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robinl Occasional Visitor
Joined: Jun 17, 2005 Posts: 10
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Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 5:54 pm Post subject: Review of Destinator 6 upgrade |
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I purchased this as an upgrade from IncarDiscount at a total cost of £73.93. I ordered the goods on Sunday and sent an email with a copy of my previous order acknowledgment. It arrived at 8:30AM on Tuesday.
I am using it on a Mio168 with 1GB SD card without any problems and I have now been using it for 2 weeks.
There are a number of major changes from Destinator PN:
The screen display and menus have been completely changed. The direction of the sun and the compass rose have been replaced by a single indicator that gives the forward direction as a compass point (eg NW).
The 2 transparent indicator lines (1 for positional data and 1 for route information) have been merged into a single bar with a white background. While this is more legible I used to show current speed and time to arrival and now I can only show one or the other.
Post code input is now the full 7 character for the UK
The maps appear to be up to date for the UK and are far more detailed for Spain and Ireland than the maps in PN.
When I applied my upgrade I lost my previous Favourites and had to reinput them.
I had 2 major annoyances with PN and these have not been fixed in D6. The London congestion zone is still not defined as a set of roads to avoid; and the Multistop route will only plan 1 leg at a time and not the whole optimised route.
And the best news of all is that the voice ‘Continue driving around the roundabout ..’ now states ‘At the roundabout ..’
I have also loaded the speed camera database into the alerts and this operates correctly when it did not do so with PN. |
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Greenglide Lifetime Member
Joined: Apr 04, 2006 Posts: 295 Location: South East Northumberland, UK
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Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 2:40 pm Post subject: |
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I've just received my copy - easydevices dont even require proof of purchase for the competitive upgrade price!!
Pros:
Super fast route calculation. This is important when you miss a turning - onve it realises the recalculation is instant;
Finger operation of main functions from the map screen and menus;
Q1 2006 NavTeq maps include proper mapping of Ireland (going there on holiday in Augustus - key factor in purchase;
Unlike TomTom they are quite open about the version of maps (Q1 2006 on outside of box and full details in the map selection menu).
Cons
Some quirks in routing - trade-off between speed and true route calculation taking into account ALL details of roads. Having said that it is only local routes routes when I know where I am going where I have noticed it;
Found mapping error where all that was needed was a simple turn left (the only option as the other two roads were one way coming towards me - visual map was correct but voice instruction told me to take 4th exit at roundabout! Never been a roundabout there in 30 years and 4th exit wouldnt be left!!!
Does not seem make full use of VGA screen (X50V) so lines and writing are "blocky" but not noticeable when driving!!
Cannot calculate alternative routes (unless I've missed something), in particular cannot include waypoints to force a particular route - I am going to Ireland and cannot calculate a single route there as it insists on using Stranraer to Larne ferry but I am going Holyhead to Dublin! Still have difficulty with the multistop routing (couldnt figure it out with D3 either!).
Screen updates seem slow, while voice prompts are dead accurate the map is generally about 30 yards behind - could be an issue with VGA screen and the dreaded Windows Mobile 5!
Information and buttons at top and bottom of screen take up a lot of screen space (to use "finger" buttons they have to! Fortunately unlike D3 it actually uses full screen like TomTom.
No option I can find to use a qwerty keyboard layout - I know where the keys are on that! To enable finger size keys the letters and numbers are on separate shifts on the keyboard and shifts are sticky (cycle through 3 of them!).
Post code list not complete - seems not to have some commercial premises (looking for garden centre!), my mother's house isnt there - post code is, not amongst the house numbers, house 30 years old as is rest of street.
Despite all this is actually like the product. I hate TomTom with a vengeance (because of the way they will not tell you how old the maps are and inaccurate advertising). TomTom TTN5 does have the slicker interface in many ways (the maps look good in VGA!) but is more expensive.
Detinator 6 is excellent value (all European maps for just over £70), shame the didnt fix some of the quirks. Maybe version 7?
Not bothered than Text to Speech hasnt appeared yet.
"Continue driving around the roundabout" was a pain in D3 but a little editing of the voicemaneuvres.inf file and the .wav file (shortening it to "roundabout" fixed that). All I have to do not is do a similar edit to D6 to shorten "At the roundabout" to just "Roundabout". At least there must be a roundabout file as when actually at the roundabout it says "Roundabout third exit" - and it now knows that "third" starts with "th"!! |
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TheRock Regular Visitor
Joined: Aug 24, 2005 Posts: 126
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Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 4:28 pm Post subject: |
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Greenglide wrote: |
No option I can find to use a qwerty keyboard layout - I know where the keys are on that! To enable finger size keys the letters and numbers are on separate shifts on the keyboard and shifts are sticky (cycle through 3 of them!).
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Here is a link for a qwertz-keyboard: http://www.pocketnavigation.de/board/tid1031714-sid.htm
You have to delete the .txt and put them in these directories:
screen.ini \DestinatorApps\Destinator\Skin\All
keyboard.ini \DestinatorApps\Destinator\Language\All
For qwerty you have to exchange the Ys and Zs in the keyboard.ini _________________ D7
loox n500 |
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h5djr Lifetime Member
Joined: Feb 25, 2005 Posts: 228 Location: St Neots Cambs UK
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Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 8:54 pm Post subject: |
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I much prefer to use a qwerty keyboard so on my iPAQ 4700 I have set one of the normal buttons on the iPAQ to bring up the normal qwerty keyboard that is used for all other text imput. This comes up over the D6 a-z keyboard and I use that instead. It is quite small I do have to use the stylus for input but thats no problem. _________________ Dave R (h5djr)
TomTom XL + Audi A3 (with navigation) |
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h5djr Lifetime Member
Joined: Feb 25, 2005 Posts: 228 Location: St Neots Cambs UK
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Posted: Sat Jul 01, 2006 2:44 pm Post subject: |
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I've download the QWERTZ keyboard files and copied them into the relevant directories but they do not seem to work and they freeze Destinator. Anyone tried them and got them to work OK, if so any idea what I could be doing wrong.
I renamed them from keyboard_ini.txt to keyboard.ini and screen_ini to screen.ini before coping them into the directories. _________________ Dave R (h5djr)
TomTom XL + Audi A3 (with navigation) |
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h5djr Lifetime Member
Joined: Feb 25, 2005 Posts: 228 Location: St Neots Cambs UK
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Posted: Sat Jul 01, 2006 3:07 pm Post subject: |
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Forget my last post as I have now got it to work correctly. The problem was how the files were being downloaded from the forum. For some reason it was charging the .ini to _ini and when it was renamed it did not work correctly.
I have also found on the same forum a QWERTZ keyboard with the numbers in a row above the QWERTZ whch makes life even easily. If you do decide to download the files for these keyboards right-click on the file name and use Save As - that way it seems to work OK. _________________ Dave R (h5djr)
TomTom XL + Audi A3 (with navigation) |
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Greenglide Lifetime Member
Joined: Apr 04, 2006 Posts: 295 Location: South East Northumberland, UK
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Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2006 11:09 am Post subject: |
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Have now created an English version of the keyboard layout (no accented characters - removes one of the the layout required.
Created a landscape version with upper and lower case (would be much easier if there was simply a shift key!).
Since the searches appear not to be case sensitive, considering reducing landscape version to just layouts (shifted lower case and numeric) so everthing is lower case unless you double press quickly (is this in the manual) as favourites etc generally just have the first character capitalised.
Many thanks to TheRock for the information .
The German forum seems to contain much useful information - Google translation makes some sense of it, shame I cant remember any of my German from school in the 1960's.
Dont suppose there is an equivalent English forum, the product seems to be used more in Germany and Germany seems to be the European headquarters |
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Greenglide Lifetime Member
Joined: Apr 04, 2006 Posts: 295 Location: South East Northumberland, UK
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Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2006 11:24 am Post subject: |
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Have now created an English version of the keyboard layout (no accented characters - removes one of the the layout required.
Created a landscape version with upper and lower case (would be much easier if there was simply a shift key!).
Since the searches appear not to be case sensitive, considering reducing landscape version to just layouts (shifted lower case and numeric) so everthing is lower case unless you double press quickly (is this in the manual) as favourites etc generally just have the first character capitalised.
Many thanks to TheRock for the information .
The German forum seems to contain much useful information - Google translation makes some sense of it, shame I cant remember any of my German from school in the 1960's.
Dont suppose there is an equivalent English forum, the product seems to be used more in Germany and Germany seems to be the European headquarters |
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Greenglide Lifetime Member
Joined: Apr 04, 2006 Posts: 295 Location: South East Northumberland, UK
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Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2006 11:24 am Post subject: |
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Have now created an English version of the keyboard layout (no accented characters - removes one of the the layout required.
Created a landscape version with upper and lower case (would be much easier if there was simply a shift key!).
Since the searches appear not to be case sensitive, considering reducing landscape version to just layouts (shifted lower case and numeric) so everthing is lower case unless you double press quickly (is this in the manual) as favourites etc generally just have the first character capitalised.
Many thanks to TheRock for the information .
The German forum seems to contain much useful information - Google translation makes some sense of it, shame I cant remember any of my German from school in the 1960's.
Dont suppose there is an equivalent English forum, the product seems to be used more in Germany and Germany seems to be the European headquarters |
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CharlieG Regular Visitor
Joined: Feb 24, 2006 Posts: 80 Location: Littlehampton UK/Antibes France
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Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2006 11:26 am Post subject: Destinator 6 |
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There seems to be an echo in here _________________ Charlie Gregory
iPaq 2210, Velcro mount, Viking 1GB SD, 2GB Microdrive,
4GB Kingston Elite Pro CF,TomTom 5 v5.21, Maps of Europe,
Dest 6, Maps of Europe, Memory Map Navigator (Europe Edition)
GlobalSat SDI0 SD-501 GPS, BT GPS
TT BT GPS, Inforad |
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Greenglide Lifetime Member
Joined: Apr 04, 2006 Posts: 295 Location: South East Northumberland, UK
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Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2006 5:01 pm Post subject: |
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Oh ****
Don't know what I did, did, did, did, did, did
Promise not to do it again! |
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KevinMac Occasional Visitor
Joined: Jul 08, 2006 Posts: 2
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Posted: Sun Jul 09, 2006 12:25 am Post subject: need the latest Ireland map and a device |
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Hi,
I'm going to Ireland in a couple of weeks and would like to take advantage of the new maps. I don't have a gps device yet. Can you suggest a device/map combination which includes the navteq q4 2005 or better? I live in the states so I could buy a basic European device with the maps preloaded. But I would prefer to buy a full-featured device with the US streets preloaded and then I could buy the Ireland/UK maps separately. The trouble is I'm new at this and haven't been able to determine which devices have these new Irish maps.
Again, my main goal is to get something in my hands here so I can use it when I get off the plane in Ireland in 2 1/2 weeks. I'll be immediately driving to the west of Ireland.
thanks for any advice,
Kevin
PS Am I correct in assuming the Q1 2006 maps will contain everything in the Q4 2005? |
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Greenglide Lifetime Member
Joined: Apr 04, 2006 Posts: 295 Location: South East Northumberland, UK
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Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2006 12:22 pm Post subject: |
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If you want proper mapping of Ireland then you are limited to NavTeq maps (TeleAtlas are allegedly producing their full Ireland mapping for August or thereabouts).
The full Irish mapping is only in Q1 2006 of NavTeq, Q4 2005 has some, but not all details.
This is somewhat limiting - the only products I am aware of (but I am sure there are more) are Destinator V6 and AA Navigator (www.aanavigator.com). Both of these are available as PDA and standalone devices but I am not sure whether Destinator on standalones is available with Q1 mapping.
I think you may have difficulty obtaining either product in the US. I believe that Destinator is available, but not sure about UK/Ireland maps. AANavigator, currently, only offers UK/Ireland mapping so is unlikely to be on general sale in US. They do sell directly but there appears to be no facility for overseas sales - you could email them.
I am going to the extreme South West (Caherdaniel) in a few weeks time but its not quite as far from England. Probably takes as long to get there!!!
Hope you find something suitable and enjoy your stay!! |
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ChampionC Occasional Visitor
Joined: Feb 15, 2005 Posts: 10
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Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 12:50 pm Post subject: |
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Destinator V6 has got the WHOLE (as far as I can see) of Ireland mapped.
C |
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Pete2 Regular Visitor
Joined: Feb 19, 2004 Posts: 82
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Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 5:08 pm Post subject: |
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Greenglide - any chance you can email me your qwerty files?
Pretty Please.
Thanks in advance
Pete |
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