Pharos iGPS-360

[Kar98]

Setup:
Toshiba PocketPC e330
Pharos iGPS 360
Maps on a Sandisk 1GB SD card
Vehicle a Chevrolet fullsized van.

This is my first GPS setup (not counting the 180), so I haven't much to go in the way of comparison.

For about one week, I tried to use a Pharos iGPS 180. If you ever get to chance to buy one cheap, don't. Incidentally, I have one for sale now. Really cheap.

After a week of screaming and cussing, this unit was replaced with a iGPS 360, and free of charge at that. One thing's for sure, the President of Pharos does believe in customer service.

The Good:
The 360 looks pretty much the same as the 180, except for the clear plastic case housing the unit, and it is sort of convertible. Meaning you'll have many options to connect to your computer of choice. PocketPC, laptop, USB, Bluetooth, Serial...your choice. Reception is much better than the 180. It takes about a minute to acquire a first fix, and will do so even under trees, metal roofs (gas station), and even indoors. Subsequent fixes on hot starts take about 2 seconds. Where the 180 lost it, the 360 will continue to function, even on streets with almost tunnel-like vegetation. As far as I can tell, the iGPS-360 is a pretty good GPS receiver as such. Microsoft seem to think the same, seeing how they are now offering a re-badged version of the same.

The Bad:
The software. Ugh. Pharos bundles their receiver with their own software, Ostia, currently in version 6. While at first looking innocent enough to the unexperienced user of GPS navigation software, it will reveal its flaws over time. Except for the OK button, which will re-calculate your route, you cannot map hardware buttons to any of the functions. The on-screen controls are tiny tiny tiny. Yes, I know the opening screen gives harsh warnings about not to use the software while operating a vehicle. But come on ;)
The night-colors option is pretty much worthless. The software will not remember that you've stored your maps on a memory card, so you have to browse and scroll through your directories every time you want to open a map, instead of just picking one of the recently used maps.
Speaking of maps, they seem to be quite out of date. Quite often the software told me, that there was no such address, although I knew for a fact that the business has been there for years, for example. At other times, it accused me of being nowhere near any road, when in fact I was barrelling down a nice four-laner. Persnickety little thing.
Input of addresses appears to be standard. Start with the house number, hop over to the street box and start typing, and it will try to guess the name of the street. On the next screen, you pick your city. Would be nice to be able to enter a town name only, though. "Listen, you THING! I want to go to Bon Weir, Texas. That's just a gas station, a mailbox and a mill. They don't HAVE street names there, none that they know off, at any rate."
Routes are calculated fast and automatic re-routing works occasionally. Most of the time it just pouts "You are off route! Sniff! I should have listened to my mother!" and has to be force to shut up and re-route with a quick slap across the face^W^W^W by pushing the OK button.

The Ugly:
So you're driving along merrily, listening to the directions, trying not to go "off route" as not to incur the wrath of the software upon me for straying from the path, occasionally casting a glance at your position on the map, when suddenly, for no apparent reason at all, the ornery thing quits working. The angry read face appears, indicating that a GPS fix is not available, and only disconnecting the GPS unit, resetting the device by means of poking a pointy thing into the reset hole in the back of the Pocket PC, re-connecting the GPS receiver, re-starting Ostia, re-opening the desired map by scrolling through your directory on the storage card, re-calculating your route to your destination (which you've hopefully stored as a favorite) will bring you back on track. Kind of complex for a process done while trying to keep 6,000 lbs of vehicle on the street.

Oddly enough, this does not happen when going through a tunnel or a tunnel-like street with lots of trees on both sides, or under bridges, but when driving across certain points of the countryside. Why this happens, I do not know. Could it be a buggy map, or interference from cellphone towers, or a quirk with the storage card, or a bug in the Pocket PC, or an oddity caused by the GPS receiver? AFAIk, that's anybody's guess and I'd welcome enlightenment on this issue.

At any rate, I've just ordered a copy of DeLorme GPS Street Atlas USA 2003 and see if I can't at least rule out a software flaw.

The current setup can only be described as having novelty value.

[lbendlin]

I'd think this is due to buggy maps.

Ahm, the Delorme software is somewhat on par with Ostia. Why didn't you get a real street navigation program?
_________________
Lutz

Report Map Errors here:
TomTom/TeleAtlas NAVTEQ

[Kar98]

[Kar98]

PS: Pity one can't edit messages for spelling and formatting here

[lbendlin]

Please have a look at our comparison database for North America street routing software

http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/compareomatic/index.php?TempID=21

If you are after a bueget solution then Routis/PrymeNav or Mapopolis are interesting.

TomTom Navigator USA currently is only available in version 2.24, with version 4 expected early next year (we'll skip version 3 here). A sneak preview is called TomTom Navigator 2004
_________________
Lutz

Report Map Errors here:
TomTom/TeleAtlas NAVTEQ

[Nolo]

I've tested iGuidance, TomTom, OnCourse Navigator, and Mapopolis, and Mapopolis is my fav. Plus, you can download the software for free. You can download their maps to test, the demo maps expire after 9 days. Mapoplis is getting ready to release a new series of US maps, but I don't know the release date. You have to spend $99 for the maps (full USA coverage). Not only is it cheaper than the other programs, I like its functionality better. Be warned that map handling on Mapopolis is not the simplest thing, though. BTW, I'm running it on an e350 with no problems.

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