Posted: 4/29/2004 3:00:48 PM EDT
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Looking for a complete hand held unit that I can transfer from car to car. What do you recommend??? I am looking for one that has voice direction (turn by turn) let you know what hotel and such is ahead, Has the optional several setting max vibration feature (wife request) Please provide a link or a product name so I can search it out, please help if you have one 
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I use Microsoft MapPoint 2004 with Advanced GPS, a third party add-on. The maps have been 100% dead-on, even on my annual trek to Canada, about 90 minutes north of Ottawa, in the middle of nowhere. MapPoint has some flaws (like I believe a 15 second refresh rate), but all these are taken care of by Advanced GPS, which also displays your heading, speed, elevation, etc. Audio, including voice if you have the appropriate MS packages installed, and will automatically calculate a new route if you go off course. MapPoint is pretty pricey, unless you, um, aquire it otherwise, but the guy who wrote AGPS only wants like $10 for registration. I used a cheap, older GPS I picked up for $50 - takes a long time to aquire a signal, but after that, just as good as any other unit when hooked up to the laptop. Website for AGPS is www.techgt.com/agps/ MS Streets & Trips is pretty good as well. It has the same maps as MapPoint, but AGPS doesn't work with it. There are other patches that fix the refresh rate, though. Should be able to get it for under $40. However, the original poster is asking quite alot for a handheld unit. I'm not sure there is one with all those features. I know the Magellan units DO NOT support turn by turn directions independantly - at least the Meridian Platinum doesn't, and that's their top of the line handheld. The only way to get turn by turn directions is to use their PC mapping software and d/l the route beforehand. Some may have audible cues (beeps) when you need to turn, but I don't think any have voice. Some of the vehicle based units may have this, but they are much larger and much, much more expensive. Rocko |
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www.gpsnow.com/gmspiii.htm These guys have the best prices of the 20 or so places I compared. They shipped promptly and everything was as expected. www.gpsinformation.org/dale/Palm/iQue3600.htm A review on the iQue 3600 and if you search back to the home page plenty of others. |
He may have the unit put out by Delorma (Sp?) Its a very good unit/program overall and can be had for about $150. SorryOciffer |
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Go to www.garmin.com A whole range of goodies for you to choose from. Of course, I'm a little biased. I work at Garmin. he Edited cause I spelled the website wrong. hinking.gif |
| I use a 2610 for work.. love it.. buying one more and the new 2620.. you enter all your stops and the 2620 caculates the most efficient route.. plus it comes with all of the US loaded.. Can get the 2610 for about 750 and th 2620 for 950.. however they are not hand held.. strictly car use.. |
| Lotsa info here. Fun use for you handheld and family too. Geocaching |
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I bought a Garmin iQue 3600 this week. Very nice PDA and GPS combination. Less than $600 with the car navigation kit, 256 Mb SD flash chip, home USB cradle, extra stylus, screen protector, the entire US detailed maps, and leather carry case. The nicest thing is that it's more than a GPS - the PDA's functions combine with the GPS. Both the address book and appointment calendar from your Microsoft Outlook Express can be imported. If an appointment is made with someone in your address book you can route the direction there. The vertical format is more conductive to driving compared to the horizontal one - I want to see what's in front of me not to the sides. I've downloaded a couple of games, a fuel calculator, and a multi-media player so I can listen to MP3 files and look at pictures. I've installed the entire US base map, all of California, and most of Arizona, Nevada, Atlanta GA, Charlotte NC, Toronto CAN, and Chicago IL detail maps and still have nearly 90 Mb left for music files. I suppose that I ought to download just the Southern California map onto the big chip to make room for more music the then install other maps as I need them. The base map has the interstates and exit/exit services. The detailed maps have every street in the city plus addresses and telephone numbers for every business you can find in the yellow pages. Working the screen with the Palm's stylus is a bit easier than using buttons. I looked pretty hard at both the 2610 and the 2620 with are a few hundred dollars more expensive but offer the same GPS features. Three other geeks at work have the 2610 and the III and were all over my iQue with envy. The thing is small enough to fit in a shirt pocket (theft) or drop into even the smallest door pocket. It runs off of a lithium ion rechargable battery good for about 3 to 4 hours of GPS use or twice that in PDA use. They do make external battery expansion packs for it. I wanted something that I could carry come the SHTF to give me some navigation down the urban canyons if I needed it. It is blue chip capable with the water ways and fishing spots and is WAAS enabled giving me 3 meter accuracy. I can see lane changes down the highway when I review my tracks! You can download the waypoints to your PC for safe keeping and editing files and settings is dead nutz simple. I had it out of the box for 30 minutes before I was using it to navigate and give directions. "Betty" gives voice prompts in advance of each turn and then as you approach it again. When you drive off route recalcuation takes place very quickly. The thing has a 200 Mhz DragonBall processor which gives it more than enough power to display even the most detailed maps. Come night time - it knows when the sun sets and rises by a program built-in - it dims the back lighting and switches to a night time mode. Come morning it returns to normal. I want to find that ballistic's calculator for the Palm that was on line. I'm also going to try my hand at a shot database to record velocity and bullet drop for various rounds. You can attach the thing to an 802.11b wireless base to connect to the Internet via an access point. There are also external keyboards for the thing too. It has a built-in IR port so you can use it as a remote control to piss people off with in the doctor's waiting office. 
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