Garmin Satnav offers (merged)

Sid_Harper

italiastar wrote:

You've summed it up in one - for just going from a to B the Garmin is definately the best - have you got one, as finding one will be the issue.

Having owned a Compaq PDA and a Tmobile MDA3 before I find most current PDAs an absolute pain for several reasons: screen resolution (QVGA 320x240), lack of keyboard, lack of landscape mode, lack of wifi, slooooow speed, no phone/GPRS capability, and runs Windows mobile 2003.

Advantage of all-in-one unit is you have all the functionality wherever you go. But is that what you need?

Nice thing about the Garmin is it does what it says on the box, it's tiny, and it's less than what it'd cost you to add on navigation onto a separate PDA. And the person with the car (my wife) can have the navigator, whereas the PDA user (who, for most people here, will not be using GPS most of the time) has a PDA to use.

I'm waiting for a decent PDA/phone combo which I think is most useful... the nearest thing yet is the MDA Vario but I bet they'll do a VGA version soon (640x480 screen) which will complete the feature set I want.

Yes the medion is good value - but it's a seriously out-of-date PDA spec.

All, of course, IMHO.

northern_munky

Warnie wrote:

Thanks Northern_Munky. I received an email from garmin with a walkthrough and it still comes back with the problem, no mention of the POI Loader causing problems but hey, they aren't going to mention that are they !! Many thanks for the info, I'll have to wait then !

Warnie, this is the older version which does work, its in German though but when you download it (click right at the bottom), you can set the language to English apparently, good luck.

http://www.garmin.dk/products/accept/5/1896/2161/

Brockyman

I got a Micromaxx PDA. The Manual seems to assume that a dock will be used for charging the unit. I didn't get one with mine, it is listed as an optional extra, did anyone else get one?
I got the unit to use GPS on my Mountain Bike (a few mountain bike clubs now make routes available to download). Does anyone know of anywhere to get hold of a bike/Handlebar mount at a reasonable price, the Medion one is £23.
Cheers
Ian.

deanos

No you dont geta cradle, check out Ebay they are cheap on there, search MIO 168

withabix

http://shirtpocket.co.uk/arkon-pda-bike-mounting-kit-cm627-p-257.html

Warnie

thanks NM, I think I've done it now, loaded something like 38,000 files !!! Cheers Is there anywhere on the Garmin you can check to see if they have loaded or is it just a case of waiting until you approach one ? !!!!

northern_munky

Warnie wrote:

thanks NM, I think I've done it now, loaded something like 38,000 files !!! Cheers Is there anywhere on the Garmin you can check to see if they have loaded or is it just a case of waiting until you approach one ? !!!!

Go to 'where to', then 'foods, hotels and more' and they should be there 'POI's' I think they show up as, click it and they are all listed. When I loaded my speed cams, it only did 7,000, have you loaded extra stuff on there as well?

Going_Digital

They show up as "custom points" or something like that.

dreaddan

Sid_Harper wrote:

Yes the medion is good value - but it's a seriously out-of-date PDA spec.

Seeing you seam to know about your stuff what do you think about the mio A 201?

Dan

Sid_Harper

Hi Dan - haven't seen that before... just looked up spec.

Pluses: Sirf III GPS and Windows Mobile 5, full SD/SDIO slot
Minuses: But still only a QVGA screen (320x200), no keyboard, no wifi, and slowish CPU at 312MHz

I must say it's well specced for a GPS PDA - and Googling shows some company selling at £230, which is pretty good value for what it is I'd say.

Having said that, for me I'd spend the same money on an MDA Vario (offline on eBay around £250) - i.e. lose the GPS in favour of the usability added by keyboard, wifi and mobile phone.

Or get a Dell X51v top-spec PDA with VGA screen and wifi.

Of course, it all really depends on what features you're most likely to want to use and under what circumstances. If you just want to carry your diary around with you and need to find new places often, then this MIO is great.

If you want a portable office in your pocket, and GPS when you're in the car, buy a separate sat-nav and a decent PDA/phone combo.

HTH.