My GPS Garmin

Garmin Nuvi 1300

2010-06-20T04:56:00.000-07:00

Just finished my first few hours with the Garmin 295W.

Just received the 295W today to replace the 755T that was unfortunately stolen. I was thinking about waiting for the 3790T or 3760T, but needed something before that becomes available.

** UNIT DIMENSIONS / FEEL / RESPONSE **
First impressions of the Garmin 295W are pretty good. Good fit and finish, has the right heft to it to where it does not have a "toy" feel. Fit and finish is nicer than the 755T I had. All functions process more quickly than the 755T did, and the touch screen is much more responsive. On my old unit, either the processor bogged down a bit, or the screen sensitivity was not quite there, but it did not respond like the Garmin 295W does. Scrolling with the touch screen is nice both in the menus, and in map view mode.

** ROUTING / DIRECTIONS **
The routing seemed faster than the 755T. I will miss the lane assist when I travel to larger cities like L.A. and Atlanta, but for the vast amount of time, it won't be a big deal. I did purposely take some wrong turns to check the rerouting capabilities, and found that to be very quick.

ave one hiccup already. ( i.e.- when chose Lowe's from the POI list, it showed it in two different directions, same address, 5 miles apart. There is only one Lowe's in my town, and it is not a divided highway or anything).

** UPLOADS **
I have not yet updated the map. It seems strange to have JUST released the unit, and the website suggests there is an updated map set available? I am going to see if I can figure out the version, and when the last one was released. Since I can upload over 60 days from initial use, I may wait a bit.

That said, I did upload some of the extra voices and vehicles that you can get from the Garmin site. It was quick, and seems to be just fine. ( By the way, I did have the problem upload with my prior 755T that made it a brick, and I had to send back and forth with Garmin.)

** WEB / WIRELESS **
Set up with my wireless network. Security settings were easy. The auto download weather is a neat feature, but I don't see myself carrying this around every day in and out of the house the way I probably would with GarminPhone. The Google Local Search worked well though. The pre-loaded POIs were very good I thought, but there were a couple places I figured it wouldn't know, and it didn't. Connected through the web though, it found them in 5 seconds, and then they were added to the unit saved places.

** OVERALL FIRST IMPRESSION **
After being used to the larger 755T screen, this seems a little bit small. Seems like I can't just glance as quickly at it as the prior unit, but maybe that will change with some time. The spoken directions seem a little bit clearer than the 755 was The response of the unit is very good in my opinion. Not sure how much I will really use the wireless, but I can see it handy traveling when I head to the hotel and might be looking for all the food options locally that the bas POI may not have, etc....

I am headed on a couple hundred mile drive over the next weekend and will see what other opinions arise. I know it's an initial review, but at least I don't have any buyer's remorse at this point. I may still wind up with a 7300 series after those arrive, and put this in the other vehicle, but we'll see.

**As for the packaging issues mentioned by the first poster, (who may just have wanted to be the first poster, since it certainly was not a PRODUCT review), I can say that while everything did arrive in fine shape, the stuff did just kind of seem tossed in the box. I felt it actually cheapened the Garmin brand to send it this way.

Nuvi 765T

2010-01-09T17:15:00.001-08:00

The Garmin Nuvi 765T is one of the newer widescreen GPS units (Announced in August) in the Nuvi line at this writing and offers several key upgrades over the Nuvi 760 offering that I think are useful and worth consideration when shopping for a GPS. I firmly believe that text to speech and widescreen GPS units are worth paying the additional money for, and being at the high end of the Garmin line, the Nuvi 765T has both. That's not all though, as Garmin has seen their way to adding in a few other goodies to keep people interested and enticed enough to put the Nuvi 765 high on their list.

Let's take a look at the features of the Garmin Nuvi 765T to see what it has to offer....

The key features that the Garmin Nuvi 765T has that are above and beyond the Nuvi 760 are:

Free Lifetime Traffic - The "T" designator gets you lifetime traffic on the units. A strategic change for Garmin who has had a subscription model on their units until now. The Nuvi 765T has TMC Traffic. The Free traffic is supported by ads that appear on your GPS. Now before you say "I don't want any ads on my new GPS!" you should understand that they are pretty unobtrusive and only show up if you are sitting still for more than 10 seconds.

Lane Assist - "Know the Lane Before it's Too Late" - Garmin brings Lane Assist to its line, which I think is great. It helps you decide which ramp to take when you hit complicated highway situations. I like this a lot and I think that on any intersection that is slightly more complicated than a standard exit ramp, the image that reflects reality makes a big difference when you are navigating in unfamiliar territory.

3-D Buildings - Garmin is now bringing 3-D buildings to the Nuvi 7X5T line with semi-transparent representations of the actual buildings that are there. Cool stuff; a fun new development that will continue to make the GPS view look like the view out your windshield.

Faster Route Calculations - Garmin has changed how and when it calculates routes for the Nuvi 765T and others in this release. The routes are calculated sooner - like when you select a Point of Interest, and so when you hit "Go" it is probably mostly done with the calculation. It makes for a much better experience; a LOT less time tapping your fingers at the end of the driveway for longer routes.

HotFix - This is Garmin's terminology for a technology that speeds satellite acquisition times. This technology has the unit remembering where the satellites will be up to three days into the future so that when you turn it on, the time to satellite lock is a LOT faster.

Other Great Features:

Text to Speech - of course this higher end unit has text to speech, and it offers a good set of voices that you can use with different accents, etc.

North American Maps - comes with Maps of the US and Canada as well as Puerto Rico.

Bluetooth HandsFree - This allows you to use the Garmin as a handsfree unit for your Bluetooth enabled phone. This is the key difference between the Nuvi 755T and the Nuvi 765T units. I have used Bluetooth handsfree capabilities on numerous Garmin units with my iPhone Blackberry and various Moto phones with great success. You can check phone compatibility at the Garmin Website. Unlike some GPS units, the protocols that Garmin uses allows you to import your phonebook off the phone as well as "recent" phone calls making the Garmin a nice hub of calling capability. The pairing of the GPS and the phone is easy and can be done by most people without the use of any manual.

Optimized Routes - The Nuvi 700 series offers a nice feature that allows you to enter in several stops along a route, and get the Nuvi to optimize the route for fastest travel. This can be very helpful when doing a lot of work or shopping or house hunting in an unknown area.

Garmin Garage; Download fun car icons - Garmin has opened up the Garmin Garage where you can easily download new "car" icons to your computer and load them into your Nuvi 765T. The process is easy and they offer everything from a kid on a tricycle, a flying slice of pizza to space ships.... oh yea, and a whole bunch of cars too.

I recently took the sister unit of the Nuvi 765T, the 755T out for a 2 week hands on review period, and put together a full review on its capabilities. Check out the Full Review of the Nuvi 755T for more details. As I said the only difference between the Nuvi 755T and the Nuvi 765T is the Bluetooth handsfree feature.

Garmin nuvi 260W review:

2010-01-02T08:40:00.000-08:00

The Garmin nuvi 260W provides widescreen GPS navigation with a touch screen interface, for easy adjustment and menu changes while in motion. The 260w is now discontinued by Garmin, but if you are looking for a second hand GPS, there are a number of features to catch your attention in this GPS unit.

Fitting comfortably into a pocket or purse, the nuvi 260w has a display resolution of 480x272 pixels. Battery life is relatively standard with 5 hours duration and there is a high sensitivity receiver built into the unit to ensure efficient GPS communications wherever you are travelling. No inbuilt storage is available, meaning you will need to buy an SD card for the media card slot in order to store any additional points of interest or custom route information that you wish to include. Unlike the Navman series, the Garmin nuvi 260w does not come automatically loaded with traffic camera data for some countries and so manual download may be required.

Features

Navigating through the Garmin interface is relatively simple, with the touch screen options feeling quite responsive once the unit has loaded up. A lack of QWERTY keyboard means that typing in street names that you are searching for is somewhat cumbersome. Additionally, the need to download points of interest via the Garmin website, instead of having them provided out of the box, makes the unit a less attractive purchase than some competing units. There are auto-reroute and route avoidance options for planning different journeys on the go and you can also download additional voices for the unit should the standard voices provided on the nuvi 260w be a little to hard to listen too.

Performance

Performance of the Garmin nuvi 260w is really let down by how slow the unit is when it is first turned on, sometimes taking up to 30 seconds to respond. Whilst this isn't a problem before you start your journey, getting info on the fly from your GPS could be an issue. There is also the added task of having to download new points of interest from the Garmin site which can be difficult to find at first, adding to the delay in having the GPS fully operational. The interface is responsive however, and the use of the high sensitivity receiver provides accurate GPS data in most locations.

Summary

As the nuvi 260w has now been replaced by updated models, there is probably better performance to be found elsewhere via newer GPS models that incorporate updated hardware. Garmin and TomTom still fiercely compete for your GPS dollar, so actively researching which GPS fits your requirements is useful to ensure you purchase the right GPS unit. If you can secure a 260w cheaply, it may satisfy your daily GPS needs, just don't expect it to be lightning fast.

RAIDER RAPID FIRE CS-35

2009-12-25T16:27:00.000-08:00

The RAIDER RAPID FIRE CS-35 blaster is the ultimate for any battle! The pump-action handle give you total control of our rate of fire, and the drum magazine holds 35 Clip System darts, giving you massive ammo capacity.

A clear window lets you see how much ammo you have left! Two blasting modes give you defensive flexibility – use the slam fire mode for multishots or the slide mode for single shots! This is the pinnacle of blaster performance! Blaster comes with drum magazine, 35-Clip-System darts, stock and instructions. Special Value Pack includes 65 Clip-System darts for a total of 100!

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RAIDER RAPID FIRE CS-35 blaster is popular and special gift for christmas day or birthday. The Raider Rapid Fire CS 35 is the ultimate for any battle! The Nerf Raider CS 35 is recommended for 4 - 8 years.

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Nerf Rapid Fire is true machinegun at heart

The Nerf Rapid Fire CS 35 is great gun buy this rather than the vulcan I could not figure out the slam fire at first but it is so cool to just be able to hold the triger and just pump as hard as you can the 35 round drum is realy cool and can fit on the recon and longshot not very good accuracy but who needs that with 35 rounds it is very light and portable but still sturdy.

Nerf Raider CS 35, College Kids Like It Too

Now, I have never actually owned a NERF Gun and feeling cheated of childhood, me and my roommates decide to invest in a few to have a few "NERF Dart Wars" in our apartment. Needing to step it up, I invested in the Nerf Raider Rapid Fire CS-35 Dart Blaster because of its high dart capacity, fast speed, and low rate of jamming. After experiencing playing with another dart blaster that is considerable cheaper, I realized that jamming and low capacity and slow speed were difficult to grasp.

This one excels in multiple ways. The most challenging part of it was actually taking it out of the package because HASBRO tied the parts down in the packaged. It comes with tons of extra darts making it a great value.

Pros
-Fast speed, multishot mode is quite handy for there is no more need to just shoot one lousy dart at a slow rate
-Large Capacity
-Great compatibility with other Nerf guns, can use their ammo packets for quick speed.
-Not at all too big, about under two feet
-Sturdy
-Easy to remove ammo, just click the button (once the "pump" is back in neutral position) and it pops off easy.

Cons
-Large capacity takes about 1-2 minutes to load
-Have fun finding all those darts if not playing in close range

Ultimately, if I was a kid, I would be excited to receive this great toy!

Impressed!

2009-12-25T06:13:00.000-08:00

After doing extensive research I decided on this unit. Mainly because the Nuvi 265wt is one of their newer NUVI products and it had the features I was looking for. If you look at the sites that have reviews on the 265wt, most are from nov/2008. I think this unit was released about 6 months ago. Anyway, here's my opinion on some of the key features of the Garmn 255WT.

1. Windsheild mount - works great. The suction cup is very high quality and I have no concerns that it will accidentally detach from the windsheild. I love the swivel capabilites and it allows you a perfect view no matter where you put it.

2. Satellite aquisition time - incredible! once you perform the initial aquistion, you are set. Now when I turn the on it's ready to go in usually under 3 seconds. Awesome!

3. Map directions and screen - wonderful. The GPS unit so far has given me perfect directions and the re-route capability works flawlessly. The screen is clear, bright and easy to navigate.

4. Free traffic alerts - works as described. I love this feature and I hardly saw any ads.

5. Bluetooth - giddy up! I had my Motorola KZR1 synched up in about 15 seconds. Easy to use and sure makes talking on the phone alot more enjoyable when driving. I've had conversations with multiple people and they could hear me fine. One cool thing is if your phone has voice dialing; because it allows you do it through the GPS unit. Also, all my contacts show up (even with multiple phone #'s).

6. And finally...the internal speaker. If you researched the Garmin Nuvi 265WT like I've done you'll see ALOT of people complaining that the speaker is too quiet to hear anything. That was a big concern of mine but I felt I would give the unit a try and if it was that bad then I would return it. My thoughts on the speaker are this. The speaker size/quality could and probably should be improved. It's a cheapy speaker...BUT...I CAN hear the directions perfectly fine and can here the other person talking to me when using the bluetooth phone capability. Side notes: You HAVE to turn down your radio if you want to be able to hear it. Also, I was driving with the windows closed (it's friggin winter), so I cannot say how well you'd be able to hear the directions/phone with your windows rolled all the way down.

Bottom line - it has met or exceeded all of my expectations! I bought it on the day after Thanksgiving (aka Black Friday) and I got an incredible deal! $199.99 with free shipping, no tax, and got %50 off a $25 case logic travel case. I would have spent an extra $150 if I would have bought the same unit from a local retailer.

Finally if your in the market to buy any GPS my suggestion is wait until it gets closer to X-mas and see if the price drops. I'm guessing they'll do it again. I was fortunate to get it when I did and hence saved a nice chunk of change.

Hope this helped!

Garmin Forerunner 305 is Excellent workout tool

2009-12-05T17:35:00.001-08:00

I like Forerunner 305 thing quite a lot. I've had it for about three weeks, and have used it on 12 workouts so far. I use it primarily for running, with biking a secondary usage. The main reason I wanted it was for the instantaneous readout of distance, running pace and heart rate, the latter needed for the speed work I want to do this running season.

The core functionality (distance and heart rate monitoring) works perfectly. There's none of the signal drops I've had with other heart monitors. Once the satellites are initially acquired, I've only had one dropout when I was outside. The initial acquisition of the satellites can be quirky and can take some time. The accuracy (according to the readout) is +/- 25ft, depending on how many satellites can be found. I've compared the distance measurement on the GPS 305 with a known, measured distance on one of the trails I run on (the Chicago lakefront path). The GPS always increments a mile when I'm within 5 or 10 feet of the mile marker sign on the path. Well, I guess that's the least I should expect from a $350 GPS unit! Of course it's bigger than a normal running stopwatch, but that hasn't bothered me at all. The heart rate strap is also very comfortable and well-designed. i thing this best price forerunner 305

The display is crisp and has one outstanding feature: The information presented on the various pages can be completely user-customized. The default screen layout is rather poor, but in just a few steps I could replace it with the information I wanted to see while I run. There are almost 40 different data fields you can choose from for display. Examples: current pace, average lap pace, average run pace, heartrate, distance.

The only disappointment is the point-in-time (instantaneous) pace measurement: It varies wildly during a run. I see swings as big as +/- 3 minutes/mile. I'm a marathoner and I know my pace is fairly consistent during a run. I just looked at my run today, and according to the data the first mile varied from 5:57/mile to 12:06 mile. I suspect the problem is either in the averaging algorithm (too short a distance?), or in the uncertainty that results from different satellites coming in and out of view. The variations seem to get worse under tree cover compared with an open area. Luckily there's a lap-average pace that can be presented, and at least that value is useful and more accurate. The bottom line is that you can't look at the watch and say "right now I'm running 9 mins/mile". There is the ability to specify a pace smoothing factor, but I have it maxed out and still see the variations. The elevation readout also seems inaccurate, but that isn't important to me.

Upload of workout data to the PC software (Training Center) is transparent. The PC software is very good for presenting time/distance/pace/heartrate/calorie data. However the maps it shows are very crude. I've worked a bit with one of the online, subscription services (MotionBased). That looks really good and provides some additional functionality beyond the included Training Center software, although I still haven't decided if it's worth the $$$ yet for long-term data storage. MotionBased allows export to Google Earth, and it's tremendously cool to see your running path superimposed on a satellite image. You can recharge the unit through the USB port on your computer, although it's slower than using the dedicated recharger.

I had hoped that owning this device would prove motivational for me, and indeed it has. I can't imagine running or biking without it. Updating my training log is trivial now: Plug this thing into my computer, and it's done. My hope is that a future software update will do something about the pace calculation (maybe a few additional levels of smoothing?). If so, the Forerunner 305 would earn 5 stars+++.

Positives:

Flawless heart rate sampling
Great distance measuring and lap-average pace calculation
Seamless integration with a PC
Fully-automatic training log update
User-customizable display

Negatives;

Wildly-varying pace readout.

Garmin Nuvi 260W Reviews

2009-12-01T07:46:00.000-08:00

I received the Garmin Nuvi 260W as a gift. I have subsequently read comments about many different GPS units and have concluded that:

-a hand held GPS is a complement to, not a substitute for a good road map and some common sense. All GPS units have positives and negatives; none are absolutely perfect. These are not toys, but they are not self sufficient navigational tools either. Given enough time, every owner of every unit will have a story about how he couldn't find a particular point of interest, or was directed down a dead end street or across a 4-lane divided highway!

-considering screen sharpness, ease of use and other features, the Garmin 260W is one of the best in its price class.

-Garmin also has the best customer service of any of the companies.

The purpose of this review is NOT to repeat what others have written but to discuss workarounds for the various limitations of this unit.

COMPUTER ACCESS: To download firmware, software upgrades and maps, access to garmin.com is a virtual necessity. Since a computer cable is unfortunately not included with the unit, the user will need to buy a USB 2.0 A / mini B cable. It can be found on Amazon.

At garmin.com, download the web updater and whatever updates it prompts and also, remember to download the updated TTS (Text to Speech) voices. We find that "British" English is sometimes easier to understand than the American counterpart and suggest that it be downloaded as well.

The USB cable will also charge the Garmin's battery but the unit does not operate when plugged into the computer. The optional AC converter is only required if the user wants to operate the unit on 110 volts.

SATELLITE ACQUISITION: Failure to reliably acquire satellite is the biggest single weakness of the Garmin 260W and the reason for the 3* rating. The user never knows in advance whether, after the 30 second boot up, it will take 15 seconds or 15 minutes to find a satellite.

Customer service suggests that the preferable satellite acquisition position is the top edge (NOT the face or back) pointed straight up to the open sky with the unit held still (which means you should not be driving).

When the unit is powered up out of the box and acquires a satellite for the first time, leave the power ON for an hour to download almanac data.

If the unit is moved to a new location with the power off, powering up the unit is similar to an initial power-on, and it can easily take 15 minutes to locate new satellites.

If all else fails, do a hard reset (see the instructions for "clearing user data"). Note that all user data (favorites) is in the gpx file in the gpx folder so save it to your computer and restore it after the reset. Again, leave the unit on for an hour after satellites are acquired.

MODIFYING A ROUTE: This unit is less flexible than some. If a favorite place is selected and the GPS simulator mode activated, the proposed route will be highlighted. "Sliding" the screen with an appropriate magnification will allow the route to be compared with a computer or road map alternative. To force Garmin to select a particular road or direction, add a VIA point (gas station, motel, whatever). Because Garmin only allows one via point per route, several such points may be needed and the driver may have to skip stop between them.

BATTERY LIFE: We've run two hours on battery without losing a green bar. Battery life can be extended by reducing the brightness level to the lowest acceptable.

In summary, the Garmin Nuvi 260W will do pretty much everything it is supposed to do EXCEPT acquire satellites quickly every time. If the company fixes this problem with a new firmware upgrade, the 260W deserves 4 stars. If the unit were also to allow multiple via points and route selections, then it would, in our opinion, earn 5 stars.

GPS Garmin Introduction

2009-11-23T05:02:00.000-08:00

GPS or Global Positioning System is a navigation system that began commonly used. Even had many mobile devices that incorporate GPS feature as one of their flagship feature. Indeed, by using GPS, we can better feel for GPS mobile (eg the drawing can be checked at the gps store) offers the ability to determine position / location of where we are today, while providing navigation solutions for those who are lost or confused to find the location of a place .

Although there are several navigation systems, such as GLONASS (Russia), Galileo (European Union), and IRNSS (India); for the current NAVSTAR GPS (GPS full name) is still the best. Technically, the GPS uses 24 satellites which send microwave signals to the earth where the signal is received by the GPS receiver and used to calculate the position, speed, direction, and time. Own GPS system developed by the United States defense department and the name given by John Walsh as one of the key policy makers in the GPS protocol.

Besides being used for military purposes, the use of GPS is now also been extended to the general public. From mobile devices to private vehicles. Some taxis in the capital had also been using GPS devices like the ones in the store for easy gps tracking their units, as well as to provide travel solutions to our customers better. For own phone devices using GPS technology is slightly different and called with A-GPS (Assisted GPS). Details will be discussed at a later time.

Many parties, particularly governments, have also been using GPS in the form of geographic information systems. By marrying information system with GPS capabilities, management, planning, and reporting of an information system can take place more effectively.

Garmin Nuvi 260w

Garmin GPS satellite altitude

2009-11-22T04:16:00.000-08:00

GPS satellite altitude about 11,000 miles above the earth's surface, it is more beneficial, why? Since everything was far from the surface of the earth will be free from interference layer atmosphere. This means that the GPS satellites can berorbit easily and can be calculated mathematically simple because not many factors that affect. With the help of the Space Shuttle, masng each GPS satellite has been placed on each orbital with a very precise, tailored to the master plan or plans GPS satellite initial placement.

On the surface of the earth, all GPS receivers have Almanac program each GPS satellite, so they can know the position of each GPS satellite is from time to time.

Until now we have been able to overcome or make calculations and describe actual GPS position, because the GPS satellites move in a vacuum. But in fact, many things that can happen and result in the GPS signal itself and the resulting reduction in the active period of the current GPS or age mathematically calculated.

To get the most out of a GPS system gps ctnya in store, then the GPS receiver is good, need or need to add factors of various possible errors.

The concept of GPS technology is very advanced and the equipment for various activities. This actually exceeds the original purpose built GPS system you are biased in the shop gps clay. Today, scientists, sportsmen, farmers, soldiers, pilots, surveyors, mountaineers, the perpetrators of courier services, sailors, firefighters and others are used to living with GPS. GPS has made their work more productive, safer and even more easily.

Actually, the application can use the GPS receivers we classified into 5 categories of use as follows:

    * Location: to determine the location of a point or position
    * Navigation: to facilitate the move from one location to another location
    * Tracking: monitoring the body walking, people, or anything else that we have set the object
    * Mapping: to create a map
    * Timing: to get the precision of time

By GPS Garmin Nuvi 260w

The truck driver can using internet

2009-11-21T06:38:00.000-08:00

Internet access in the truck? Perhaps for these truck drivers not too familiar. But with the release of a computer that has been packed with Ford Work Solutions technologies in it, the truck drivers have the opportunity to surf in cyberspace. Like what?

The idea was brought by Ford Motor, car manufacturers from the United States, in collaboration with the Opera. Both companies put a computer in a vehicle of trucks and vans (in-dash computer), then complete it with internet access via the Opera browser.

As a result, the driver can freely access the Internet without having to get out of the vehicle. Obviously this could be a solution to freshen up for the driver after driving tired.

Vehicles computing with the ability to surf the internet is claimed as the first in North America are also equipped with Garmin 260W GPS navigation and integrated with existing mobile phone in a vehicle. This network has brought 3G technology.

Beyond that, complete multimedia contained in 6.5-inch computer sailing at a price of U.S. $ 1125 is fairly considerable. Because in addition to browsing, the driver can also listen to the radio AM / FM or play a CD through an existing player.

GPS Garmin 260W