Would You Consider An iPad Mini With Garmin StreetPilot Onboard Instead Of A Traditional GPS?

My husband is an Apple junkie -- every iPhone, a bunch of iPads, a Mac tower and a laptop. There's probably more I can't remember. He spends a lot of time (hours!) sync'ing all the devices or being on the phone with their great techniqcal support.

I do not have the hours of time he has for all the fuss.

The GPS is one electronic I prefer to have standalone. Easier to troubleshoot and easier to learn all its functions.

Having seen all the specs, I have to say I am underwhelmed by the new iPad Mini. I have an iPod Touch, iPhone 4S and iPad 2 so there is no need for it. Plus I think it is overprice and underfeatured. No even retina display and I am not terribly thrilled with the Lightning connector. Apple appears to have gone to great lengths to make sure only Apple approved devices will be allowed to use that connector at a premium price.

If you do objective tests of GPS performance, I suspect you'll find similar results as I have when I tested other tablets with built-in GPS receivers. That said, I would think that newer tablets would likely have improved GPS performance, especially one from a company like Google that is actively developing and promoting its nav app. There is no "magic" in making a tablet with GPS receiver performance equal to, or better than, standalone PNDs, since the latest GPS receiver technology is certainly available to the manufacturer; they simply have to give sufficient priority to GPS functionality during the development process.

You are a smart lady. Too many people are wasting far too much time and money on this stuff, for no practical reason other than they think it's "cool." Considering the extra overhead of all that fiddling, they certainly are not gaining any overall productivity; in fact, just the opposite is usually the case.

If you think the google maps/nav combo works just as well as any PND, then:
1. You haven't really thoroughly tested google maps/nav under a variety of circumstances, and
2. You probably haven't experienced the significant limitations of google's map tile caching scheme, and
3. You are not familiar with how well the latest PNDs from Garmin, TomTom, or Magellan work. Even Garmin's low-end PNDs beat the google maps/nav combo in many criteria.

I will continue to use my Garmin until I see vast improvements with the smartphone technology.

I've posted my opinion on stand alone vs other devices and viability of WiFi only devices.

My question is where do you mount a device as large as an iPad or even a 7" tablet? On the dash, it seems, your view is obstructed and anywhere else forces your eyes off the road.

Have the new iPad. The iPad mini is an over-priced toy.

I think a nexus 7 tablet for $199 would do this for far less.

You eyes (and more importantly, your attention) are distracted from the road no matter where a nav device is mounted. Even if it was a head-up display projected onto the windshield, it would still be a distraction from the road. It's only a matter of the degree. The nav unit that offers the very least possible distraction would be one that provides all the information needed, with exactly the correct timing, in the voice directions, which makes the display size and location irrelevant, as long as the driver doesn't make new manual inputs to it while driving (and voice recognition commands can go a long way toward reducing that part of the problem).

FWIW, I have a 16" 1366x768 display mounted with the left edge to the right of the center (radio) stack, angled so that it faces the driver, and for me it is less of a distraction (because it's easier to focus on it) than a smaller display mounted closer. In this location, I have room for a display as large about 12.8" vertical, which translates into a 22" diagonal screen. I have a 22" 1920x1080 display slated to replace the 16" display when I get time to swap it. While this isn't going to work for people with "normal" cars, it works well for me.

How people comment on things they nothing about.

If you don' t know what your talking about, and make a comment
Then your just starting a rumor. Beside for spreading false info
It dosn't do much for the poster's credability for future posts.
Mis-information can impact your fellow community member's
Purchase plans.

I'm considering going to the Tom Tom for the iPad and iPhone. From what I was reading it downloads the maps daily as they change via wifi or when you connect your apple device to your pc.
If you do use the cellular it updates the traffic every 2 minutes and offers several alternative routes if there is a traffic jam ahead.
I've been getting tainted on my last 3 garmin devices. The map driving times ar allways stgnificantly off where they used to be fairy reliable. The new maps have many bugs that they havn't fixed in over 2 years. Ever since they went to the area maps I have had 4 spots in south florida that every time i drive past them my garmin in both of my cars and my fiancees car the GPS's reboot. So i'm probably going the iphone route soon

As a minor clarification, the actual TomTom maps do not download daily. The US map is over 2GB, so that would take more time than the value added. The updates of the whole map with updating screened by TomTom normally occur every three months.

What downloads daily is the Mapshare corrections. These are corrections that are input from other users, and the file size each day is much, much smaller - thus making it a more practical proposition. You can choose the level of trust you apply to these inputs from other people. You can accept input from a single person, from multiple users, or from user input checked by TomTom.

The down side of this is that a correction from a single person may be in error, either accidentally or by malicious intent. However, if you require multiple inputs, or inputs checked by TomTom, the speed with which the corrections make it onto your device is reduced. It becomes a judgment on your part as to what trust level to accept.

I'm not dissing the merits of Mapshare, just attempting to clarify that you will not be getting exactly what you described above. (FWIW, my own devices are all from TomTom, so I am not saying this as a fanboy for someone else's hardware or software.)

With best wishes,
- Tom -

For me using the stand alone GPS is the best.

No extra cables - power and that's it - with the normal mounting suction cup done deal!

Please refrain from referring to other users who's ideas many vary from yours as "fan-boys","trolls" or any other belittling term.

You are all intelligent users and are capable of articulating your thoughts without resorting to juvenile back and forth insults.

This stands for all apple/non-apple threads.

~Angela

How does StreetPilot know its location and thus provide directional info?

Correct. All current lithium batteries experience significant reduction in calendar lifespan if kept fully charged in warm temperatures. Best calendar lifespan is at about half-charge (~40% SoC) and at around 40°F (i.e.: in the refrigerator). See "Table 3: Estimated recoverable capacity when storing Li-ion for one year at various temperatures" here: http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_li...

Especially if the manufacturer of the tablet designed it so that battery replacement is very difficult (perhaps in an effort to encourage the purchase of a new tablet when the battery inevitably fails), like this: http://guide-images.ifixit.net/igi/nmX2BhMa16OPRgNP.medium "Use a heat gun to evenly heat up the two thirds of the outside of the rear case nearest the volume buttons." (ref.: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Installing-iPad-2-Wi-Fi-Battery/...)
Removing the battery from an iPad "only" takes these 47 steps: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Installing-iPad-2-Wi-Fi-Battery/...

Now we know the specs we can answer the original question.

The Mini will not be able to navigate with Garmin or any other app since it doesn't have an internal GPS

The WiFi + cellular versions have GPS receiver just like their full size brothers.
http://www.apple.com/ipad/compare/

You are correct, you can buy an iPad mini with an internal GPS, but at nowhere near the same price point as other 7 inch tablets with GPS. It's about a $100 price difference just because it says Apple and then another $100 or so to have the same functionality as a Nexus 7 WiFi only tablet. Flaco and the others are correct when they state the iPad Mini WiFi doesn't have GPS and currently there are no GPS Dongles being advertised using the new connector, so the answer is still no. You can't get a WiFi only iPad with GPS without spending additional cash.

...unless you use an external GPS receiver (bluetooth in this case), just as is needed with any other iOS or Android device or Windows laptop that does not have an internal GPS receiver. The latest external GPS receivers (i.e.: SIRF4) almost always offer better GPS performance than the typical tablet internal GPS receiver, which is compromised in part by the space available and where the tablet itself has to be located.

As mentioned above, there is a cost tradeoff compared to a device like the Nexus or other tablets that do have internal GPS receivers. There may also be a convenience tradeoff using a Bluetooth GPS because any add'l wireless device will have another battery that must be recharged.

Nobody is selling a dongle with the new connector so you can't.

Ever hear of Bluetooth? Garmin makes a stand-alone GPS receiver that will work just fine with devices that don't have a GPS receiver in them. Bad Elf makes one too. So you don't need to worry about dongles or connectors and still have a wifi device and have the same experiences as those dongled devices get with GPS data getting to the device via Bluetooth.

This still doesn't address the point that no one is selling a dongle with the new connector, As for the Bluetooth model, when you add the $180 list to the price of an iPad mini, you can buy two of the WiFi units that do have Bluetooth built-in. I notice Bad Elf uses the MTK chip set in their Bluetooth model so their units wouldn't necessarily be any more sensitive than a tablet with an internal chip set from MTK. The manufacturer of my WiFi tablet doesn't publish the manufacturer of the GPS chipset, so I would assume it's an MTK as well. There are many manufacturers that don't want to pay the royalty premium to SiRF for their chipset.

No, Garmin still can't get its Nuvi/Oregon (ver 6.0) products right ... and they expect that users would will be willing to buy Garmin "technology " on an Apple platform? And that doesn't even begin to consider the iPhad issues...

I have a Dual Electronics XGPS150 Universal Bluetooth GPS Receiver for iPad. Works great.

You will never convince someone who holds the opposite view.

I hope to always be able to use a stand-alone GPSr. I feel they just work better than an app on an iPhone, iPad, Kindle, BlackBerry, or anything else.

But I really don't expect to convince someone who is enamored with Apple products.

Have you ever used anything else besides a stand alone GPSr?

You're right... you can't convince someone who holds an opposite view... especially those rooted in emotion... "I feel they just work better..."

And I know anyone who is predisposed to dislike Apple having never owned or used Apple products will never give up their bigoted views ether...they'll always "feel" their way is the better way, and anyone who doesn't toe that line is an idiot.

The times you mentioned above are typical for standalone PNDs. The PNDs I've tested usually get a fix in the time it takes them to boot up, so they are ready to go as soon as you get to their main screen. Not so for the Android tablets I've tested, which typically take upwards of 2 minutes (after boot up) to first fix when 'looking' at a clear blue sky. TTFF is upwards of four minutes in a more compromised location, such as inside looking out through a sliding glass door.

But apparently the Nexus 7 has a better GPS receiver...
http://www.thriveforums.org/forum/toshiba-thrive-vs-others/1...

Well, I was just wondering what the best or some of the best Android tablets of similar size are right now to compare to the iPad Min1 and maybe the Nexus 7 is it. Well, at least for now!

Hybrid devices with GPS capabilities like smart phones and tablets consume way too much power than dedicated GPSs and have more primitive user interfaces. I will stick to my Nuvi for my GPS needs!

I totally agree too. However, I just got a Samsung Galaxy 3S phone (my first Smartphone), and have been playing around with the navigation on this thing. It will never replace my Nuvi's, for function usability and everything else they do, but for just going from point A to point B, this thing works pretty darn good, and I am more impressed with it's navigation than I thought I would be.

Arghhhh!

Even though I enjoy using my iPad 3, iPhone 4 and iMac, and now considering also to get an ipad mini. I still prefer using a standalone garmin for navigation. The iPad mini would still be too large on the dashboard. How would you sync the custom poi's from this site into the garmin streetpilot onboard app?

What the heck does that mean?

Garmin USA on my iPhone looks and acts like a Garmin GPSr for the most part.

That is the beginning of the death knell of standalone GPS units.

Witness I recently updated the map database in my Nuvi. It was a 2 1/2 hour download, it took a long time to install after that. Waste of time!

On a smartphone, or Idevice, none of that goes on.

There is enough smarts in the thing that it updates it's maps on wifi and that all works great. Much better and more efficient.

Standalone GPS is nearly dead. And it's not coming back. Garmin knows this!

I continue to want a dedicated device and will until such a time that a multifunction device works as well and as conveniently. At this time, none are even close.

How do you know none are close? And how will you know?

The multifunction devices I own work as good as my dedicated PND, however for day to day RLC warning I rely on my hardwired 260, for long trips I prefer my 2460 and for short trips around town to unknown locations I like either my iPhone/Touch(no data plan) or my Nexus7

If it requires that I have a data plan, I would not. As a Canadian traveling in the US, the roaming data fees would be too expensive.

I also still like my little NUVI 350.

Sorry, I am not an Apple person. I will stick with traditional GPS.

If I'm going to use my android for a moving map display, how can I use it to view key engine indicators being transmitted from my car computer. Sometimes one device just can't be used to do it all even thought it may have the functionality.

I would stick with a stand alone GPS myself. Same reason I never liked those TV with DVD combo's.

I still prefer a traditional GPS than a multifunctional device

So how many years has it been we've been talking about the beginning of the end of standalone gps?

Just because a manufacturer releases a newer product, doesn't mean the older one is obsolete. Even though the temptation is real strong, you don't have to have the newest and shiniest version out there.

Wait, yes it does.

When the discussions first popped up, the alternatives in technology were not quite ready for prime-time... now, they are - for those willing to set-aside their prejudices, and outright falsely held notions about needs for data plans, etc.

I prefer a standalone GPS for now, but that may change as the devices change. Not a big Apple fan as of yet either. So no right now I would not consider it.

I believe more of the objections were to the converged device vice the single purpose device. The inference they were "not quite ready for prime time" is that generally converged devices do not perform the function of a single purpose device as well. The other major objection was the question of reliability. With separate devices you only loose the functions of the failed device rather than all services.

I don't want anything from Apple