Comparing Versions of Garmin Products

 

I wanted to start this Forum to help users to either select the proper GPS or answer their questions about own concerns. I have several years years of experience with Garmin products specifically streetpilot line and Nuvi, also Magellan GPS

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Thanx BiLL Solomon
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Magellan Vs Garmin

Hello

I am new to this forum but not to GPS, can you please tell us which Magellan GPS you have had such poor experience with for the $199 price.
I would say it is not a fair assessments to compare Magellan cheapest unit with some of Garmin more expensive units such as a Nuvi 350 or C550.
I agree with you that Garmin offers an excellent product but I don't think Magellan product is as poor as you have put it.
They use the same SiRF Star III GPS receiver and the newer Maestro 4040 or MRM 2200T have excellent GPS acquisition time, as fast as Garmin's and probably much faster than the C320 or 2610 Garmin units.
Just wish to share my view and experience also with the Magellan vs Garmin products.
Thank you

Another site one might

Another site one might consider in checking out that has quite alot of Garmin information..

http://www.tramsoft.ch/index_en.html

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NickJr Nuvi 3597LMT

Street Pilot 550

I can help with the Street Pilot 550.

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RKF (Brookeville, MD) Garmin Nuvi 660, 360 & Street Pilot

Nuvi 250

I found that Nuvi 250 cannot use custom voice alerts as it has no mp3 player. You only get a ping sound for speed camera alerts.

Magellan Vs Garmin

GPS4ME wrote:

Hello

I am new to this forum but not to GPS, can you please tell us which Magellan GPS you have had such poor experience with for the $199 price.
I would say it is not a fair assessments to compare Magellan cheapest unit with some of Garmin more expensive units such as a Nuvi 350 or C550.
I agree with you that Garmin offers an excellent product but I don't think Magellan product is as poor as you have put it.
They use the same SiRF Star III GPS receiver and the newer Maestro 4040 or MRM 2200T have excellent GPS acquisition time, as fast as Garmin's and probably much faster than the C320 or 2610 Garmin units.
Just wish to share my view and experience also with the Magellan vs Garmin products.
Thank you

I Agree with you on the principal. We should only try to compare compatible products.

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Thanx BiLL Solomon

Another site one might

nickjr wrote:

Another site one might consider in checking out that has quite alot of Garmin information..

http://www.tramsoft.ch/index_en.html

Not Bad, has some cool gadgets, not much of a GUI interface..!

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Thanx BiLL Solomon

I have resolved my traffic indicator issues.

rkf wrote:

I have resolved my traffic indicator issues. Thanks.

Wanna Share..?

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Thanx BiLL Solomon

New Garmin Products

Any Feedback on any of the following units:

nüvi® 670
nüvi® 680
StreetPilot® 2820

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Thanx BiLL Solomon

I QUE Series

I personally have owned the IQUE 3000, IQUE 3600, and IQUE M4, all very good, some better then others, any questions please feel free to contact.

Some of my workers of the Nuvi's and we compare things all the time, but when it really comes down to it, mine is more compact with alot more features. My whole adminstrative crew has Garmin IQUE series PDA/ GPS units. I don't see much about them mentioned here anywhere. Anyone who is on the go, shoudl check them out before Garmin does away with them because of those stupid smart phones.

Tried one of those too, and if you lose cellular service you lose GPS connection. Garmin is a tried and true way to not get out of service no matter what (Except tunnels). Used in Manhatten recently, and didn't lose reception once!

Any questions, I am pretty handy with all of the above named units, Palm OS and Pocket PC software. Feel free to ask away!

Street pilot 2720

Bill i was wondering if i have EXCEL 2003? will that work with me garmin. I have 600 Favs for buisness and i want to add Rt 50 MD speed traps and share them. but i am having trouble with making a file with 2003 Excel any ideas. Jason@beerboxes.com

OS Failure

is there a way to reformat a maestro 4000

Experience with new 2x5 series?

Anybody purchased from the new Garmin 2x5 series? Checking amazon, I see that there are some improvements in the display and speed. It also seems like none of them have a MP3 player so no custom alert sounds. Anyone vouch for that? Does anyone know if the new features are coming to a model with a MP3 player?

Folks with Garmin Nuvi 880 Experience


Please Post your feedback here:

Here is a Start:

sad Battery life very short, roughly about 2Hrs with 50% brightness

sad Software ware is erratic and needed some maintenance. I found the unit misbehave around new roads.

smile msnDirect is cool

sad Traffic is never announced, you would never know if you were detoured because of traffic incident.

sad WayPoints management is poor, you will need to pretend going somewhere to access the edit or delete function..@!

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Thanx BiLL Solomon

Excell 2003

mrjason wrote:

Bill i was wondering if i have EXCEL 2003? will that work with me garmin. I have 600 Favs for business and i want to add Rt 50 MD speed traps and share them. but i am having trouble with making a file with 2003 Excel any ideas. Jason@beerboxes.com

It should, I don't see why not..! smile
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Thanx BiLL Solomon

MSNDirect

My software deleted after i downloaded an update. On my tools (system)and About shows, My GDB SW Version: N/A. I try to reactivate my account, but nothing seem to make msn receive new updates. I e-mail garmin tech but not receive a reply yet.

Nuvi Comparison

Fix for the Voice

scooter2 wrote:

I have the Garmin 7200, Its great except that some of the streets and avenues it pronounces are not to good. Does any body know if the upgrade that come every 12 to 16 months improve on the voice commands.

Same guy who has the text editor has the correction for this. Here is the address, not sure how to link it.http://turboccc.wikispaces.com/Downloads

garmin version

what garmin do you have

HOV

Have any one used the avoid car pool lane or HOV option in avoidance screens and successfully was detoured based on the hours of operation and regulation specifically in busy areas like DC..? Please share your experience, I am also interested to know if there was a way to modify the avoidance regulation table..

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Thanx BiLL Solomon

What's going on in the world of gready vendors

Garmin retired nüvi® 880 and replace it with nüvi® 885 . As far as I am concerned, they only added the lane assist. This is just a software upgrade!!. why Garmin would not allow 880 owners to upgrade their unit..?

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Thanx BiLL Solomon

Unfair to coustomers

What do you think about garmin regarding the following comments..?

# Being unfair to consumer,

# Producing new product with same Hardware of older units which could have been accomplished by upgrading software on older units, and

# Retiring recently released unit tends to keep price on high end for new units and create a cheap unfair market for what so called recently discontinued units.

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Thanx BiLL Solomon

880 (Now, it's even worse)

I was checking the other day for new release of Garmin 880 software. To my disappointment, I found that Garmin had removed access to direct software download. all unit software needed to be done via webUpdate only.

I used direct download to know if it's newer than current installed version, where as with webupdate, you have to connect your GPS every time to find out if there is a new update

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Thanx BiLL Solomon

Look here.

BillSolomon wrote:

I was checking the other day for new release of Garmin 880 software. To my disappointment, I found that Garmin had removed access to direct software download. all unit software needed to be done via webUpdate only.

I used direct download to know if it's newer than current installed version, where as with webupdate, you have to connect your GPS every time to find out if there is a new update

Look here:
http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=4115

or here:
http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=4119
http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=4120
http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=4121
http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=4122

For these latter four there is a note hidden in the top of the page source that explains how to download the update. These latter four require webupdater to install the update, but do not require webupdater to have an active internet connection to install (webupdate won't "dial home" when done this way until after the firmware update - and then it will ask you). Basically the webupdater acts as an installer in the same manner as poiloader installs POIs.

I Looked

alokasi wrote:
BillSolomon wrote:

I was checking the other day for new release of Garmin 880 software. To my disappointment, I found that Garmin had removed access to direct software download. all unit software needed to be done via webUpdate only.

I used direct download to know if it's newer than current installed version, where as with webupdate, you have to connect your GPS every time to find out if there is a new update

Look here:
http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=4115

or here:
http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=4119
http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=4120
http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=4121
http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=4122

For these latter four there is a note hidden in the top of the page source that explains how to download the update. These latter four require webupdater to install the update, but do not require webupdater to have an active internet connection to install (webupdate won't "dial home" when done this way until after the firmware update - and then it will ask you). Basically the webupdater acts as an installer in the same manner as poiloader installs POIs.

This helps, Thanx for your efforts. I found the instruction inside the page source, however the 1st link did not work

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Thanx BiLL Solomon

Software Version

Where is the new version spec page that you used to see when you navigate to each unit software.../?

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Thanx BiLL Solomon

Just Received My New nuvi 1390T

Just Received my new Garmin 1390T with Free Traffic and Map update for life. Have I noticed the few software changes and and extras that Garmin added..?

Yes I did, but this is all software changes, My Old nuvi 880, which I had bought only a over a year ago and cost me over $600, which is discontinued now the way, should also be allowed to get same software for a charge.

To be fare to consumers, Garmin should allow customers to upgrade unit software to use the new interfaces on the newer Garmin. They should also stop discontinuing models pre-maturely and stop producing new version every week!!!!

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Thanx BiLL Solomon
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