I'm really looking forward to picking up one as a present for myself.
I won't be able to use it for some time, as I'm back in health trouble, but whatever. I'll figure the shit out eventually, and in the meantime I can play around with it anyway. I love my 478, but it's at the point that updates for street navigation are just a bit too difficult.
For anyone about to say that a smart phone is better, or an iPad paired with such a connection... You're wrong. It's not better, and it's not even good enough for use beyond supplement and convenience. Once that signal goes out, they're paperweights; and they don't operate like most think they do, anyway. They aren't real GPS units, and they're a joke.
An iPad with a dedicated receiver? Well, that's better, and certainly more graphical, but it's still a dog next to the real thing. They may not be pretty, but at least they have buttons, they take one hell of a beating, and they're as reliable as an iron brick.
Several times now, simply for street navigation, people have called and asked to use my 478, and I've told them no, because they should have listened to me to begin with. You see, signals get cut around here for some bullshit that's going on frequently. When that happens, your navigation is dead.
Moreover, it's dead if you're actually in the middle of nowhere and need real navigation.
About a month ago I had to quickly bounce around various houses all in one day with someone simply because they had no way to find them quickly enough. Paper maps wouldn't get us there as quickly as required.
So, zip-tie the antenna to the roof, stick the 478 on the windscreen (not the way it used to be, but it was fast), and off we went, beating everyone to the punch, because we had navigation; and every damned satellite in the sky at full strength.
I'm really excited Garmin decided to release a product worth owning again. Hopefully it's not the last one we get, but using those phones... If you're out dicking around and not encouraging such products, you're the one killing them off.
You know what also works when coms are out? My old Streetpilot III (as in, literally the first color mapping GPS on the market, at about $1,200 in whenever it came out), as well as my first-release Etrex Vista. Stick that in your iPhone and smoke it. :rofl:
Keep that in mind when you give the middle finger to quality.
Cheers,
Kennith
I won't be able to use it for some time, as I'm back in health trouble, but whatever. I'll figure the shit out eventually, and in the meantime I can play around with it anyway. I love my 478, but it's at the point that updates for street navigation are just a bit too difficult.
For anyone about to say that a smart phone is better, or an iPad paired with such a connection... You're wrong. It's not better, and it's not even good enough for use beyond supplement and convenience. Once that signal goes out, they're paperweights; and they don't operate like most think they do, anyway. They aren't real GPS units, and they're a joke.
An iPad with a dedicated receiver? Well, that's better, and certainly more graphical, but it's still a dog next to the real thing. They may not be pretty, but at least they have buttons, they take one hell of a beating, and they're as reliable as an iron brick.
Several times now, simply for street navigation, people have called and asked to use my 478, and I've told them no, because they should have listened to me to begin with. You see, signals get cut around here for some bullshit that's going on frequently. When that happens, your navigation is dead.
Moreover, it's dead if you're actually in the middle of nowhere and need real navigation.
About a month ago I had to quickly bounce around various houses all in one day with someone simply because they had no way to find them quickly enough. Paper maps wouldn't get us there as quickly as required.
So, zip-tie the antenna to the roof, stick the 478 on the windscreen (not the way it used to be, but it was fast), and off we went, beating everyone to the punch, because we had navigation; and every damned satellite in the sky at full strength.
I'm really excited Garmin decided to release a product worth owning again. Hopefully it's not the last one we get, but using those phones... If you're out dicking around and not encouraging such products, you're the one killing them off.
You know what also works when coms are out? My old Streetpilot III (as in, literally the first color mapping GPS on the market, at about $1,200 in whenever it came out), as well as my first-release Etrex Vista. Stick that in your iPhone and smoke it. :rofl:
Keep that in mind when you give the middle finger to quality.
Cheers,
Kennith