Posts Tagged gps
Magellan RoadMate Traveler GPS System
I’ve long been a holdout on the car GPS front. I only seem to spend a little bit of time driving in places where I really have no clue about where I’m going and the rest of the time I’ve just used Google Maps on my cell phone, which usually guides me where I need to go.
I agreed to give this Magellan RoadMate Traveler a whirl though to see what I had been missing. Since this one claimed that it would guide me to landmarks and attractions, it seemed to be a good one for people who take lots of road trips.
It does all the things you would expect a car GPS device to do of course. You plug it into the cigarette lighter outlet, though there’s a built-in battery that will keep it going for about two hours with no power. It’s got an attractive and bright five-inch screen, which is an inch more than my Motorola Atrix Android phone. That can make a difference in how clear the street names are. It shows the speed limit where you are, shows and tells you where to turn (including the actual street name), and tells you about how long it will take to get there. In my tests the directions were very good and the ETA was surprisingly accurate—within a minute many times. You can zoom in or out and use the display in either portrait or landscape mode. 
It’s got an intuitive spelling function you see on many GPS devices that eliminates letters as you spell the address. This saves loads of time. I also liked the highway exit point of interest function. This is like the signs you see beside the interstate telling you which gas stations or restaurants are coming up, but it’s more comprehensive and you can look ahead to a further exit beyond the immediate one. Supposedly there are six million points of interest in the database of this thing, so you won’t be hurting for info on where to spend your money on your road trip.
Thankfully all of this is pretty intuitive because the “user handbook” only has 11 small pages of info. Two of those are safety warnings and two and a half are about the Wi-Fi function and browser nobody will use. You need to be good at figuring out icons on the menu settings though. Once you do you can command it to take you to the city center, to a certain intersection, or to a previous address.
Directions for Travelers
There are a few bonus features that make this model special though, especially if you belong to AAA. Magellan is the only company making GPS devices that include the built-in “AAA TourBook” that shows Diamond ratings and descriptions on AAA-approved places. If you are a AAA member, you can easily access Roadside Assistance phone numbers from your device to call for help.
The TourDirector feature highlights nearby attractions and you can bookmark favorite places with the OneTouch menu. I can’t say I’ve used that favorites even once though since, if it’s my favorite, won’t I know how to get there already? This is probably more useful for business travelers who return to the same city regularly but don’t know it inside and out. It’s a bit misleading too that the Tour Director icon shows a woman with talk bubbles around your head. Nothing is actually spoken: it’s all text on a screen. So you’re not going to be referencing it while in motion.
In other specs, this GPS unit weighs a half pound and is very thin, it comes with a USB cord and SD slot, and the GPS accuracy is listed as three to five meters. The warranty is good for one year.
Overall this performed pretty much as I expected it would—better than expected with some of the obscure addresses I gave it—and with the included lifetime traffic and map updates it seems like a decent dealcoming in at around $199 in stores. I’m not sure how much the included clunky Wi-Fi function adds to the price but I can’t imagine very many people ever use it. Most people who can afford this device are already going to have a smart phone and a tablet in the car—maybe both.
I had two main beefs with it though that keep me from being totally thrilled with it. First, the dash mount won’t work on an actual dash unless you happen to have one that’s as shiny smooth as glass. Otherwise it’s got to be mounted on the windshield. I know that’s pretty standard, but if my inexpensive Cobra Mount I use for my phone can get around it, surely their design modifications could too.
The more annoying problem is a built-in function that I can’t find a way to disable in the settings: a warning that you are going over the speed limit. Every time you go over by more than 5 mph, the voice goes “Warning! Warning!” The only solution seems to be to slow down—which means everyone is flying by you on the interstate highways—or to turn the sound off. Neither one is very practical, so I ended up just shutting it off when I had a pretty good sense of where I was. I understand why you would need this in a school zone or residential area, but it’s just silly on the open highway, when people routinely set their cruise control 6 or 7 mph over the speed limit just to keep with the traffic flow.
Get the Magellan RoadMate 5175T Traveler GPS at Amazon.
Previous Magellan reviews:
Posted by Tim L. in Business Gear, General Gear, Kids and Family on January 12th, 2012
Magellan RoadMate 3065 Commuter Navigator for the Car
Smartphones with quality GPS apps are in everyone’s pockets these days, so why would a driver need a navigation-specific unit for the car? Honestly, I’m not exactly sure. On a recent trip to Oahu — where my husband and I had to navigate unfamiliar city streets and highways around Honolulu — we likely could have managed with only Google Earth on my husband’s Droid X. But it was helpful to have the Magellan RoadMate 3065 with its big touch screen (i.e. easier to see the map than on a phone screen). Plus, with the RoadMate could continue to navigate the roads while taking phone calls and looking up weather forecasts.
The Magellan RoadMate 3065 is actually designed for workerbees who drive a fair amount to an urban office. Since I work from home and my husband has 10-minute straight-shot drive to his office, the commuter features on this unit won’t help us. However, if you need to get the most current traffic information — any road closures or unusual volume — every morning before you head out the door, they can with the Traffic Wakeup service. Sometimes GPS information is delayed when transmitting to a navigation unit, so you can program the Magellan RoadMate to turn on 30 minutes before your daily commute to and from work, so current data is downloaded.
As I said, the screen on this unit is big — 4.7 inches versus standard 4.3 inches. Even for a non-techie type like me, I was able to figure out how to program addresses and initiate searches for local restaurants from the icon menus. Quickspell, where you start entering a city name, and only those keys that could be used to finished spelling the word, is handy for getting information quickly.
Still more nice features include Highway Lane Assist, where realistic highway signs pop up on the screen as you’re nearing an exit. the brighter one is the exit you want to take; arrows help lead the way (as do the aural directions; though we often turn those off, so we don’t have to listen to the computer-generated voice). Typical to most GPS units, this one lets you know how long it will take to get to your destination; I appreciate the ETA display in the corner of the screen.
One service we haven’t used yet is the built-in AAA Tour Book, where restaurants, hotels and attractions are given AAA ratings and descriptions to help you decide what to do, where to stay and where to eat in a new-to-you destination.
Directions suggest you mount the Magellan RoadMate on the windshield, to best receive GPS satellite information. But we couldn’t get the suction to stick below our rear-view mirror, nor on the dashboard at all. (I like my mother-in-law’s Garmin, which has a beanbag-type mount that rests on her dashboard.) We ended up just stashing the unit between the front seats of our rental car, or I held it in my hand. Not terribly convenient, but it worked.
The Magellan RoadMate 3065 retails for$219.99 on the Magellan online store, but I’d surf around for a better price: paying $149.99 on Amazon.com is a lot more palatable. Loaded maps on this unit are for the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico; download Europe maps for an additional $99.
Related post: Magellan eXplorist GC for Geoaching.
Posted by Kara in General Gear on June 2nd, 2011
Magellan eXplorist GC for Geocaching
As I kid, I used to love it when my mom set up “treasure hunts” for me: she’d give me a note that said “Go to the mailbox,” and from there, I’d find a note that said “Go to the refrigerator” then “Go to the washing machine,” ultimately leading me to a “treasure.” I’ve created these hunts for my kids, and sometimes they are more elaborate with puzzle clues (in rhyme!) for birthday parties.
So, it’s no wonder my family has fallen in love with geocaching, where GPS coordinates and digital maps, not handwritten notes, lead us to treasure. While anyone with a GPS unit — that is, a handheld device with Global Positioning Service — can geocache, I highly, highly recommend the Magellan eXplorist GC, which is solely dedicated to geocaching adventures.
Everything you ever wanted to know about geocaching can be found at Geocaching.com. But, in brief, geocachers all over the world have hidden boxes (Tupperware, ammo boxes or other weatherproof containers), recorded their GPS coordinates and listed the “hides” on the Geocaching.com website. Users who want to find caches in their area — or on their travels — can search for hidden caches via address, zip code, city or country, and then enter those coordinates into a GPS device to help lead them to the “treasure.” Caches are hidden in urban locations, as well as remote spots that require a hike.
Traditional caches have little trinkets in them — stickers, bouncy balls, seashells, etc. — and if you take a small item, you are expected to leave a small item. Some caches just have noebooks and pens (logbooks) in them. Some caches are teeny, tiny nano-caches, that are no bigger than a thimble, that only contained a small rolled-up log; these are BYOP (bring your own pen) caches, which are typically described as such on Geocaching.com.
I love the Magellan eXplorist GC because it’s built for beginners like me. When I browse Geocaching.com and I find a cache I’d like to seek, I simply click “Send to GPS” while my device is linked to my laptop via USB cord. All of the caches have names, usually punny or otherwise clever ones (geocachers are a funny bunch!), so I’ll search for its name, hit “Go” and my eXplorist will tell me how far I am from the cache.
The eXplorist comes pre-loaded with popular caches, but the closest pre-loaded one was in Utah (I live in Colorado). So, I had to download a bunch of local ones to test out. I’ve been downloading them from home one at a time before heading out to geocache, but I think I’ll download all the hundreds of geocaches in my valley (a 40-mile stretch) so that my family and I can “geocache on the fly” whenever we’re looking for a last-minute afternoon or weekend adventure.
Success! A cache in an ammo box about 10 miles from our home.
Again, the Magellan eXplorist GC helped make this geocaching novice grow utterly obsessed with the activity within a matter of two weeks. The maps on the handheld device are easy to read (and accurate), even in bright sunlight. It’s very clear when we’re moving correctly towards a cache, or away from it: the arrow turns green when we’re on course! The battery, time and satellite signal are clearly displayed; it uses two AA batteries that should work for 18 hours. With the touch of a couple buttons I can display on the map all nearby caches that are stored in the device. I like clicking “Found” (which is accompanied by a smiley face!) when we’ve had a successful day geocaching. The device is totally waterproof (though I wouldn’t intentionally submerge it in water).
There are dozens of features on my Magellan eXplorist GC that I haven’t even delved into yet, like it can deliver a trip summary — with amount of time it took to search and distance traveled — and I can see my “breadcrumbs” (where I’ve been) on the map screen. I like that I can create my own waypoints — which I did when devising my daughter’s recent birthday party geocaching adventure. Out in our yard, I hid little gifts for her and her guests, recording the location of each hidden item. For each location, I gave it one of the girl’s names, so every girl could find her own treasure. It was a big hit!
The Magellan eXplorist GC’s GPS coordinates have proven quite accurate in our limited caching experiences. Magellan says it can offer three- to five-meter accuracy, and I’d agree that we found our caches within four yards of “ground zero” – or where the GPS was telling us the cache was exactly located.
We’ll take our Magellan eXplorist on all future family vacations and weekend camping trips. I love the idea of this family activity that encourages exploration in the outdoors.
The Magellan eXplorist GC retails for $149.99 on the Magellan website. Check prices at REI and I’ve seen it discounted at Amazon.com.
Shopping around? Another great option for Geocaching GPS units is XGPS150 by Dual.
Posted by Kara in Adventure Gear, Kids and Family on May 17th, 2011
Bing for Smartphones: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
Bing is showing some love for Windows smartphones with an updated, free app that includes turn-by-turn mapping and directions. But while improving one part of the app, Microsoft took a step backward with local searches for finding restaurants, hotels and other necessities for travelers.
First, the good news. The latest Bing version will give turn-by-turn guidance in the U.S. on my AT&T Tilt2 and other GPS-equipped smartphones running Windows Phone V6 and higher. That’s the same kind of service that some cell phone carriers still try to charge 10 bucks a month to use.
Some of the phones which will support the updated app include the Fuze, Pure, HD, Touch HD and other HTC phones, along with several Samsung models and the T-Mobile Dash 3G. If your phone is not supported, you can still find much of the same information on Bing’s mobile website, m.bing.com.
Unforttunately, the latest Bing app also cripples local searches. In previous versions, I’ve found the local searches usually very accurate for finding restaurants, hotels, shopping centers, movies and other attractions.
But something happened in the update. Now, if I search for “all restaurants” where I live, Bing returns nothing. If I search for a specific type of restaurant, such as barbecue or steak, it will return results. But the list still doesn’t seem as complete as in previous versions.
Microsoft calls it “an amazingly lifelike voice experience” when using the navigation portion of the program. In my opinion, the mapping portion of the app is not as good as other GPS programs I’ve reviewed,such as CoPilot Live or Garmin Mobile. But CoPilot Live and Garmin Mobile are not free, either.
For a free app, the latest Bing version is worth the download if it will run on your smartphone. An improved search engine for location-based attractions would make it even better.
Posted by JohnG in Business Gear, General Gear on June 14th, 2010
Review: CoPilot Live GPS for Smartphones
If you’re still using your cell phone just to make calls, it’s time to say goodbye to the ’90s. And if you’re directionally-challenged like me—and your phone has a GPS—CoPilot Live mobile navigation from ALK Technologies can make your travels easier.
It works on the iPhone, Windows Mobile and Android phones as well as notebooks and netbooks. CoPilot Live will give turn-by-turn directions to just about any destination and also includes an extensive points-of-interest database to help find restaurants, landmarks, gas stations and more.
Using the new Version 8 on my HTC Tilt2 smartphone, I was impressed with the graphics and 3D driving view. The menus are fairly intuitive so there’s little need to break out the manual once the program is set up and running. It does almost everything a typical standalone GPS would do and even more than some. Text-to-speech, which allows CoPilot Live to speak street names instead of just saying “turn now,” is offered as a free upgrade.
Advanced features include adjustable speed-limit alerts, a lane-indicator display and a walking mode that includes foot paths.
The “Live” part of CoPilot goes beyond the points of interest that are stored in the phone memory or on an expansion card. Using the GPS, Live provides location-based services such as weather, traffic, fuel prices and will also show the location of friends who are using the program. It will search for nearby restaurants, hotels and more.
Driving around Texas, I did find an odd glitch with CoPilot Live. When I tried to select one particular street, it was not in the database so I could not set it as a destination. The odd part is when I drove there, the street name showed up on the map. But it still could not be selected as a destination.
CoPilot Live is one of several turn-by-turn solutions available for smartphones and other mobile devices.
Garmin Mobile offers competing solutions for smartphones. Garmin has some nice features, but I just don’t think the company is aggressively pushing the envelope with updates and development for smartphones. Garmin’s own phone, released on the Sprint network, hasn’t been a major hit.
ALK seems more aggressive in pushing the limit and releasing updates for its smartphone programs, which is a good sign for the future.
The downloadable version of CoPilot Live v8 for Windows Mobile is reasonably priced at $29.99, with an extra subscription charge for traffic and fuel-price info. The iPhone version is $19.99. The Android version is available through the Android Market.
A version of CoPilot Live is also in development for the Apple iPad tablet computer. But see my previous thoughts and the comments of our readers on whether the iPad is a useful device for travelers. In my opinion, it’s not.
CoPilot Live can turn many kinds of smartphones into full-featured GPS navigators. And just think of all the time that can save—no longer having to stop and ask for directions.
Posted by JohnG in Business Gear, General Gear on May 18th, 2010
