Slashdot Mirror

Garmin used to have waterproof GPSes with replaceable batteries like the Legend. OK, the batteries themselves would get wet, but that's a minor issue.

Technically you are correct. But, then again very few people can ride what is known as a Century ride(100 miles) or even a metric century(100Km/62 miles). I've only done it twice in my life. Here is the last time that I did it... https://connect.garmin.com/mod... and it was part of this group... http://www.cyclenittygritty.or... that does the ride only once a year... http://www.cyclenittygritty.or...

There is a reason why they do it only once a year. You need to be in great shape to ride that distance. There is no possible way to ride 100 miles if you only ride once a month. You have to condition yourself to be able to go that distance. You would need to be steadily riding about 50 to 70 miles a week for a few months to ride that 100 miles in one day.

That conditioning to get into bike shape as they call it would melt fat off you real quick. I lost 10 pounds of fat in 3 months with me only riding 0.25 of a mile a day and I wasn't really trying.

So yea, you are correct, but I still call bullshit to carry that much weight and be able to ride 100 miles regularly, if only once a month or once a year. Either he is lying about his BMI or he is lying about the distance he rides. Well, unless the 70 to 110 miles is all down hill.

Even with encrypted signals all GPS receivers are doing is measuring propagation delay.

I have no idea what you think you said here. "Propagation delay" is the delay in a radio signal caused by atmospheric and ionospheric effects and is an error in GPS that is accounted for by external means.

GPS measures the time it takes for a radio signal to travel from the satellites to the receiver, which includes distance and propagation effects. Using just this information you can get a reasonable location.

To deal with propagation effects, you need external data from a fixed station. Since the station is fixed and known, it knows that most of the errors that it sees in its own location are due to propagation effects, and thus it can back-calculate those errors and provide them to other, non-fixed stations. This is called "differential" GPS, or also Wide Area Augmentation System, or WAAS.

For the MOST precise measurements, not only the time delay of the arriving signal is measured, but the carrier phase. Using phase measurements and computing power, the actual number of cycles of the carrier between the satellite and the receiver can be calculated. This results in Real Time Kinematic, or RTK, GPS measurements. These can give you centimeter accuracy for your position.

You are full of it.

It is your choice to be unhealthy. YOU and only YOU choose what to eat and how much. It is your choice not to exercise. Boo F'n Hoo you feel a little pain. .

Now I was not obese but I was heavy when I walked into my doctors office some 8 years ago suffering from the flu. My doctor took my blood pressure at 160 over 110 and told me that he wanted me to start taking blood pressure medication or I would die from a heart attack in 6 months. I told the doctor that I was not going to start taking pills every day and I was going to do something about it.

My doctor asked what could I do on my own. I said "I don't know but I am going to do something."

I had a bicycle in my garage and thought I would do that. I started out only riding to the end of my street some 150 yards and back every day. It only took a minute or so do ride that. That was it. If you can't ride a bicycle 150 yards, you need to give up on life now. Was it painful? Hell yes it was, but I was rolling the clock back on that heart attack in 6 months. I discovered what I call vitamin N, "naproxen sodium" or Aleve https://www.aleve.com/. Take some. Deal with the pain.

I did that for a month and it became easy. Easy as in I was not sweating profusely and out of breath. So, for the next month, I rode to the end of the subdivision for a total of .25 of a mile some double the previous distance. I did that for 2 months even in the cold of winter.

After that became easy as in not as painful as when I started the .25 of a mile ride, I decide that I would get serious about this and start riding every day to work. Here is a few picture of me for the first couple of months riding to work... http://wiki.xkcd.com/geohashin... Notice the drastic weight loss. The weight loss was not intentional, it was just a side effect

Was it painful...?? Hell yes it was. I made a choice to do that and stuck with it through the pain.... Well also taking plenty of Vitamin N.

I've continued to ride though the years and now ride 5,000 miles a year. As of this writing I am short by 117 miles... https://www.lovetoride.net/atl...

You want to know what keeps me doing it? I now can do things that kids half my age can't do and I am 51. I went out for a ride with a bicycle shop to get in some extra miles this summer. 56 people signed up for the ride and I out rode everyone of them... https://connect.garmin.com/mod...

I own the second fastest time of everyone who as ever recorded a ride of the Alpharetta Greenway here in Atlanta Georgia... https://connect.garmin.com/mod...

In my current job I have only driven to work 5 times since I have started working here almost 9 months ago. I drive only due to heavy rain. I didn't drive to work this morning only because it is raining here this morning. The first day we have had rain in 47 days. But here is yesterdays ride to work... https://connect.garmin.com/mod...

It is faster to ride a bicycle to work now than it is to drive here in rush hour traffic.

I don't want to listen to any excuses any more from fat people saying it isn't their fault. I've been there, it was my fault that I was fat. It was my fault that I was doing nothing about it.

Now it isn't my fault that I can out ride almost everyone in Georgia. Notice me in 8th place... https://nationalbikechallenge.... Notice me in 593rd place of everyone in the country... https://nationalbikechallenge....

You are full of it.

It is your choice to be unhealthy. YOU and only YOU choose what to eat and how much. It is your choice not to exercise. Boo F'n Hoo you feel a little pain. .

Now I was not obese but I was heavy when I walked into my doctors office some 8 years ago suffering from the flu. My doctor took my blood pressure at 160 over 110 and told me that he wanted me to start taking blood pressure medication or I would die from a heart attack in 6 months. I told the doctor that I was not going to start taking pills every day and I was going to do something about it.

My doctor asked what could I do on my own. I said "I don't know but I am going to do something."

I had a bicycle in my garage and thought I would do that. I started out only riding to the end of my street some 150 yards and back every day. It only took a minute or so do ride that. That was it. If you can't ride a bicycle 150 yards, you need to give up on life now. Was it painful? Hell yes it was, but I was rolling the clock back on that heart attack in 6 months. I discovered what I call vitamin N, "naproxen sodium" or Aleve https://www.aleve.com/. Take some. Deal with the pain.

I did that for a month and it became easy. Easy as in I was not sweating profusely and out of breath. So, for the next month, I rode to the end of the subdivision for a total of .25 of a mile some double the previous distance. I did that for 2 months even in the cold of winter.

After that became easy as in not as painful as when I started the .25 of a mile ride, I decide that I would get serious about this and start riding every day to work. Here is a few picture of me for the first couple of months riding to work... http://wiki.xkcd.com/geohashin... Notice the drastic weight loss. The weight loss was not intentional, it was just a side effect

Was it painful...?? Hell yes it was. I made a choice to do that and stuck with it through the pain.... Well also taking plenty of Vitamin N.

I've continued to ride though the years and now ride 5,000 miles a year. As of this writing I am short by 117 miles... https://www.lovetoride.net/atl...

You want to know what keeps me doing it? I now can do things that kids half my age can't do and I am 51. I went out for a ride with a bicycle shop to get in some extra miles this summer. 56 people signed up for the ride and I out rode everyone of them... https://connect.garmin.com/mod...

I own the second fastest time of everyone who as ever recorded a ride of the Alpharetta Greenway here in Atlanta Georgia... https://connect.garmin.com/mod...

In my current job I have only driven to work 5 times since I have started working here almost 9 months ago. I drive only due to heavy rain. I didn't drive to work this morning only because it is raining here this morning. The first day we have had rain in 47 days. But here is yesterdays ride to work... https://connect.garmin.com/mod...

It is faster to ride a bicycle to work now than it is to drive here in rush hour traffic.

I don't want to listen to any excuses any more from fat people saying it isn't their fault. I've been there, it was my fault that I was fat. It was my fault that I was doing nothing about it.

Now it isn't my fault that I can out ride almost everyone in Georgia. Notice me in 8th place... https://nationalbikechallenge.... Notice me in 593rd place of everyone in the country... https://nationalbikechallenge....

You are full of it.

It is your choice to be unhealthy. YOU and only YOU choose what to eat and how much. It is your choice not to exercise. Boo F'n Hoo you feel a little pain. .

Now I was not obese but I was heavy when I walked into my doctors office some 8 years ago suffering from the flu. My doctor took my blood pressure at 160 over 110 and told me that he wanted me to start taking blood pressure medication or I would die from a heart attack in 6 months. I told the doctor that I was not going to start taking pills every day and I was going to do something about it.

My doctor asked what could I do on my own. I said "I don't know but I am going to do something."

I had a bicycle in my garage and thought I would do that. I started out only riding to the end of my street some 150 yards and back every day. It only took a minute or so do ride that. That was it. If you can't ride a bicycle 150 yards, you need to give up on life now. Was it painful? Hell yes it was, but I was rolling the clock back on that heart attack in 6 months. I discovered what I call vitamin N, "naproxen sodium" or Aleve https://www.aleve.com/. Take some. Deal with the pain.

I did that for a month and it became easy. Easy as in I was not sweating profusely and out of breath. So, for the next month, I rode to the end of the subdivision for a total of .25 of a mile some double the previous distance. I did that for 2 months even in the cold of winter.

After that became easy as in not as painful as when I started the .25 of a mile ride, I decide that I would get serious about this and start riding every day to work. Here is a few picture of me for the first couple of months riding to work... http://wiki.xkcd.com/geohashin... Notice the drastic weight loss. The weight loss was not intentional, it was just a side effect

Was it painful...?? Hell yes it was. I made a choice to do that and stuck with it through the pain.... Well also taking plenty of Vitamin N.

I've continued to ride though the years and now ride 5,000 miles a year. As of this writing I am short by 117 miles... https://www.lovetoride.net/atl...

You want to know what keeps me doing it? I now can do things that kids half my age can't do and I am 51. I went out for a ride with a bicycle shop to get in some extra miles this summer. 56 people signed up for the ride and I out rode everyone of them... https://connect.garmin.com/mod...

I own the second fastest time of everyone who as ever recorded a ride of the Alpharetta Greenway here in Atlanta Georgia... https://connect.garmin.com/mod...

In my current job I have only driven to work 5 times since I have started working here almost 9 months ago. I drive only due to heavy rain. I didn't drive to work this morning only because it is raining here this morning. The first day we have had rain in 47 days. But here is yesterdays ride to work... https://connect.garmin.com/mod...

It is faster to ride a bicycle to work now than it is to drive here in rush hour traffic.

I don't want to listen to any excuses any more from fat people saying it isn't their fault. I've been there, it was my fault that I was fat. It was my fault that I was doing nothing about it.

Now it isn't my fault that I can out ride almost everyone in Georgia. Notice me in 8th place... https://nationalbikechallenge.... Notice me in 593rd place of everyone in the country... https://nationalbikechallenge....

The GPS Watch: The Garmin Forerunner 10. It's waterproof and fairly minimal in terms of features. It does exactly what a runner's GPS watch should do and nothing more. https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/U...

The iPod: The current generation of iPod Nano has built in Bluetooth. Sweat being a problem - don't wear it on the arm. Get a clip to stick it on the waistband. The HHiCase (or roocase) works pretty well. http://www.apple.com/ipod-nano... http://www.amazon.com/iPod-Nan...

The Headphones: YurBuds makes an excellent product (Liberty Wireless) that wraps over the ear, resists sweat and water, and allows ambient noise to reach the wearer for safety. http://www.yurbuds.com/en/wire...

I used all three of these in my first Marathon last year. Nothing failed.

A few points:

#1 Battery life outside of GPS activities is closer to 2 weeks. Certainly way more than the 50 hours you quote. This includes having bluetooth on all the time, which is useful for...

#2 Smartphone notifications. I thought this was a stupid feature when Pebble, AppleWatch, and various other "smart" watches came out, but it's actually quite nice to have, as long as you limit which apps are allowed to send notifications in the first place.

#3 It also has the ability to run 3rd party "apps" but the capabilities are more limited than the leading "smart" watches.

The F3 is a far better watch than the AppleWatch could ever be - it has GPS built in so it doesn't drain my phone's battery on runs/rides; and even with this, it still lasts far longer than the AppleWatch. I charge once every 7-10 days on average, with some sort of recorded workout (using more battery) on most days. The only thing AppleWatch has is a nicer screen (but the F3 screen is plenty nice) and more capable "apps" (but how useful are they really, with such a tiny display?). To get this, Apple traded battery life to such an extreme that it is practically useless.

The biggest drawback is that GPS accuracy isn't quite as good as previous Garmin watches (which is hilarious, given that they advertise the hell out of its new "exo" antenna which is supposed to be so great). But it's still quite good, and better than most smartphones.

Oh, and the F3 looks much better. Hate the ugly square AppleWatch.

I picked up a Fenix 3 over the weekend. It's awesome. :) Charged to 100% on Saturday, lots of playing around with settings & features, a couple hours of GPS-using sport activities, and nearly 3 days later it's down to 72% battery. Supports third party apps (not as rich as Apple's watch, but that saves battery), notifications, etc. I think it looks really nice, too.

I own several Apple products, but their new watch is just plain stupid to me. Battery is horrible. No GPS so you have to carry your phone and drain its battery. Ugly. I really want it to fail so that Apple (and the rest of the industry that blindly follows them) will be motivated to go back to the drawing board and design something that doesn't suck. But I think there's just too many mindless fanboys that will line up to overpay for that thing. I'll bet they sell millions. :(

As I have mentioned before, I am an avid bicycle rider... https://nationalbikechallenge....

I have also ridden more than 100 miles in less than 7 hours... http://connect.garmin.com/acti...

I have also ridden at a speed of more than 20 miles an hour for almost 22 miles... http://connect.garmin.com/acti...

I would never plan a bicycle ride for where I was not prepared for proper hydration. I don't think any athlete would. I plan rides for where I can stop for water... http://connect.garmin.com/acti...

Any ride less than 50 miles for me even in the heat and humidity, a standard water bottle that will fit in a standard bicycle bottle cage, is plenty of water. I would say any ride more than 50 miles, any one would plan for stops where you can get water.

Carrying this device on long trips would not be practical, nor worth it.

Nathan

As I have mentioned before, I am an avid bicycle rider... https://nationalbikechallenge....

I have also ridden more than 100 miles in less than 7 hours... http://connect.garmin.com/acti...

I have also ridden at a speed of more than 20 miles an hour for almost 22 miles... http://connect.garmin.com/acti...

I would never plan a bicycle ride for where I was not prepared for proper hydration. I don't think any athlete would. I plan rides for where I can stop for water... http://connect.garmin.com/acti...

Any ride less than 50 miles for me even in the heat and humidity, a standard water bottle that will fit in a standard bicycle bottle cage, is plenty of water. I would say any ride more than 50 miles, any one would plan for stops where you can get water.

Carrying this device on long trips would not be practical, nor worth it.

Nathan

As I have mentioned before, I am an avid bicycle rider... https://nationalbikechallenge....

I have also ridden more than 100 miles in less than 7 hours... http://connect.garmin.com/acti...

I have also ridden at a speed of more than 20 miles an hour for almost 22 miles... http://connect.garmin.com/acti...

I would never plan a bicycle ride for where I was not prepared for proper hydration. I don't think any athlete would. I plan rides for where I can stop for water... http://connect.garmin.com/acti...

Any ride less than 50 miles for me even in the heat and humidity, a standard water bottle that will fit in a standard bicycle bottle cage, is plenty of water. I would say any ride more than 50 miles, any one would plan for stops where you can get water.

Carrying this device on long trips would not be practical, nor worth it.

Nathan

I suppose you could say I have one - actually I have three.

I started with a Garmin FR 405, got a FR60, and recently upgraded to an Garmin FR 220.

I am an avid runner, and they all track my workouts. The 405 and 220 are GPS watches. I have heart rate monitors (chest-strap, which I trust a thousand times more than a wrist-based solution at this point). The 405 was fairly large on my wrist, but the FR60 and 220 are actually reasonably sized.

They revolutionized my training when I started wearing them five years ago. I can get instantaneous feedback while I run, and I can track mileage and pace information over an entire season. I run faster now because of the Garmins, and my workouts are more intelligent.

Granted I only wear them while working out. I like not having to strap a phone to my body to get additional data, and I like that they are dedicated devices for the task. The FR60 goes months or years between battery changes, and the 220 can do a long weekend's worth of runs on a single charge. As just a watch the 220 can last weeks between charges.

The rest of them time I am content pulling my phone out of my pocket to check the time, see alerts, and so on. The Pebble is interesting (mainly because I see it as letting me know how important that last vibrate from my phone was), but I simply cannot justify it yet.

Most Apple Maps issues were a side effect of an early launch.

Maybe, but as far as I can tell, they've never fixed the somewhat hilariously misplaced POIs near me. They appear to be untouched from when I first checked them back when iOS 6 was released. (Although I see that the power substation is now a Men's Wearhouse instead of a Nordstroms, so I guess something has been updated.)

The other Apple Maps issue is that they don't show the difference between "there's no traffic here" and "we don't collect data for this road" making their traffic reports entirely useless.

Combine the two, and no one I know with an iDevice bothers with Apple Maps for navigation, they stick with the Google Maps app. It's still better.

I know it borders on sacrilege to point this out but Google Maps conks out on you the moment you don't have network coverage and while it has a caching function I'll still put my trust in an old fashioned Garmin unit any time. I haven't tried the Garmin iPad app yet but if it's any good, combining it with the Garmin HUD looks like it would bee too good a nerd toy to pass up.

I am not a trained professional athlete and I burned more than 1000 calories in 49 minutes... http://connect.garmin.com/activity/412561866

I would LOVE to have wireless charging on my Garmin GPS watch. The problem is the contacts get gummed up by sweaty grit, until it won't charge, reliably or at all. It's a persistent problem for many people with this type of device.

If you really just want to know where your kid is at all times, have you considered a Garmin Astro? Otherwise, you might consider checking up on your kid in person.

Then say it no more.

I park 5 miles and some away from work and ride the rest of the way in... http://connect.garmin.com/activity/284217239 I rode in this morning even though it was 22 degrees outside. 10 degrees below freezing. But riding in forces me to ride back to my vehicle the 5 miles and some too.

When people at work complain about having to park at the back of the building and walk from there, I tell them my assigned parking space is 5 1/2 miles away.

I've been doing it for years... I started riding to work in 2006 but I have only had a GPS to record my rides since October 2007 http://connect.garmin.com/activity/162441932

Nathan

I park 5 miles and some away from work and ride the rest of the way in... http://connect.garmin.com/activity/284217239 I rode in this morning even though it was 22 degrees outside. 10 degrees below freezing. But riding in forces me to ride back to my vehicle the 5 miles and some too.

When people at work complain about having to park at the back of the building and walk from there, I tell them my assigned parking space is 5 1/2 miles away.

I've been doing it for years... I started riding to work in 2006 but I have only had a GPS to record my rides since October 2007 http://connect.garmin.com/activity/162441932

Nathan

No, I understood you, thanks. But you're asking for two things that (you've noticed!) don't line up, so if you want to have your cake and eat it too, you can take my advice and not be a dick about it. Or not, I don't really care, but it sounded like you had a problem and were more interested in a solution than pedantry.

Consumer-level satnavs aren't intended, built, or particularly suitable for connecting to a computer. A cheap dedicated Garmin GPS unit (as opposed to satnav) will do just fine in terms of locating or waypoints or connecting to a computer (I have one on a boat that works great), but it's not great at taking you through roads. They were built for trails and don't waste money, power, or size on color displays, voice synthesis, or a list of nearby gas stations. There are ones available that also do turn-by-turn, but they're substantially more expensive and won't ever work as well as a proper satnav. And it's overkill for hooking up to a computer, because they draw a lot of power the extra power draw, size, and cabling/weather problems. The $27 puck above will mag-mount to your roof, has a 5-foot cable, and is powered from the USB port you have to power anyway to use the computer.

If you insist on it being one device, you're pretty much out of luck unless you want to drop serious cash and end up with a mediocre compromise solution. But if you want computer-based geolocation capability and also road navigation, you're rather substantially better off by buying the $60-ish decent satnav and the $30 GPS receiver.

"For a reasonable price you can EITHER have a vehicle that goes over land OR a vehicle that goes over water". They're both vehicles, right? If you spend a lot of money, you can get hovercrafts that work sorta-well on each, but why shouldn't there be a cheap, good solution to both problems? It's because they're different in every way other than superficially (they both are vehicles! they both use the GPS!) and they've been optimized for their particular problem domain.

You can run the garmin software on your iPhone or Android phone -- http://www8.garmin.com/apps/. And this is apples to garmins, literally. Apple sells OSX copies separately from hardware (specifically so that you can install it on Apple hardware) but ties that software to their hardware (you are not permitted to install it on non-Apple branded hardware). If garmin sold both a leading navigation suite that had the capability to be run natively on many existing machines but also sold GPS devices for in your car or on-the-go, and then tied the two together stating you cannot install their software on any non-garmin device, you might have a valid comparison. But that's not the case. They sold devices that use their software and that's it. And then when mobile became a larger market, they started selling the software independently of hardware for 3rd party mobile platforms. If Apple sold OSX for PCs, this entire issue would not exist as what Psystar was doing would have been legal.

Actually, I've been pretty impressed with OpenStreetMap and the places I've been. That said, I've also occasionally run into missing and incorrectly labeled things.

One of the cool things with OSM, though, is that you can fix the issues. Go buy an inexpensive bike GPS (I use a Garmin Edge 205), ride around your neighborhood and map the streets. It's a pretty entertaining way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon. Getting the data into it can be a little tricky if you're not good with the various file formats, but it's pretty well documented. I would imagine that there are smartphone apps for doing this as well (the person above mentioned Waze)

If you're more of a couch potato, you can actually go through satellite images and add mapping information from those. Or you can just go through existing maps and enhance them with some local intelligence--I went through and added bike lanes to the streets that I knew had them and added appropriate connections from bike paths to streets. About the only issue you need to be concerned with (from a legal standpoint) is that you should avoid copying information from other maps (eg, Google) until you actually read the terms of service.

Unlike a lot of open projects, you don't need to be a computer science major to contribute. In this case, you don't even need to be an expert cartographer. So rather than complaining that nobody has updated your area since 2003, go ahead and do it!

1. I don't know much about the Edge devices. It may need its memory wiped if any erroneous garbage has accumulated there; its possible for a device to get into a weird state where things simply don't work right for no obvious reason. I think you power it down, hold the bottom two buttons down, press the power button once while still holding the bottom two buttons down, then let go when the Garmin logo disappears. My Edge 800 had issues that this fixed. Don't quote me on that. I don't know how much effort is going into bug fixes on the 705.

2. You can submit your idea here

3. Yikes, another fitness gadget question ;) All I can suggest on that one is to bug product support, if you make a good case for it, they might just send you a new one.

4. Ah, these I know about. The Audible player is on newer nuvis. Its on my 3490 and 2390. I'd expect it to be on other products in those lines. Ah, the infinite reboot. These pop up every once in a while. If you don't see them after your latest firmware update, its probably fixed. Sorry about that! We perform a lot of drive testing on everything we release, but there are some bugs that are slow to pop up.

Hope this helps!

400 miles? That's it? Sounds like a good day (350miles, 560km sub 25h).

I don't know of any units which plan routes based upon gradients, but some units offer 3d first person views and when using normal 2d map layout the elevations are shaded (if you have elevation data in your maps). So you plan a route yourself while scrolling around.

Yeah they are amazing for cycling. I've found bike stores in the middle of nowhere (some guys garage) when I really needed them (once in Quebec with a broken chain, and once in New Brunswick with a slashed tire which was patched but wouldn't hold for a full day).

It's also a lot less likely to miss turns, but when it happens, you can find out if continuing on will be okay or if you have to turn back.

It also takes a lot less time than handling paper based turn by turn directions, and it allows you to improvise so if a road surface is great you can stay on it and not worry since with a GPS device you will know if you're going parallel to the original route or not. e.g. On this recent trip I shaved off a lot of distance near the beginning v.s. this previous route (speed data in the last link is junk/a bug).

I don't know of any units which plan routes based upon gradients, but some units offer 3d first person views and when using normal 2d map layout the elevations are shaded (if you have elevation data in your maps). So you plan a route yourself while scrolling around.

Yeah they are amazing for cycling. I've found bike stores in the middle of nowhere (some guys garage) when I really needed them (once in Quebec with a broken chain, and once in New Brunswick with a slashed tire which was patched but wouldn't hold for a full day).

It's also a lot less likely to miss turns, but when it happens, you can find out if continuing on will be okay or if you have to turn back.

It also takes a lot less time than handling paper based turn by turn directions, and it allows you to improvise so if a road surface is great you can stay on it and not worry since with a GPS device you will know if you're going parallel to the original route or not. e.g. On this recent trip I shaved off a lot of distance near the beginning v.s. this previous route (speed data in the last link is junk/a bug).

Chunky ones, yes:

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=349&ra=true
https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=142&pID=31859

Comes with more features than any watch should have, and makes you look like a fitness geek.

Chunky ones, yes:

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=349&ra=true
https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=142&pID=31859

Comes with more features than any watch should have, and makes you look like a fitness geek.

even garmin is trying to retailor their gps receivers for the consumer market (not the specialty market, professional gps will always have a niche) as a telephone

http://www8.garmin.com/nuvifone/

nintendo ds and psp are dead, killed by convergence into the smart phone market, unless they try convergence like garmin is. otherwise, the only future these guys have are as trinkets for the toddler set, before the kid gets a smart phone for his birthday. nobody cares about framerate and pixel count on a goddamn handheld. hell, wii should have taught these guys that nobody cares about framerate and pixel count in the living room either, only playability and fun (except for the hardcore gamers... and sony has pissed even them off)

I can tell you right off that everyone in britain calls them satnavs.

As does, like, garmin themselves

Garmin has provided a site to check if yours is one of the affected units: https://my.garmin.com/rma/recallLanding.faces.

It also probably won't be dependent on a touchscreen that is impossible to operate with gloves or as soon as your hands get wet/cold.

There are actually some devices from Garmin like the Oregon 550t that have a touchscreen, too. My Dad is considering to buy one for hiking/biking, but I have my doubts that the touchscreen will work properly in rough conditions.

Does anyone know whether a device like this is any good for outdoor use? Should he prefer a device with "real buttons"?

I do think it would be cool if there was a dedicated GPS that took pictures too. You could use the GPS to geotag the picture and have it as an icon for a waypoint to help remind you what that waypoint is.

It's not exactly inexpensive, but the Garmin Oregon 550 does just that.

A phone is:

1) not going to be as durable or rain resistant
2) not going to have as good battery life (while acting as a GPS)
3) probably not going to allow you to swap out ordinary AA or AAA batteries if you do run out (most phones have dedicated chargers and batteries)
4) probably not going to be as precise
5) probably going to involve more hassle loading maps (most GPS units have basic maps already loaded).

With dedicated GPS units in same price range as the Android phones you are talking about (e.g., mapping GPS units start at $150, and there are other brands, such as Magellan), the question is WHY would you get a phone if a GPS is what your dad needs? Some models even float, such as this $200 model, which would be great for hunting/camping. Check this place out to see the variety available. I'm sure there's an equivalent store in the USA.

If you already have an old phone laying around, it might be worth a try. Otherwise you're probably going to regret paying almost as much for a suboptimal solution.

A phone is:

1) not going to be as durable or rain resistant
2) not going to have as good battery life (while acting as a GPS)
3) probably not going to allow you to swap out ordinary AA or AAA batteries if you do run out (most phones have dedicated chargers and batteries)
4) probably not going to be as precise
5) probably going to involve more hassle loading maps (most GPS units have basic maps already loaded).

With dedicated GPS units in same price range as the Android phones you are talking about (e.g., mapping GPS units start at $150, and there are other brands, such as Magellan), the question is WHY would you get a phone if a GPS is what your dad needs? Some models even float, such as this $200 model, which would be great for hunting/camping. Check this place out to see the variety available. I'm sure there's an equivalent store in the USA.

If you already have an old phone laying around, it might be worth a try. Otherwise you're probably going to regret paying almost as much for a suboptimal solution.

maybe these (or similar) are available, cheap, used?

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=177&ra=true

I have one that I use on bike and motor scooter. they even make handlebar mounts (ball mounts) for them.

it is a REAL gps unit with antenna and NO need for a-gps or any of that stuff.

touch screen is great, color is great, speed is great. but it IS a very old model, by today's standards.

still, I do think a dedicated satellite antenna-based gps is the way to do.

if I had to COUNT on a gps, it would not be a 'cell phone' version..

This seems like a wonderful idea. My handheld GPS has one of these -- it can function with a backlight in the dark just fine, but turn the backlight off, take it outside, and it's a perfectly readable, color display which draws hardly any power.

Garmin now offers a lifetime update option for $119.99... 'lifetime' being defined as "until your product's useful life expires or Garmin no longer receives map data from its third party supplier". So $600 for unit that has voice recognition, bluetooth, and a large backlit screen, then $119.99 for maps. Seems like a good deal to me. I had my old Garmin for 6 years until it fell off my motorcycle and it wasn't past it's "useful" life yet. I'll pay $720 instead of $600 for 6 years of use if the device provides me $120 more additional functionality.

Uh, in case you weren't aware, they make a few products for the ocean.

No it wont. because the smartphone in a cradle is useless on a motorcycle, bicycle, hiking, I.E. everywhere outdoors wher the crappy non trans-reflective cellphone LCD's are barely readable.

my https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=414&ra=true#zumo kicks the crap out of any smartphone GPS hands down.

Let's see any smartphone be useful with gloved hands in the rain.

You mean, something like this?

You can certainly record where a pet has been on a small collar attached GPS, but unless it includes a transmitter you are not going to know where it is NOW.

Transmitters have to be licensed, or limited to very short range. Transmitters need batteries.

Garmin makes a hunting dog tracker. But its range is 7 miles line of sight. https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=209&ra=true

Battery life is 24 hours. Good enough to find your ill-trained dog at the end of the hunt, but not useful for tracking a lost or stolen pet.

With a cell plan, you could get by with lower power, because it only has to report its presence every once in a while, but you still end up funding a cell plan for a dog.

I don't see this as an economically viable solution to finding a lost or stolen pet. Further, it just exacerbates the problems of dogs running at large in urban areas. Perhaps this is why Canada banned these devices.

Ultra Long range RFIDs make more sense for this kind of work. You would need a directional antenna on a hand held device to pulse the tag, and it would respond, not with coordinates, but the device could map this for you.

You're referring to this. It's a reality and available now.

I love my Garmin Forerunner 305. Good quality GPS, heart rate monitor, and more. The GarminConnect site makes it really easy to look at your data, will plot your route using Google Maps, and even play it back for you to watch. And you can share your data with your friends. A quick google search finds someone who is publicly sharing their data. Check out the data on the Google Map, and also be sure to click on the "Player" link. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/1905263

I haven't tried playing with the actual data format as I just got it a week ago, but I am very happy so far with my Garmin Edge 305. For anyone reading who's more into running, skiing, etc., Garmin also makes a good line of GPS-enabled watches. For instance, there's the Forerunner 305 and 405. The Forerunner 305 in Canada at least is on for a great deal at Costco right now: $185.

I'm quite happy with the Garmin bike GPS I have. It downloads the data in a pseudo-proprietary format, but it's easy to convert into an XML format that's fully documented on their website: http://developer.garmin.com/schemas/

Also for those that use linux, here's a couple of scripts that sync down the garmin data, do the XML transformation, and uploads it to garmin connect: http://braiden.org/?p=62

Uh...I'm not sure that civilian GPS systems are that precise.

Now, I don't have a way fancy GPS receiver--it's a Garmin Edge 205. It has a little read-out for accuracy, though, and in my normal travels, the read-out says 10-15 feet.

Now, conceptually, I would agree. But between "detuning" and clock accuracy, I don't think you'll ever find accuracy measured in inches on any civilian GPS device.

Uh, no. https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=138&pID=11413

"Garmin Mobile XT puts pre-loaded maps" on to a micro SD card that you buy and comes with the program and maps loaded on to it.

Sure, I could buy the Topo map for around USD$250, and City Navigator for $80. Apart from the expense, there are still problems:

• Despite being designed for outdoor activities, the Topo map is not so great - I have a friend who bought it for cycling and gave up after finding out it didn't include a whole load of his favourite cycle routes.
• You can't try the map before buying, and after buying, there is no way to get a refund.
• The Navteq digital road data is just as incomplete and buggy as Tele Atlas.
• The correct way to handle different use cases is to use the same underlying dataset, but render differently, e.g. walkers get LDWP routes highlighted, cyclists get cycling routes highlighted, etc.
• There is an alternative choice that does the right thing technically (single data set, multiple renderings for different use cases and GPS devices), is free to use, and based on open standards. I can extract the dataset for any area I'm planning to visit, and render my own Garmin compatible maps, highlighting whatever I want. If the dataset is incomplete or buggy, I can fix it. IMHO, this is better than any of the proprietary Garmin options.