[OT] Which SatNav for the Mother-in-Law

Nicely put Rich, Now I wonder if they can answer the 'phone whilst reading the map, take pictures and change track on CD when mobile in a built up area. I possibly could, (though I don't), albeit with a bit of juggling. If something goes wrong, it's only one item to replace, and my costs were Tom-Tom - free (to me), 'phone - £20 off Ebay and camera, £130 from Asda; £150 total and CD player came with motor. :-)

Martin

Wot?

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Thanks Dougal, I had forgotten that Morgan sell re-worked TomToms

Richard

Phones have come on quite a way now, my N95 does good satnav with the GPS built in, not as good as a tomtom, but it's always with me. Today for example I was walking to a customer's site, but started daydreaming and ended up gawd knows where. Had the phone on me, whipped it out, fired up the satnav, didn't bother waiting for the GPS (lots of skyscrapers, centre of London), found where I was in about 20 seconds using the streetnames, and then walked to the customer. Also used google maps on the phone to find a japanese restaurant at lunchtime as I fancied a bit of teriyaki beef, tomtom doesn't give you that kind of detail. You can even use google maps to get reviews of the place before you go. It's not as good as tomtom for car navigation, but it's good enough, and a damned sight better than paper maps.

Also spent the day on site listening to podcasts of BBC and Australian radio programmes, plus some old detective stories and westerns from wartime America (Sam Spade, Have Gun Will Travel, and so forth), some of which I downloaded over 3G while I was there. At lunchtime in the restaurant while waiting for the nosh I had a quick read of the BBC website to see what was going on in the outside world.

It's also my calendar and to-do list. Not as good as a Palm Pilot, but good enough.

Plus I was reading H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allen Poe stories on the tube. I've got the complete works of Shakespeare, Bronte, Lovecraft, Poe, Melville and Verne, the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford English Thesaurus and Oxford dictionary of world history, there's a huge array of other stuff available, most of it for free. It takes up almost no space on the phone.

I found which tube lines to use while I was in the hotel by consulting the tube map I've stored on the phone. I found the nearest tube stations to the hotel and the customer by using the phone's mapping app.

While having a shit and a shave I was listening to radio 4 from the phone's speakers.

Had to note down a rather long and complex registration code, didn't have any paper with me, whipped out the phone, took a photo of the screen. If I have a network diagram or page of notes that I need a copy of, I can lay it on the table, take a photo and it's perfectly readable, with a bit of practice when taking the picture.

When in the car, I plug it into the power and a standard headphone plug leading to the car stereo, it plays music into the stereo, overlays satnav instructions on the music, and if someone calls, the microphone can pick up my voice from over a foot away and the caller can hear me clearly, their voice comes out of the stereo, no fiddling with bluetooth headsets.

I had to go to a garage where I'd driven off without paying due to forgetting my wallet and the attendant making a huge deal of it and telling me I'd have to leave my phone, watch and house keys before she'd "let me go", so I told her not to worry and buggered off. When going back I had the phone hidden in my top pocket with the voice recorder running, it recorded everything both of us said with perfect clarity, despite her being a good 4 feet away. Bloody impressive, almost a shame it wasn't needed in the end (she was fine about it).

It does all of those things, but it's only 4x2x1 inches in size and it's in my pocket all the time, and only needs one charger. I've had it for almost a year now and it's never been any real trouble, being pretty easy to use and not needing any fiddling. And it costs less than a top-line satnav, on contract it's cost me about £250 and is insured for loss and damage.

And no, before anyone makes any catty comments, I can live without it! I managed last year when I didn't have it after all. It's a great device though, and not having to carry shitloads of gadgets to live the way I want to is a great plus.

For me, that's actually an enhancement. If I set mine to the junction up the road, it actually gives me better routes home, as it doesn't send me a slower route was that is *technically* shorter. Bit of a local knowledge tweak.

Similarly, buy two cars, keep one at home in the driveway and another one a few streets away. Use the car a few streets away and never move the one in your driveway. If you move the one in your driveway, the thieves will know you are out and will flock to your home and strip the place bare!

Also do not go to work, thieves are watching and will know you go to work regularly, and will come round with a van when you leave and take the lot!

Do not sleep in the same room every night, if you do, thieves will strip the other rooms while you are snoozing! Distribute your family around the house to make sure the thieves cannot steal your stuff.

You know it makes sense ;-)

RAC sat nav ............ brill

Better still. Buy an ex police car and keep it in the drive, just like some filling stations are doing to stop bilking.

Mike

Do either of these display the speed whilst navigating? Not doing that is my chief gripe with my old garmin i3.

AJH

v2 certainly can. Suggest downloading the manuals:

all from here: You'll also now discover that v3 supports the RDS-TMC Traffic receiver thingy that the v2 does not.

I'll take a Google. Thanks

Richard

My TomTom Navigator 6 (on a PDA) does.

Cheers

Peter

Somewhere up Yorkshire way, I once saw a police Range Rover parked up in typical traffic monitoring position. It was only as you went past that you realised it was on old shell put out as a decoy. It worked pretty well.

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Someone might have compared the response time for support queries to Garmin and TomTom. 10 minutes ago I filled in the on-line query page for Garmin enquiring which of their models offers full TTS directions i.e. 'Turn right into Elm Street'. I had a reply about a minute ago!

The answer is: nüvi 265, 275, 760, 765, 770, 775, 860, and the 5000.

I may by the MIL the Nuvi 265W ~£150 from Amazon

Richard

I was coming back from a trip on Thursday night, and arrived in the tiny village I live in, only to find a rather faded life-sized cutout of a policeman propped up against a lamp-post. I was tempted to go back and cut his helmet off, put it on the ground nearby, and leave a cut-out picture of a stone beside it.

It's odd though, I've never seen them do that around here before.

You sure it wasn't Liverpool & it was actually in service ;)

Garmin Nuvi does.

TonyB

The Tom Tom software on my Nokia phone does.

Mike

Just had an email flyer from CPC:

SB0350665 - TomTom ONE V4 =A385.10(Ex VAT) Offer ends 19th December 2008