The GPS Times

New Tracks4Africa Mapset Now Available - v9.05

MadMapper — Mon, 25 May 2009 04:56:58 +0000

The new Tracks 4 Africa mapset (v9.05) has been launched and is now available from most dealers. A special limited edition, with both a CD and a “Plug-&-Play” SD/MicroSD memory card, is also being sold by select dealers. Simply pop the memory card into your compatible Garmin GPS unit and off you go. No need for downloading the maps onto a computer first, no unlocking procedures and no need for Garmin’s proprietary MapSource program on your PC.

Tracks 4 Africa has improved their offering and now the whole of Southern Africa is routable. They have also increased the number of POI’s (Points of Interest) to over 73,000.

Our uniquely African GPS maps are routable in most parts of Southern and Eastern Africa and can in fact give you turn-by-turn directions from Cape to Cairo. Do not expect complete wall to wall coverage from our maps. We only map places that are relevant to travellers and we endeavour to construct the safest routable GPS maps in Africa.

We have the most comprehensive and accurate list of protected areas such as nature reserves in Africa and we support the Mapa project in order to keep this resource the most relevant and accurate inventory of conservation areas in Africa.

T4A GPS Maps will take you to the most incredible places on the African continent and we boast a very comprehensive set of tourist destinations. Be it the Ngorongoro Crater or Gorilla trekking in Rwanda or simply a very good restaurant in Cape Town you are after, we have them mapped.

We have an incredibly rich set of points of interest which is absolutely relevant to the independent traveller in Africa. Our maps cover more than 65 000 points of interest ranging from activities, attractions to fuel stops and emergency services. We have accommodation such as hotels, guest lodges, backpackers as well as the most comprehensive listing of camp sites in Africa. For each point of interest we have a little landing page on www.padkos.co.za where people can share photos and details about these places. The maps carry a reference between the POI and its landing page and in return the landing page will take you to where the place is on Google Earth.

Stocks are limited so get yourself a copy of the limited edition Tracks4Africa CD & SD/MicroSD “Plug-&-Play” pack now while stocks last and you won’t be sorry.

News Alert - Garmap Africa Series 2009 DVD Now Available

MadMapper — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 21:30:38 +0000

Just a quick post to say that I have finally received stock of the new Garmap Africa Series 2009 DVD’s. They came in this afternoon but so far I have not had a chance to even load them onto my PC yet (I have been far too busy getting the product pages up on the shop website and my stock into the system).

I will be playing around with the various maps a bit tomorrow and sometime over the next few days I will put together another another “How to load the new maps” video as well as a more detailed post on the maps themselves. In the meantime here is the link to purchase the Garmap Africa Series 2009 DVD and below are the official release details:

Garmap is pleased to announce the latest set of map updates – Garmap Africa Series 2009. These map updates are supplied on a double sided DVD – one side being for PC users running Windows 2000, Windows XP or Vista; the other containing a data set for Mac users running OS X 10.4 or later. The DVD contains data for seven mapping products, these being:

- Southern Africa Streetmaps 2009
- Southern Africa Topo & Rec 2009
- Southern Africa Streetmaps 2009, DEM
- South Africa Waterways 2008, Second Edition
- Garmap Nigeria Streetmaps, Topo & Rec V3
- Garmap Indian Ocean Islands Streetmaps V1
- Garmap East Africa Streetmaps V1

Product Highlights

The Garmap Africa Series 2009 DVD contains the following:

Coverage for 14 countries

More than 940 000 Km of road coverage

Six provinces in South Africa with full coverage

More than 193 000 Points of Interest (POI’s)

Additional 10 dams included with SA Waterways 2008, second edition

Routable roads & tracks for more than 60 game reserves & parks

Almost 300 Wi-Fi Hotspots in South Africa

GPS models & compatibility
The Garmap Africa series 2009 product set is compatible with all Garmin map-enabled GPS units with a memory capacity of at least 16MB. The functionality is dependant on the GPS device being used and users must note that not all the functions & features described are supported on all models. As an example, DEM (Digital Elevation Model) maps can only be displayed on devices that are DEM capable e.g. Oregon 300, nüvi 860 etc.

All Garmap products are licensed for use with a single Garmin GPS unit only.

Limitations
Auto-routing and Places of Interest (POI) search capability are only available on auto-routing and search-capable Garmin GPS units.

Installation Instructions
Users will require an Internet connection and the DVD to do map upgrades. The DVD has been supplied with an auto-run sequence that will open a web browser and provide step-by-step installation & registration instructions. There are also Installation Instructions printed on the DVD cover.

Free Upgrades
Users who purchased the previous map set, namely Garmap Africa Series 2008 - March edition, or who purchased their Garmin GPS unit on or after 1 April 2008, will be eligible for a free upgrade to the latest version of the equivalent map. If a user does not qualify for a free upgrade, they will have the option of purchasing the selected product unlock key online. The upgrade and online purchase processes are facilitated with the DVD and an Internet connection is required. Using the DVD during upgrade / purchase process will save the downloading of large amounts of data, as all relevant data is contained on the DVD.

5 Basic things to do with your new Garmin GPS after you take it out of the box

MadMapper — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 16:58:17 +0000

Congratulations, you’ve just bought your first Garmin GPS. But what now?

Well here are the first 5 things that we recommend you do as soon as you take your New Garmin GPS out of the box, to ensure that your unit runs smoothly and without hassles.

1. Charge the battery:

With the GPS Street Navigators like the Nuvi and Zumo units, you can either charge the unit using an AC charger (if you have one) or, use a standard USB PC cable to plug the unit into your PC and charge it that way. The charge from the PC is quite a bit slower than that from an AC charger but it works just as well. The unit will go into “mass storage mode” as soon as you plug it into your PC (i.e. a picture of a PC will appear on the screen and you will not be able to do anything on the unit while it is in this mode). The unit will also upload all the necessary drivers to your PC at this time.

For the outdoor handheld GPS units you will have to insert your own AA (penlight) sized batteries. If you are going to be using alkaline batteries, we would recommend using a decent brand (like Duracell) rather than just the cheapest you can find.

2. Get a First Fix:

If your New Garmin GPS unit came with preloaded maps on a memory card, pop the card into the unit, take it outside and switch it on. Make sure that you have a good (unobstructed) view of the sky and don’t move around too much. Allow the unit about 30 minutes to get a decent first satellite fix. This will give it time to download a full set of GPS almanac data which will speed up all subsequent satellite signal searches. After this, it shouldn’t take more than a minute or two at most to get a satellite signal again (usually only around 30 seconds or so).

Note:
When you first switch a Garmin Nuvi or Zumo unit on, it will ask you to complete a few basic Setup steps. These steps are different on each unit but can include:

Setting your location (country) – some of the older units do not have South Africa on the country list. If this is the case then simply select the United Kingdom (UK) and then further set your timezone to be +2 hours.
Daylight saving preference (for SA it is always “Off“).
Language.
And sometimes even the “Units” (km or miles)

3. Register your unit and your map software on your new GPS:

For South African Garmin users, you only need to register (your ownership of the unit and the map software) on the Garmap.co.za website and not on the Garmin website. Halfway down the Garmap main page you will see something like this:

For “Plug-and-Play” users (i.e. owners of the Nuvi and Zumo series units) - click on the first link. Outdoor handheld unit owners (eTrex mapping series, GPSMAP 60 series, GPSMAP 76 series, Colorado and Oregon units) - click on the 3rd “CD Users” link to register your products.

International Garmin users (i.e. those with City Navigator USA, Europe, Australia etc maps) would need to register their units and maps on the International myGarmin.com website.

4. Update your Garmin GPS Firmware:

You never know how long your new GPS unit has been sitting on the shop shelf and it is highly probable that there has already been a firmware (the operating system or “Software” for our American and European readers) update released for your unit in the meantime. Go to the Garmin.com website and download a small (4.31MB) program called WebUpdater for your PC or Mac.

Once you have the WebUpdater program loaded onto your computer, simply connect your GPS unit to your computer and run the program. WebUpdater will automatically detect which unit you have connected and then download the relevant firmware updates for you. See this post for more info on firmware updates as well as step-by-step instructions.

Important Note: Please remove any preloaded “Plug-and-Play” memory cards from your unit before updating your firmware. We have had a few reports of people who have had their detailed maps on the memory cards corrupted during this process.

5. Update or Load the latest Speedtrap data:

As in the previous step, your preloaded speedtrap database may also be a bit out of date by the time you open the box of your new Garmin GPS. This step is only applicable to those of you with Nuvi and Zumo units (and of course this is also only for the South African speedtrap database – Garmin users in other countries will have to do a Google search for their local databases and instructions). This step can be a bit confusing for those of you who are not regular computer users so you may want to ask if your local GPS dealer can do it for you before you take delivery.

Firstly you will need to go back to the Garmap.co.za website. Just to the right of the previous “Register your unit” links you will see a grey column and at the bottom this column will be the following links:

The first link is to the international Garmin.com website where you will need to download and install another small program called POI Loader onto your computer.

The second link is to a PDF document with full of instructions on how to download the Garmap Speedtrap database from the Garmap website, unzip the database files, organize the various files and folders and then upload the database to your unit using the POI Loader program. Please read through the document before you continue (I know. I know, it’s boring but it is necessary ;-).

You will then have to log in to the Garmap website (using the email address and password that you used to register your unit and maps in Step 3) before you can download the database. Once you are logged in, click on the third link and on the next page look for the following text (Note: the text only becomes links once you have logged in):

Before logging in

And after logging in

Then simply follow the instructions in the PDF instructions document to update or load your speedtrap database on your Nuvi / Zumo unit.

I shall be posting a slightly more advanced “Set Up” tips list for your New Garmin GPS unit in another day or two as well as a few more posts on Search Tips, Creating & Uploading Routes and other Tips & Tricks (including hidden menu screens on the Nuvi units), so please come back and visit us soon. If there is anything that you think should be included, please leave a comment below.

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Top 10 GPS units sold in SA in November 2008

MadMapper — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:45:32 +0000

Apart from the Nuvi 710 and the Nuvi 200W swapping 2nd and 3rd places, there is no change from last months top 5 ranking. The Nuvi 200 and 200W are still selling well, mostly due to heavily discounted prices as stores desperately try and get rid of their old stock.

Despite the similarly aggressive pricing of the Navig8 GPS-580 units, JNC has finally dropped off the list. Not surprising in my opinion, as buyers come to realise that, just as with most other electronic devices, quality is always king. JNC have never quite got a handle on the fact that they should stick to what they do best and leave the GPS market to the GPS specialists.

1 - Garmin Nuvi 200
2 - Garmin Nuvi 710
3 - Garmin Nuvi 200W
4 - Garmin Nuvi 205W
5 - Garmin Nuvi 205
6 - Garmin Nuvi 760
7 - TomTom XL Southern Africa
8 - TomTom One Southern Africa
9 - Garmin Nuvi 215W
10 - Garmin Nuvi 310 - (Unit has been discontinued in SA)

TomTom is now making strong headway with both the XL and the TomTom One showing up in 7th and 8th positions respectively. I suspect that we will be seeing more of TomTom in the coming months as they improve their customer support and expand their product range in SA.

The cheaper end of the market continues to provide the bulk of the GPS sales in SA with the Nuvi 2xx series units trumping all others by quite a large margin. We are seeing a lot of first time buyers as the “typical” market now expands to include housewives, students and general delivery drivers. I am sure that this trend will continue as more and more of our customers come to depend on their GPS navigation units to do what they are meant to do (help you find your way) and not just as a gimmicky “gadget” to show off to their friends.

The new Garmin Nuvi 215W makes it’s first appearance on the list as buyers catch on to the fact that this is a brilliant, cheap, functional GPS Street Navigator without all the “fancy bells and whistles” of the high end units but with bluetooth! This is a great little middle of the range unit and I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of them on this list from now on.

The Garmin Nuvi 310 has also dropped to 10th place after news during November that the unit was being discontinued. Being such a popular unit though, means that there are quite a few stores around with high stock levels of these units. Expect to see prices of this unit drop as well as the stores try and get rid of their stock.

[Please Note: This information is based on figures from the monthly GfK Retail Reports. GfK Retail and Technology tracks the sales of consumer durables through monthly retail audits done on model level, this audit is carried out across all relevant channels of distribution. GfK currently tracks and reports on 45 product categories within the consumer electronic, domestic appliances, telecoms, IT, gaming and Sports markets. These reports are free of charge to any retailer participating on the GfK Retail Panel. Gismap GPS Shop is part of the GfK Retail Panel. For more information, please contact GfK on: (011) 803 1300 or www.gfkrt.com. (Disclaimer - The views and opinions expressed by the authors on this website/blog do not necessarily reflect the views of GfK Group, GfK RT South Africa or any of its affiliate companies.)]

Top 10 GPS units sold in SA in October 2008

MadMapper — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 11:22:29 +0000

A few changes on this months Top 10 list as TomTom finally make their appearance at number 9 and some of the older Garmin units are discontinued to make way for newer technology.

1 - Garmin Nuvi 200
2 - Garmin Nuvi 200W
3 - Garmin Nuvi 710
4 - Garmin Nuvi 205W
5 - Garmin Nuvi 205
6 - Garmin Nuvi 310 - (Unit has been discontinued in SA)
7 - JNC Navig8 GPS-580
8 - Garmin GPSMAP 60CSX
9 - TomTom XL Southern Africa
10 - Garmin Nuvi 760

Two new Garmin units, the Nuvi 205 and 205W come in to replace the discontinued Nuvi 250W and the much older Garmin Quest units. Although not even close to the equivalent of the Quest units, the “lower end” Nuvis seem to have found quite a large following with those customers who initially purchased a “top end outdoor unit” only to find that they never used half of the features. Now, when it comes time to upgrade their units, they tend to settle for something without all the bells & whistles (and at less than half the price).

Expect to see the prices of the Nuvi 200 and Nuvi 200W dropping as the larger retailers get rid of old stock in anticipation of the newer 205 and 205W units taking over the market. Also new on the market are the waterproof Nuvi 500 units which, although not yet on the list, I’m sure will be showing up soon as the outdoor guys (and bikers) start replacing their units.

Surprisingly, the GPSMAP 60CSx comes in again at number 8 on the list but I suspect that this is mainly due to the unit being an old favorite of the “hardcore” handheld users. And, although the Colorado and the newly released Oregon have some very fancy features and a new user interface, these old favorites are still the units being recommended the most by the experienced GPS veterans. Word-of-mouth is still a powerful buying motivator.

Top 10 GPS units sold in SA in September 2008

MadMapper — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:11:20 +0000

This is the first post in this series of “Top 10 GPS units sold in South Africa” posts so please read of the note at the bottom of this post. These lists are simply intended to give you, the reader, a better idea of the GPS market trends in SA. I will also be including my own personal observations and opinions.

Garmin Dominate
As you can see from the list, Garmin are completely dominating the South African market at the moment and for good reason too. Simply put, they have had a physical presence in this country much longer than anyone else, as well as having the largest range of GPS units and accessories on the market. Their Authorised Dealer network is by far the biggest in the country (which also means better service and support).

Over the past 9 years I have personally seen the market change from predominantly Outdoor Handheld type units to the ever more popular Street Navigator units. This is an indication of the huge increase in popularity amongst the city folk who are seeing the time saving and convenience benefits of owning a GPS navigation device. That and the overall decrease in prices of course.

Many of my own early customers were buying their GPSr’s with one specific purpose in mind, maybe a 4×4 trip through Botswana or a family holiday to Cape Town. But they all swore blind that they would have need to use “this gadget” on a daily basis. Yet, when speaking to them a few months later, most of them could no longer live without their GPS? Can you remember that time before cellphones?

Most of the top sellers in SA these days are Street Navigators and I don’t think that’s going to change anytime soon.

1 - Garmin Nuvi 200
2 - Garmin Nuvi 200W
3 - Garmin Nuvi 710
4 - Garmin Nuvi 310 - (Unit Discontinued in SA)
5 - Garmin Nuvi 250W - (Unit Discontinued in SA)
6 - Garmin Quest (and Quest II) - (Units Discontinued in SA)
7 - Garmin Nuvi 760
8 - JNC Navig8 GPS-580
9 - Garmin Nuvi 205
10 - Garmin Colorado

Should I buy a discontinued GPS model if the price is right?

MadMapper — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:16:42 +0000

This question has come up quite a few times in conversation recently and I suppose the obvious answer would be that it depends on the price. But, one should also try and find out why the GPS model was discontinued and who discontinued it. In other words, did the manufacturers stop making the unit because they have replaced it with something else or did the local distributors simply stop importing them because they weren’t selling well?

Very often it is simply the local distributor who decides to stop importing a specific GPS model, or even a whole range, due to a variety of factors. For example, a particular GPS model may well be popular in another country but it just does not seem to sell well to the market in your country. Sometimes, and this is also the reason why some models are never imported into South Africa at all, the infrastructure of a particular country might also limit the usage of certain features that are available on a specific model and although model “x” may have more features than model “y“, the only features of both model that are actually usable in that country would be the same ones (i.e. there would be no practical difference between the two GPS models capabilities). It then makes sense to only import/keep importing the GPS model with the cheapest pricing point.

Of course it must also be remembered that we are dealing with a product where new technology seems to be released on an almost monthly basis and often the rate at which new GPS models are brought onto the market outstrips the rate at which older models are being discontinued. This can cause great confusion amongst customers when there are so many different models on the market that all seem to be doing exactly the same thing (and when sometimes the only difference between two models might be a newer GPS chipset or a slightly updated operating system with a faster screen refresh rate).

In cases where the local distributor stops importing a particular model into their country, they would also stop importing the accessories for that model. Given the levels of stock that they usually carry, this would mean that within about 4-6 months those accessories would no longer be available in that country either. Since most models within the same range/series use the same accessories (i.e. the GPS 60 series includes the GPSMAP 60Cx and GPSMAP 60CSx and the Nuvi 2xx series includes the Nuvi 200, Nuvi 200W, Nuvi 205, Nuvi 205W and the Nuvi 250) this is generally not a problem if only one model out of the whole range/series has been discontinued. However, in cases where the whole range has been discontinued - Beware, some of the accessories (particularly the mounts) are not compatible between ranges/series.

Purchasing a discontinued model will have no effect on your 1 year warranty period for the unit (as long as the unit is purchased from an authorised dealer) as the distributors do tend to keep some stock one side specifically for warranty replacements and repairs of these units.

In summary, I would recommend doing a bit of homework before you purchase a discontinued model (and especially if you come across a dealer that is selling a particular model at a “bargain price” - they may simply have excess stock of a discontinued or even a “soon to be discontinued” model). Find out if there are any other models in the same range that are also being discontinued and why.

I would really like to get some feedback on this and I would value any opinions you may have. Please leave your comments in the box below.

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Garmin Nuvi 860 - Speech Recognition Review

MadMapper — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 10:41:43 +0000

Yes, the Garmin Nuvi 860 with Speech Recognition has finally hit South African shores!

This really is a very nice looking unit but I don’t want to delve too much into the aesthetics or even the standard functionality of this unit in this post. The Nuvi 860 is obviously a top of the range unit similar to the Garmin Nuvi 760 and as such has all the usual bells and whistles of the other Nuvi’s in its class. What does make the Nuvi 860 truly unique however, is the speech recognition capability.

Since being able to “speak” to the device and give it voice commands is this units’ biggest selling point, I would like to concentrate on this particular feature. As with all highly advanced technology, there are often features or functions that depend on a variety of factors to work correctly (or even to work at all). We have often seen devices released in South Africa where, due to a lack of infrastructure, available mapsets, radio frequency licensing problems and other issues outside of our control, some of the features were unavailable or were severely limited. We are also warned on the Nuvi 860 Product Presentation and in the Product Description that “some speech recognition functionality is dependent on the capabilities of the mapping in use“.

So, what works on the Nuvi 860 in South Africa and how well does it work?
These are the menu, screen selections and features that are accessible via voice command.

“Main menu” or “Menu” (from any screen) to access or return to the main menu screen.

Main menu selections:

“View map” to access the map screen (this command can be used from any screen)
“Hands Free” to access the phone menu screen (when paired to your phone via Bluetooth - this command can be used from any screen).
“Volume” to go to the volume menu screen (all settings can be manipulated by voice)
“Tools” to access your Tools menu screen (this command can be used from any screen).
“Where To” to access the search menu screen (this command can be used from any screen).
“Stop” and “Detour” (if you are already in an active route and wish to stop or change it. The “Detour” command can also be used from any screen).

View Map Menu:

“Speed” to access your trip meter screen.
“Turn” (if you are in an active route) to see your turn-by-turn preview screen.

Hands Free Menu (when properly paired to your cellphone via Bluetooth):
[Note: Some of these functions are dependent on your phone and will only be available if you have transferred your phone book to your GPS unit.]

“Phone Book” to access and scroll through your phone book listing. Can only scroll through your phone book by using the “Page Down / Up” command. Cannot search or spell names for selection (which is rather irritating if you are looking for someone whose name starts with a “T” and you have a large listing of numbers)
“POI Dial” to access your POI listing. Select any category and then scroll through the listings.
“Dial” to speak the phone number and dial.
“Call History” to see your Last Dialled, Last Received and Missed calls.
“Call home” to call a preset number.
“Voice Dial” to access preset voice dial options on your phone (only if your phone supports this).

Volume Menu:

“Plus” to increase overall volume.
“Minus” to decrease overall volume.
“Mute” to mute and unmute all sound.
“Audio Output” to select Internal Speaker or FM Transmitter as the audio output option.
“Mixer” to set the voice prompt, media player and phone volume levels individually.

Tools Menu:

“Settings” to access your settings menu and change any of the system, navigation, security, time, display, map, Bluetooth or language settings (can all be done by voice).
“Where am I” to access your present location screen and find nearest hospitals, police stations and fuel. You can also save the location as a waypoint (this will then give you the option to name the waypoint but voice commands are not accepted so you will have to manually type in the name)
“Route” to access the saved routes listing and select a preset route to activate.
“Help” to access the help menu (strangely enough, this is one function that I have not tested extensively)
“Music Player” to access your music player. You can “Browse” your music listings by song, album, artist, genre or playlist and then “Play” or “Pause” at will.
“Audible Player” to access your audible book player. You can “Browse” your audible books by book, author, narrator or provider and then “Play” or “Pause” at will. [Note: all sound from both the music player and the audible book player will automatically be muted any time you press the "activate voice commands" button on the steering wheel remote control]
“Picture Viewer” to access your image album.
“My Data” to access your imported routes, set your home location or clear your trip log.

You can also access your calculator, currency converter, language guides, unit converter, world clock and alarm clock screens from the Tools menu via voice but you cannot then use voice commands to further change, manipulate or use these features.

Search “Where To” Menu:
This was probably the biggest (and only) disappointment for me. The search menu itself is accessible via voice command but only the “Go Home“, “Favorites” and “Recently Found” search options are usable via voice command. Any other search feature where you would have to spell anything at all (i.e. road number or name, city name, POI name or coordinate) is unusable.

With the Favorites and Recently Found folders, you also have to use the “Page Down / Up” command to scroll through your listings (no spelling). As with your phone book, if you have large listings of waypoints, this can be time consuming and frustrating.

The Points of Interest (POI) search feature can be accessed by voice command down to category and sub-category level (i.e. “Food & Drink” and then “Chinese”). This will then list the 50 results nearest to your present position. This works the same for all categories and sub-categories.

The search POI’s by “Place Name” feature should allow you to speak the name of the POI that you are searching for (i.e. “Woolworths“, “MacDonalds” or “Cresta Shopping Center“) but unfortunately it seems that this particular feature is not able to access the Garmap Southern Africa Streetmaps mapset to find your selection (remember that all of these type of POI’s are embedded in the mapset itself). The good news is that this feature works like a charm with the European mapset.

Can this issue be fixed?
I am not 100% sure whether the POI “Place Name” voice command search capability is a problem for the Garmin guys (i.e. if it is a unit problem this could be fixed via a firmware update sometime in the future) or for the Garmap map guys (where they will have to release a new mapset that is properly optimized to allow the voice command search feature access to the POI’s embedded in the mapset) but, since this feature works without problems with the European maps, I am assuming that we will have to wait for a map update to fix this.

While it would also be nice to be able to simply speak the street number and name and then have the unit direct you to your destination without any further (manual) touchscreen input on your part, I must also point out that, in my personal experience, most people only search for addresses while the vehicle is standing still (i.e. before they set off on their journey). In these situations it only takes seconds to type in an address and activate a route manually on the screen so I do not think that this shortcoming will be a serious disadvantage when compared to the rest of the voice command functionality of these units.

A quick note on battery life
The battery life is a little on the short side when using the voice commands. Obviously most people would be using this feature only when the unit is plugged in to the car mount with the cigarette lighter charger attached so this wouldn’t generally be a problem.

Overall Impression
Despite it’s few limitations this is a very good unit. Voice recognition is the wave of the future and since testing and using this unit I can only say “Bring it on”. Once you have mastered (remembered) the various voice commands used (it really is easy since they are also shown on the screen), and gotten over that self conscious feeling that most people get when talking to an electronic device, you will wonder why you waited so long to get one. Life is just so easy with the Garmin Nuvi 860.

I would really love to hear your opinions on this unit (and on voice recognition technology in general) so please use the box below to leave a comment.

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Is Text-to-Speech really as useful as it’s made out to be?

MadMapper — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:15:08 +0000

It always amuses me when people get all excited by the Text-to-Speech functionality on some of our GPS units. Being a South African I am quite used to the sometimes odd (mis)pronunciation of some of our road names (especially some of the newer names) by many of our own citizens but believe me when I say that the Brits, Yanks and Aussies are ten times worse.

Take any of the Garmin Nuvi units with the Text-to-Speech feature for example. The voice directions for turning off Lynnwood Road onto the N1 freeway-South (the Danie Joubert freeway) would give you:

“Turn left on ramp to daynee jew-bert freeway-N-one” when using the British English voice and
“Turn left on ramp to daynee jobbert freeway-N-one” when using the American or Australian English voices.

Now I don’t know about you but I can only take so many “mangled” street names before I want to throw the witch out of the window. And this is only with the Afrikaans street names, you should hear what they do with some of our more “ethnic” names.

Another irritating factor is that when using the “Text-to-Speech” function, the road number is automatically attached to the end of the road name in the pronunciation (for example “turn left on General Lewie Both-er Drive-M-thirtythree” when turning into “Louis Botha Drive”). Since there is no gap between the pronunciation of the street name and the number, the resulting verbal directions can often be more confusing than they are helpful.

So why would South Africans want this feature? I honestly don’t know. The only thing that I can think of is that the feature sounds like a good idea at first but they don’t really know how excruciatingly painful it is to listen to for longer than the first 3 minutes.

Have you used this feature? I would love to hear your take on this so please leave a comment below.

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3G iPhone GPS Navigation in South Africa - Gimmick or Godsend?

MadMapper — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 23:20:24 +0000

I have been chatting to quite a few people lately about the eagerly awaited 3G iPhone which is soon to be released in South Africa (if you haven’t heard about it yet, you must be hiding under a seriously large rock my friend). One of the topics being hotly debated (apart from the obvious pricing issue of course) is that of the A-GPS (assisted GPS) navigation functionality on the new iPhone.

Touted as the latest in GPS technology, A-GPS is quite simply the addition of cellphone tower and Wi-Fi hotspot triangulation calculations, to the standard GPS signal. Whilst this is not really new technology, it is a first for it to be included in a device like this in this country. There is, of course, no information on this particular feature of the phone on the Vodacom.co.za website (where you can pre-order the iPhone in South Africa) and I have my reservations about the relevance of the information, as provided on the Apple.com website, regarding the 3G iPhone’s GPS navigation functionality for South African users.

From the Apple.com website:
“Find your location, get directions and see traffic — all from your phone… …Maps on iPhone shows you live traffic information, indicating traffic speed along your route in easy-to-read green, red and yellow highlights…”

Location? Directions? Well yeah of course, just don’t bank on the traffic information in South Africa though, since we don’t yet have a TMC (Traffic Message Channel) system in place in this country (give it another year or two - they are working on it but are still in the early stages of dealing with ICASA and licensing of the FM frequencies. They also still need to get a massive government buy-in for this system).

Also on the Apple.com website:
“Just like Google Maps on your computer, Maps on iPhone lets you switch between map view, satellite view and a hybrid view of both. Multi-Touch makes the difference: Tap to zoom, pan and change your view on the move…”

Ummm… Ok Great, but please stop to consider the present poor quality (level of detail) of, and coverage of, South Africa on the Google maps, as well as the following warning buried in the small print on their website:

“Maps, directions and location information depend on data collected by third parties. These data services are subject to change and may not be available in all geographic areas, resulting in maps, directions or location information that may be unavailable, inaccurate or incomplete.”

It is not stated exactly which mapset they will be using for South Africa and, since a GPS navigation system is only as good as the maps that are being used, I seriously wonder just what sort of navigation functionality we will be getting.

Personally though, I can’t wait to get my grubby little paws on my own iPhone (for all those other features of course) and test it for myself and I would be really interested to know whether you will be queuing for one and if so, why? Please drop your comments in the box below…

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