Paging the spack-navisti

In particular, has anyone got any idea how I'd go about updating the camera database?

No idea about that unit in particular, but for most things Sat Nav related:

Most Medion units are Windows Mobile based which makes it easy.

Or

And easily hackable to run that 'evluation' copy of tomtom that may or may not be available in torrent format.

Mmm, tricky...

If you're ok spending £150 on a Sat Nav to be fair, you may as well just get one of the big name ones, as frankly (and not just snobbery) they are better IME. The software is better, they don't crash, better screens etc etc. I have a Tom Tom One XL Europe - I think it was about that price, it has speed cameras on from PocketGPSWorld, and maps of UK and Europe. Seems to do everything you want from a Nav, except I can't look back at stats of the journey like max speed and stuff after I'm done. Which is of course quite irrelevent, but sometimes would be mildly amusing heh. Unless I can do it and I just haven't found the option - which is of course of a possibility.

"DanB" schreef in bericht news: snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net...

I'm fairly sure that if you update the firmware to the latest version, it has a tracking type thing in it... hold on.... .. ...

Yes it does. There's a statistics option now. It does average speed, distance, max speed and how long it's been on the move. Mine is a TomTom Rider 1.

Ah cheers for the tip, I'll look into that then :-)

That's what I'm beginning to think. The big extra over other £150 sat navs seems to be EU mapping, but I know that sometimes gets bundled for free with sat navs.

but but you can a "proper" one for less

As I say, my Tom Tom has Europe maps, and I'm sure it was about that price. And there is the added benefit of the support and accessories you can get which, speaking from experience of Medion laptops, can be a real arse with Medion stuff.

Below is a c&p account of my recent trip, sent to colleagues. Cue one dimbo taxi driver and a non-functioning satnav.

Starts/ I've been accompanied by a nice lady name of Karin from ChileAlimentos, and The Taxi Driver From The Dark Side who's our ferryman for the week.

The first thing he asked me when he picked me up was whether I had a satnav device. Odd request from a cabbie, but as it happens, I have one on my phone, so I fired it up and unsurprisingly, it showed I was in Chile.

"Se vende?" he asked hopefully. "Is it for sale?"

"Er, no." (Has anyone else ever had a cabbie offer to buy their phone? It's a first for me)

So off we went, collected Karin, and set out on the first day of our last three days, so far, of travelling.

We have been in a Nissan that belongs in a museum. Oh, it goes, but it is, shall we say, a little bit tired. And our driver doesn't have any maps. Instead, he is relying on the smallest, crappiest little hand-held satnav device you've ever seen. Imagine something made by Nintendo, trying to receive a position fix from Sputnik One, powered by a single AAA battery, and connecting via an old-fashioned Morse key, and you'll get an idea of its usefulness.

So we have been getting lost. Regularly, frequently, and with great originality. How the hell you can get lost in a country where there are basically only two directions - North and South (and only one road that goes north-south) - is a mystery to Karin and myself, but he's managed it every day, several times a day, bless him. However, we have always made our destination in the end, if occasionally late.

His finest moment yesterday was reversing up the Pan American motorway because he'd missed the exit. I never knew big trucks could swerve like that. But today he excelled himself.

Yesterday, poor Karin left her wedding rings in the pocket of her white coat (jewellery and watches off for factory visits, but my ring will not shift these days so I'm OK). She was upset, but called the factory this morning, and yay! They had them! So we raced round our appointments today to stop off at the factory concerned on our way back. Luckily it was on our route. Well, as I intimated, you only go North or South in Chile. Go West, and there's a chilly splash as you fall into the Pacific, and go East and you bump into the Andes.

And he got lost again. Amazing. The factory was right beside the motorway, on the other side, and he missed the exit again. So he parked on the edge of the motorway and got out of the car to cross six lanes of crazed high-speed traffic.

Anyone else remember that old video game, Frogger? Where you had to hop a frog from lily pad to lily pad to get it across a river? it was like that. I said to Karin, as we watched him skip nimbly between speeding tanker trucks: "We're about to witness the death of a taxi driver." Incredibly, he made it there and back.

Another problem is that he's a bit long-sighted, so he holds this useless satnav out at arm's length as he regards it intently. It's a bit like watching one of those chappies with a bad attack of religion at some Catholic holy procession - you know, the one in front who's carrying the brightly-painted statuette of the Virgin Mary, with a look of combined faith, love and fear on his face. That's our cabbie and his satnav. He reinforces the religious image by occasionally waving it hopefully from side to side, in the manner of someone swinging a smoking urn of incense. This would be all OK in itself, but with one hand on the wheel, one hand thoughtfully waving his satnav, and his gaze fixed firmly on it, not much attention is being paid to the road and oncoming traffic.

The Wandering Driver From Hell apart, it's gone well.

As usual with cheapo sat-navs, the first thing to check is if you can get map updates. If you can't get any, forgettaboutit.

But you'll be getting a next generation one in a couple of years

with new maps pre-loaded

while possible, the chance of getting unmapped roads is small

You seem too thick to use a search engine. Your abusive language reflects your lack of intelligence unfortunately. I do wish your parents would put your computer where they could supervise your use of it.

They used customers/public to build up a database for free, now have the cheek to charge for it. Try a torrent site instead, everything is for free.

It isn't. The mews I live in - despite being the same place for a good

Also, new roads are being built, one way systems change etc...

What he said.

Only you could live on a road that's broken.

It's Medion, so it's bound to (a) be s**te and (b) last about as long as a chocolate watch in high summer.

I've been tempted by various Medion bits over the years, particularly when I worked in Krautland. Every single one blew up in some way, it was a toos up which was more spectacular, the USB scanner or the Laptop.

Laptop probably that had sparks and burning smells.

The cheap Garmin I bought for my wife to use is good enough, has a few niggles but the support is excellent and it's compatible with my much older handheld Garmin GPS.

Oh watch out or don't take on trust "most of Western Europe", many cheap satnavs don't have street level maps for "most of Europe" just maps of trunk roads and motorways. Check before you buy.