Time to buy a new GPS

[Big_Richard]

the old tomtom go720 has pissed me off for the last time, the battery has completely failed and the 3rd cigarette power adapter has now failed too.

Crossing forevermore tomtom off my shopping list, what is the best GPS out there on the market at the moment?

The garmin nuvi 1690 looks reasonable, but i don't want to get stung buying only on high price and getting an expensive, buggy piece of shit twice.

required for work so price doesn't matter.

[nathan]

ive got a nuvi which has served me well on the new streets of melbourne. however, these darn things get updated so quickly mine already looks ancient after 1 year. i have a tom tom in box i got with my new michelins. ill swap you for one of your v12 amps!

[arman]

http://reviews.cnet.com/best-gps/

Besides the 2 tomtoms their are three others to choose from...

I can't help you much as I own a tomtom myself and I'm not very impressed of it either. The GPS works fine, but not the added features.

Best of luck!

[Big_Richard]

no more tom tom for me, thanks.  

I guess being on the road every single day and using it several times a day has given it more of a work out than the average joe would. Even the USB port is getting loose from the 50,000 or so times its been plugged and unplugged from the car and the computer for updates etc. I only just put the latest map on it too, for $100 or something like that.

It was purchased in the 9th month of 2008, i really don't think its been long enough to already need to be cracked open and repaired - that's simply an unacceptable time frame I'm afraid.

It's looking quite convincingly that garmin is the one to go for.

[another sad 280s]

i've got navigon on my iphone and for $80 it is better quicker easier and more current than a $600 standalone that my boss uses

[flutes]

I'm holding out for Google Maps Navigation on that HTC Desire (stupid name) I'm planning on getting next month...

[Big_Richard]

Having played with iphones quite a bit lately, I honestly cant see why they're so popular at all. Main irritations are no multitasking, the worst onscreen keyboard I've ever experienced - they seem a bit gimmicky and offer little value other than for fashion.

walk around in the Perth city, the only thing you see is blackberry bold 9000's, they seem to be the only thing business's buy now. Having been issued one myself i can see why though.

HTC, well, I've never heard anything but hatred and yelled abuse when people are forced to use those

EDIT: having just read my telstra news, i see that the HTC desire runs android, which makes it a very decent device, unlike the junk that company used to sell.

[flutes]

Yep it's the Android factor that's got me interested.  My current phone runs an old Win Mobile which is terrible.

I'm used to a real keyboard so we'll see how that touch-screen thing goes ... you'll probably see a shiny phone-sized object being hurled at high speed out of a w116 next month!

[TJ 450]

Interesting. I'm about to upgrade my plan/phone and have been considering the Blackberry bold 9000... I wasn't too sure about the HDTs. My current phone(s) are a PITA and I need good regional reception/Next G.

I'm not fond of iPhones at all and just about everything else seems pointless, bar some of the no frills Nokias.

I'm pretty happy with my sister's Tomtom... it has done the job so far and it has had more use now than ever.

Tim

[flutes]

Tim I've always thought there's a gap in the market there in no-frills - what I'd love is a thin, super responsive, well designed phone that does nothing but make calls, send text messages and check/send emails - with a simple user interface.  The screen could be monochrome for all I care and I really don't want the camera, SD card, photos, AM/FM radio and all that other junk.

The problem is "no-frills" is associated with "cheap crap" in the phone companies' minds, and so all the no-frills phones have design cues that identify them as cheap phones to differentiate them from their more expensive brethren.  While I have no idea whether there would be enough of a market for this sort of product the profit margins on the manufacturing would have to make it attractive.

But anyway, back on topic, I have nothing to add about nav systems.

[another sad 280s]

the gps i borrowed was a tom tom. apparently it told my boss to  turn left while he was on the middle of the bolte bridge. it's also like having a three year old navigator who says, turn left as you are driving past the street. no notice at all. that's the one thing that really bugged me about it. not a problem with navigon.
on the topic of the iphone i never thought that i would love it as much as i have. awesome keyboard and apps that i have in some instances come to depend on. however yes the lack of multitasking is quite an oversight for what is a very expensive 3rd generation phone

[koan]

the gps i borrowed was a tom tom. apparently it told my boss to  turn left while he was on the middle of the bolte bridge.

Don't leave us hanging, did he?

Most likely same problem as mine, ancient software, so old its missing one freeway and a couple of changes to others, and probably a few new suburbs.

If I head north it insists on Sydney Rd which would have to be the one of the most congested routes in Melbourne.

None of this is a concern as I only ever use it at the end of a journey to get me to street and house number in an unfamiliar area which it does accurately.

This is Tom tom running on an HP PDA, with GPS on it eats batteries, also slow to get a fix initially even with the fast GPS app periodically getting new keps.

About to get an iPhone because the PDA battery is stuffed and rather than buy a new one I'll get a new phone on a better deal, more calls and data for about the same money.

Why an iPhone? Because we have two in the house already and they are good.

koan

[Big_Richard]

i update my tomtom regularly and have the latest map on it.

it too has made some stupid instructions lately, such is deviating from the mainroad, to go into side streets, only to return to the same main road 100 meters down the road.

i wholeheartedly suspect though, its some clueless douche bag(s) applying corrections for whatever reason, and then sharing out these erroneous "corrections"

If i bother to crack open this piece of junk to change the battery, ill do a clean install and disable map share corrections to eliminate the possibility of other peoples stupidity ruining my gps adventures.

It would probably also explain why some 60 zones come up with a speed limit of 100km/h on the screen, try telling the cops that one for an excuse, i doubt that'll work!