iGPS-360 BT

TWood20 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 04, 2004 Posts: 12

I own an iPaq 2215 and the iGPS-360 BT receiver. I spent some time on the phone with a technician at Pharos. My issues were sat lock and routing. When I called Pharos it seemed they were a rather small company and the way they answered their phones was reminiscent of a mom and pop shop. Anyway, I was told by the technician that it is not uncommon for a gps receiver to take up to two minutes to get a lock. I was feeling stressed because my receiver at times will take what I thought was an extended amount of time (in excess of one minute.) In any case the tech also said that if I can't get a lock it has more to do with atmosphere and environment issues rather then the receiver not functioning properly.
As far as routing goes it was also told to me that street names(as they appear on the street sign) may be called something different in the mapping software. The tech said that this would be true for mapping software from any manufacturer. I was told by the tech that Pharos updates maps once a year, but new neighborhoods in developing cities may take up to five years to show up on a map. I live in a house that is about 5 years old in a neighborhood that is probably almost 6 years old.
As of last night I was able to "road" test my iGPS-360 BT and was fairly satisfied that the receiver and Ostia mapping software would be able to get me to my destination (eventually) if I were to be in a city I didn't know.
Has anyone used the latest version of the Ostia software (version 6.0) and been able to compare it to another manufacturer's mapping software? Are there opinions or stats on which is the most feature rich mapping software available?

lbendlin · Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2004 9:36 pm Post subject:

The Pharos technician was more or less correct with what he (or she) said. You may have had too many expectations...

Please let us know where you live and what you want to use GPS for and we will be able to give personalised/personalized advise/advice 8)
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TWood20 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 04, 2004 Posts: 12

I live in the Palm Springs, CA area which in the Ostia mapping software is referenced by the East Riverside, CA map. I intended to use my gps primarily for car travel. It would be cool to be able to sue it when hiking, camping, and boating as well. I was under the impression that there was mapping/routing software that would prompt you by voice to turn/exit at a street(given by name) and also tell you the distance from current point to the upcoming turn/exit. For example, "turn left at Jefferson in .6 miles." Or perhaps "exit Jefferson on left in .6 miles." My expectations may indeed be too high, but I thought I'd at least be able to get door to door directions/routing to places that were two years or older. If someone were to need to get to my house and they were using the latest Ostia mapping software then they would get close but definitely not to my door. I will say that in general there is still a definite "cool" factor to gps and map routing in general.
So does a mapping software exist that does what I have imagined? I'd also be interested in information on some of the more popular software for boating on our countries fresh waterways i.e. The Colorado river.

lbendlin · Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2004 4:01 am Post subject:

We have quite a few good US street navigation programs in our comparison database (the link is on the left hand side, ironically called "Compare Hardware". Pharos Ostia is not in that list... Not necessarily because it is bad (although that is an option) but more because hardly anyone uses it.

Every street navigation program MUST come with voice instructions and with automatic rerouting. Programs that don't fulfill these two criteria are not street navigation programs.

A completely different group of programs is the topographical software. They use a totally different set of maps (raster versus vector), and they come to play off road - for hiking, boating, flying etc.

So you will have to befriend the thought that you will need at least two different programs to fulfill your needs.

Now for the maps. There are two major map data providers out there, NavTeq and TeleAtlas (plus some small local players). Most of the street navigation programs use one or the other, and the vendors of these street navigation programs are totally at the mercy of the map providers.

Map providers are somewhat deaf when it comes to listening to customer complaints. They may accept your remark that a certain street is missing or wrong, but they still verify each single street by their people, the surveyors, that drive the streets day in day out, and verify the attributes.

They have limited resources, and this makes the currency of a map area more or less a game of poker. You may be lucky and streets that were created just half a year before are covered. Or you may be unlucky and the street that is changed since six years is still shown wrongly, despite all your numerous complaints.

Topographical maps can even be called ancient. The USGS maps that basically all products are based upon are on average 40 years old. Not a big problem for remote areas, but extremely useless near or in cities.

So whatever you do - never expect perfect maps. This will not happen. Always use your brain to match reality with what the programs think should be out there. If you keep that in mind then yes, it does have a cool factor.
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TWood20 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 04, 2004 Posts: 12

Thanks a bunch, I'll check out the comparison link. Do you have a favorite?

lbendlin · Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2004 2:02 pm Post subject:

I like some more than others (as you can see from my reviews) but I try to keep an open mind and also monitor the market for possible changes. Every person has different preferences (ease of use versus functionality versus speed versus map handling etc).
_________________
Lutz

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TWood20 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 04, 2004 Posts: 12

I will definitely be reading all of your reviews. I took a look at the comparison chart. With so many possible options it seemed a little difficult to narrow down. However you've offered some great advice and I'll be selecting a handful of features most important to me. Probably the biggest thing I've learned during the beginning of my journey into GPS is that it's very personal. What works for me may not work for someone else, and there are a fair amount of choices. I've also come to the conclusion that as far as GPS receivers go, bluetooth is pretty cool. I would recommend the bluetooth solution over a wired, cf card, or sdio card. In any case thanks again.

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