[ampere]

Originally Posted by MX6

All. I've just ordered India maps from SatNav for my garmin!
I mailed them first on a friday and was amazed at a very immediate reply from their sales/ cust service team. It was very prompt and precise!
They followed up and gave me all the confidence that this is one purchase I'd really enjoy.
This morning I finally decided to place the order online.
I was damn amazed at their response. Within 40 seconds of me placing the order, one of the personnel from Satnav called me on my mobile I mentioned on their website and said that My order is currently being processed. I should get the maps in an SD card by tomorrow evening!

I'd rate their service 10 on 10 till now. Satnav is also coming with maps of 620 cities. And I feel its pure VFM considering the fact that Satnav sells maps at 2K against MMI's 7K!
It was a very pleasant shopping experience.
BTW I got a garmin 265wt after much mulling!

Congrats on the Garmin/Satguide. Thats the best combo. I was really confused myself on the Garmin model to buy. Then I realized that I don't need a bluetooth. So I was OK with 205W. Satguide as you said is very good and have dynamic folks who respond very fast. At least no one on the forum has been able to logically justify the price of 7K as against 2K for Satguide; where you get coverage of the same number of cities (~600).

[canonguy]

I shun public transport of every sort. This is something I'm not really proud of but can't help it. Like most of the folks on the site, I'm a driving/motoring freak. I like private, self-driven transport of the four wheeled variety. So, when I shifted base from Delhi to Bangalore in 2006 I had to deal with how not to get lost on the myriad state and village roads in KA. The solution, I realised, was to learn to read Kannada, which I did. But then my motoring also took me to TN and KL, which made me wonder that there had to be an easier way to surmount the language barrier. The answer lay in a PND. The choice was between an MMI or Satguide. Called up MMI to find out where could I check out their stuff, only to be told that they did not have any outlet in Bangalore (or for that matter anywhere else) and that I had to make a full down payment and receive the device through courier. Satguide on the other hand was available for test at e-Zone and Croma. Visited both the stores and got a better deal at Croma so picked up Satguide mio300 in Aug 2009 (with two free map updates). Since then I have been to Madikeri, Chennai, Mahabalipuram, Pondicherry, Bhadra, Kannur, Tellicherry (Thalassery), Calicut, Vythri, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Shirdi and Shani Shingnapur. It works brilliantly! I did not have to stop anywhere to ask for directions. Needless to stress it gave me my money's worth. I recently availed my first free upgrade in March before my Mumbai trip and intend to take my second upgrade/update in Jul 2010.

Haven't tried out MMI but since Satguide hasn't disappointed me so far, and it's cheaper, I've no regrets on my purchase and would whole-heartedly recommend the same to fellow motoring freaks.

[Flare]

just bought a garmin nuvi 1490t and selected satguide maps to go along with d device. Garmin doesn give u maps for the 1490t since it requires a micro sd card, while satguide is happy 2 give it to u in whichever format u desire plus one free map update which sounds ineteresting.

[MX6]

Initial report on use of Garmin 265WT with Satnav maps.
I tried searching for my office in Hinjewadi. Satnav found Hinjewadi flyover and Hinjewadi road. I scrolled the map using my thumb and marked the place where I thought the office was and added it to favourites under name office.
On hindsight, I should have searched for Electronic city road and not Hinjewadi. I'll try that the next time.
The moment I moved out of my covered car park, the signal on the satellite reception went to full. 2 seconds is what it took to latch on to satellites. HOTFIX works like a charm!
It routed within 2 - 3 seconds when I hit on go - office.
However the route suggested had unpaved road for the first 2 - 3 kms. So I circumnavigated and took the opposite turn from a turn around. Rerouting was a breeze. It quickly rerouted to take the same unpaved road route from the next turn. I avoided that turn and proceeded straitght on the route I normally take.
Once I kept straight, it re-routed and now pointed the route which I take to office!
One issue was at the end of the koregaon park ghorpadi road near the twin petrol pumps, the garmin asked me to proceed straight on the signal, take a u-turn then come back and take left on the signal.
I normally turn right on the signal because, the straight is a no-entry!
This has been a no-entry for time immemorial. I turned right at signal, it pretty much continued on the route I take.
Near Khadki station, It again chose shorter routes over the old Mumbai Pune highway. But when I took the highway, it rerouted again perfectly.
Then it was pretty much the route I take all the way to Hinjewadi.
Finally when I was nearing my office, the map ran out of road.
It just commented follow the highlited route.
I had to go out of the map route for a km! so the maps need updation.
What was really hilarious was announcements like
Keep straight on piyoon (pune) V dia Peat (vidyapeeth) road.
The garmin with Satnav maps ROCKS! It's pure VFM at 2000 bucks. ofcourse a lot of address searches are missing. Hope they add on to it in coming versions.
And the Garmin 265WT! No words to describe that. I went for this as I wanted a device purely for navigation and tracking. I have a portable dvd player which my daughter uses if she gets too cranky. With that in place and a pioneer music system as well, I didn't need the garmin to do these things.
Way to go Satnav. I've not tested MMI. But one thing I can say is that neither MMI not Satnav could find my father's address in Udupi. so I'm happy with paying 30% cost for Satnav that also promises 620 cities.

[triedeverything]

Neither the chat support nor email support for MMI seems to elicit any response for the last 3 days now. Any one else facing this issue? MMI claims to offer maps for the Nokia N 97 while Satguide does not support touch screen Nokia mobiles yet. I just wanted to verify that. I also wanted to know if the deal for Symbian includes the SD card or will it come on a CD. Has anyone else here bought maps for the N 97? what is the delivery time?

[ampere]

You may be able to find addresses once you see the map on a PC and add them as waypoints/favourites and transfer them to the device. It always works better that way.

Once I asked my Garmin to route from Mysore to my home in Bangalore. It asked me to go to Kollegal and take the NH to go home via Kanakpura! I guess that is a preference setting to take NH instead of SH. For such things its good to add ones own waypoints and ask the device to route one's custom path through these points. That way one may not get lost (!) and also go on the route one has planned.

[dkamath]

Originally Posted by triedeverything

Neither the chat support nor email support for MMI seems to elicit any response for the last 3 days now. Any one else facing this issue?

I'd contacted them sometime last month over email and chat support, when the 3 month free navigation on my N79 was just about due. Haven't heard from them till date.

Might be off-topic, but had emailed Satguide support with my queries the other day, and have received a quick reply from a support person called Raja.T. Am now inclined towards buying this software. Would be great if anyone recommends/provides an affirmative reply in support of Satguide for the Nokia N-series .

Cheers.

[NetfreakBombay]

Originally Posted by MX6

Way to go Satnav. I've not tested MMI. But one thing I can say is that neither MMI not Satnav could find my father's address in Udupi. so I'm happy with paying 30% cost for Satnav that also promises 620 cities.

Garmin device + Satguide maps is the optimal navigation solution for India. And its quite VFM. No other device comes close to Garmin in terms of hardware quality.

Originally Posted by dkamath

Might be off-topic, but had emailed Satguide support with my queries the other day, and have received a quick reply from a support person called Raja.T. Am now inclined towards buying this software. Would be great if anyone recommends/provides an affirmative reply in support of Satguide for the Nokia N-series .

I don't like the software that Satguide uses for Symbian (Software is Destinator). Its completely usable and serves the purpose, but it is not as polished as Nokia Maps or Garmin.

I have a Nokia phone (Nokia 5230). I use Garmin software + Satguide maps on 5230. Satguide maps cost approx 2k for Garmin.

[dkamath]

Thanks, NetfreakBombay! Found the Ovimaps quite presentable on the Nokia, but the issue is, it seems to be in a by-gone era when it comes to mapping a city like B'lore. For instance, the airport still is the old HAL Airport, and there's a Kanakapura Road in Bellandur too! Reporting the same to Nokia support yielded no results, not even a reply like it would be fixed in due course. not sure how many more landmarks have been missed, or mis-represented. Hence, my detestation towards Ovi maps.

Satguide appears to have covered most towns/cities in Karnataka (27 locations on a quick count), while MMI or Ovimaps have a coverage of a max. of 6 cities/towns.

[ampere]

Netfreak, how do you procure a Garmin Mobile XT software? Garmin site says it about 100$ and when you buy, they send an SD card? Is that how it works? Since there is only one card slot in phones, one should be able to share the card with other personal data of own. Hope Garmin supports these requirements.

EDIT: Just checked further. Looks like the S/W is available for free like Map source. Then one buys map separately as you did. Is that correct?

Has Garmin started making S/W compatible for Android? That would be a killer combo!

[MX6]

Originally Posted by ampere

Once I asked my Garmin to route from Mysore to my home in Bangalore. It asked me to go to Kollegal and take the NH to go home via Kanakpura! I guess that is a preference setting to take NH instead of SH. For such things its good to add ones own waypoints and ask the device to route one's custom path through these points. That way one may not get lost (!) and also go on the route one has planned.

You can check your settings in Garmin. There are tabs for what to avoid, what routes to take, shortest/ quickest routes etc.
Last night I decided to follow Garmin's suggested route back home. I knew the rear approach road is the shortest but hasn't been paved yet. Still I thought let me check the garmin with the satnav.
Almost 1.5 kms before my place, garmin got confused. It asked me to turn right. There was a big garbage dump on the right blocking the road (you know how garbage tends to accumulate on unused roads and vacant lands).
I tried going straight to see whether there's a better right turn.
It showed roads which were blocked by illegal shanties. I still kept straight and it re-routed again. I finally went 2 kms extra to reach home.
No map can help you if there's illegal occupation shutting off roads!

My home is adjacent to the compound wall and when I reached the place on the road on the other side of the wall, garmin concluded I reached home. I have to drive 500 metres to get to the main gate and turn inside and come back 500 metres to actually reach home!
Maybe the Garmin has concluded, for the amount of driving I do, the road is my real home.

I'm damn happy till now with Satnav maps for my Garmin device.
This evening, I'm going to change the preference from shortest route to quickest route and follow directions suggested. Will post after that.

[ampere]

Any option that you set, may not work out. Because either you may go through highways and main roads for quickest or through blocked/garbage dumped () roads for the shortest. I tried all the options.

I would prefer the custom route option, where for a default route I would want the device to follow a track that I would have pre-loaded (you may ask, why then a GPS?). This helps for long route planning.

Now when you don't know any thing about a new city, then quickest mode works best.

[triedeverything]

Here is a very basic question. What's going to prevent anyone from using one legally purchased copy of either satguide or mapmyindia on several mobile devices? Unlike other computer software or OS that , there is no network connectivity required to use this.

[NetfreakBombay]

Network connectivity IS required to activate the product. Or product can be activated over phone (just like XP/Vista7).

Once activated, product is tied to Memory card. Every memory card has a unique hardware ID. So if copied to a different card, product would not work. If the same memory card is plugged in to any other cell/PND, product will work. Some products tie registration to cell phone's ID like IMEI.

Sometimes, product comes pre-activated based on the memory card. You just need to plug the memory card to cell or navigation device to use it.

[nkapoor777]

How do I install Mapsource on my PC? I downloaded the file but it gives me an error message which reads "Previous Mapsource not found. Setup will terminate". I didn't get a disk or anything with my Nuvi 750 either.