Recommend me a good GPS unit.

[slowVAdub]

[Hostile]

How helpful.

[Darkness]

Have you done this?

http://uk.support.tomtom.com/app/ans.../?locale=en_US

EDIT: They changed the page. After doing the GPS fix update I had to do a soft reset on the 1530, you hold the power button down until you hear the drum roll, up to 30 seconds. After the GPS was working, though it's still a bit slow to acquire.

Installing now. Apparently some 3rd party software is at fault. Would've helped last Saturday when I ended up on Rt30 for 3 hrs on the way down to Philly.

[AHFlynn]

i know you said you dont want to get a smart phone but its totally worth it.

its a phone + 8mp camera + hd camcorder + gps nav + music player + computer

[Hostile]

i know you said you dont want to get a smart phone but its totally worth it.

its a phone + 8mp camera + hd camcorder + gps nav + music player + computer

My car has BT integration for phone and streaming- would a nav app interfere with either of those things?

[AHFlynn]

My car has BT integration for phone and streaming- would a nav app interfere with either of those things?

what kind of phone?

edit:

actually i probably wouldnt know anyway, youd have to try it out or check your manual.

if youre streaming audio from your phone it would likely interfere with it unless you muted it, but its possible it could just either give directions over the music or even pause the music all together.

ive got an android and i plug it into my car with an aux cable, it does me the service of pausing the music to give me the directions and then play the music again. im pretty sure this works with the crappy stock music player, poweramp, pandora and spotify. i use the stock google maps app most of the time but sometimes use waze or run trapster if i want to keep an eye out for cops.

[Inspector Detector]

Stay away from Magellan. The screen on mine went dead in less than a year.

[Hostile]

what kind of phone?

edit:

actually i probably wouldnt know anyway, youd have to try it out or check your manual.

if youre streaming audio from your phone it would likely interfere with it unless you muted it, but its possible it could just either give directions over the music or even pause the music all together.

ive got an android and i plug it into my car with an aux cable, it does me the service of pausing the music to give me the directions and then play the music again. im pretty sure this works with the crappy stock music player, poweramp, pandora and spotify. i use the stock google maps app most of the time but sometimes use waze or run trapster if i want to keep an eye out for cops.

iPhone4

[McBanagon]

[AHFlynn]

iPhone4

no idea, im sure somebody on here could help you out though.

ive got a friend from gainesville btw, you probably dont know him though because he was like 12 when you started up here but he lives a little ways away from the intersection of 29 and 66

[Jettavr666]

Android phone.

Google Navigate is 100x better than anything out in a dedicated unit. Plus, you have the added bonus of it being

a) your music Jukebox (Pandora or local music)

b) communications center (voice-to-text conversion for legal text messaging, and bluetooth headset for calls)

Bingo. My droid razr is a fantastic multimedia device.

[Jettavr666]

Most, if not every carrier requires a data plan with a smart phone. I guess now most are tiered and not unlimited, so there is a chance you could exceed your data allocation if you used navigation a lot.

I have an old Tom Tom GO 720T which I still use. I updated the maps twice since I got it back in like 2007 and it's pretty reliable. When I had a Razr, I tethered it to the device and got traffic on it, but I can't do that with my iPhone. Typically I'll use Google maps or Motion-X for navigating now and it works fine, but I might use the GPS on longer trips.

I know many people dont want to give up on their iphone, but I cant stress enough how good google maps nav is on android devices. Google maps on the iphone is like a paper map in comparison

[Jettavr666]

Thanks for the responses. A smartphone is kinda out of the question, unless I can get a good one for under $150 and there exists a good GPS app that doesn't require a data connection, otherwise I'll end up spending much more than I would with a dedicated GPS unit.

moto droid bionic is $100 @ Verizon right now, and has the latest google maps nav. $30/month gets your 4gigs of data transfer.

[AZGolf]

Smart phone is the best. But I think you have to pay for a data plan, and that makes five years of smart phone cost about $5000 or more. But if you were going to pay for the phone anyway, then don't be stupid, go for the smart phone.

If you're a luddite like me, get an old GPS from someone who now has a smart phone. I'd offer them lunch at a nice place.

My wife and I both have old style feature phones with data disabled. So for someone who's married with one phone per person, what I've found is that even though we can share minutes on a single plan with feature phones, you can NOT share a data plan. Verizon's cheapest smartphone plan is $30 per phone, so that's $60/month, or $1440 per 2-year contract plus at least another $400 for a pair of phones. Total comes up to $1840 of additional cost (versus feature phones) per two year contract by my math.

[MFactor]

Having both a smart phone and Garmin Nuvi I can honestly tell you your better off with a smartphone. With a smart phone (android) the google maps and navigation is way far superior to the Garmin maps and navigation to use the interface, getting around, and layers for restaurants, banks, etc. Another benefit to having the smart phone is the google maps and navigation will update automatically so you dont have to plug the Garmin to update. Google maps on my phone updates about 4-5 times a year.

You can easily find a smart phone for under $150. My wife got a HTC Inspire for $100 6months ago and it's a pretty powerful phone with all the bells and whistles. I currently use a Samsung S2 with 2gigs of data a month and I consider myself a slightly higher user and never go over the 2gigs of data.

One last thought about my phone vs Garmin. With my smart phone it has this really cool feature where you can just speak instead of typing for inputting. Makes navigating so much easier then taking a pen or your finger and typing in something into the Garmin.

How much data oes GPS apps use? I no longer have unlimited data and old not want to run m data out.

[Kar98]

I'd stick with anything that provides lifetime free map updates.

And lifetime traffic, if you're in a major metro area. Oh, and no TomToms. So OP's Garmin is almost a good choice. Look for the LMT models.

[Kar98]

I just bought a TOMTOM 1435 and It's not been able to find a satellite for the past week and a half even though I've done all the updates that are available

There was a leap year bug that is supposedly fixed now, like in the last day or two.

[dieselraver]

iPhone + Waze

http://www.waze.com/

Also available for ovi, Blackberry and Android

i'll chime in. being in NYC there is always more than one route. i tried waze, i tried navigon and the one i've settled on is TomTom for iPhone4. waze is just simply retarded. the concept is fantastic, and i used to love it, but when it sent me in figure 8's to get to my destination on more than one occasion. that was it. navigon is perfect and i used it for awhile and then finally downloaded TomTom.

fast, smart routing (goes the way I would normally go) and if you want a traffic subscription, you can purchase one (which i personally think is a crock)

order of preference
1. Tomtom
2. navigon
3. google maps
4. waze.

[feels_road]

What would you guys recommend for someone with not-so-good eye sight? I am trying to find a unit for my wife; I think a screen around 5" could perhaps do it. It needs to have:

• really easy usage
  
• large fonts/ good readability
  
• voice command?
  
• perhaps bluetooth
  
• good, vibration-less mount with easy detach

Thanks for any suggestions.

[nickthaskater]

Been using Waze on my iPhone for month or so and it's great so far.

I've noticed a lot more "wazers" in my area over the last couple of months; it used to be basically just me and one or two others, but now there's at least one nearby anywhere I go it seems.

i'll chime in. being in NYC there is always more than one route. i tried waze, i tried navigon and the one i've settled on is TomTom for iPhone4. waze is just simply retarded. the concept is fantastic, and i used to love it, but when it sent me in figure 8's to get to my destination on more than one occasion. that was it. navigon is perfect and i used it for awhile and then finally downloaded TomTom.

Well it is community-powered, so when people encounter issues like that you're supposed to aid in correcting it. If you download it and expect it to be perfect out of the box, then yea, it's probably not for you.

FWIW, I've never had an issue with the navigation Waze has given me, and it's gotten notably better over the past months through their updates.

[kamzcab86]

My wife and I both have old style feature phones with data disabled. So for someone who's married with one phone per person, what I've found is that even though we can share minutes on a single plan with feature phones, you can NOT share a data plan. Verizon's cheapest smartphone plan is $30 per phone, so that's $60/month, or $1440 per 2-year contract plus at least another $400 for a pair of phones. Total comes up to $1840 of additional cost (versus feature phones) per two year contract by my math.

Yep. The "just get a smartphone" lines kill me. Fine, I'll get a smartphone if you guys pay my phone bill every month. The data plan at Verizon is a minimum of an extra $360 a year (not including taxes and fees). That's $360+ I can put towards my cars, my house, emergency health issues, etc.

My $150 Garmin nuvi does its navigational job quite well sitting on my dash, and has a screen I can read from a distance.

[nickthaskater]

Obviously the phone option doesn't make sense if ALL you're using it for is GPS, but I use mine for Internet radio, video, photos, a ton of web browsing, tethering to my laptop, and so on and so forth on TOP of it being used as a GPS, so my $30/mo data plan (6GB) makes total sense for me .

YMMV

[dieselraver]

I've noticed a lot more "wazers" in my area over the last couple of months; it used to be basically just me and one or two others, but now there's at least one nearby anywhere I go it seems.


Well it is community-powered, so when people encounter issues like that you're supposed to aid in correcting it. If you download it and expect it to be perfect out of the box, then yea, it's probably not for you.

FWIW, I've never had an issue with the navigation Waze has given me, and it's gotten notably better over the past months through their updates.

i absolutely agree. however when I use a navigation unit.. its usually because I have no idea where I am going.

using a navigation unit and expecting me to correct the routing function is like asking a blind man to drive and read a map in the process.

[bigev007]

Before you get a phone, make sure there is coverage where you travel. It would be useless where I live, as the only 3g is in one city, and much of the rest of the province has no service at all off the main roads.
I have a 5" Tomtom, and the only change I would make is the 5" screen is too big for me. Takes up a lot of realestate on the dash, and because it is so big it doesn't fin in beanbag mounts without an aftermarket suction cup.

[impact]

Waze is great if you have a set of regular routes (home - work - home), it will show you which parts are clear, which are congested and it will also select the fastest route for you.

But it fails hard in unfamiliar territories. I would not want to use it on a road trip.

[Saintor]

I love my old ass nuvi 350 best unit I have used to date and it's about 5/6 years old

Yeap... I have the same (370 for Europe too) that I used today; it impressed me again. I have an iphone but I prefer a dedicated device.

[TASVW]

I'm looking at the nuvi 50LM, which in my (very brief) research seems to be pretty good, and affordable too. Base 5" model is ~$115 and for $30 more you get a lifetime of free map updates. 4.3" version is $20 cheaper.

Anyone have experience with this unit or have another one that they'd recommend? I don't care about traffic data capability, especially since from what I've read this data is usually pretty inaccurate, across most if not all units.

Get the Astrometrics.

[tonycd]

I'm old enough that I can see the road and the dash just fine, but I can't see small objects close to me without a pair of drugstore reading glasses.

That rules out smarphone-based nav for me, unless I change my mind about the desirability of killing pedestrians and kissing utility poles.

[hardcore4life]

Its free

[adrew]

Before you get a phone, make sure there is coverage where you travel. It would be useless where I live, as the only 3g is in one city, and much of the rest of the province has no service at all off the main roads.
I have a 5" Tomtom, and the only change I would make is the 5" screen is too big for me. Takes up a lot of realestate on the dash, and because it is so big it doesn't fin in beanbag mounts without an aftermarket suction cup.

Google Maps on Android can pre-cache areas now.

Just go to Settings > Labs and check the box for "Pre-cache map area"

Then, when you're at home or out and about with relatively fast service, do a long press on a place on the map, tap the info pop-up for that section and then tell it to pre-cache it. It will download all the maps for that area and be able to route you around on them with the navigation.

I do it for my whole route if I'm headed out to the boonies.

[nickthaskater]

i absolutely agree. however when I use a navigation unit.. its usually because I have no idea where I am going.

using a navigation unit and expecting me to correct the routing function is like asking a blind man to drive and read a map in the process.

Well ideally the people who live in the area and are familiar with it are the ones doing the mapping and corrections, not the out-of-towners. I've done my fair share of route mapping and corrections around Vancouver with Waze even though I knew where I was going; it's about improving it for everyone.

[b0mb3r]

Google Maps on Android can pre-cache areas now.

Just go to Settings > Labs and check the box for "Pre-cache map area"

Then, when you're at home or out and about with relatively fast service, do a long press on a place on the map, tap the info pop-up for that section and then tell it to pre-cache it. It will download all the maps for that area and be able to route you around on them with the navigation.

I do it for my whole route if I'm headed out to the boonies.

yup this is true, it is very handy in the boonies.
Just wanted to add to what everyone else said, Google Nav is pretty good. Only thing, if you have a non Motorola based phone finding a good car cradle can be tough.

[nickthaskater]

Only thing, if you have a non Motorola based phone finding a good car cradle can be tough.

The Breffo Spiderpodium has been a godsend for me


iPhone 4 in Spiderpodium by nickthaskater, on Flickr


Spiderpodium mounted by nickthaskater, on Flickr

[DUSlider]

Got a TomTom for work with lifetime maps and lifetime traffic for less than $100. Works very well and very accurate with drive time.

[reticulan]

Google Nav on the android platform is the best portable GPS system I have ever used. The Motorola Droid Bionics are only $100 at Verizon right now with a two year contract. I think the Atrix 2 is $29.99 at Best Buy. Can't go wrong with a 4.3 inch screen Android.