nuvi 770 on trip to Barcelona

The nuvi worked out pretty slick on this trip. I used it on the plane to track the trip which was pretty fun. I was interested in how long the battery could last. It lasted about half way across the ocean (approx 4 hours) before the battery ran out. http://photos-c.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sctm/v200/160/28/8...

I used an accessory called the Socket Mobile Power Pack
High-Capacity Lithium Ion Battery that basically is a super high capacity 5V, 7.2 AHr rechargeable battery to recharge the nuvi after it ran out and run it the rest of the way. I couldn't find anything on the market with the huge capacity but small size of this battery. I didn't get it from these guys but all the specs on it are here http://www.cumulus-soaring.com/socket.htm#Socket_Mobile_Powe...

Isn't it interesting how the magenta line is curved on the calculated route between JFK and Barcelona airports. The blue breadcrumb tracks where for the trip over and back. You can see by the gaps where the battery ran out.

I also got to see for the first time the way speed cameras worked in a nuvi since we don't have them in my home town of Albuquerque. http://photos-c.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sctm/v200/160/28/8...

I used the Language Guide pack too. That was a useful tool to have because it gives you a fully loaded Words and Phrases dictionary at your fingertips complete with how to pronounce the words. The Bilingual Dictionary has a weird quirk in that it doesn't pronounce the words of the language you want to convert to but a great workaround was to use the Words and Phrases book instead and choose the Words function to get the audible pronunciations of the foreign words.

I found the Currency Converter handy but to be way out of date. At least you can change it to the current rate manually.

I also got the Marco Polo Europe POI loaded. That database I wasn't quite as impressed with although it was probably more me. I think the database in the existing POI was pretty strong. I liked the fact that all the subway metro stops were already loaded in the nuvi so I could always find the closest metro.

Overall the 770 was a winner even though I couldn't use it with MSN Direct there. Interesting enough while I was at the conference Microsoft MSN Direct announced thier new MSN Direct Phone software. It is free to those with Windows Mobile 6 smartphones. Something is going on for sure with MSN Direct so it will be interesting to find out this year where that is heading.

I got to use the Garmin Mobile XT on my Pocket PC for the first time when I got back. I must admit I was very pleasantly surprised at how well it did compared to the nuvi in terms of all the features and functions. Features like being able to use my Pocket PC data connection to find gas prices in the area was cool. I did notice however that it isn't quite fast enough on the screen updates as far as my current location. While driving around it seemed to be just a second off from where it should have shown me compared to the nuvi 770