No more auto GPS (as we've come to know it)

[krw]

I'm surprised it even had a dial. My grandmother still had her "hello, Mabel" model as late as the '60s.

[The Daring Dufas]

Many years ago, one of my Yankee Italian aunts was driving along with her son when a car suddenly came at them head on. My aunt started screaming, took her hands off the steering wheel and covered her face. My cousin grabbed the steering wheel and steered the car to safety. It became a family legend to be told every holiday. ^_^

TDD

[The Daring Dufas]

Rotary dial phones are an ancient mystery to the children of today. o_O

TDD

[Kurt Ullman]

I love the part about traffic features. Kept me out of a couple major jams roaming on Interstates. I, too have some concerns with them in rural areas. Although I find if I keep it on fastest instead of shortest route, they tend to be a little more comprehensible. I also like the part where it tells you which lane to get in about a mile ahead of time. Especially useful driving through ATL in general and other places where the Interstate-to-Interstate interchange runs off to the left instead of the right.

I still find some interesting quirks. We were out on the Indiana Uplands Wine Trail last year with a group and we were in two cars. For one winery, the two GPSs (one Tom Tom and one Garmin) indicated two different places about 30 miles apart for the same address. Looked around for a bit and finally used an older version (the MarkI Gas Station) and found it right across the street about half way between the two. This was on the built up outskirts of Anderson and not in the rural areas.

[Kurt Ullman]

You obviously never got held up in the wilds of some state because the two semis came together on the rural Interstate. I have had my Tom Tom tell me about backups in the middle of nowhere, although I think that tends to be more useful in areas with a strong 511 system statewide.

[Frank]

It is a Garmin Nuvi 1450LMT and cost about $125 on sale at Best Buy on line before Christmas. It has a 5 inch screen and you can get a 4 incher, something like 1350LMT for about $15 less. I bought one of the latter for my son's birthday as he was calling us occasionally while in his car for us to get on line and give him directions.

My wife has an older Nuvi without maps and traffic and using it last year to go to a friends wedding anniversary celebration it worked great but a bridge was out for repair and we had to turn off the gps as it kept wanting to steer us back to the outage. Not sure how my new one would react to this situation.

Roads don't change that often but businesses and other points of interest do. A map upgrade currently costs about $75 so the lifetime maps option is a good thing.

When you first get the Nuvi, you plug it into your computer and register with Garmin and they update maps and will send you a notice when new maps are available. Someone in the Garmin ng said this could happen 4 times a year.

[Jules Richardson]

:-) I've still got a couple that I want to hook up[1] one day when they eventually make it out of storage - IIRC one was built in 1962 and the other one 1947. The older one has no internal bell, but I have an external ringer (a wooden box with a couple of bells on top) which I should be able to make work with it.

[1] possibly with some interface box of tricks to get them talking to the modern system...

cheers

Jules

[dpb]

Indeed, I didn't think there was anywhere in the US that hadn't replaced pulse w/ tone dialing.

Folks still had old rotaries when we came back and despite the rental that could have had a new one for no additional cost any time, the units were so worn out that had to physically return the dial to the starting position because springs were totally kaput.

We did replace them and cancel the rental and SWBell announced shortly after that pulse was going away (roughly 10-11 yr ago now).

I'm still not into the carry-the-stinkin'-phone-around 24/7 though and never will be. I do carry it when travel or if really have some need, but other than that it lives on the sideboard in the dining room until I want it.

--

[Stormin Mormon]

Might work fine. I remember when tone fones came out, they kept the rotary "pulse dialing". Some modern phones have a choice T or P, for tone or pulse dialilng.

Hook em up, try it out. I bet it works without modification.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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:-) I've still got a couple that I want to hook up[1] one day when they eventually make it out of storage - IIRC one was built in 1962 and the other one 1947. The older one has no internal bell, but I have an external ringer (a wooden box with a couple of bells on top) which I should be able to make work with it.

[1] possibly with some interface box of tricks to get them talking to the modern system...

cheers

Jules

[krw]

I have, but as you say, it depends on the reporting which in the wilds is nonexistent.

I've used my cell phone a bit more around here, over the past few days. I'm not sure what the problem is but I've become more disenchanted with it. In the far burbs (of Atlanta) it (the navigation feature) seems to lock up constantly. If I cancel the navigation and start over it does fine, so I don't think it's losing connection. I may have to buy SWMBO another GPS. :-( ...and this time it WON'T be a Magellan.

[krw]

There is no way to delete/mark-no-go a segment of the trip and recalculate the route?

Actually, that's been my problem with too many map programs (DeLorme Street Atlas is horrible). They don't add new streets nearly often enough. My street still doesn't exist, though it went in over five years ago. Same deal for the house we're moving to.

Neat. This sounds like a winner. Amazon has it for $120.

[Kurt Ullman]

I haven't had any major problems with TomTom except for a couple areas around the Miami Cruise Port. The streets are a little cramped with big buildings and it seems as though it loses lock with enough satellites. Of course, if you ever driven the MCP, the signage isn't exactly the greatest, either. So, I was doubly lost

[Frank]

I have not explored all the options of the gps but believe that if there is a street or address not on the map, that when you are there you can mark and record the location to get back to it. Someone told me years ago he did this when his son moved to a new house. You should be able to get map coordinates to give out to someone to enter into their gps.

Besides the Nuvi, I have a Garmin Etrex I use for hunting. It was more expensive and maps were not detailed enough so I bought US street maps for another $90 and later found I could go to a site where area contour maps were free. The Etrex can be used in a car but will not talk directions to you and without voice is difficult to use as you don't want to be always looking at it.

When I hunt, I mark where I park and mark where my stand is in the field. I gave an old Etrex without maps to my brother in law and he'll mark where he parked his car.

You can get anything you want in a gps. One son has a built in one in his Mercedes and with blue tooth and voice commands you can just turn it on and tell it where you want to go. The system broke down and was repaired under warranty and the dealer told him that if not for the warranty, it would have cost him $3,000.

Kids are telling me now they can use their cell phones as gps's and with aps can get map and voice directions. Of course the kids are paying $100+ per month for phones with all these bells and whistles. Not for this old man ;)

[Jules Richardson]

That and these are UK phones (the newer one's a GPO 706, the older one - if I remember right - a GPO 232). They're still designed for strowger exchanges, but I expect that there are a few differences between such exchanges in the US and UK such that something will be needed to translate. I *think* the voice transmission side of it is the same, but actually dialling might need a little help.

Mine's been in the bottom of a box in the office closet since I moved over here in 2007, and I don't really miss it. Every once in a while I'll borrow my wife's cell if I'm going somewhere where I need to contact someone along the way, but other than that I don't feel the need to be always reachable every minute of the day. If people want to contact me they can call the land-line or email, and if I'm out, I'm out... :-)

cheers

Jules

[krw]

When the whole subdivision isn't there, it gets dicey. Most map programs show my house out in the middle of a field.

Right. It's gotta have text to speech. That's the biggest problem with the Magellan. It's voice directions sometimes differ from its map directions. The map directions are correct. :-(

Believable. Someone has to pay my salary. ;-) When I finally break down and replace SWMBO's car, I'll get the factory GPS feature.

We're spending just under $150/mo for our two smart-phones. SMS not included. I like it. I have something to do now when standing in the DMV line. ;-)

[joevan]

On the express of I 95 thru I think part of NY, a truck spilled a whole load of telephone poles. We would have been stuck for many hours it I hadn't had my CB on and the wit to call a local base and find out that if I took the exit I was near I could get on real easy just beyond the spill.

[joevan]

I have more than a few of those dial phones and they work just fine. Don't use them much as I have top of the line cell phone.

[krw]

Some of the "GPS" chipset manufacturers are adding GLONASS and European satellite receivers so they can "see" more satellites in the "urban canyons". Apparently it works quite well. These will probably show up first in the integrated car (head) units.

[Robert Green]

I might end up having to get a new one at some point. I like the Maylong's small size and 16GB storage. I've got music and videos loaded for long waits in doctor's offices. In the DC area, alternate routes clog up about 5 minutes after the main routes clog up so getting traffic updates mostly means knowing that you're screwed no matter what.

One of my major peeves. Left hand high-speed exits on main interstates. It's like asking for last minute four lane dives at speed. We have one on the next Beltway exit over and if you don't pay attention to the people making the four lane dive to the left, you can get creamed in a heartbeat. I remember a friend in an Austin that had truck tire marks all along the right side of her car as a trucker, who didn't even see her, pushed her off onto the shoulder trying to make a dive across four lanes to get to the left exit. Boy was SHE freaked out.

So far I've been "escorted" to two empty fields by my GPS's. I've also been to areas that just show up as blank on the GPS but have been there for years. Go figure. Still, I am always impressed just a little when I turn the little bugger on and suddenly it knows where I am!

-- Bobby G.

[Robert Green]

That's not too bad.

That reminds me of a while back when they first introduced elevators buttons that worked by detecting the heat from someone's fingertip. Worked great until there was a building fire. All the elevators ended up going to the floor that was on fire, reacting to the heat as if someone had pressed the call button. (-:

Yow! I would have thought it would be a $5 or $10 charge. Who knew?

I only use my GPS four times a year!

-- Bobby G.