I am looking for a GPS, but do not know what to look for in one. Any info would help- Good or Bad. Thank you all for your time.
Sandie

for driving? for Geocaching? for hiking?

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Make sure to get a GPS that tells you the street or road you are about to turn on. For instance, turn left on Main Street in 1 mile. I had a Tom Tom that I returned immediately because it was not distance accurate and it did not tell you what street you needed to turn on...so you could end up turning on the wrong street.

I have a Magellan Maestro that I bought factory refurbished a few months back from Buy.Com. I love it! It is very accurate. It announces the street name or road you need to turn on. It also features hands free calling through Bluetooth (haven't used this feature yet). It has AAA Points of Interest. It shows you where places are and the names of restaurants, gas stations, hospitals etc. If you have an AAA card (if you have programmed your AAA info into it) and you should break down, you press a button (touch screen) and it will contact AAA. You can also update your maps (for a fee), points of interest etc. Also, the GPS only activates when you need to turn (it will give you plenty of advance notice and it will remind you again once you get closer and then chime when you should turn). It won't annoy you every few minutes saying continue on this road (the Tom Tom I returned kept going off what seemed like every minute telling me to continue on this road...). It came with a little protective cover/case, car charger, house charger, window mount for the car. It is very easy to use.

What is so good about a GPS, is if you are by yourself you don't have to fumble in the car reading directions and it is especially great at night or when you are with someone who should be reading directions but forgets to tell you to turn or falls asleep.....

What I found helpful when I was looking to buy a GPS, was to go to the Best Buy, Buy and Amazon websites and I checked out their reviews of the different GPS's before deciding on my Magellan.

We have a Tom Tom and I'm pretty sure it tells you the street names because we've made fun of how they pronounce some of our streets around here. *lol*

It seems to be fine, DH is the one that uses it mostly. I tend to use Google maps more but the Tom Tom seems pretty accurate.

I also believe you can update Tom Toms via their website with new information as it becomes available.

I have a cheapie one I bought at Christmas time for about $60 at Walgreens of all places! It's a Nextar Nextar - Your Source for Portable Multimedia Entertainment Electronics and it works great.

I plan on giving it to my DD because I decided after reading a tech blog that I read that I want this one.

The Navigon 2100 is a cheaper version of the Garmin Nuvi, but it has the one great feature that I want when I'm traveling. 3D Reality View shows you a picture of the exit with the signs you should be seeing. It also shows you what lane you should be in. This is great if you are in a new city or area and are not exactly sure where you are. Here it is on Amazon, but I know you can find them on Ebay because I'm watchin for one that is cheap enough for me to take the plunge.
Amazon.com: Navigon 2100 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator: Electronics

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For Driving please

Thank you for the information.I will check it out.
Sandie

I have a TomTom One. It doesn't tell me the street name to turn on, but that hasn't bothered us really. It will say, "Keep left. In 200 yards, turn left, then, keep right." So... I get in the left lane, make a left turn, and then get in the right lane for my next move.

I can glance up at the screen and see the name of the street I'm to turn on if I want to, as well as the streets I am crossing.

I can tell it I want to go to a "Point of Interest" either in a specific city, near where I am at that very moment, etc.. I can then determine if I want to search for the name of the place I am looking for (say... Walgreens), and it will bring up a list of likely matches and their distance from my current location. If there are five Walgreens in the vicinity, it will list them from closest to farthest. I can tell it I want to navigate to a Walgreens that's along the route I am traveling, and it won't send me six miles north to get to one - it will tell me there is one ten miles up the road I'm headed on.

You can set it to make various sounds when you are within a specified distance of where you are. Like... mine chimes when I am within 300 yards of a church. You can make it sound out when you are near a park, a golf course, a shopping mall... whatever!

It's not a fancy one but it sure gets us where we are going and helps us find places we *need* to go in strange cities. It will find the nearest gas station if you ask it to, etc.

I really do love it!

Question for you GPS owners? Do you have to update your maps and is there a fee?

Renee

I think you get free updates for awhile, then they charge for the service.

I know for a fact that our Tom Tom tells the street names, it must be a different model?

Yeah, I know different models do different things. Ours isn't very upscale.

Our maps are free to update, and you can make corrections and upload those to the TomTom system yourself so that others can get them. When you go to get the latest maps, it will ask if you only want the changes that TomTom has verified to be accurate, or if you want all the contributions that TomTom users have made.

There are services you can subscribe to, like finding not just a gas station, but the cheapest gas within 10 miles,etc. You can also subscribe to weather and traffic reports.

Thank you all for your input.
Sandie

Let us know what you get and where

I just read something online about GPS safety hazzards. Just be sure to not leave them in your car when it's unattended or at least lock them in glovebox or trunk. What I read had a vidio showing the GPS unit on the dash of a stolen car. It had a button marked "home". It showed the car thief the way to the car owners home. Of course there was a remote control in the car that opened an automatic gate as well as the garage door. Once inside the garage there was an unlocked door into the home. And the burgler had a field day.

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Wow I didnt even think of that, our GPS came with our car. I think I am going to delete our address out of "Take me Home"

Renee

Got DH the Magellan Roadmate for Christmas last year. It has been pretty good...we've had a couple occasions where it got a little confused...mostly when we needed it to re-route, but well worth the $125ish that I spent on it. Map updates are pretty expensive though...I think I remember something like $75....we decided not to both. But good little unit over all...

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snopes.com: GPS Burglary

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