Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Vehicle GPS : Garmin nüvi 260W 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator



I bought the GARMIN n?vi 260W to help with work and family travels. After extensive research with Magellan, Mio and Tom-Tom, I bought the Garmin for three reasons. 1) Ease of use. 2) Screen clarity. 3) Amazing accuracy. And no, despite where I live, I have no affiliation with Garmin. I don't even know anyone that works for them. I am in the architectural business.

I have tried several GPSs while traveling with business associates, friends or in rental cars. As such, I have seen them in real world action. All of the devices saved me time and most found the place I needed to be. I could used any of them and been somewhat satisfied.The problem: I am a perfectionist. As such, I want the unit to be the best. So, after using a text-to-speech Garmin GPS unit earlier this year, I knew that was one feature I could not live without when I pulled the trigger on a purchase. Text-to-speech is a must have on GPS. A MUST. If you have never used a GPS, trust me, you have to have text-to-speech. It eliminates the frustration of urban driving and having the non text-to-speech units tell you to turn right in 200 feet, only to find two roads that are 200 feet away and have to pick one and hope it is right.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Sports and Fitness GPS : GARMIN 010-10644-00 Speed/Cadence Sensor



The handlebar mount and cadence and speed sensors went on quickly and worked flawlessly. However, when I first received the package in the mail, I was concerned I had ordered the wrong item. I have a Forerunner 305 wrist-mounted GPS, and all of the packaging for this product references the Edge GPS sensor, so I didn't know whether or not this would even work with the Forerunner. There are very slight differences in navigating the menus to set up the cadence sensor between the Forerunner and the Edge, but the cadence sensor does indeed work very well with the Forerunner, so Forerunner owners order without fear!


Mobile and PC GPS PDA : GiSTEQ GPS USB Dongle



Purchased on June 20, received today. I got the black version of this item. Plugged in and installed the drivers that came on the included CD without any problems. I bought this item to use with Microsoft Streets & Trips 2009. S&T requires GPS receivers to operate on NMEA 2.0 standard and at 4800 baud rate. The 4800 baud rate is a must if you are going to use this with S&T. That's where my problems started.

Marine GPS Units and Chartplotters : Garmin Premium - Heart rate monitor



This heart rate monitor has a soft fabric strap and is more comfortable than ever before. Plus, it's optimized for use in congested areas like gym classes and starting lines.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Handheld GPS and Navigation : Garmin GPS 60CSx Handheld GPS Navigator


The first reviewer didn't really do his research before he purchased this or else he would know that it only comes with basemaps. The other fact he would know is that that's how all GPS vendors work. They want you to buy their maps separately and only their maps will work on their hardware.

Now, I previously owned a 60CS which I loved after trading in my Vista. With the newly upgraded 60CSx you get a couple of additional functions that make it much better than the 60CS. First, there's the SiRF III chipset. It is by far the best chipset out there right now. It's super sensitive and super fast. You can lock onto satellites even in your house in many cases! No longer will you loose reception in tricky situations. Most of the time you can even keep the 60CSx in your backpack and it will still track your movements.

The other highly requested function for many years is the expansion memory, now in the form of a microSD. Now you can load almost half of the U.S. into 512mb of microSD. Later, larger capacity microSD cards will be released that will allow you to loan the entire US! That's awesome!

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