Garmin drops the ball

I had the same request about the time zones... when crossing time zones, and using the Nuvi the arrival time is based on the time you configured the GPS for... it doesnt take into effect the time zones you travel through. Would be nice for it to reflect the time zone at your destination.

Am I disappointed the patch for the 350 isn't out yet? Yeah, a bit. The workaround is simple, and you lose nothing in the way of functionality other than having to turn the DST setting to "on"...how hard was that? I'd rather they get the software right before they release it than put out something that would screw up my unit and have to update it again to fix the fix.

As I mentioned in another post, the time displayed is a user option, and essentially cosmetic in nature, as the inside bases what it does on the UTC code in the satellite signals and your position for things like dimming the backlight, and displaying the sun & moon on the satellites screen.

That's my $0.02

IMHO, DST is no big deal. I just changed it from AUTO to ON, and all is well until the patch is installed in the next update. If I put together a wish list of software changes I would like to see, auto DST wouldn't make the top 50.

I can easily change the time, but I can't add a GPS info screen that shows satellites and coordinates like on my eMap. So, I will let the Garmin software programmers continue to work on the important stuff. In the meantime, I will change the clock myself just like I do with my VCR, TV, Automobile, and many other electronic devices.

Folks, I have been dealing with the IT side of DST and it is not as smooth as people think. Companies like Sun released one of their 'fixes' for DST on late Friday.

Things like these from Vendors for Garmin delays the patch.

On another note, I completely agree with a previous post that they should have the ability to set the time based on which area the GPS is in. That's should be obvious to Garmin

Sorry, I wouldn't get that break. I work in the IT field as well as a Software Engineer - as far as the DST not being smooth due to late patches coming out, I think that is a combination of three possible things from the development standpoint.

1 - Not caring about the end user
2 - Lacking skills or funds to make the changes happen
3 - Laziness

I can't speak for Garmin, but from where I see the problems did exist and not meeting a deadline as such was due to one or more of the three above listed "issues".

This is an embedded device. There is obviously a routine to have the DST take place, what can be so hard about changing the date in that routine?

Sure I can change DST from AUTO to ON, but lets face it, the GPS is a computer, this can and should be handled automatically.

The time displayed is not totally cosmetic, and functional if used for ETA and trip planning.

Other than that and the formatting problem for POIs I am happy with my device.

We actually had one vendor who didn't release their patch until 1:30am Sunday morning.

Garmin's change should have been much simpler and I don't understand why it wasn't done with earlier software updates.

As far as the time zone change, that would be a nice feature. Perhaps Garmin feels it would slow down their tracking?

The computer on the Starship Enterprise doesn't always work as it should, so in real life I would expect the same thing to be true. I suspect for many years to come, computers will still be machines that require human interaction. FWIW, when computers begin to think for themselves, the last human city of Zion will be destroyed, and all of humanity will be lost.

At 1:45am on March 4, 2007 a driver started on a 30 minute drive, would the GPS report an ETA of 2:15 or 3:15? Would the driver assume that it took an extra hour for his trip, or would he use his human ability to reason that his machine may have calculated incorrectly? Regardless of the reasons for a late update, should Garmin be faulted for the incorrect trip planning of someone who agrees that “You assume total responsibility and risk for using this device?” Could it be that the GPS is just a machine that is not without fault, and that at times the human that uses it is still required to think some things out for themselves?

This is just something to think about. Live long and prosper.

Most illogical! (Jokingly)

I didn't mean to have any personal attacks on anyone. Just stating the fact that this is a simple fix with ample time that should have been implemented, on all devices equally.

Simple fix, ample time, should have been implementented on time, but not absolutely critical to the operation of the device.

“Make it so, Number One.”

True if all devices shared the same code. Obviously, they don't. I'd much rather have an update that works a little later than one that does not work, or screws something else up now.

I'm one of the many lucky ones, as Garmin did post an update at the last minute for the c530. However, I understand the complexity of updating software for so many different models and then QCing all of the versions. A daunting task!!! I agree that I would rather wait than receive an update that had some problems. My guess is that the updates were scheduled but perhaps caught and delayed in QC. I give Garmin a lot of credit on their customer relations and support.

Well the next time the US Government decides to change the time thing again, it's very likely that we will have issues again and will have to learn how to adapt the fancy electronics to the new time.

...and what will happen when all the devices using 4 bytes to store UTC run out of bits in the year 2106.

I'll be dust by then