New 295w owners

Welcome to the 295w Newcomer Club. At least, that's what it feels like for me, also about a 1-week newbie with mine. I think this Garmin forum is the correct place for you to have posted.

I'd love to see if anyone has a answer for your first question. All that I've been able to do is to capture names and email addresses from emails sent to my 295w to be added to a contact. I haven't started to manually enter other data and my contact list, even for email addresses, is still smaller than what I'll need it to be before I travel with it while being away from my PC.

Overall, I'm happy with mine for use as a backup GPS and for its wifi ability to do email, check weather, do Google Searches for "Where To?", etc. I also love the built-in compass, the powered base (rather than having to connect the cigarette lighter cord to the GPS each time it's installed/removed from a car dashboard as some nuvis require), etc. I haven't checked out the camera enough to see how much I like it. I call it my backup GPS since the screen is smaller than my 855, it doesn't have lane assist, junction view and isn't traffic-capable. Since I already have and use the 855, I wouldn't have bought (and doubt that I'd buy) a 295w for any price over $80-90 shipped. It also isn't what I'd recommend to folks as a 1st GPS. Also, as you may be noting, finding some of the features on the 295w is different than for most other nuvi models so that the first week of playing with it is more of a learning curve than I had expected.

You may want to looks here as well:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/32088

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/32066

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/31964

Hopefully, you got yours during Amazon's recent sale:
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/31925

PS--If you just got your 295w and are reading this in Jan-Feb 2011, you probably got it with the 2010.20 map and be due a free map update in the next 60 days. I suggest holding off for a week or two since the current 2011.30 map is probably going to be updated to 2011.40 soon.

PPS--the nuvi shares the same battery as the nuvifone G60. If you want a spare battery, eBay is a good source. I bought two batteries for $20 shipped and they work perfectly. The trick now on eBay is not to search for nuvi 295w battery but to look for nuvifone battery to find the lowest prices.

I had a chance to take a pic & email it from a dimly lit restaurant on Saturday. It was 2048 X 1536 pixels.
http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q297/spokybob/atboondocks...

To see if there is an answer other than typing them in one at a time.

Not sure if you know this or not spokybob. But if you did not intend it there is a way to turn off geotagging for your pictures. The picture you posted I was able to track to the exact location of where the picture was taken. Why is this bad? Say you have a facebook and you take a picture while at your house and upload it. Then you mention on your facebook hey everyone be back in a couple weeks I'm going on a road trip! This would let that person not only know you will be gone. BUT! also give them the exact location of your house. Joy,IL for the restaurant. Just a heads up.

There is no option that I have found for this. But! I did find an easier way than typing them in one by one! If you are using gmail simply go to your contacts then highlight copy and paste them into an email to your self. (the email address your using on your garmin 295w) then send it. Then check your email on your 295w and you can click on each one and then select save as contact! Hope that helps. Also please take note to the warning I posted above this. I think it's vital to help keep your house from being robbed!

That is a great tip TDS, but I have never seen the option to 'Save As Contact'. Am I missing something?!

my quotation was a little off. it says "Add as a New Contact" when you get the email from your self it will take a sec for each of the emails to load and they will turn blue (link colored) then you can just click on each one. And do the above. =) And thanks!

Is this just for gmail users? My email is a POP account and I see no way to do what you're doing.

I can save names and email addresses with "Add to Contacts" and "Add as a New Contact" but that wouldn't import more than first and last name and email address. Are gmail users able to add the full contact info (address, phone, etc.) assuming that the gmail contact info includes these fields?

Whew, so much to learn.

I guess the next question we have is where is this contact info stored on the 295w after we create a list of Contacts? Will a full nuvi file backup to a computer hard drive backup the Contact List? If so, what's the file name?

I don't use POP mail so I can't answer that. And unfortunetly no it doesn't import phone/name/ etc. Just the email. I tried looking for a folder or any file on the GPS but didn't find one. So my guess is it's enclosed in another file.

Another idea is for POP users to look and see if there is an export button for your contacts in the program you are using. If so see if it will let you save it as a text document. if so you can copy and paste that. I am going to try something here and see if it works. since i did not try last time. im going to send my self and email like this

email address
first-name last name
adress
city,state zip
phone number

of course with my real info.. and then see if it will allow me to import all of that at once.

Ah, then it's OK since my method will also do the limited first/last name and email address import.

I've Googled for info on file names but found nothing on any internal file names for the 295w. Maybe with time, someone will determine and post the names, etc.

Another question on the geo-tagged photos. I sent one to myself and agree that the EXIF data can include lat/long, etc. I think that the default for the 295w is to not gather this data when taking images. I remember having to turn it on in the 295w (along with receiving a warning).

But the question I have is with the date stamp on the photo. The photo appeared to have been taken hours later than it was. I have my 295w set for auto time zone adjustment (the default) but wonder if the EXIF data time stamp on photos is maybe GMT and not local time. Anyone know?

Oh wait, I see from Wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchangeable_image_file_format

that:
There is no way to record time-zone information along with the time, thus rendering the stored time ambiguous. implying that maybe we are looking at GMT times on the images.

k I tried it a lot of dif ways. But with no luck. The only thing the 295w will recognize in the email is the email address and phone number.

so unfortunately physical addresses and names still have to be put in manually.

Can't say I do? but I also don't see where you were able to set a time stamp or view one? I also saved it to my computer and right clicked and went to properties and then advanced but still don't see time data on it. unless you mean just going to properties on the picture and seeing the date created and modified etc. which I've never relied on.

Aha, further sleuthing confirms that the EXIF data timestamp on photos is UTC or GMT.

For me, I view timestamp (and lat/long) in Photoshop. Open the image, then click File/FileInfo/EXIF. I see the timestamp in the full sized photo I emailed to myslef from my 295w. The link to spokybob's image was resized smaller by either him or the web site and posted--the resized image retained its lat/long info but lost the 295w's timestamp either during the resizing or the posting to the web. Try taking an image with your 295w with geotagging turned on and email it to yourself, then try to look at the properties. If you're viewing Properties with Windows 7 by right-clicking the photo, look for the Origin/DateTaken field within Details which includes date and time.

Tell me how to view the location of the pic. I have heard of the geotag dangers, but I plan on using that info for myself. The restaurant was a good place to try it out.

Spoky,

I think you posted your comment as I was composing my reply to tdsj. Does the info I give in the post above yours help?

Heck, hey guys, is this a POI and GPS web site or are we turning it to a photo site Heaven help us if Miss POI slaps our wrists...

And what is OP jonzim going to start thinking of us?

k, I opened one of mine in photoshop and found the time and it had the right time on it. And the way I found spokybobs location was I saved his picture to my computer and then emailed it to my 295w and when I opened it, it had the thumbtack on the picture and I clicked it and it showed me on the map where it was taken.

Thanks, now I've learned another thing from you. How interesting that our 295w will take geotagged images and show their location on the GPS map. Wow. That does make your earlier warning even more important...

lol you're welcome. And for a future reference as well it does not only work with the nuvi 295w! I have pulled a couple pictures off of social sites and received emails with pictures in them that do the exact same thing! So it is not only limited to finding pictures taken by nuvi uses. But Iphone users and others that have automatic geo-tagging features on their camera's/phone!..

I emailed the original pic that was saved on the 295. My windows XP does not display the lat/long and indeed shows the time as Greenwich. I went back to the 295 and found I could send the location & include the pic as attachment. Then I opened with Mapsource.
I will try some other pic software to see if the location and local time will appear. There has to be a good way.

Not sure what you are trying to do? Are you trying to remove the location info from the pic? or are you just trying to view the location info? or are you wanting to do like we did and see it on a map? etc.

I want to see the location when I send the pics to my pc.

Honestly I can't remember how. The gps was kind of set up to do that when I first got it and when I sent pics to my email on the computer it would include the nearest address that it thought I was at. But now I can't get it to come back up...

I installed Google's Picasa. I had to be careful about the settings. It scanned ALL my thousands of pics on my PC and organized them by year. That is a great idea. I transferred my nuvi295 pics to a folder on the PC. Bingo. The google map is next to the pic with a pin. Just what I want.
I have to decide if I want to set the time on my Canon camera to local or GMT.

In your 295w, open a geotagged image, then click the thumbtack, then the three horiz bars (that bring up the further "choices" window), then click "Send Location". That'll let you email the location with a position.gpx attachment and text that says:

Sent from location near: xxxx ZYX St
XXXX, ST ZIP
United States

The position.gpx file can be used in Mapsource to pull up the location on your computer's map, then you can even do a Mapsource "View in Google Earth" to bring up the satellite image.

I haven't found a way (but that doesn't mean there isn't one) to email the jpg image and the "Sent from a location near..." text simultaneously. To send the image in an email, just tap the "Share" button when the image is being displayed.

I knew I would get a response, but not like this. Thanks for all the great ideas. It is quite an interesting unit. Been exploring all the features and really like it. The Amazon price of $62 was hard to pass up. Wish I would have bought another! I too am waiting for the newest map update for my free download. The geocacheing is an intereting feature, but don't see a need for it now. And, I will make sure it is off when sharing a photo. I have input a few contacts for now and will try the method above of sending myself my list. Thanks again for all the good information!!
Jon

The nuvi 295w just went "Discontinued" on the Garmin site. Bummer...

I was wondering when it was going to occur. At least now my 295w can't feel superior to my 750 or 855 since all three are now discontinued.

Hmm, I wonder if the 295w is unique among nuvi models in that it never received a firmware update before being discontinued...

The discontinued list sure has got pretty long.

What happens now? I am not sure what that means to me.

Nothing, just means they have quit manufacturing new 295W's.

It very well may unique in that respect, as well as others. I don't recall of any others that were essentially sold under a different model number. Think about it, since it was released as a Garmin Nuvifone, but then re-released as a Garmin Nuvi 295W, it probably is very unique. I wonder what they did to disable the GSM cellular portion of this? Depending on what they did, perhaps it can be restored!

Just yesterday I hooked mine up to register it, and it said that a software update was available.

Was that through your myGarmin account? Software updates include new vehicles, voice updates, etc., many of which you may not want.

Using WebUpdater, you'll be given the choice to chose which downloads to accept. Using WebUpdater, no firmware updates exist for the 295w. I think there were two English Language voice updates that I accepted--plus many new vehicles, non-English languages, etc. that I ignored.

It may have wanted to update your map as well. Hold out until the new one is out sometime this month. Then you will have the latest.

I got my 295W on January 27 and used Webupdater that same day. It did a software update to version 7.46

Mine came around the same time and had 7.46 on it.

Ah so there was a firmware update for some. Thanks for the info. Like jonzim, my recent arrival of a 295w came with the 7.46 from the factory.

I got mine from Amazon and the map is CN North America NT 2010.20 What map version did yours come with?

Mine has the same version,2010.20. Waiting for the latest sometime this month to take advantage of the onetime free update.

I will wait for the new one to come out.

Me too. Garmin says that I have till March 29.

I am also waiting to update. I am also tempted to do the lifetime map update purchase. I hope to have this 295w for a few years. Bringing a Garmin phone to Verizon would hasten my move away from the 295, but I don't see that happening too soon.

".....Bringing a Garmin phone to Verizon would hasten my move away from the 295, but I don't see that happening too soon....."

Yes, and no. I suspect that the forthcoming Asus phones with Garmin embedded navigation will be GSM (AT&T and/or T-Mobile), but technically the Verizon iPhones could have Garmin StreetPilot turning your iPhone into a full-featured GPS navigation device. I suspect one of the shortcomings to be aware of is CDMA technology will not currently allow simultaneous telephone calls AND data usage. I have read that will be changing soon, but for now GSM is the choice if that is an issue for you.

http://www8.garmin.com/apps/

Hi All,
New nüvi 295W noobie here, too.

Tried to use SyncAgent. When launched, it can't find a device no matter which way the unit is coupled via usb.
Gosh darnit! I have a dirt cheap LG Accolade VX6500PP from Verizon and with little webwork, I discovered I could effortlessly swap contacts and calendars between Outlook and the phone, bilaterally.

How much G60 was stripped from this unit? I don't know for sure, but they both run Linux. The sim slot has been gummed shut. There are interesting hints in the 295W software that suggest the unit hasn't been deeply crippled but I am in no position to tear this baby down to look for missing SMD chips or antennas.

Still, I am very fascinated by the 'under-the-hood' test pages.

Looking forward to more fun & games!

Cheers!

Yep you and a lot of others have had the same experience. Looks like hoping for a solution is just whistling in the wind.

Well, I suppose some hacker may have found a way to replace the firmware or some such but I have no interest in searching for something like that.

That is an interesting tidbit. Given the cost of labor and the presumably narrow margin of profit on this. (Actually, there might not be ANY, but maybe they are just trying to cut their losses!) I am assuming that they didn't do much to disable the GSM on this. Maybe all they did is gum the SIM card holder shut. Wouldn't that be ironic. I suppose it had to have some firmware change, or else it would display AT&T on power up. I know my G60 does and I use it (carrier subsidy unlocked) on T-Mobile.

If you only use your 295w as a GPS in a vehicle powered by the cigarette lighter adapter, then you need read no further. But for those who occasionally use their 295w hiking or in pedestrian mode for GPS features as well as for its 3MP camera and wifi features of email, weather checking, etc. in coffee shops, etc., then this may be of interest.

eBay typically has a small number of relatively high priced items to be used with the 295w when searching for nuvi 295w items. But eBay also has pages of items available for the nuvifone G60 and these work well with the 295w. nuvifone G60 (295w) batteries can be found for $10, silicone skin cases for under $4 (these skin cases allow all features of the 295w to work except that the case would need to be removed to fit into the automobile charger mount), etc., etc.

So for folks looking for a wide variety of cases, chargers, batteries, screen protectors, etc. for their nuvi 295w, I suggest a search on eBay for nuvifone G60 items rather than nuvi 295w items.

I now have two new spare batteries, a hard case, and a silicone skin case that offers a lot of protection while still allowing USB charging, photo taking, wifi use, etc. while in its case. Including S&H, my total cost was under $30. Amazon.com on the other hand, charges over $39 for a single battery.

Most items can be found in Buy It Now mode with a few auction mode offerings. All that I purchased was a BIN with free S&H from reputable Sellers in the USA with quick shipping. As always, check the feedback of Sellers before buying on eBay--and if the Seller is in Hong Kong or China, know that it'll take a bit longer to receive the item ordered.

http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=p3984.m570.l1313&_nk...

For the items offered as Buy It Now or Best Offer, be sure to try offering less than's being asked!

Thanks for the additional information. In fact, I DO use my Garmin Nuvifone G60 in my pickup truck with the cigarette lighter adapter, BUT I had been considreing additional accessories anyway. One of my questions some weeks back was if the device could be charged while in the silicone case. While I am slightly disappointed that it cannot be used in the cradle with the slicone case, I am now satisfied knowing that it cannot be done.

I would also be interested in hearing what the battery life is for users. I orginally bought my Garmin Nuvifone G60 for both a phone and a GPS, but I found out rather quickly that GPS use depleted the battery rather quickly.

In comparison, my Garminfone (AKA Nuvifone A50) finds locations quicker when used in the pedestrian mode. If I recall correctly, the Garminfone uses BOTH satellite GPS signals AND cellular signals for positioning. I beleive that the cellular signals are quicker, but less accurate than satellite signals. Thus, the GSM tower fix (cellular) can narrow down the locaton, but actual GPS data (slower) improves accuracy.

That was great info for the accessories to be found on eBay. I will have to check that out. Thanks for sharing!

Regarding battery, I have the unit set to do a soft shut down after one minute of inactivity. My wifi is always active, but only checks for email once an hour. The GPS is always on. I shut both wifi and GPS off at night, leaving the unit in soft shut down mode. In this routine. I can get 3-4 days of use without recharge. That is sufficient for me. With frequent use in car and on the car charger, the battery goes even longer.