Why I think GPS should be a standard feature in every single car made
Earlier today:
I'm fueling up at the gas station. A lady pulls up behind me to put gas in her car. I finish pumping my gas, go inside to pay, then come back out. I get in my vehicle, start it and am about to head out. The lady behind me sees that I'm ready to pull forward and leave but then backs up herself and heads out (guess she couldn't wait the extra thirty seconds).
I'm on my way home and I know my route. The GPS has allowed me to try several different ways home and I pick the one I always go by. I turn down a side street and who do I see? The same lady turning around because she's lost - and she's a local.
It simply amazes me to no end how many people don't know where they're going in their own home town. I am hoping that the auto manufacturers will wise up and start putting GPS as a standard - or at least an optional - feature in all cars, including the smaller ones. I can honestly say (if I haven't said it enough) that GPS is the best damn vehicle accessory I've ever purchased, hands down. I use it so much that if given the choice between radio or GPS, I'd take GPS without hesitation, tunes be damned.
Right now you can get GPS on most middle to high end cars and trucks, but it's still not available on most smaller affordable cars. If you go back through my blog entries here, you'll see I'm a huge fan of GPS. It is undoubtedly the best thing to happen to driving in a very long time. I recommend to anyone to get a GPS. You can now buy one for just over 300 bucks.
Some would say "Pff.. I'll just read a map." Everyone says that until they actually use GPS and then they never go back. Repeat: They never go back. Reading a map compared to GPS is analogous to using tin cans tied with a string compared to a phone. The difference is like night and day.
Garmin StreetPilot c340 and 2720 review
On this Christmas Eve, Santa came by (better known as the UPS delivery guy) and delivered my Garmin StreetPilot c340 and Pop's Garmin SteetPilot 2720. Here's my review on both.
First of all I should state that I've been using the Garmin StreetPilot i3 since it was introduced so I will be comparing the bigger units to the smaller i3. In actuality I'm comparing three different units from Garmin. A small one (i3), a bigger one (c340) and a premium model (2720). If you want more in-depth review of the i3 just search my site; I've written plenty about it.
On to business..
Here's what I noticed about the c340.
1. The display is huge when compared to the i3. The display is extremely easy to read and beats the i3 by leaps and bounds.
2. The text-to-speech voice is below par. The i3's voice is very easy to understand while the c340's "Jill" is a little too "computery" sounding. I believe the reason for this is because the i3 has recordings of voices, while the c340 has an actual text-to-speech engine which isn't as clear sounding. I can understand it but you can definitely hear the difference in the negative direction. In future models this will probably be improved. Only when you have a language selected that is text-to-speech is when the voice sounds crappy. You can select the prerecorded voice which sounds MUCH better.
3. The touch screen completely kicks ass. When compared to the i3's wheel/scroll/click way of doing things, you can find stuff much faster and easier.
4. You have to go through a few menus to set a custom POI on the c340 while on the i3 it's just one click, but it evens out when you consider that you can "type" the name of the POI on the c340 while on the i3 you have to do that wheel/click thing which is very time consuming.
More detail on this:
You want to set a custom waypoint/POI for where you are. This is how to do it.
With i3: Hold wheel button. Unit bleeps and saves waypoint. You can opt to name it now or later.
With c340: Where To? / My Locations / Save. Unit saves waypoint. Same as i3; opt to name it now or later.
Both units save waypoint initially as a numeric title, like "003" until you rename it.
5. Trip computer is wonderful. Makes it look like you're driving K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider. The digital speedometer (which even shows a needle) is way cool.
6. The fields at the bottom left/right are clickable - YES! And it will tell you how long it will take both in time and distance until your next turn (the i3 doesn't have that) in addition to when you will get there.
7. The mount is much more study. This thing ain't goin' nowhere. :-)
8. When setting the mount on the dash it looks like a huge robotic arm. While the i3 would lay "squat" on the dash, this one extends upward. It's good but I wish there were a way to set it lower.
9. Suction that means business. When this thing sucks itself on to the glass or the plate mount, it definitely stays there and there's no way this thing is coming off (unless you unmount it manually of course).
10. The fact the unit is preloaded with the entire USA, Canada and Puerto Rico is damned convenient. No more loading stuff from DVD (which you have to do with the i3). The only time you even need to load anything is if a new DVD is released, and even then it's optional.
11. Calculates routes faster. I can tell this thing definitely has a better processor in it.
And now, things I've noticed about the 2720.
1. Display is not as big as I thought it would be. I thought this thing would be larger than the c340's display, which it is - but it's only wider, not taller. A bit of a disappointment.
2. Does not operate on battery. If it ain't plugged it, it won't turn on. In addition, to use the USB connector, you have to plug in the power cord first, then the USB cable, else the USB cable gets in the way of the power port.
3. Will not power on USB alone. You need the power adapter and there's no way around it. The c340 and i3 can be powered on USB alone.
4. Seeing the actual satellite trajectory is way cool. On one of the screens you can actually see what satellites the 2720 is polling information from, and what the signal strength is. It looks like the same thing air traffic controllers look at. Geeky to the extreme - just the way I like it. :-)
5. Buttons on the right are very nice shortcuts, particularly "Map" and "Menu" which directly jump to those functions instead of plodding through a bunch of menus or hitting "back" ten million times.
6. Bean bag mount is great - and should be mandatory on all GPS units. Easy to place, easy to position and there's never any sticky stuff on your dash or those infamous circle marks from where you suction mount other units.
7. Takes more clicks to do what you want to do. "My Locations" is a good example of this. You click a "Favorite", then it shows the location with a "Go to" button. Why the extra step? Probably more of a functionality thing for extra features.
8. WAY more customization. This is where it's worth the extra $200 for this unit (compared to c340) comes into play. You can customize every single thing on the 2720, including text size (towns, streets, cities and damn near anything else you can think of), color of routes (nice touch) and lots of other things. Setting avoidances goes into way more detail as well.
9. Same "computery" voice as c340. For something this price I would have expected better voice clarity - and it's a damn shame the i3's voice sounds so much better compared to a premium model that's more than twice its price. Only when you have a language selected that is text-to-speech is when the voice sounds crappy. You can select the pre-recorded voice which sounds MUCH better.
10. Ability to turn fields off. Nice option. Normally you will see black fields on the bottom right and a green field at the top right and so on, but you can easily turn them off so the map takes up the entire display and I like that. You can also easily turn them back on.
11. No speaker physically in the unit. The speaker is on the power adapter plug for the car. It's a good size speaker and can be easily heard (truly), but I prefer the speaker to be in the unit (like the i3 and c340) rather than external. That's just a personal preference.
12. Not meant for smaller cars. It's a good thing my Pop owns a truck. The 2720 would take up way too much room in anything smaller than a sedan. If space is a concern, consider the c340 or the i3. When you go for the big screen you obviously get a larger unit that takes up more space on the dashboard. Keep that in mind.
There are lots of other things about the 2720 (including the handy remote) that I haven't tried out yet, but yes, it is a premium unit as Garmin says it is. It has all the toys and is definitely meant for the "power user". Pop bought it primarily because of the large display, and yeah, it's bright. It's also cool it has the auto day/night function (like the i3 and c340) so it isn't a blazing beacon of light at night.
Both units calculate routes fast, recalculate routes instantly if you miss a turn and are truly ready to use out-of-the-box just like Garmin says they are. Both units are not larger versions of the i3; there are tons more features in each which make for much easier and enjoyable GPS navigation.
I've given my "old" i3 to a relative and now they are enjoying GPS as well. The relative said at first "I don't need this", but after using it for less than a week they can't drive without it now. Once you get hooked on GPS you never go back. :-)
Oh! Almost forgot to mention (check this out):
Using MapSource (and if you own a Garmin GPS product, GET THIS, it's free), I was able to download all the waypoints from the i3 and send them to both the c340 and 2720 very easily. It was AWESOME that I was able to do that.
Garmin i3 upgrade of sorts
I will be taking a really long trip pretty soon but found that my Garmin StreetPilot i3 could not fit all the states (as in state travel data) I would be traveling through. The i3 comes stock with a 128MB TransFlash card made by SanDisk. Normally these tiny little cards are meant for cell phone use, but they're also the primary means of data storage on the i3.
Granted, I will have my laptop with me which means I can load in extra states along the way via the DVD and USB, but who wants to go through that crap? I didn't.
Before I continue: Most people would probably never run into the problem of the i3 running out of data storage. For my particular needs I had to do something about it.
So I went out and bought a 256MB SanDisk Transflash card. They were available at Circuit City fortunately. Price with tax: About forty-two bucks. Not bad. Definitely worth the upgrade. I wanted a 512MB card but there was a two-week wait time. Maybe later I'll get the 512. Either that or I'll get the c340 which does not require any downloading whatsoever (but in the same token is twice the price of the i3).
The install of the Transflash card was super-easy. Click in, click out, vice-versa. That's it. The card is located on the side of the i3 by the way, it's in plain sight. When you boot the i3 afterwards it tells you it needs map data (obviously since the card was blank). Fortunately I did not lose any of my "favorites" I set in the unit - that was stored internally which was cool. I popped in the map DVD into my laptop, USB'd my i3 and loaded up the data. Took about ten minutes. Very easy all the way through.
To anyone who might perform this upgrade, the card is really, really tiny and really easy to lose when not in the i3. Make sure when you do the upgrade (if you have to) to do it in a room with plenty of light in case you drop the card accidentally, else you'll never find it. ;-)
StreetPilot i3 cheers and jeers
Now that I've used my StreetPilot i3 for a little while, I've got a few more things to say about it.
Cheer: The mounting bracket does keep the unit put.
Jeer: I wish it was a shock-style mount to accommodate for bumps in the road because it shakes like crazy over less-than-perfect terrain - but then again I do have it mounted on the dashboard. Were it on the windshield I probably wouldn't have that issue.
Cheer: Auto day/night color scheme is really trick. When the sun goes down it changes automatically. Very nice.
Jeer: Night colors are ugly, but very readable. I can just imagine the Garmin researchers scratching their heads when they were developing this. Should roads be orange.. or yellow? I dunno, man, flip a coin.
Cheer: I like the fact it states how fast you're going.
Jeer: This feature is only available when the unit is not in Navigation mode, which sucks (it switches to "arrival" time). I wish that the two fields at the bottom left and right corner could be programmed to display what you want it to display. The Rino 130 has this in abundance (with four fields mind you...) why doesn't the i3?
Cheer: Zoom in/out feature is absolutely 100% cool.
Jeer: Adjusting that while driving = bad idea. Yes, I know - the unit states up front to not adjust settings while driving, but you know... we're all gonna do it anyway - right before we smack into somebody else's car (insert sheepish grin here).
Cheer: Controls are easy.
Jeer: Some menu functions you have to dig for, but not many.
Cheer: "Avoid highways" really works.
Jeer: None. It works.
(Note: Haven't tried "Avoid Tolls" yet, but will do that probably before the end of this month)
Cheer: Priced right at $400.00
Jeer: Feels like I paid too much, considering the Rino 130 has a ton more features in it and is much less in price. Then again, it is one of the lowest-priced mobile specific GPS's out there and the construction is Garmin standard (meaning very sturdy). I'm pretty sure the i3 will dramatically drop in price once more people start buying them.
Cheer: Being able to pick places by category is very cool (like Parks, Shopping and so on)
Jeer: None. Works and it's accurate.
Cheer: Gets signal easily.
Jeer: Sometimes has issues with a signal during inclement weather only on startup, but then again, all GPS units have this problem when trying to punch a signal through a storm cloud, so no biggie.
That's pretty much it. If there's any more to it I'll be sure to write about it.
Garmin StreetPilot i3 Review!
Okay, here's the moment you've all been waiting for - The Garmin StreetPilot i3 review! (insert 2001: A Space Odyssey tympanis here: bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum!)
Before I get into that:
I just arrived home and did not expect the i3 to be here. GPSExplorer said there was a signature required on delivery. Box was left at my house anyway - WHICH IS GOOD because I didn't have to drive to to pick it up for a failed delivery attempt.
Okay, here's the review, ahem...
The i3 came in a little box. It's just over two pounds shipped. This box was in a bigger box surrounded by a massive amount of packing material (that's a good thing, not a bad thing).
Garmin i3 in the hand. Is it small? Yes. Too small? That's for you to decide. I personally think it could be just a tiny bit bigger.
All the stuff that comes with the i3 (quite a bit actually) shown on top of pizza box.
Seen in photo: Maps DVD, manual, i3 itself, car charger, USB cable, Quick guide, mounting bracket, mounting plate.
I have to say something before showing the next volley of photos here:
FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS GIVEN TO THE LETTER. DO NOT, repeat, DO NOT get ahead of yourself. Take your TIME and it will load up and work FLAWLESSLY.
Okay, that being said:
Per instructions, I loaded in two AA batteries. You get a nastygram on first startup:
Now this is interesting for several reasons. It appears that you absolutely MUST HAVE a computer with a DVD drive and USB capability in order to get this thing to work. You absolutely CANNOT get anywhere until you load the map data from a computer FIRST. I pressed the buttons to see if I could get off this screen - I couldn't. This is not a flaw with the unit - that's the way it's designed.
Now comes the cool part - picking what you want loaded into the unit. It is nothing short of awesome. You choose exactly what states you want. A bar on the right side shows how much space for data is left if you want to add more. I put in all of New England, New York, Pennsylvania and a few other areas to squeeze as much data I could on to the 128MB TransFlash card (which comes standard).
Loading the unit did take a while - about five minutes.
I turned the unit on and ta-daaaa.. a map showed up almost instantly. There was no fuss, no muss. This thing is stupidly easy to use (yet again another good thing).
Before continuing: I did not need to calibrate the unit for direction (North, South, East, West) like you have to do with the Rino 130. It does this itself.
On to the next part - mounting the unit.
You have a few options here. You can opt to suction mount this thing on the windshield or directly to the dash (or other flat surface) using the plate. Here's a picture of the plate. And yes the red circle DOES come off revealing sticky stuff to mount it. I mounted it on the dashboard of my pickup. It does stick and sticks well.
A few more notes on the bracket:
The ball part of the mounting bracket snaps right into the i3. You do have to press it a bit, but it does snap in. I was also able to "unsnap" it "re-snap" it back without a problem. No, you don't have to keep doing this to mount and unmount. You should use the small lip and lever release to "un-suck" it from whereever it's mounted. I removed it just to see if it could be done and reattached for the same reason - and I could.
The suction mount really does have a good amount of suction to it - it's not cheesy!
The mounting bracket is sturdy. It's been purposely designed to be stiff so it stays put. It can be tilted to your preference. Once you position it, it stays there. Nice job.
This is a pic of the unit mounted on the dash of my truck with the car charger plugged into the side. Car charger is not required. This thing is said to run for six hours on two AA batteries. I was able to use the car charger with the batteries in it and the i3 didn't complain about that at all.
Now on to the important stuff. I'll do this in question/answer style:
Q: Does it get a signal easily?
A: Yes. It grabs a signal better than the Rino 130 did - and I live "in the sticks" of Northeastern Connecticut. Signal wasn't a problem.
Q: Is it readable?
A: Yes. It may be small but you can read it.
Q: Is it readable in sunlight?
A: I drove it around and purposely drove on a road so the sun was directly hitting it. I could read everything easily.
Q: Is there brightness control?
A: Yes (thank God).
Q: How does the voice sound?
A: Shockingly, the voice (as in "Turn left in 300 feet" when it gives you directions) is a nice and very human-sounding female voice. It is crisp and clear. Volume can be adjusted. The top volume does distort a little bit. When the windows are down when driving on the highway it's hard to hear it - but what can you expect from something this small.
Q: Is it accurate?
A: Very accurate. The zoom levels are astonishing. It knows every road anywhere you travel.
Q: Does the "recalculate" work if you miss a turn?
A: Absolutely. Works almost instantly the moment you miss a turn and will recalculate to get you back on course fast.
Q: Is it easy to find stuff?
A: Very easy. You can map by entering an address or simply picking what you want like "lodging" or "fuel".
Q: What's better? 3D or 2D?
A: I prefer 3D, but for those who like the traditional GPS displays, the 2D is really nice, too. I'd say mix and match and pick what you like best.
Q: How's the menu system?
A: Well designed. Can be used from novice to expert. I learned it in less than two minutes without reading the manual.
Q: What's your favorite feature (so far)?
A: The "Go Home" feature. You put in your address and set it as home. From whereever you are, you tell it you want to "Go home" and it tells you exactly how to get there - and says when you'll most likely arrive.
I'll be writing more on the i3 later after I use it a little bit more. My initial reaction: FRICKIN' AWESOME. The price is good. The unit is solid. It's EASY. Good job, Garmin!