KatysBlog

We went back to Fry’s and returned our first
attempt at buying a car-based GPS: the

Lowrance Automotive (iWAY 500c). Fry’s was very pleasant about
taking the return.

We reviewed the other options at Fry’s and picked out the GPS from
Thales Nagivation (Magellan RoadMate 300).
This cost about $500- ($260 cheaper than the iWAY 500c). There are two higher
end versions of the Magellan but they did not offer anything we really wanted
to pay for. We have been using the Magellan 300 for several days now and are
very pleased with it.

• What Works
  • It shows you where you are on a clear, understandable map
  • Big choices (like Locate and Option) are side buttons but smaller choices
    are on the touch screen

  • It plugs into the lighter socket – no special wiring required
  • Good graphics, good contrast, very visible
  • The back is stuck to the windshield with a suction cup – it does not slide around
  • Vocal directions are clear and come with enough time to respond
  • Maps are current
  • Autocomplete of typing works well
  • It easily takes the command to record the current location as a bookmark
  • If you go a different route than the one recommended (to avoid a traffic
    jam, for example), it tries to send you back a few times but then adjusts and
    recalculates the new route

  • Allows you to program a several stop route – for example, starting from
    home, dropping off first kid at school, dropping off second kid at a different
    school, then driving to work

  • Magellan’s points of interest list included more places we often go than
    did the list on the iWAY 500c. For example, Szechwan Cafe on California in Palo Alto
    is in the Magellan list but not in the iWAY list

  • Allows bookmark lists for more than one driver
• What Doesn’t Work
  • The 300 only comes with major roadways pre-installed – it took several hours
    to load the small road detail on our part of California into memory. If we
    often drove long distances, this would be a bigger disadvantage.

  • Had to purchase extra memory
  • It sometimes sends you on strange routes – we have been fiddling with
    the preferences for freeways vs. local roads to adjust this

  • Typing is slow on the touch screen – but autocomplete helps
  • More glare on the Magellan 300 display screen than with the iWAY 500c
  • Magellan 300 display screen is smaller than that of the iWAY 500c
  • The little picture of the satellite comes on frequently – indicating
    that it is looking for an update? – but this does not seem to get in the
    way of actual navigation

  See
  “GPS from Lowrance Automotive (iWAY 500c)” for prior blog entry

After years of discussion, we decided that my lack of sense of physical
direction could be helped by having an in-car GPS navigation system.
This is supposedly a birthday present but I am not sure if it is for
me (the Birthday Girl) or for my husband John who is tired of giving
directions over the cell phone when I get lost.

• Katy: “Can you please help me, I’m lost!”
• John: “So, where are you?”
• Katy: “In the car!”

John went to Fry’s and picked out
the
Lowrance Automotive iWAY 500c last weekend. Since this is an
expensive gadget ($760), Fry’s has a good return-it-if-you-don’t-like-it-within-a-week
policy. We have been driving around and testing the iWAY for several days now
and are not particularly happy with it.

What Works

• It shows you where you are on a clear, understandable map
• Big choices (like Power and Find) are side buttons but smaller
  choices are on the touch screen

• There are 3 levels of screen brightness
• It plugs into the lighter socket – no special wiring required
• Good graphics, good contrast, very visible
• The back is stuck to the windshield with a suction cup – it does not slide around
• Vocal directions are clear and come with enough time to respond

What Doesn’t Work

• Programming it is very time consuming
• It frequently does not recognize common streets – you have to give it the
  exact street name in its database and it often still does not work. For example,
  if you type in “St Francis Drive” it searches for just “Francis” and cannot find
  the one you mean but if you type in “Saint Francis”, it says there is no such street.

• It sometimes directs you down the wrong way of one-way streets or to drive
  up freeway offramps

• The maps are not current – it says my office building is in the San Francisco Bay
• Interactions take time and are distracting – kind of like having a cat loose in
  the car

• Sometimes it gives directions when you have not asked it to
• Typing is slow on the touch screen – especially when you have to type in
  several variations of the street name – and it often requires several pokes to
  make it display a letter

• No autocomplete for commonly typed words and names – we have been typing in
  “Palo Alto” several times a day

We are going back to Fry’s to trade it in for another GPS this afternoon
to see if there is a better choice.

See
“GPS from Thales Nagivation (Magellan RoadMate 300)” blog entry for more