In the past few years, I have tried various combinations of GPS  
devices and mapping software. The nuvi range is appealing but  
garmin's UI interface is very restrictive and over simplified. There  
is no way to make full use of the device's capabilities. Over that,  
while driving back from seattle to portland, the device would  
randomly jump 100 meters away from the highway and insist that we  
take a U turn to get back on the highway. I guess the performance  
would be worse in the city.

My wife thinks the nuvi voice prompts are very egoistic. :p

I personally like Tomtom's UI, rich navigation options and the  
ability to make use of the available information. However, it does  
have its own quirks. The POI database and the maps are far from being  
called current. Lets you find a restaurant but you cant see its  
telephone number to be able to call it to check if it still exists.  
The nuvi has that option.

I wanted a GPS to record my speed/altitude/direction while I am  
taking private pilot lessons. Aviation gps are available but the  
cheapest one is $599. The handheld garmin Etrex series work the best  
for this purpose. Cheap ($200) and featureful. For car navigation, a  
friend uses a cheap ($99) external bluetooth gps receiver with the  
tomtom software on his Treo. Works well, but then everyone does not  
like carrying two devices.

>
> What's stopped me so far is the prices - expect to pay somewhere  
> between
> $400 and $600 for a decent unit...

Yeah, anything GPS is expensive. In my opinion, currently available  
devices are just one step away from being perfect for multiple uses.  
Another year and the next versions of Garmin and Tomtom GPS devices  
should do exactly what we want them to do.

My $0.02.

--
VaibhaV Sharma
http://vsharma.net