How about some new features Garmin?

Hi a quick response since I'm fairly new here my self.

to the first. Yes I agree that it should have a mute button. Because sometimes I like to stop out of the way really quick if I see a mcdonalds and it just likes to keep going and going at telling me to get back on track.

to the second. I imagine that would be an exspensive feature to add since it would require not only the extra software to be done but also a microphone added in for just that use alone. It might be more realistic if they made it to be able to use an app such as skype for models like the 295w that have wi-fi. Or even to take voice notes.

to the third. the 295w that I have on order actually has customizable POI. I don't know about the rest of the models. Sorry I couldn't be of more help. But seeing as this was more of a suggestion comment I guess I didn't really need answers =)

If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride...

Sy,

I've had my 1490T for half a year or so as an upgrade from my 260.

I agree with your 1 & 2. 3 makes sense too, but maybe they don't have it because people would probably be tempted to use it while they're drives, so Garmin is probably just avoiding that legal headache ahead of time.

One thing I'd really like is two volume settings. One for the Nav voice and one for the phone. I really hate having Karen at full volume, but if I use a comfortable setting I can't hear the person on my phone when using the unit's bluetooth. There is no really good compromise either. One or the other is always too loud or too soft.

Wi-fi and Android based. A 5" screen, motor travel oriented ultra-portable "smart-lite" multi-purpose device for those of us who want to utilize wi-fi connectivity that's widely available, but who don't want or need 24/7 3G/4G data plan costs.

Why don't they just put back some of the features the old Street Pilots had? Other then the newer displays, my old 2820 is twice the GPS that the new boy toys are.

Don, I completely agree with you! It is ridiculous how much Garmin has "dumbed-down" their newer units since my 2720 and your 2820. I would love to see the features they removed put back.

HEY GARMIN; In case you're listening (reading). I WILL NEVER purchase any other GPS you make unless it has the features of your 2720 put back in! In fact I will go back to using maps before I get one of your units!

My Zumo 665 (and most likely the Zumo 660 that runs the same code base) do have a mute function, momentarily hit the power button calls up a Quick Settings page that includes a mute button.

The Zumo 66x models also have a Mixer Volume page that has a Master volume and separate controls for Navigation and Media, including the bluetooth phone.

Check out your Nuvi, possibly similar controls exist.

Regarding the auto-volume adjust feature I mentioned. Even though my unit does have a microphone for the bluetooth capability it isn't necessary.

The software is actually fairly easy as all the building blocks are already within the GPS. All that needs to be done is to add an extra menu and a little s/w razamataze. For example:

TOOLS > SETTINGS > SYSTEM > AUTOMOBILE > SOUND

In this SOUND menu you could have perhaps three speed ranges that you could customize based on your familiarity with your vehicle. Then you set the volume percentage for each speed range field. The GPS knows how fast you are going. This is very simple to implement. It might look like this (sorry about the poor graphics):

+-----------+ +------+
| 00 -> 35 | | 50% +
+-----------+ +------+
| 36 -> 45 | | 60% +
+-----------+ +------+
| 46 ++++ | | 65% |
+-----------+ +------+

Between 0 and 35 mph the volume is set to 50%, at 36 to 45 mph the setting is 60%, and 46 mph and faster the volume is 65%.

For quite some time a number of factory radios in automobiles have an auto-adjust volume feature to compensate for road noise. This ain't rocket science Garmin!

Would you share some of the features of your street pilot,for us who have been stuck with newer units.

I could see how they could input a volume setting at 10 mph and a different volume setting at 70 mph, then the nuvi would look at its current speed and it would adjust the volume to some proportional amount, e.g. volume at 40 mph would be halfway between the min and max settings chosen above.

This is a simple approach, may not be perfect, but would be better than a single volume setting and not hard to set up. I think this is basically how my car radio works.

Any device that has this feature MUST have it configurable and the ability to turn it off.

In my last vehicle, I was introduced to this feature on the built in stereo for the first time. It was so poorly set up at the factory that I hated it. The dealer could not tell me how to de-activate it but I found it on the internet. It was quite a few secret button pushes to get to the hidden menu.

In my current vehicle, it was set up nicely at the factory and I haven't had to fiddle with it.

However, everyone has their own preferences in this area, so any such feature needs to be configurable and capable of being turned off. Easily in a menu.

That would be quite a chore since the standard features of the older Street Pilots were so numerous compared to today's nuvi line. Just download the Street Pilot 2820 owner's manual from the link below and see for yourself.

http://static.garmincdn.com/pumac/StreetPilot2820_OwnersManu...

As DorkusNimrod said it would be quite a chore. Number one is a feature that this thread started about, a mute button. But just a couple of major features that I really miss is the capability to completely customize the screen to show what information you want it to show, and this might sound like nothing to most users, but the ability to see the actual coordinates of a waypoint, or favorite as they call them now, without having to go through a bunch of menus and put the GPS in the simulation mode. This last one I find to be utterly ridicules on Garmin's part.

As one of Garmin's tech support people told me, the Nuvi line is a dumbed down version of the street pilot. Most people want features that have nothing to do with the original intention of what a GPS should do.

Garmin is cranking out new models so fast they don't have time to test them and get the bugs out, the consumer is doing it for them. I bought an 855 for my wife's car and have had five times the problems with it that I ever had with my 2820. In fact I can't recall ever having a problem with it, I set it on the dash in a sandbag mount and it just keeps on ticking. The only thing good I can say about the 855 is it has a bigger and brighter screen.

I would like to get a new GPSr, but need the mp3 player!

Yes I have a Mute, no problem there. But I have tried plying with different settings on my zumo 660 mixer for the phone and navigation and the only one that makes a difference is the MASTER control. I set MASTER at 80% and adjust NAVIGATION up and down with no results to the voice prompts. Nor does the MEDIA setting adjust anything for the phone volume. I have to adjust MASTER for everything. Maybe dave817 or someone else can shed some light on these settings since Garmin manuals rarely help with how things actually work.

I guess the real issue for me is, make the features that you do have actually work.

Garmin took it wrong way again..fixing problems...removing usefull features...

While I will never forgive Garmin for removing the map details at the 1.2 km zoom levels nor for removing the names of upcoming cross streets, I would like to see Garmin start by fixing the very long list of things that are broken with what they already have out there

Just make the damned things work reliably & properly, something that hasn't happened since the release of the GPSMAP 276 and Nuvi 360 series units.

Garmin ain't what she used to be and, like others out there, Garmin will be seeing no more of my money until they get their act together. These days their products are simply crap.

While GPS units don't cost $50K any more, Garmin makes up for it with huge volumes.

Even so, for a lot less than what they charge for a device like the 3790 you can buy a mechanically and electronically much more sophisticated device, such as a camcorder that you would be returning in a second if it worked as unreliably as Garmin's navigators do.

I would like to see next street up come back.

ecoRoute and picture viewer are junk in my opinion.

Ecoroute is junk. I can't be bothered with inputting all the required info so I average about 9 mpg. It also tells me that when I go 65 mph I am better than when I am doing 55 mph. Makes no sense.

I would personally like to be able to adjust routing without going through so many "button" pushes. Living in an area with toll roads, I would love to be able to say take toll road or not with one button on the main screen. The settings set-up on the Garmins are ridiculous!

I agree with the front screen mute, also. When phone rings or talking with someone, having to push multiple times is unnecessarily complex!

Amen to all of these thoughtful comments. I have a Garmin 755T and a now ancient iQue 3600 (they stopped issuing map updates that this unit can use around the start of 2010) and the iQue is, from a configurability standpoint, a hugely better device.

I really miss the status display screen that shows upcoming street names when you're not in navigation mode, the ability to control the level of detail and the size of the fonts to label many aspects of the map (road names, community names, body of water names, etc., etc.), and having the unit automatically zoom out to show me the rest of my route once it puts me on an interstate for the next 200 miles.

I've written Garmin about this, and it's become utterly clear that they have no intention of reintroducing these features. What's even more maddening is that you never had to touch any of them if they weren't something that mattered to you. The defaults were just fine, but customization was possible to suit the end user. Now the defaults are not "just fine" to many of us and there is no option to customize them.

I'm still looking at another Garmin as a replacement for the iQue only because they seem to be the only major player that's holding its ground in the market and they are a lot more "on top of" map updates than their competitors. There are several competitors' units that I think look great and seem to work quite well, but when you dig into getting updated map information it's all but impossible to find. If the others don't fix this they'll be gone very, very soon.

I wish mine would do my laundry..

The "MUTE" button would be GREAT!!!!

Very harsh evaluation of Garmin, but very true...I would just add: it is expensive junk now!

How about a voice that sounds like my wife, then no matter how load it is I won't listen anyway.....

jk

It's been nice knowing you...

Autocomplete when entering addresses.... I spend a lot of time entering long city names repeatedly.

Speed warning 'you are 5mph over the posted speed limit', with a setting where I can turn it on and off. Maybe even a 'teenager' mode where you can dump speeding data from the GPS (after a 16 year old borrows dad's car).

Pause -- stopping for gas won't generate numerous 'recalculating' messages.

Ability to import weather and traffic from my android or windows smartphone via bluetooth. Someone could write an app for that.

Mute would be good too... When muted would like to see large letters on the GPS 'NEXT TURN IN ...'.

I had heard that Garmin spends a lot of time in this type of forum getting a 'feel' for customer's complaints, wants and needs. Comments and suggestions just may make it into a future GPS.

Larry

True. Mute would be great

They must ignore everything they read!

I like the suggestions of a mute option on the screen, the icon for Custom POIs on the main screen would at least speed up getting to them and the "pause" icon already mentioned in this thread.

Also would like to see:

a severe weather warning that would work similar to the traffic feature. It looks at your destination and then gives warnings for snow, ice, high winds, flooding, etc...

able to download a "street view" picture of your final destination so you could know where parking entrances are and have it automatically show as you near the destination.

split screen mapping of upcoming turns so when turns are close together you get a visual rather than just audio warnings. Helps us hard of hearing. My units will do this but only for a few seconds before returning to standard view.

Most of these features are/were available in some older models. My 76 has customizable screens. How many items to show and what is shown are all customizable. Options include ETA destination, ETA next via point, time to dest, time to next, time, speed, total distance traveled, dist to next, dist to dest, accuracy, etc. And this was in a hand-held marine unit.

How about different brightness for night vs day? I have a large windshield and need bright for the day but not at night.

both my Nuvis have this feature under

tools
settings
display

it is a fixed brightness you can select not an auto=adjust

They don't ignore what they read here. What they do is make sure they don't put in anything that we say we want and remove anything we say we like.

How would everybody like the ability to transmit your location via an emergency button similar to On Star?

ST,

Unfortunately it looks like with your model you're hosed for alternatives. Some other Garmin models could use the line out or the FM RF signal broadcast to send voice directions to the car/truck radio. Then you'd be able to use the vehicle audio system to easily mute/adjust volume when needed. Maybe it's a feature you'll want to look for in your next gps.

Customizable buttons (tabs actually) were once a nice feature of some Garmin models. My old 2610 had semi-transparent tabs on the map screen that could be pulled out or retracted with a touch. There were several and each could be user set to display anything from time to direction to altitude and other readings. There's really no technical reason that feature couldn't be resurrected with one of the options allowing for custom POIs. That said, perhaps the 'protect people from themselves at all costs' crowd prevailed since the tabs did allow for driver interaction while the vehicle was moving.

Cheers

I dunno 'bout a legal headache. This particular GPS has bluetooth capability so it would seem that when you answer an incoming call you have to reach up to the screen and touch a button for the phone call. One "could" get in a accident going through that motion.

Jus' sayin'

indicator on the Garmin. I would like to enter a 5-9 MPH factor to raise the MPH that the units shows you over the speed limit or shows your speed in red. It could also have a verbal alarm to give you a warning if you are say 12 MPH over the limit. It may be annoying if the speed limit in the unit is incorrect, but if you can set the offset it might not matter.

Most GPS units are simple receivers. To add communication options would be far more expensive.

Yup - Google talked about doing this. Would really help with traffic updates.

Sounds Like a good idea to me..

I just purchased a 1690 (refurb for $130 ), and it includes the nuLink service. This uses AT&T's cell towers for real-time traffic, weather, Google poi search, map update notifications and unfortunately, ads.

Adding the OnStar-like button would be trivial as the 1690 and 1695 already constantly report your position. I wonder how easy it would be for emergency personnel to access that position from either Garmin or AT&T?

I would have to agree with RockNice on that one. It seems everytime I try to use the Bluetooth on my 1490T, I can never get it right and it always seems to conflict with the regular volume.

Looks like nüLink will be going the way of the MSN Direct service in the near future . . .

nuLink is being discontinued?

The mute button is a must. Other nice features would be for the Nuvi continue its destination when yiou add an in route address after you reach the 1st destination. Now if you stop at the 1st address and then continue, it is like you are starting all over again.

I did a quick Google search, and found nothing that indicates that nuLink is slated for discontinuation.

Even if Garmin should lose it's contract with AT&T, the radio is GSM, which would allow connection with other carriers like T-Mobile.

I would like to see a "Scenic" option under "Routing Preferences"

Yes I agree with the first request and for the second I can't see that it would be that hard to invoke a variable sound system as My Harley-Davidson motorcycle has this on it right from the factory. As I increase my speed it automaticly raises the sound & lowers it when I slow down.

A pause or mute feature would be great. One problem with the redlight POIs on my Nuvi 765T, is that when we travel in Chicago, especially in the loop and on the north side, every freaking redlight, on every block has a red light camera. So the warning voice goes into a loop as we are driving down the street and doesn't stop. This annoys the heck out of my wife, to the point where one day she reached over and ripped the power cord out of the dash to make it stop, only to have the Nuvi keep talking on battery power LOL!!! She was not amused.

Use a mini stereo patch cord to go from my 550 to AUX input on Harley radio. It works great.