Lost?
First the photo. I took this through the window of the Garmin store on Michigan Avenue. I was going to enter, but strangely it had closed before 8. Nice dof and colors, but not much else. So why post?
I need to rant some. These nav units are so much cheaper than before. I first researched and shopped these about 1.5 years ago. I was helping somebody (or at least trying to convince them to get a nav unit). She was not friends with maps at all; she refused to even contemplate trying to understand them. However, she was convinced she had found salvation in Mapquest. Whenever she'd go somewhere she'd diligently print out Mapquest directions.
Sometimes it worked, but mostly it didn't. Why? She never looked at the map. She never understood the directions. She never knew how to recover if she missed a turn (as most of us do at some point while following directions)...and then she'd call me to work as an Onstar advisor. Nothing wrong with that, but she really needed to buy a Navigation system. However, they were pricey. Especially the small, modern ones were a lot of money. So she didn't.
Today these same units are much more advanced and so much cheaper. I'd say even the cutting edge units are half the price they used to be and twice as good. Incredible. Got to love competition. So I was tempted and got one - incidentally the same one I took a picture of last week.
It had glowing reviews and people claimed it did a very good job. Of course I had to try it and set about trying to confuse it close to my house. It took only one hour to uncover lots of minor issues, but overall this is an impressive piece of work. What happened?
1. I head to Blockbuster and consistently try to take different routes. The unit recalculates swiftly every time. It is insisting that I get on what it called 'Country Road S'. Since I know the area, I know this must be 'Mineral Point road'. Nobody has called Mineral Point, that for decades. Small problem, but annoying.
2. Worse, I head my normal way to Blockbuster despite the unit insisting on alternate route at every turn. Finally I go through the mall. Suddenly the unit tells me to go left. However, left was heading over a curb and in the general entrance of Cub Foods. Not good. It does not seem to understand that the road through the mall exists.
3. I head home and try to confuse it on some small roads close to my house. On some newer ones it has me navigating through black space. Aparently these roads are not on the map yet. It gives me and stays quite until I enter familiar roads again. Although, the saleperson talked about recently updated maps, these roads did not exist. I know they were here last year, but I do admit they are recent and small. Still I was expecting them to be in the updated unit.
4. The unit has lots of languages (about 30). Nice. I try Australian English, British...no problems. Then I try Norwegian. Then Spanish. The problems start when the spanish and Norwegian speakers try to pronouce American street names. Needless to say they butcher them (fortunately you can turn the street names off) - imagine somebody Spanish trying to say 'S High Point Rd'. Worse, these voices are computers that read stuff. It is all automatic. These computers are programmed to be smart so they interpret abbreviations.
Guess how it says 'Dr'? Doctor of course. Well, Dr is Drive when it comes to maps, however, the unit is instructing you to go right on Yellowstone Doctor. LOL for about 5 minutes with the doctors (lots of Drives in Madison). "Gira a la derecha en el Carns Doctor" Any quality control before selling this?
5. Points of interest seem to work well. You can find restaurants, gas stations easily. However, even here I stumbled upon surprises. I have a Mobil speedpass so I decided to have it find a Mobil Station. I know Madison so well that I know where all the Mobils are (almost) so I was surprised to find that it had found a new one.
I remember thinking that: 'There can't possibly be a Mobil there'. But why not try. So I follow it and it leads me through a dark residential area. Finally it errupts - on a quiet suburban street: "Arriving at Mobil". Funny. This can't be blamed on stale points of interest since I sincerely doubt there has ever been any thing commerical on the entire street.
Nevertheless it seems like a fun toy and I'll excuse it's (mostly hilarious quirks). The real verdict will come when I use it for long trips. Like when I have to drive across half the country (exaggerating a bit). That would be tomorrow - which was the impulse that made me buy it. Help me Nav. Maybe it has a talking mode to keep me awake...
...I wonder how many typos I've made typing this...and for that matter how many embarrassing typos are no my photostream in general...
Lost?
First the photo. I took this through the window of the Garmin store on Michigan Avenue. I was going to enter, but strangely it had closed before 8. Nice dof and colors, but not much else. So why post?
I need to rant some. These nav units are so much cheaper than before. I first researched and shopped these about 1.5 years ago. I was helping somebody (or at least trying to convince them to get a nav unit). She was not friends with maps at all; she refused to even contemplate trying to understand them. However, she was convinced she had found salvation in Mapquest. Whenever she'd go somewhere she'd diligently print out Mapquest directions.
Sometimes it worked, but mostly it didn't. Why? She never looked at the map. She never understood the directions. She never knew how to recover if she missed a turn (as most of us do at some point while following directions)...and then she'd call me to work as an Onstar advisor. Nothing wrong with that, but she really needed to buy a Navigation system. However, they were pricey. Especially the small, modern ones were a lot of money. So she didn't.
Today these same units are much more advanced and so much cheaper. I'd say even the cutting edge units are half the price they used to be and twice as good. Incredible. Got to love competition. So I was tempted and got one - incidentally the same one I took a picture of last week.
It had glowing reviews and people claimed it did a very good job. Of course I had to try it and set about trying to confuse it close to my house. It took only one hour to uncover lots of minor issues, but overall this is an impressive piece of work. What happened?
1. I head to Blockbuster and consistently try to take different routes. The unit recalculates swiftly every time. It is insisting that I get on what it called 'Country Road S'. Since I know the area, I know this must be 'Mineral Point road'. Nobody has called Mineral Point, that for decades. Small problem, but annoying.
2. Worse, I head my normal way to Blockbuster despite the unit insisting on alternate route at every turn. Finally I go through the mall. Suddenly the unit tells me to go left. However, left was heading over a curb and in the general entrance of Cub Foods. Not good. It does not seem to understand that the road through the mall exists.
3. I head home and try to confuse it on some small roads close to my house. On some newer ones it has me navigating through black space. Aparently these roads are not on the map yet. It gives me and stays quite until I enter familiar roads again. Although, the saleperson talked about recently updated maps, these roads did not exist. I know they were here last year, but I do admit they are recent and small. Still I was expecting them to be in the updated unit.
4. The unit has lots of languages (about 30). Nice. I try Australian English, British...no problems. Then I try Norwegian. Then Spanish. The problems start when the spanish and Norwegian speakers try to pronouce American street names. Needless to say they butcher them (fortunately you can turn the street names off) - imagine somebody Spanish trying to say 'S High Point Rd'. Worse, these voices are computers that read stuff. It is all automatic. These computers are programmed to be smart so they interpret abbreviations.
Guess how it says 'Dr'? Doctor of course. Well, Dr is Drive when it comes to maps, however, the unit is instructing you to go right on Yellowstone Doctor. LOL for about 5 minutes with the doctors (lots of Drives in Madison). "Gira a la derecha en el Carns Doctor" Any quality control before selling this?
5. Points of interest seem to work well. You can find restaurants, gas stations easily. However, even here I stumbled upon surprises. I have a Mobil speedpass so I decided to have it find a Mobil Station. I know Madison so well that I know where all the Mobils are (almost) so I was surprised to find that it had found a new one.
I remember thinking that: 'There can't possibly be a Mobil there'. But why not try. So I follow it and it leads me through a dark residential area. Finally it errupts - on a quiet suburban street: "Arriving at Mobil". Funny. This can't be blamed on stale points of interest since I sincerely doubt there has ever been any thing commerical on the entire street.
Nevertheless it seems like a fun toy and I'll excuse it's (mostly hilarious quirks). The real verdict will come when I use it for long trips. Like when I have to drive across half the country (exaggerating a bit). That would be tomorrow - which was the impulse that made me buy it. Help me Nav. Maybe it has a talking mode to keep me awake...
...I wonder how many typos I've made typing this...and for that matter how many embarrassing typos are no my photostream in general...