The GPS/Maps Discussion Thread (Dedicated Satnav, Smartphones, Tablets, etc)

jaysmokesleaves · 4th February 2011, 17:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by amitoj

Reading this kind of sent chills down my spine
'Death by GPS' in desert - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Pretty scary stuff indeed. Which is why I always carry enough food supplies and water and never waste on trips into nowhere.
One should not entirely rely on GPS. A good hard copy map book, a compass and understanding how to use it are vital for those who like to travel into wild interiors of nowhere.
Imagine the satellites going bonkers and your GPS taking you somewhere else. Farfetched fictional thought, but what if..

RX135 · 4th February 2011, 17:28

Wrong maps are indeed misleading and give a false sense of security.

I had stayed over in Ahmedabad for a night in December. Next day, when I wanted to head towards A'bad - Vadodara highway, it showd me route though bylanes which did not exist. Google map was showing me a road, while all I could see was a fine building standing right there. Even the hotel location was wrong, but that could be operator error.

sgiitk · 4th February 2011, 22:47

All over the world local maps have to be taken with a big pinch of salt. Also, India will be worse off, since most of our maps are NOT digitized.

majorpayne · 5th February 2011, 02:49

If Tom Tom is bringing their products to India, hopefully the Tom Tom Iphone App will be launched too! It saves the trouble of having a separate GPS device.

The latest version of the app has a neat feature called Map Share, where corrections on maps are regularly updated!

ampere · 5th February 2011, 09:50

More importantly it needs to be seen what is source of their maps?
If the maps are like Garmin, it may not sell much.

download2live · 5th February 2011, 10:35

I have my colleague coming back from US this March. I was thinking of getting a GPS unit. Well that seemed most reasonable of all the options thrown up as an answer to "Kaya Laaon Tumahre liye".

So idea is to get a device from there, buy maps here.
I was thinking it will be even sweeter if that thing is able to play movies etc. Of course the catch is that its Punto Emotion with a built in music system that does not take any connections from outside world. There might be some hacks but I am not into hacks really. So the device is expected to pair up via FM with the Music system and play the audio.

Too much to expect??

NetfreakBombay · 5th February 2011, 10:58

If buying from US, I would suggest Garmin 255W, its cheap ($120 - 140) and has excellent hardware. It would not do things like music, but is excellent GPS device.

You can buy maps from Satguide/MMI for it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by majorpayne

If Tom Tom is bringing their products to India, hopefully the Tom Tom Iphone App will be launched too! It saves the trouble of having a separate GPS device.

The latest version of the app has a neat feature called Map Share, where corrections on maps are regularly updated!

Sygic (with India maps) is already available on App Store.

mdsaab · 5th February 2011, 11:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by indianrunner

Hi,

For users of MMI specifically Vx 240, how does one use the coordinates screen for inputting data and searching? I tried to enter the coordinates of Maidainhalli watchtower which is a black buck sanctuary near Bangalore and the location was not shown on the map.

The online manual has no chapter on this and the Helpdesk at MMI was quite clueless about using this feature.

Rgds

i am using the nav300 with mmi maps 4.0 i think the interface of your device would pretty much be the same. I got the co-ordinates from google and typed them in manually into the device. But it did not work. So i typed the co-ordinates the other way round and it worked. Give it a try

vnabhi · 5th February 2011, 20:23

We drove down to Pittsburg a couple of weeks ago from Washington DC (220 Miles). My pal had his Tomtom unit that he'd purchased 3 years ago for 400 USD, and I carried along my Garmin 265WT for comparision.

Our plan was to drive via State roads as they were more scenic and shorter in distance, with the added advantage of avoiding tolls.

Though older, I found the Tom Tom had the following advantages:-

It came with a remote, so there was no need to reach out to the windscreen and poke with fingertips.
Each time you fed a route, it gave an option or avoiding toll roads, whereas in the Garmin, it was a general setting that applied to all routes.
The Tom Tom displayed remaining distance also on the initial screen, whereas in the Garmin one had to press the screen to be taken to another screen that showed this information.
The Tom Tom showed info about the current road one was travelling on, apart from the one to turn into ahead. On the Garmin, it only showed the next road to turn into and how far ahead it was.
Whenver we opted not to use the suggested route and went ahead on our pre-planned route, the Tom Tom adjusted to the new route quicker. The Garmin kept re-calculating and asking us to take a U turn to its suggested route for nearly 10 miles.

However the Garmin did have the following advantages:-

Better screen resolution and colour.
Quicker lock on to satellites on initial start
More accurate road names (as it was a recent buy perhaps)
Much lighter in weight. The Tom Tom's suction cap kept falling off the windscreen owing to sub-zero temperatures. (It never happened in DC weather however, but only on cold Pennsylvania roads). I may add , though OT, that even the windscreen fluid was not getting sprayed as it had turned into ice!
Bluetooth feature.

mdsaab · 6th February 2011, 11:38

@vnabhi thanks for sharing that comparison with us. The feautures that you mention on the tom tom are similar to what my mmi nav300 offers. I do not own a garmin, but fiddled around with garmin mobile xt a bit and did not like the interface much. Overall in your comparo it seems the tom tom has come out a clear winner.

shankar.balan · 6th February 2011, 12:15

pal - please elucidate what exactly you mean by this - Im not able to comprehend.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mdsaab

So i typed the co-ordinates the other way round and it worked. Give it a try

vnabhi · 6th February 2011, 19:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by mdsaab

. Overall in your comparo it seems the tom tom has come out a clear winner.

Yes, that is correct.

. But the Tom Tom cost nearly 4 times. But that was around 3 years back. I guess it would today cost around twice as much as the Garmin.
Another deterrent is the weight of the unit. But modern Tom Toms will certainly be lighter.

I don't think Tom Tom units have SD card slots, which would be a big deterrent for use in India.

sanagg1 · 7th February 2011, 07:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

pal - please elucidate what exactly you mean by this - Im not able to comprehend.

IMHO reversing the Lat./Long sequence

Cheers

shankar.balan · 7th February 2011, 11:19

is it possible to demonstrate by spelling it out step by step?
am quite foggy still

Quote:

Originally Posted by sanagg1

IMHO reversing the Lat./Long sequence

Cheers

sanagg1 · 7th February 2011, 12:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

is it possible to demonstrate by spelling it out step by step?
am quite foggy still

If you pickup coordinated from google maps for Delhi these will be something like

28.650223,77.227707

By reversing i mean

77.227707, 28.650223

cheers

4th February 2011, 17:28	#1682
RX135 Senior - BHPian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: pune Posts: 2,106 Thanked: 75 Times	Re: The GPS/Maps Discussion Thread (Dedicated Satnav, Smartphones, Tablets, etc) Wrong maps are indeed misleading and give a false sense of security. I had stayed over in Ahmedabad for a night in December. Next day, when I wanted to head towards A'bad - Vadodara highway, it showd me route though bylanes which did not exist. Google map was showing me a road, while all I could see was a fine building standing right there. Even the hotel location was wrong, but that could be operator error.
	() Thanks

4th February 2011, 22:47	#1683
sgiitk BANNED Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Gurugram Posts: 7,969 Thanked: 4,788 Times	Re: The GPS/Maps Discussion Thread (Dedicated Satnav, Smartphones, Tablets, etc) All over the world local maps have to be taken with a big pinch of salt. Also, India will be worse off, since most of our maps are NOT digitized.
	() Thanks

5th February 2011, 02:49	#1684
majorpayne BHPian Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Toronto Posts: 82 Thanked: 23 Times View My Garage	Re: The GPS/Maps Discussion Thread (Dedicated Satnav, Smartphones, Tablets, etc) If Tom Tom is bringing their products to India, hopefully the Tom Tom Iphone App will be launched too! It saves the trouble of having a separate GPS device. The latest version of the app has a neat feature called Map Share, where corrections on maps are regularly updated!
	() Thanks

5th February 2011, 09:50	#1685
ampere Team-BHP Support Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Bangalore Posts: 17,951 Thanked: 12,939 Times View My Garage	Re: The GPS/Maps Discussion Thread (Dedicated Satnav, Smartphones, Tablets, etc) More importantly it needs to be seen what is source of their maps? If the maps are like Garmin, it may not sell much.
	() Thanks

5th February 2011, 10:35	#1686
download2live Senior - BHPian Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: - Posts: 1,147 Thanked: 1,144 Times	Re: The GPS/Maps Discussion Thread (Dedicated Satnav, Smartphones, Tablets, etc) I have my colleague coming back from US this March. I was thinking of getting a GPS unit. Well that seemed most reasonable of all the options thrown up as an answer to "Kaya Laaon Tumahre liye". So idea is to get a device from there, buy maps here. I was thinking it will be even sweeter if that thing is able to play movies etc. Of course the catch is that its Punto Emotion with a built in music system that does not take any connections from outside world. There might be some hacks but I am not into hacks really. So the device is expected to pair up via FM with the Music system and play the audio. Too much to expect??
	() Thanks

5th February 2011, 20:23	#1689
vnabhi Senior - BHPian Join Date: May 2007 Location: DC -> DC Posts: 5,958 Thanked: 2,393 Times View My Garage	Re: The GPS/Maps Discussion Thread (Dedicated Satnav, Smartphones, Tablets, etc) We drove down to Pittsburg a couple of weeks ago from Washington DC (220 Miles). My pal had his Tomtom unit that he'd purchased 3 years ago for 400 USD, and I carried along my Garmin 265WT for comparision. Our plan was to drive via State roads as they were more scenic and shorter in distance, with the added advantage of avoiding tolls. Though older, I found the Tom Tom had the following advantages:- It came with a remote, so there was no need to reach out to the windscreen and poke with fingertips. Each time you fed a route, it gave an option or avoiding toll roads, whereas in the Garmin, it was a general setting that applied to all routes. The Tom Tom displayed remaining distance also on the initial screen, whereas in the Garmin one had to press the screen to be taken to another screen that showed this information. The Tom Tom showed info about the current road one was travelling on, apart from the one to turn into ahead. On the Garmin, it only showed the next road to turn into and how far ahead it was. Whenver we opted not to use the suggested route and went ahead on our pre-planned route, the Tom Tom adjusted to the new route quicker. The Garmin kept re-calculating and asking us to take a U turn to its suggested route for nearly 10 miles. However the Garmin did have the following advantages:- Better screen resolution and colour. Quicker lock on to satellites on initial start More accurate road names (as it was a recent buy perhaps) Much lighter in weight. The Tom Tom's suction cap kept falling off the windscreen owing to sub-zero temperatures. (It never happened in DC weather however, but only on cold Pennsylvania roads). I may add , though OT, that even the windscreen fluid was not getting sprayed as it had turned into ice! Bluetooth feature.
	() Thanks

6th February 2011, 11:38	#1690
mdsaab Senior - BHPian Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Pune Posts: 1,624 Thanked: 453 Times	Re: The GPS/Maps Discussion Thread (Dedicated Satnav, Smartphones, Tablets, etc) @vnabhi thanks for sharing that comparison with us. The feautures that you mention on the tom tom are similar to what my mmi nav300 offers. I do not own a garmin, but fiddled around with garmin mobile xt a bit and did not like the interface much. Overall in your comparo it seems the tom tom has come out a clear winner.
	() Thanks