BLUE TOOTH

Its very important, when I can it gives me handsfree cellphone usage especially when states and cities seem to be cracking down on cellphone usage while driving which showed recently in NYC.

Nuvi 360

I personally do not use it on either of my units (760 & 765T), nor do I use a headset while driving. I have much more important things to do while driving besides talking on the phone...like drive.

Some cannot live without talking on the phone...

That being said, if Garmin is going to include Bluetooth on a model, they should at least see that it works on all phones and supports all features. After all, how is a $10-$20 headset able to connect to every phone out there but the nuvi cannot?

Unless they can get it to work correctly, they should not even market a Bluetooth nuvi...unless it's all marketing in the first place.

I bought the more expensive Garmin specifically for the Bluetooth capability. I use it all the time. I don't need a GPS to get back and forth to work, but I really prefer to talk with both hands on the wheel.

I'm one of those people who don't drive as well holding a phone, so I won't pick it up.

And yes, Garmin's Bluetooth functions have a lot of room for improvement.

I personally don't use it but I want a unit with the capability. That being said, Garmin should offer the best that is available.

I specifically wanted Bluetooth compatibility in a GPS unit. While I don't believe in using your car as a phone booth, my car has a manual transmission & if I get an incoming call, the bluetooth set-up helps me easily focus on the road.

That being said, Garmin's sound quality is abysmal. Yes, it works but their "String & Tin Can™" proprietary software makes my nice iPhone sound to the other person on the line as if I were at the bottom of a well with my phone at the top.

For those of you who have never been on the receiving end of a Garmin Bluetooth call, let me paint you a picture, think, Thomas Edison's recording of Mary Had A Little Lamb... We've all heard that at some point. I'm not sure how they fit little wax & foil cylinders into my 765t, but I'm sure if I were to crack open the case, they'd be in there.

To be fair, I've got to praise one part of their Bluetooth technology, that of connection. I've purchased both the Apple & Jawbone Bluetooth headsets prior to getting my Garmin & neither one connects as solidly. With the Garmin, my phone can be in my coat pocket, briefcase or even the glove compartment & I still get a solid connection. With the other headsets, if my phone wasn't very close, & in the open, it would lose the connection. Garmin's system is also very straightforward, easy to use & you don't look like a Star Trek extra when using it.

I have a 660 and bought the 760 just to keep the Bluetooth. I have had a couple problems but it works most of the time. I really like that I can look up a location on my Garmin..then just dial from the screen with my phone linked..one touch dialing is great. I have used it for restaurant reservations..

I have a Nuvi 760. I find that connecting to my Blackberry Curve is usually pretty straightforward but about half the time the voice command option on the Garmin fails to work properly.

I agreed with the OP. I bought the 360 (for my daughter) and 680 (for me) for the bluetooth functionality.

Both are a joke. Now we each use a plantronics bluetooth headset. We live in California and its illegal to use the cell w/o a hands free headset.

When you say that the voice command option on the Garmin fails to work properly, do you mean that it is not recognizing what your command is? On my BB Pearl I'm finding about the same success rate as you on my 660. Have you tried adjusting the sensitivity of your voice recognition feature (to a higher value) on your Curve to see if that helps? I'm assuming that you have that feature on your phone.

LOL. Thank you Poifect. I really had a good laugh at those comments.

HD,

You do realize you've now opened yourself up either to being the Garmin whipping boy or the answer man right?

To answer your question, I specifically purchased my 660 and later a 760 because they offered Bluetooth. As another poster indicated in California hands free is mandatory so combining the GPS which is (for me) always in the car with the phone that's usually stashed in the center console is the perfect combo. Fortunately I've had no issues with compability between my phone and either of the Nuvis.

Cheers

Important..yes. It's a good feature even if just for the auto-dial, but definitely for the hands-free.

My 765T isn't ultra-high quality sound talk or listen, but I wouldn't call it wax-cylinder quality either. (that WAS funny). I'm happy with it now that I have all the sound combination's set on the phone & the unit.

Only issue I've had is noticing that the unit has to initialize the connection, the phone can't wake up the nuvi.

I find it hard to imagine that the engineers don't call it any sort of priority since the sales & marketing seems to include Bluetooth on the high end of all their product splits. Maybe Marketing just needs to light the fire under the Engineers.

My car (a Mini Cooper) has built-in bluetooth. My son uses the bluetooth in his 660.

Both work for the basic functions, such as answering an incoming call.

If I'm going to place a call, or do something else fancy, I'm not going to do that while moving.

So I don't mind that bluetooth in the car doesn't support dialed number lists and so on -- if I'm driving in the car and someone calls me, the car turns down the volume on whatever I'm listening to, and brings up the phone. It works.

The 660 does the same for my son. Simple operations. He isn't worried that some features aren't supported.

You can't use the 660 to open cans, either -- but it makes a fine GPS!

Poifect wrote:"That being said, Garmin's sound quality is abysmal. Yes, it works but their "String & Tin Can™" proprietary software makes my nice iPhone sound to the other person on the line as if I were at the bottom of a well with my phone at the top."

I had that same problem of people not being able to hear me very well and also getting an echo. I purchased the external microphone which Garmin sells for about 15 dollars and I don't get any complaints from anyone I'm talking to anymore. My one complaint with the bluetooth is that although I can send and receive calls fine and can also send text messages (my wife, the passenger does the typing) when I get a notification of an incoming text, and try to read it or listen to it the NUVI 760 locks up. Has anyone else had this problem? Is this another bug that Garmin needs to fix to promote bluetooth? I bought the 760 partly because of the bluetooth capability.

This is available online for approximately $55.
Works well for me.

http://www.myblueant.com/supertooth-light-bluetooth-handsfre...

Is Bluetooth "important"... yeahhh... in my opinion, it's critical! I'm sure this is going in the 'wrong' forum or something. I'm the new kid on the block here. Just joined yesterday.

I have a Magellan 4370. Nice unit. But I digress. On the other end of the connection I have an AT&T Fuze (aka HTC TouchPro & other various aliases). I've had a hella time trying to keep the Magellan and HTC paired. The seem to only occasionally - say maybe 2 of 10 attempts - successfully pair. If I do ANYTHING to interrupt the pairing, I have to start all over. By "ANYTHING" I mean stop the car and take both items - simultaneously - with me. Neither device is "out of range" of the other (presumably my worst case arm span carrying the items doesn't exceed the BT capabilities of the devices! ). As some of you may know, the 4370 even has an 'autopair' option that will (allegedly) re-pair the phone after a separation (or at least that's my current understanding of its function).

I have the latest firmware installed on the GPS (as of yesterday, anyhow!). I believe the problem is the GPS, not the phone. I've been able to pair the phone with several other hands free devices and my laptop, etc; so I don't question the phone's BT abilities. The Magellan on the other hand - even when seemingly properly paired can't send SMS to the phone. Anytime I try it I get a "SENDING SMS" screen... foevah... until I power-cycle the unit.

Sorry to rant about all this here, but you asked if we thought it was important. Yes indeedy! I feel it's very important. It was a strong selling point to me.

I agree... such p*ss p**r firmware implementation is borderline criminal, IMHO! Either implement it and MAKE IT WORK, or pull it out of the feature list and beta it for another 6 months til you (the mfgr) get your feces tight! If my company released software or hardware (we do both) like that, we'd be belly up.

One more thing... Is there any other high tech "gadget" industry that can be so user hostile when it comes to a PC interface? I can use a PC keyboard 10x faster than I can use a touch screen. I already have many (the vast majority) of my contacts that I'd like to import to my GPS address book in MS Outlook. I can't believe there's not a nice way to move data back and forth between the PC and the GPS. Magellan's "Content Manager" is ok, but if you don't want to learn KML (I'm quite capable of learning it it eventually, but I DON'T have the time right now>... but I DO have a BIG trip to the east coast coming up next week... so this is me entering over 50 contacts by hand on a smallish touch screen... yeahhhhh, I'm havin' fun!). So far, I see ZIPPO documentation in this regard. I can't believe I can't even get a text / note pad document - even in a pre-formatted layout if necessary, and give a contact the basic info - including contact name(s), street, city, state, zip, etc. I DON'T KNOW (or care about) the latt & long of these places -- that's WHY I bought a GPS .

Bottom line: GPS doing other functions - trying to be a uni-device (plays MP3's, hands-free kit for my phone, Bluetooth, FM modulator, etc; etc;) seems to be very much in its infancy. I know it's competitive, but if I'd known these features weren't actually going to work as advertised, I would have bought a bare bones GPS.

And though a former Garmin employee started this thread, I doubt either Garmin OR Magellan have the monopoly in this regard. No... it seems to be pandemic!

Oh, and did I say, as a GPS per se, the Magellan 4370 absolutely rocks!?! They just need to fix the rest of the bells and whistles I paid for.

Thanks for letting the noob vent! I'll shut up now!

Cheers,

--P

Export your outlook contacts to a CSV file, then read the Factory's FAQ for how to geocode the addresses, and properly format the csv file with the coordinates, and then upload your contacts as a POI file to your unit. It is capable of having custom POI files loaded to it isn't it?

I did this with my first GPS - and had my contacts exported, geocoded, and made into a POI file and on my Nuvi 350 in under an hour.

I purpously bought the NUVI 285W because it had bluetooth and have had nothing but problems with the connection on it, most of the time when i'm connected with bluetooth, my gps unit shuts off. It's quite frustrating and would be nice if this problem was fixed

I have a nuvi 885t and it seems working alright with my phone. But if there can be a better one then I prefer it that way.

I like to see who's calling before I answer. I never answer unknown callers. I use a Bluetooth headset for quality and ease of use. I was hoping that I could continue to use my headset while seeing who is calling and ease of making a call. But I can only get one or the other to connect at a time. If Garmin would fix the software so it would recognize a headset.

They are out to sell GPS units and the more bells and whistles they can advertise the more appealing the unit is to a potential buyer. I'm still waiting for the navigation to function properly.

I don't have any pairing/voice issues with the 760 / Motorola razr v3 but when I get a incoming text and I answer (try to read it) the 760 locks up requiring a reboot

If you are referring to the GPS units meant to be in the car, I fail to see how bluetooth functionality isn't important now that all cell phones utilize it. I personally used to use my bluetooth headset all the time and having the option to not have that strapped to my head is a welcome option.

I guess you've never continued a call getting out of your car, or tried to talk on you GPS while getting fuel. Also, if you read the post, I stated my reasons for my headset. The issue isn't what you fail or don't fail to see. I don't understand why some people keep defending Garmin. I have been using Garmin since 1999. Why? Because I think of my choices, Garmin makes a good product but if they want to add extra bells and whistles they should be fully functional.

Just not in a way that suits you.

Sure I have. I don't know what kind of crappy phone you have but when I disconnect my bluetooth mid-call, the mic & speaker transfers back to my cell OR how about the unthinkable... "I'll call you back later."?

"Fully functional" you say... I haven't seen anything this decade involving software that doesn't need a patch of some kind to get it "functional" let-alone be "fully functional". If it was "Fully functional" from the get-go, there wouldn't be jobs for debugging software.

Garmins bluetooth capability rates very poor. The GPS is fantasitc but I wouldn't pay extra int he future for the add on features from Garmin. They just don't work well.

Bluetooth on a Nuvi is designed and functions as a headset/handsfree device as far as a phone is concerned - and will operate as such - and it is functional as such. Works as designed.

I have to agree. I just paired my 660 with a new phone from verizon and it works very good. The new phone book allowes for more than one number per person and then shows that there are 2 or 3 choices for them. The sound is good but if there is a lot of outside noise the one on the other end can hear. It is almost as good as my headset. I have a cordless phone in the house and sometimes it doesn't sound as good an using the gps.

Yes, Bluetooth was vary important consideration for me. I would like to see enhanced functionality. At the minimum, it should pair with all popular models. I have Nokia N80, it pairs but cannot access address book. Secondly, it should also have BT voice / music transmission option for high end models like 885T.

I like the Bluetooth feature on my 265WT. i just haven't figured out yet how to get it to voice dial My mother-in-law has problems holding a cell so the GPS acts like a good speaker-phone for her.

The bluetooth on the 775T works very well, and was quite surprised how well it did. Voice over the speaker was clear and natural, and my party said it sounded good, although a little low in volume, but once I spoke up, it was fine.

It paired easily (I have a new model cell to boot), and once paired, it has connected successfully each time when I turn on that feature.

The Bluetooth on my 765T really works pretty well, and is paired to an older Sanyo Katana with no problems.

The volume on the unit could be a little better, but the voice quality is pretty good for a small unit sitting on my dashboard. According to the people on my in-coming calls, my voice is not as clear as when talking on a regular phone, but it is acceptable and easily understood. I have never had a dropped call or trouble syncing either.

Hi

I have change brand of GPS because of bad Bluetooth capability, I do have a 765T, and used it with a SonyEricsson 650T, and I could use that without any problems.

But after I got a SonyEricsson 705G I can’t use it with my 765T, so now I have a TomTom go 630, and there is no problems.

I was rather glad for my 765T, but now im getting used to TomTom, and now I dont think i am going back to my Garmin

Regards Michael

I agree that it does leave something to be desired. But it's better than nothing(not much better). I think with the technology that's out here they need to do a better job on the blue tooth.

I need blue tooth for hands free phone.

Work together like champs!

I was floored the first time it "read" a text message to me "how cool is that??"

The only gripe I have is the voice quality for people on the other end. The "bottom of the well" analogy is a good one.