Hands on with the Garmin nuvi 2×5 series — the best entry level GPS on the market
UPDATE: The nuvi 2×5 series has been officially discontinued. For current recommendations, see our auto GPS buyers guide.
The Garmin nuvi 205W
Archives for July 2008
Garmin nuvi 205W review
July 30, 2008 By 59 Comments
Ten reasons TopoFusion rocks
July 30, 2008 By Leave a Comment
TopoFusion is my go-to program for planning and tracking backcountry adventures. It’s typically the program I turn to first and there is rarely a day that goes by without me using it. Here are ten reasons that TopoFusion rocks:
1. The ability to toggle between USGS topo maps, aerial photos and hybrid imagery
All you have to do is tap “a” on the keyboard to toggle between these views. The TerraServer aerial imagery includes B/W U.S. coverage to 1 meter/pixel and color urban coverage to 0.25 meters/pixel. TopoFusion also accesses Canadian topos, TIGER street maps and worldwide LandSat imagery. The color urban imagery below is of salt ponds at the south end of the San Francisco Bay (16 meters/pixel).
Garmin adds China map coverage ahead of Olympics
July 26, 2008 By Leave a Comment
Heading to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing? Garmin has you covered. Two weeks ahead of the games, Garmin has released City Navigator China NT, though I have to wonder if the coverage is as good as is suggested by the map above.
Garmin nuvi 500 and 550 for driving, walking, cycling or boating
July 22, 2008 By 4 Comments
UPDATE: Read my hands-on Garmin nuvi 500 review. I’ve also posted a Garmin nuvi 550 page.
The rumors were true — Garmin announced today the introduction of the nuvi 500 series — multi-use navigators for driving, cycling, walking and boating. Ruggedized and waterproof, the nuvi 500 series sports a 3.5″ touchscreen and appears to share the feature set and much of the interface of the nuvi 2×5 series I wrote about this morning, including the ability to add MSN Direct or FM/TMC traffic.
The nuvi 500 comes with pre-loaded City Navigator and topo maps of the 48 contiguous United States, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. The 550 offers highway coverage of the entire U.S. and Canada but drops the topo maps.
Garmin nuvi 2×5 series brings advanced features to the masses
July 22, 2008 By Leave a Comment
I’ve been testing a Garmin nuvi 205W recently and have been surprised to find a couple of advanced features in this entry-level product that I wasn’t anticipating:
- Speed limit icons display the speed limit for many roads
- Tracklog display can show where you’ve been and can be downloaded to your computer (tracklogs can be cleared and the feature can be disabled for those of you with something to hide!)
You can see both these features in the screen shot above. The tracklog is the thin blue line trailing behind the current position icon. The speed limit being shown is for a two-lane road, albeit a relatively busy one.
TomTom GO 930 / 930T review
July 22, 2008 By 2 Comments
UPDATE: This model has been discontinued. For current recommendations, please refer to our TomTom comparison chart.
The TomTom GO 930
The 930 has a 4.3″ wide touch screen, pre-loaded maps of the U.S., Canada and Europe, and text-to-speech. The latter feature means that you’ll hear “turn left on Oak Street” rather than just “turn left in 1/4 mile.” It also includes Bluetooth for hands-free calling, a built-in FM transmitter and TomTom’s Map Share technology, which allows users to make some map corrections and share them with others. TomTom doesn’t give an exact number of points of interest (POIs) on their devices; they simply say “millions.” Regardless, I find TomTom devices to have an adequate number of POIs.
Hands on with the Garmin Oregon 400t
July 16, 2008 By 7 Comments
UPDATE: Read my hands-on Garmin Oregon 400t review.
I received a Garmin Oregon 400t review unit yesterday, right before a scheduled bike ride with a friend. I scrambled to get Garmin’s Colorado mount on my bike, which works with the Oregon series, since the carabiner attachment is the same on both models. (The RAM mount will not work however, since the Oregon is smaller than the Colorado.) I had no time to set up waypoints or routes, or load tracks. Nevertheless, I do have some first impressions to share…
Choosing the right friction mount for your auto GPS
July 16, 2008 By 15 Comments
Friction mounts are great, but it’s easy to get one that won’t work with your GPS. Today I’m going to look at three different friction mounts and address how to select the right one. First I want to cover some common questions about friction mounts.
Why use a friction mount?
I prefer friction mounts over suction cup mounts for two reasons — theft prevention and convenience. Let’s say you’re navigating to a shopping center or restaurant. You see it coming up. You can lift the friction mount off the dash before you even pull into the parking lot. No one sees you remove the GPS and there is no tell-tale suction mark left on the windshield. If I’m leaving the car only briefly, I will often just place the mount with GPS attached on the floorboard.
TomTom XL 330-S review
July 14, 2008 By 14 Comments
UPDATE: This model has been discontinued. For a list of current TomTom models and their features, please see our TomTom comparison chart.
Hands on with the TomTom XL 330S
The TomTom XL 330-S
Garmin Oregon series first looks
July 10, 2008 By 6 Comments
UPDATE: Read my hands-on Garmin Oregon 400t review. I’ve also posted Garmin Oregon 200 and Oregon 300 pages.
Okay boys and girls, we’ve got Garmin Oregon photos for ya. As you can see from the Garmin Oregon 400t image above, they really mean it when they say touch-screen, because there aren’t many buttons on this thing.
