[ManuB]

Folks I a noobee here.... I'm planning to buy a Garmin Asus M10 phone. Can the the gurus here enlighten if this phone is equivalent to the Garmin Nuvi 205W in terms of navigations and the works? and if satguide maps would work on this phone? PS: The nuvi is available in Reliance store AFAIK at around ~9000.00 and the M10 is available in Chroma for around ~19500

[kousik]

Originally Posted by ManuB

The nuvi is available in Reliance store AFAIK at around ~9000.00 and the M10 is available in Chroma for around ~19500

Price check alert: If you *can* consider sourcing it from US. Nuvi 205W is available from amazon.com for $99. And both satguide/mapmyindia maps will work on it. You can build a total GPS solution for 5500/- if you can get a low end Nuvi + Satguide maps. Try to find a US visitor in your friend/relative circle. The last resort is buying locally at double the price.

[wildon]

Found an ad in today's DNA

MAGNUM Pocket Tablet includes GPS
Couldn't get the price info as route is too busy.

But here is the website: www.lacs.co.in and contact no: 080 42500000

Specifications_MAGNUM_LA109.pdf.pdf



Specifications_MAGNUM_LA127.pdf.pdf

[raghu230506]

Yeh Wildon,

I liked them, got through the call and got the following quotes

4.3" 13000 + Taxes

5" 15000 + Taxes

He guided me a retail outlet available,

Devraj Infotech
No 24, Kavi Kalidasa Road,
1st Main, Gandhi Nagar,
Bangalore
Contact No: 41124240

Land Mark: Sagar theatre road.

[NetfreakBombay]

Note that GPS chips on these would not be as good as dedicated units.

These are basically Android or Win CE tablet PCs, that has GPS Chip + software.

[ManuB]

Originally Posted by kousik

Price check alert: If you *can* consider sourcing it from US. Nuvi 205W is available from amazon.com for $99. And both satguide/mapmyindia maps will work on it. You can build a total GPS solution for 5500/- if you can get a low end Nuvi + Satguide maps. Try to find a US visitor in your friend/relative circle. The last resort is buying locally at double the price.

Thanks Kousik. Will try an explore that option.

BTW any feedback on Garmin Asus M10

Cheers

[Ram]

Originally Posted by NetfreakBombay

Note that GPS chips on these would not be as good as dedicated units.

When a GPS chip is made, is it pre-decided by the manufacturer whether it will go into a "dedicated" unit or a general purpose tablet PC ?

Originally Posted by NetfreakBombay

These are basically Android or Win CE tablet PCs, that has GPS Chip + software.

So are they somehow toys that are less capable than the ones used by "dedicated" receivers ?

[kousik]

Originally Posted by Ram

When a GPS chip is made, is it pre-decided by the manufacturer whether it will go into a "dedicated" unit or a general purpose tablet PC ?

Only if the same chip is used in both devices, isn't it? For a test, after I got my Garmin, I test drove around with both the Garmin Nuvi and wifey's Nokia E71 side by side on passenger seat. E71 took much longer to have the initial lock (remember it has A-GPS), and frequently kept losing the signal throughout the drive. So there should be a reason dedicated GPS performs 2x or 4x (or more) better than a cellphone with a GPS chip addon.

[NetfreakBombay]

Originally Posted by Ram

When a GPS chip is made, is it pre-decided by the manufacturer whether it will go into a "dedicated" unit or a general purpose tablet PC ?


So are they somehow toys that are less capable than the ones used by "dedicated" receivers ?

Yes on both counts.

1. These systems are "System on Chip". So, yes manufacturer will sell a package of CPU + GPS + baseband (In case of tablet PC)
2. Yes, I have both. Garmin unit takes less than 20 seconds to get a GPS fix. Tablet PC (and cell phone I.e. Nokia N82) take 1 -2 minutes.

Gamin (and Tomtom) can dedicate full CPU to GPS. So, they have logic to "forecast" position of satellites and that speeds up GPS fix.

Adding this + other GPS logic and increasing frequency of GPS to 5 Hz will :

1. Slow down baseband + other apps on Cell/ Tablet
2. Drain battery

Dedicated GPS units assume that they have power supply from car, and can run CPU at higher frequency.

[kousik]

Originally Posted by lancer_rit

2. What's with all these apartment names written in ugly big font regardless of the zoom level of the maps. Totally destroys the map and ability to use it meaningfully.
- in every other navigation device I used, the names were scaled depending on zoom level. Also, instead of showing landmarks, putting out names of apartments using BLOCK capitals is wasteful to say the least. Here is an example "RIFCO SANTOSH APARTMENTS" - can't even read the full name at a certain zoom level and beyond. Why is it important ? And all the road names are hidden till a few pop up at the highest zoom levels :-( Is this a map & navigation device or an apt locater ?

Can anyone using MMI maps please confirm whether the above bug of displaying just apartment names still exists?

[kousik]

In past two weeks, I am using 3 map solutions in rotation, and here are my findings. My tests have severe limitations but you can get a fair idea what to expect from these maps. Kindly don't question the sources of these maps. They were for pure testing purpose; I wanted to try before I buy one, and now I am ready for a legal copy. I made a few runs with all these maps to and fro Office and Home; taken to weekend grocery shop trips; around outskirts; and simulated a long drive.

Garmin City Navigator (2010) ($100 ~= INR4700): It is ok inside city limits. Most of the PoIs are up-to-date till last year (I think). It is the same map you get with Nokia Ovi maps (same vendor NAVTEQ). But go outskirts and all it draws blank. For example (someone borrowed my map) electronic city is just the main road, no internal details are available. Moreover it has a very annoying tagging bug, it marks even provision stores as fuel stations; so when you search for nearby petrol bunk the search results are polluted by grocery stores around.

MapMyIndia (4.01) (INR 7000): This is by far the best in terms of details. And I am sure 5.0 will do better. Still some data is outdated, but that is expected in ever changing Bangalore. The annoying bug here is what people have observed above, in map view mode it shows apartments as major landmarks; and I couldn't turn it off. So any area you browse, the screen is littered with apartment names (and small blue boxes showing their location), and there is high chance you'll touch one of them when you touch-scroll.

Satguide.in map (2010) (INR 1000): The cheapest of the lot; and you get what you pay for. Even being released 6/7 months ago, it insists on taking U-turns in Old Airport road in places they closed several years ago. To come to ORR it tries to take turn on roads where they have put a wall even before Airport shifted out to Devanahalli. The PoIs are similar to MMI; but there are lack of details too. Mapmyindia knows about service roads (for example in ORR) and advises you in right place to merge with main road, whereas Satguide didn't. And surprisingly, the apartment display bug is worse here, in addition to well known apartments, it also shows symbolic names as "A6", "J32" etc. Maybe MMI/Satguide tags apartments with some value that Garmin interprets as very important!

So details wise MMI is a clear winner, but Satguide is best VFM.

[bigman]

Originally Posted by kousik

Only if the same chip is used in both devices, isn't it? For a test, after I got my Garmin, I test drove around with both the Garmin Nuvi and wifey's Nokia E71 side by side on passenger seat. E71 took much longer to have the initial lock (remember it has A-GPS), and frequently kept losing the signal throughout the drive. So there should be a reason dedicated GPS performs 2x or 4x (or more) better than a cellphone with a GPS chip addon.

Wrong to lump all phones together. I use a HTC HD as my navigation device and it has never taken more than 40 seconds to get an initial lock (thats without using AGPS).

Nokias are known for having pretty lame lock-on times (or all the ones I have tried fall into that bracket).

[HappyWheels]

Originally Posted by bigman

... I use a HTC HD as my navigation device and it has never taken more than 40 seconds to get an initial lock (thats without using AGPS)...

Same here on my HD. The SiRFIII chip is doing pretty well.

[Digital Vampire]

I've used a Garmin Nuvi as well as my Asus P527 and wife's Asus P320 phones for navigation. I could not find much difference in cold-lock timings between the dedicated GPS and phone GPS. But if the phone has not downloaded GPS ephemeris data for 3-4 days or so, then the lock time takes ~1 minute or so.

Both these Asus phones has Sirf-III based GPS and almost always showed 6+ satellite locks even in crowded cities.

Except for lesser screen real estate, I'm more than happy with my GPS Phone's navigation.In fact I eventually sold my Garmin Nuvi since it was unnecessary to carry two devices devices doing the same thing.

[geeta]

Hi!
Just last month, I got the SatNav map for the Common Wealth Games 2010 in Delhi to prevent myself from any confusion for direction. The map shows the points and venues clearly.