[Mr.Bangalore]

Originally Posted by Newpunter

I have been using MMI on a chinese PND for more than a year now. I use MMI maps with Sygic , which has a better interface than the one that comes with MMI devices.

I have used MMI in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi and Himachal Pradesh. I have found that MMI maps are very good for Karnataka and most of the cities in India . But the coverage for rural Andhra Pradesh is very bad and misses some of the major roads in the state. But when it comes to Karnataka, the maps are pretty accurate for even far off areas. I relied almost completely on MMI for my Belure-Halebidu-Chikmagalur trip last year. Also, when I visited Hyderabad last month, if not for MMI, I would have been completely lost as I don't know many routes in Hyderabad. But thanks to MMI, I didn't have to ask anyone for directions even once.

i totally agree with AP parts are not fully covered. I tried Mantralaya and could not find in MMI. Let me know if anybody using MMI have a similar issue or is it me alone..

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by Mr.Bangalore

Let me know if anybody using MMI have a similar issue or is it me alone..

I use MMI maps. Though coverage is good, its not 100%. Few state highways & many roads are not mapped. In fact the while returning from Munnar, the NH in the border between Kerala & TN vanished from the map.

Originally Posted by mdsaab

Or use it while walking or travelling without your car.

My MMI Lx130 guided me while I was walking from my lodge to Marine Drive in Kochi.

[mdsaab]

Originally Posted by J.Ravi

My MMI Lx130 guided me while I was walking from my lodge to Marine Drive in Kochi.

See there you go. A PND can be used in many more ways than just in your car.
I took the PND while we were in Kolkata for a few months. Really helped a lot. Infact so much so that i now know the roads of Kolkata so well. I can even manage without the PND.

[man_and_machine]

Good thread and at what timing! I in Texas for a while and I was looking at some GPS hardware at Fry's . Now use the GPS navigation in US a lot, and I feel it might help people back home in my family who drive little and hence get lost frequently might benefit from it. Okay what I want you guys to help me with is the following.

1. Can I buy the hardware from the US and install MMI software on it or do they always come bundled?
2. If not, can I install it later on the hardware?
3. Assuming I somehow get MMI on the hardware I guess I can install the maps as SW content.

and finally, is there some recommendation on a good set that I can buy?

[knp]

You can install MMI in another devices, especially winCE based ones. I have one from Onda and installed MMI, and works well. You can put everything in a SD card and use it.

[mdsaab]

Originally Posted by man_and_machine

Good thread and at what timing! I in Texas for a while and I was looking at some GPS hardware at Fry's . Now use the GPS navigation in US a lot, and I feel it might help people back home in my family who drive little and hence get lost frequently might benefit from it. Okay what I want you guys to help me with is the following.

1. Can I buy the hardware from the US and install MMI software on it or do they always come bundled?
2. If not, can I install it later on the hardware?
3. Assuming I somehow get MMI on the hardware I guess I can install the maps as SW content.

and finally, is there some recommendation on a good set that I can buy?

I you buy a Garmin device and want to install MMI maps on them. Then it will set you back by 7K for just the maps from MMI.
So it's wiser to buy a PND from MMI directly which is for 10K.
some cheaper models available too.
But i highly recommend the VX 140S from MMI.

Else you will have to involve pirated versions, which i do NOT recommend one bit.

How much is a set in the US? if the price difference is not much.
I would suggest plonking on a device direct from MMI.
You will get a warranty and service back up too, in case ever required.

[ANUJ GEORGE]

I have been using MMI for almost 4 years now and I am quite happy with it so far. Recently upgraded to Ver 6. In my opinion, it is a must have when traveling to unknown territory. It is really good when it comes to finding a hotel / ATM / Filling station etc. Some of the problems I faced with MMI was, it does not cover most of the new built highways, GQs and N-S corridors. And sometimes, when you want to cross a town, MMI will take you right thru the crowded town, even if there is a bypass road around the town. I hope MMI will start tracking the altitude as well to identify if the vehicle is on a flyover or not. (I was bit surprised when I heard the "Turn Right Now" on top of a fly over)

I was using MMI and NAVTEQ side by side on my last trip to Rajasthan, and I prefer MMI for its accuracy.

[RGK]

I checked the MMI recently in my friends car. Based on the direction - "N" (north), one can identify their position if the routes are not updated/lost.

1. A small amount of risk involved here. Should not get distracted while driving as one need to concentrate on both - road and map. Certain models come with Audio feature to avoid distraction.

2. Road blocks and DeTour are not updated instantaneously. Came to know that this is the case even in countries like US.
Drivers in US can correct if I am wrong.

[soarer]

Thanks Kiran,
Slightly OT: very recently I have purchased Nokia N8 which has inbulit GPS, when I was checking for the route from Marthahalli( bangalore) to mysore road it took me via city market route which was heavy traffic after city market till near kengri, how can we choose a route which is less traffic ? Also while coming back I came via Nice road but GPS was not able to catch that and it was showing as I was travelling in forest without any route , what could be problem ? Also what is base map for Ovi maps does they have their own maps or they are using Google maps for their GPS

[himavanth_m]

The review for MMI maps for iPhone was not good. And it costs somewhere around 50 dollars to download. I have not yet tried personally, but I found Navfree app on appstore which is free of cost and I think it is pretty good. Recently downloaded it and will check that as well next week when i go out on some trip. I personally feel that it is good enough for iPhone users who wants basic maps and navigation capabilities.

[KarthikK]

@kirantp, nice review on the MMI's capabilities. Since yours is the Caska unit, I assume you don't need to ever worry about battery life. I use the S650 model of MMI on windshield mount. On highway journeys, the battery runs out of steam in an hour and I usually need to plug in the cigarette lighter adaptor to run it on the mains instead of battery for the rest of the journey. Anyone here using MMI ZX150R? I heard it has some awesome battery life.

Originally Posted by soarer

Thanks Kiran,
Slightly OT: very recently I have purchased Nokia N8 which has inbulit GPS, when I was checking for the route from Marthahalli( bangalore) to mysore road it took me via city market route which was heavy traffic after city market till near kengri, how can we choose a route which is less traffic ? Also while coming back I came via Nice road but GPS was not able to catch that and it was showing as I was travelling in forest without any route , what could be problem ? Also what is base map for Ovi maps does they have their own maps or they are using Google maps for their GPS

Ovi maps doesn't offer coverage outside city limits in India. It will show your GPS position as a Red dot in the map but nothing around you. Base maps for ovi maps - we use NAVTEQ map data, not google maps. I use the word "we" because I work at Nokia and earlier worked in the maps division as well . As far as I know, traffic conditions are not tracked in the Indian version of ovi maps.

Originally Posted by Mr.Bangalore

i totally agree with AP parts are not fully covered. I tried Mantralaya and could not find in MMI. Let me know if anybody using MMI have a similar issue or is it me alone..

Not sure about interior rural roads in AP but the absence of Mantralaya amazes me. If you live in Bangalore and try to find a location in another state from here, it shows "not found" since your home state is set to "Karnataka" currently. Change to "Andhra Pradesh" and re-do the search for Mantralaya. I am sure it must find it. Which model is this by the way? I have MMI S650 navigator.

[Mr.Bangalore]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

Not sure about interior rural roads in AP but the absence of Mantralaya amazes me. If you live in Bangalore and try to find a location in another state from here, it shows "not found" since your home state is set to "Karnataka" currently. Change to "Andhra Pradesh" and re-do the search for Mantralaya. I am sure it must find it. Which model is this by the way? I have MMI S650 navigator.

I am using MMI for more than 4yrs with the latest updates. yes i changed the states and tried since Mantralay is on the border b/w Karnataka and AP, but for my luck it did not showed. when i reached Mantralaya it showed me the main circle before the mutt as Mantralaya but when searched it did not able to find the destination. Also on more drawback of MMI is that you have to spell the correct destination if you do a single spelling mistake it wont be shown. Also it wont search if you dont type the full destination meaning staring few words wont search the destination.

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by Mr.Bangalore

I am using MMI for more than 4yrs with the latest updates. yes i changed the states and tried since Mantralay is on the border b/w Karnataka and AP, but for my luck it did not showed. when i reached Mantralaya it showed me the main circle before the mutt as Mantralaya but when searched it did not able to find the destination. Also on more drawback of MMI is that you have to spell the correct destination if you do a single spelling mistake it wont be shown. Also it wont search if you dont type the full destination meaning staring few words wont search the destination.

Agree with you on the approximate matches part. Full spelling needs to be entered and should be accurate Hope they give some approximate matches in future software updates. It does however recognize the word as we are typing and most of the times our destination appears even before we search

[Newpunter]

Originally Posted by Mr.Bangalore

Also on more drawback of MMI is that you have to spell the correct destination if you do a single spelling mistake it wont be shown. Also it wont search if you dont type the full destination meaning staring few words wont search the destination.

I think that problem is only with the versions where MMI uses a different software to Sygic. I have MMI with Sygic and it is really great. The places are shown as soon as we start typing the name, so we dont need to enter the whole name of the place to start searching.