new garmins!!!!!! (coming Oct 15, 2008)

I have had my Nuvi 680 for about a year and a half and it is working fine. I had the MSN Direct service but, let it expire as I didn't feel it was worth the price. As long as my unit keeps working, I will resist the urge to look at the new products.

Henry

Your hypothesis is illogical in that it would be counter productive for any advertiser to continue to pay to involve themselves in any ongoing promotion that would be presented in a way that would be so intrusive and irritating that it would cause the potential customer to be completely turned off by it.

So is that why popup ads on the internet have disappeared? Because they are intrusive and irritating.

Oh wait, they haven't. They have increased.

You forget that the advertisers have a captive market here. Unlike television or the internet, the user simply cannot switch channels.

And trust me, the advertisers don't care if you are "turned off" by the ads.

If the popup ads on the internet iritate a person all they have to do is turn on the popup blocker and they are no longer bothered with them. That's what I did and I never get any popups accept from certain sites that I have set to allow popups from that actually have things I may be interested in hearing about.

A person could do the same thing with the new Garmins with free traffic. If they started to bother someone they could stop the ads by turning off the FREE Traffic service and subscribe to another traffic service like Clear Channel and have no ads with their traffic, which is one of the options Garmin offers.

The GPS reviewers who have been using these new units with the free traffic for a couple of weeks stated that they were not bothered by the ads and they thought the advantage of the free traffic was more than worth the occasional ads.

I think the bigger picture that has people worried and mad is what they will do with the data to target ad you. ie: If they see that you go to McDonalds alot, then you might get target ads from McDonalds....ect.. Maybe you travel out of state, to TN for example, so you would start getting ads for places there. It is the whole, big brother is watching you thing. From what I read, you can not turn off the ads.

From one of the review sites:

"When you access the traffic menu, one of these advertiser's names always appears at the bottom of the screen. Also, from time to time, one of these ads will pop up on the map view screen (they won't appear when you are in motion). A single tap of the advertisers' name will perform a POI search for nearby retail locations. Unfortunately, you can't disable these ads, but it's likely that they help Garmin offset the cost of the live traffic information that it offers free."

They have no way to know where you are going or how often you go there because the GPS is no more capable of sending out any kind of data then your car radio is.

Every traffic receiver in the same area receives the same FM station traffic information signal and ads. It's no different then listening to your car radio and it is not custom tailored to any one receiver.

If you are really worried about big brother watching you what you need to be concerned about is your cell phone because that is constantly sending and receiving data to the equipment in the area and they could track your movements, who you call and who calls you if they wanted to.

Link to screen shot of a actual ad being displayed:

http://www.gpslodge.com/pictures/Nuvi755TAd.jpg

Finally, a model that reminds me enough of the features of my old StreetPilot 2720, and much more. The turn arrows are back (and some!), better traffic, routing, etc... MegaGPS has it delivered for $509.

Looking forward to really testing this thing. Not very impressed this time around with the reviews that are out there. Most look like a spec sheet summary instead of a real review. I'll post comments in a week or so once I put 500 miles on it.

I put this together to show some friends the cubby holder I made but you can also see it in operation.

Excuse the newborn crying.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCVEaXfPtsM

Very clever. So it powers on and off as it opens and closes?

M
Hmmmmmmmm I bet television and radio advertisers don't think that way.

I made some screenshots using the simulation mode. The one with the incomplete redraw was from a route preview.

http://tinyurl.com/5897pv

Is that the new garmin?

I have the NUvi 760 with MSN traffic. In Toronto it has never provided any useful info

I like my Nuvi and I think that Garmin is number #1, but I dont now why so many models of GPS ?????

While I am happy with my 650, the lane changing feature looks nice. Does anyone know if traffic only appears when traffic is turned on? My fear would be that Garmin could always make adds a constant feature of the GPSr with firmware update.

I'm personally invested in GPSs right now, but even so, I basically will have to hear more perks to have me jumpimg into nearly 500 on another GPS. IF...the free traffic is real, maybe. Yet, that's still a lot of money for reality view and more audio power. The audio feature into my stereo system in the car on my Nuvi 660 gives plenty of audio output. Besides, these prices on the 755T does not warrant a change IMO, even if I didn't own a single GPS at all. jm2c

Cool features...just not cool enough to shell out the $.

Yes, you can turn off the traffic and the ads will not appear. It has to be plugged into the traffic receiver to change the settings. That's good for MSN users that can use traffic without ads.

It does have a lot of fun features but none are necessary. I really like the upcoming turn arrow like the 255 has. Makes it easy to see at a glance. I'm still not really sold on this and may get a 750 and save the $220.

It's the 755T.

Yes, it powers on and off as you open and close the cubby. I used a pin switch to control the power which is shared with the clock and radio (fuse block).

You can see the pin switch here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVs3_m3wywI

and the internals here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYwwoyfs-z0

Apologies if this gets away from the main subject matter. But there IS a nuvi 755T in the videos!

Aardvark,

Can you point me to where you saw that little tidbit about free Navteq traffic ?

Maybe a link if possible.

I have used XM-NavTraffic (NavTeq) before and found it unreliable and not worth the subscription price, but iof I can get it FREE.... I might load on my 2730 and 7500 and see how bad the pop-up ads are.

That is assuming that I can get through the XM-Nav-Traffic service.

Thanks, Tim

They look really impressive but the price tag on them OUCH! I paid $200 for my 660 about 6 months back, and they've got one for $800 on that page.

I thought with new technoogy comes lower pricing for more features. The new line looks great, but a bit out of my budget for a second unit. I suppose once they have been out there for ome time the price will drop. Look for great pricing on the existing line this Holiday Season...

Wow, I was all set to buy a 770, but now the news on the 775T. I like the new features but the PRICE, wow! I guess I'll wait to see what happens to the price over the next couple months or so.

I just ordered a nuvi 255 from Amazon for $189. That's quite a discount after only 4 days. I didn't think the price would drop until Thanksgiving.

Why must we purchase new hardware to enjoy navigation advances? Tom Tom offers free updates of features with purchase of new maps.
Jen

Ick... Ads...

To me that's just more SPAM that I don't need.

True, there's currently only one small section of the DVP/Gardiner that seems to be monitored... but while we've been down in MD, it has routed us around 8 different accidents/road constructions, that the locals that we're visiting got caught in.

If they could get the whole area mapped out like down here it would be worth it!

I added more screenshots with the traffic stuff. The last 9 are traffic related.

http://tinyurl.com/5897pv

I am very excited to see these new GPS'. I particularly like the feature that shows the signs and the best lane to get in. Since the traffic is free now, that is another plus. I thought that the older units that gave you a free year of traffic but you had to buy that expensive antenna to get it. Do you know if these new units will have everything needed to get the traffic now?

The traffic is received through the car charger. Nothing else to buy or activate. Just use it.

I hate it when I don't have the newest version of a cool gadget. Oh well, I'm way too happy with my 760 to worry about it for at least another year and another round of upgrades/improvements.

Okay - I think the features on the new Garmins have convinced me to buy one. I know that new model = no discount. So when's the best time to buy one of these. Anyone have experience on buying a previous model as to when is the best time to buy one? Black Friday, Xmas, after new year, etc?????? I want the 775T!

BLACK FRIDAY! Make sure to be a wise shopper and check all the manufactures offerings on that Day.

Bob

Has anybody that has already purchased a 7x5 series noticed a problem with screen brightness. I bought a 765 yesterday and noticed while driving today that the sunlight was washing out the screen. When I got home I compared the 765 screen at 100% bright with the same setting on my 750 it was much darker, after a bit of experimenting with settings it appeared to me that the 765 was only about 80% as bright as my 750.

I guess they won't upgrade old models to have some of these new features like the 3D buildings.

This is a big upgrade from my Nuvi 680. Lots of new features I like. The turn arrows are back and improved. Awesome! Very fast start ups, sometimes shockingly fast (2 seconds).

I was worried about the traffic ads. Turns out to be not a problem at all. You never even see them till after you stop for a bit and they are very small. It saves the last 4 in a folder if you want to read them later. Some coupons have discount codes on them. Traffic reception was good between the SF Bay Area and Sacramento. Signal about 75% of the time. Displayed well on the Nuvi.

Very few complaints. Nice device.

just wait till they add lane assist to the 800 line >.>

I'm a new GPS user - and have had my 265WT for 2 weeks. I HATE spam, pop ups and all other in your face advertising. However the ads that pop up in my Nuvi are no bother whatsoever to me. They do not appear when you are moving, so I rarely even notice them. When I do notice them they are VERY tame.

OK, I'm done.

http://tinyurl.com/5kqz8w

I just posted all of these so those looking at getting one can see more about it. When I see the few reviews, they don't offer a lot of these. Hope it helps someone.

Traffic is only as good as the service reporting it and quite frankly none of them at great. Unless it's a major accident that has been around for 15 mins or more none of the services report it.

I have both the traffic on a 760 and XM radio traffic and neither of them alert me to rush hour slow downs very well.

The best part of the traffic on the Nuvi that I've found is that it loads the construction zones and will route you around them if you choose.

It's been a couple weeks since I've had the 755T. At least here in Chicago, the traffic has been very accurate so far. Amazingly so. But perhaps my expectations were not so high as well so I am pleasantly surprised. Most impressive is WHERE the traffic is indicated to be. I can't speak for the time delay but it seems fairly reasonable. I can only hope in the near future this technology filters its way onto side streets. Oh, and the ads are still hardly noticeable. In fact, I have only noticed it a few times right before I shut it off.

I've noticed on my pois with the 755 that the only the name shows when you select a poi and you need to click on "more" to see what was in field/column 4 of the poi, like the address/phone.

If I put all the name/address/phone/hours info on the third field, it will all show up when selecting the poi and will show up twice if you hit "more."

Like this:

http://tinyurl.com/6zfvk3

I put descriptions on the screenshots.

Anyone notice any boot time/recalculation improvements? My 760 is just a "tad" slow...lol

The 755t i had took a few seconds to boot. Route calculations for me were almost instantaneous, much faster than the cell phone navs I formerly used.

I forgot to mention the reason I don't have it anymore is I returned it for a 765T. I'm crossing my fingers that when I get the replacement it works as well as the 755T I returned. And I meant Route recalculations. Long route calculations still took awhile.

Buying "new" technology is a crap shoot... you want the newest features at the lowest price. And it always seems that a week after buying the thing, the same item is advertised for way less. But the longer you wait - hoping for the "best" price - the sooner the unit you buy will be replaced with a "newer" model.

With the bleak retail sales this year, I think American Thanksgiving would be best. If you can tolerate the crush of people and the long wait in line for a cashier... or maybe the $50 dollar savings isn't worth it.

Remember, if you live on the cutting edge, be prepared to bleed a lot.

This is why it is called "Bleeding" edge technology, not "Leading" edge. New adopters always pay the R&D costs, then let us have it cheaper.

It is all in what you want in features, junction view and lane assist are handy, but do I want to pay for it? Not at this time, but perhaps my next upgrade or if I add another vehicle...it seems like a fine idea, and looks great from what I've seen.