Best GPS/sat-nav for Australia
Penelope Plopworth
in Australia. I've got Bluetooth enabled Pocket PCs and laptops which I
could conceivably hook up, but most of the solutions I've seen which utilize
them seem overly messy.
What is the best program/system to use? Am I better off trying to use my
existing devices with some new software, or buy a new standalone device. If
so which one? I can get a basic Navman 320 unit for under $500, or the
Navman 4420 unit & software to plug into my PocketPC for around the same
price. Are Navman any good or are there better brands available?
All opinions appreciated.
Tim
everywhere, there great and save a lot of fucking around. Whatever you get
just make sure the maps are updated and you will be fine.
"Penelope Plopworth" <msplo...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:43b3aeec$0$21385$5a62...@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au...
Coo-EE
it works great, also i have full australian maps, and suprisingly, they are
very clear and smooth, i asked it to calculate a route from lancashire to
Cobar NSW lol
so PPC are for me, easy to use, very easy to set up, i have the built in gps
ariel, i think they are the best ones to use
Penelope Plopworth
news:dp0gn5$1tq$1...@nwrdmz01.dmz.ncs.ea.ibs-infra.bt.com...
Assuming I only need to purchase a bluetooth GPS unit for use with my Ipaq
(around $100-150), is it just a matter of installing the software? If so,
how much is it and where did you get yours? I've found a distinct lack of
retailers selling PPC options.
Fuzzy
"Tim" <Spam> wrote in message
news:43b3b05b$0$21368$5a62...@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au...
>I have a Navman iCN510. Im on the road all the time for work so use it
> everywhere, there great and save a lot of fucking around. Whatever you get
> just make sure the maps are updated and you will be fine.
I wonder why you say "just make sure the maps ure updated"....
I bought my Navman 1 (one) year ago and believe me, inner city (burbs) it is
fantastic (metro area Melbourne).
Outer burbs has problems.
Country..... forget about it. When you drive along "main" roads you seem to
be a little "left" or "right" of the road you are on.
It's all about information in the long run.
I won't upgrade the information I have on my Navman because it is tooooooo
expensive IMHO.
Fantastic for city driving generally speaking.
Don't forget, never ever let the woman voice direct you. You will go mad!
;-)
Spudley =-@cun*20plus.com -= Spudley =-
Take a look at this site.
http://www.destinator.com.au/PN/index.php
I purchased the Destinator ND before Christmas, and in my humble opinion it
is an excellent unit.
Prior to this one I had tried the NAVMAN for my pocket PC and found that it
was rubbish, I ended up returning it to Dick Smith for a refund.
HTH
Spudley.
atec
TomTom
Penelope Plopworth
news:2RQsf.127410$V7.1...@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
Thanks - it certainly does help, and echoes my own thoughts after viewing
the NAVMAN range for myself. If you don't mind my asking, how much did you
pay for the Destinator ND and how do you go about updating the maps? Can it
use others like NAVMAN and TomTom if they update more regularly?
> Spudley.
Thanks for the info so far Spudley - much appreciated. Out of interest - are
you the same Spudley that Metaphoid (usenet personality of the serial
pest/comic variety depending on whether you're a target or a witness)
professes to owning the arse of?
Penelope Plopworth
news:43b3da40$1...@dnews.tpgi.com.au...
How much? Which model? Pocket PC or standalone?
Spudley =-@cun*20plus.com -= Spudley =-
I paid $649, it was on special from Target of all places. They sold out very
fast at that price.
I don't know if it can use other maps like NAVMAN and Tom Tom, it is an
Windows CE based unit and the maps come on an SD Memory Stick as well as a
CD.
It can play MP3's and AVI movie files, which you can upload to it via it's
USB port using Microsoft ActiveSync or you can use an SD card reader/writer
to do the same.
ActiveSync also comes on the CD if you don't already have it.
If you already have a Pocket PC with inbuilt GPS receiver according to the
information on the site, the software can be purchased for that, it's
called Destinator PN.
Although it could turn out to be as costly as the stand alone GPS unit.
>> Spudley.
>
> Thanks for the info so far Spudley - much appreciated. Out of
> interest - are you the same Spudley that Metaphoid (usenet
> personality of the serial pest/comic variety depending on whether
> you're a target or a witness) professes to owning the arse of?
The very same Spudley, although if you believe anything of what Megaroid
fantasises about your mental health is in dire jeopardy of suffering
severely for the worse.
Coo-EE
the u.k for under £200 and that comes with Medion Navigator 5.0 software,
then Medions own brand comes second best in my opinion, but if you get the
chance, and you want a variety of maps, then get the full australian maps i
also have the full australian speed camera POI's for tomtom 5.210
tomtom 5.210
australian maps (Full)
canadian maps (Full)
european maps (Full)
united states maps (Full)
speed camera database's (Full) all countries
celebritiy voices (TT5 Only)
Neville MADDEN
Everybody is going to throw heaps on me but I use a Garmin GPS12, data cable
($8), Pathaway3 software(49+/-US) and Natmap 1:250000 raster maps on CD
($100Au) and a Palm M515 PDA
The software that comes with Pathaway allows me to convert, geo-register and
upload the .BMP maps from the Natmap CDs. With 64mb SD Memory card in the
PDA I can load 7 1:250000 map sheets and that is a lot of dirt to cover.
\Neville
Brisbane.
atec
shop about , should run about $950 retail
rowan194
Funny, I concluded that the Destinator ND was rubbish. :)
http://www.mtekk.com.au/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7876&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
Target have discounted it from $699 to $649 then $599... the original
non sale price is $899. Are they discounting heavily because they're
moving a lot of them (and admitting their original profit margin was
huge, to the tune of $300+), or dropping the price to try to get rid of
them?
Tim
> >I have a Navman iCN510. Im on the road all the time for work so use it
> > everywhere, there great and save a lot of fucking around. Whatever you
get
> > just make sure the maps are updated and you will be fine.
>
> I wonder why you say "just make sure the maps ure updated"....
> I bought my Navman 1 (one) year ago and believe me, inner city (burbs) it
is
> fantastic (metro area Melbourne).
Im in Perth and theres a lot of new areas. If you buy it new the maps will
be updated so you dont have to worry. Theres still a lot of area around
Perth metro where it gives some dodgey directions. Although its the newer
areas that are mainly the problem theres still older places which arent
100%. Navman is excellent on warranty too if need be.
> Outer burbs has problems.
> Country..... forget about it. When you drive along "main" roads you seem
to
> be a little "left" or "right" of the road you are on.
> It's all about information in the long run.
> I won't upgrade the information I have on my Navman because it is tooooooo
> expensive IMHO.
> Fantastic for city driving generally speaking.
> Don't forget, never ever let the woman voice direct you. You will go mad!
> ;-)
The guys i work with wonder why i use the man, that woman gives me the
absolute shits lol.
Spudley =-@cun*20plus.com -= Spudley =-
> -= Spudley =- wrote:
>> Penelope Plopworth wrote:
>>> I'm seeking a decent cost-effective GPS satellite navigation system
>>> for use in Australia. I've got Bluetooth enabled Pocket PCs and
>>> laptops which I could conceivably hook up, but most of the solutions
>>> I've seen which utilize them seem overly messy.
>>>
>>> What is the best program/system to use? Am I better off trying to
>>> use my existing devices with some new software, or buy a new
>>> standalone device. If so which one? I can get a basic Navman 320
>>> unit for under $500, or the Navman 4420 unit & software to plug
>>> into my PocketPC for around the same price. Are Navman any good or
>>> are there better brands available?
>>> All opinions appreciated.
>>
>>
>> Take a look at this site.
>> http://www.destinator.com.au/PN/index.php
>>
>> I purchased the Destinator ND before Christmas, and in my humble
>> opinion it is an excellent unit.
>> Prior to this one I had tried the NAVMAN for my pocket PC and found
>> that it was rubbish, I ended up returning it to Dick Smith for a
>> refund.
>
> Funny, I concluded that the Destinator ND was rubbish. :)
>
But I actually brought both of them and I'm now quite happy with the
Destinator ND. :-)
watchcat
"Penelope Plopworth" <msplo...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:43b3aeec$0$21385$5a62...@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au...
somewhere (a frequent occurrence for me), it's a godsend, because it will
get you there - eventually. It's when you 'demo' it in a route that you
already know that you see some of the stupid decisions it makes. Mine is set
to take the shortest route and mostly out of curiosity, I had it running on
a drive i just completed from Adelaide to Canberra. Bloody great highway is
the most obvious route to take, but it kept wanting to take me along little
side roads and obviously had zero understanding of the purpose of bypass
roads. That trip is supposed to be a 12 hour journey, but if I'd followed
the TomTom directions, it would have been around 17 hours. I was not
overly impressed with it in Adelaide either. Didn't have a damn clue where
Hahndorf and that's not exactly a new town/suburb. Don't know how to
update the maps or even give feedback - their website is crap.
On the good side, the unit has very good sound and visibility and the
attaching device isn't too bad, but I'll still look at something different
next time, because the TomTom people really don't give a rats about service
and I don't see any hope of the aforementioned routing problems being fixed
by them.
Toby Ponsenby
Always claimed to be the latter, but it's most likely the former;-)
--
Toby.
quidquid latine dictum
sit, altum viditur
Toby Ponsenby
Interesting.
But Id like to hear from 'anyone' wh can find any GPS nav firm that
manages to give even the impression of giving a rats arse about
'service'.
I really would.
Graham Fountain
> "Penelope Plopworth" <msplo...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:43b3aeec$0$21385$5a62...@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au...
>> I'm seeking a decent cost-effective GPS satellite navigation system for
>> use in Australia. I've got Bluetooth enabled Pocket PCs and laptops which
>> I could conceivably hook up, but most of the solutions I've seen which
>> utilize them seem overly messy.
>>
>> What is the best program/system to use? Am I better off trying to use my
>> existing devices with some new software, or buy a new standalone device.
>> If so which one? I can get a basic Navman 320 unit for under $500, or the
>> Navman 4420 unit & software to plug into my PocketPC for around the same
>> price. Are Navman any good or are there better brands available?
>>
>> All opinions appreciated.
> I'm using a TomTom 300. If you really don't know where you are or how to get
> somewhere (a frequent occurrence for me), it's a godsend, because it will
> get you there - eventually. It's when you 'demo' it in a route that you
> already know that you see some of the stupid decisions it makes. Mine is set
> to take the shortest route and mostly out of curiosity, I had it running on
> a drive i just completed from Adelaide to Canberra. Bloody great highway is
> the most obvious route to take, but it kept wanting to take me along little
> side roads and obviously had zero understanding of the purpose of bypass
> roads. That trip is supposed to be a 12 hour journey, but if I'd followed
> the TomTom directions, it would have been around 17 hours.
will find the shortest trip, even if that means a 20km/hr dirt track
over the mountains that would take 5 times longer than the highway that
runs beside it, if the dirt track is 100m shorter. When you set the unit
to quickest, it will stick to highways as much as possible.
>I was not
> overly impressed with it in Adelaide either. Didn't have a damn clue where
> Hahndorf and that's not exactly a new town/suburb.
practically every other GPS system in Australia. Sensis maps are crap,
pure and simple. Look on Whereis.com and you'll find the same things are
missing. There are suburbs around here that have been there for 20 years
that don't appear on Sensis maps. These roads are missing on
Whereis.com, tomtom, navman, copilot, roadangel & mio. I haven't tried
garmin but I'd wager they are missing on it too. Odd one I discovered
recently - a small town near Gatton was in the previous sensis maps
(used on the earlier navmans). On the latest ones, all the roads going
into the town stop as dead ends, with the town completely missing. Not
only that, but instead of the area being entered by what it is known as
(Tenthill Creek, or even Lockyer Valley), the maps call the area
"Moreton". I always thought Moreton was on the coast, guess I was wrong.
Also, the latest maps seem to have less street numbers, and less
accurate numbers than the previous versions. So it appears Sensis's
policy is to keep charging you more for progressively inferior products.
Not surprising really, since Sensis is owned by Tel$tra.
>Don't know how to
> update the maps or even give feedback - their website is crap.
issue. Judging by updates for some of the GPS units that have been in
the market place longer, expect to pay somewhere in the vicinity of
$150-$200 for a map update. Again, this money isn't going into TomTom's
coffers, it is paying Sensis for their shite product. If you ask me they
have a damned hide asking any money for their maps they are so crap.
This is one area where we are far behind seppo-land. They have a freely
available public database of street information. Many GPS producers have
either free updates or just a token fee to cover map conversion costs.
BTW, TomTom's website is no worse than any of their competitors - says
less for their competitors than it does for tomtom. Actually a little
snooping around their website and you find little gems such as an update
for fixed speed camera locations.
>
> On the good side, the unit has very good sound and visibility and the
> attaching device isn't too bad, but I'll still look at something different
> next time, because the TomTom people really don't give a rats about service
> and I don't see any hope of the aforementioned routing problems being fixed
> by them.
exactly what you told it to do. Change it to fastest, and next time, RTFM.
>
>
Jack Erbes
> I'm using a TomTom 300. If you really don't know where you are or how to get
> somewhere (a frequent occurrence for me), it's a godsend, because it will
> get you there - eventually. It's when you 'demo' it in a route that you
> already know that you see some of the stupid decisions it makes.
You apparently haven't spent enough time learning how to use it's
features. Like any good tool it needs to understood and used right.
> Mine is set
> to take the shortest route and mostly out of curiosity, I had it running on
> a drive i just completed from Adelaide to Canberra. Bloody great highway is
> the most obvious route to take, but it kept wanting to take me along little
> side roads and obviously had zero understanding of the purpose of bypass
> roads. <snip>
You told it to take the shortest route and that is what it is doing.
You needed to tell it the quickest route to get it to take the fastest
roads.
None of the systems has the average person's knowledge of local road and
traffic conditions. It is never going to pick the best way to get
anywhere except by chance. Tourists don't know any better so they take
whatever they get gratefully.
I'm using Tom Tom 5 Navigator on a PDA in the U.S. and, with a little
understanding and patience, it does a good job. I find I most often
want to use the Itinerary Planning. That allows me to set almost any
number of waypoints along the route and that forces the software to go
the way I want to go.
Load up your favorites with the points that you can pick off from a map
that will force the software to do a better job.
Jack
--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA (jackerbes at adelphia dot net)
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine dot com)
Toby Ponsenby
> Map updates have to be bought. This isn't a TomTom issue, it is a Sensis
> issue. Judging by updates for some of the GPS units that have been in
> the market place longer, expect to pay somewhere in the vicinity of
> $150-$200 for a map update. Again, this money isn't going into TomTom's
> coffers, it is paying Sensis for their shite product. If you ask me they
> have a damned hide asking any money for their maps they are so crap.
> This is one area where we are far behind seppo-land. They have a freely
> available public database of street information. Many GPS producers have
> either free updates or just a token fee to cover map conversion costs.
> BTW, TomTom's website is no worse than any of their competitors - says
> less for their competitors than it does for tomtom. Actually a little
> snooping around their website and you find little gems such as an update
> for fixed speed camera locations.
Basically, you've just nutshelled why I don't own a car Nav device.
It's all about Sensis - IMHO the most comprehensively useless bunch of
arseholes yet uncovered on this planet.
I WILL NOT buy hardware what uses their product.
No matter what.
Because I know it's a waste of money.
Every time I ask anyone how their Sensis origin stuff works, I always
get an answer framed around the words 'it's alright, but......'
How fuken hard is it to get it right?
I Know Tel$tra has the national cadastra for their cable maps.
That's every single property, road - the works - all set up as survey
maps.
Somehow, despite monster expenditure on the matter in the early
nineties, somehow the information they have hasn't made if to their
retail GPS overlays. NO surprises there, and my bet is that those that
do have the correct stuff supplied pay MONSTER $$$ for it, and
probably have an agreement that the information so supplied will never
be released to the plebs. Which make is all about Money as well as
Face.
(Sorta like the Lightning strike information being delayed by 15
minutes for the benefit of Insurance Shysters.)
I believe the answer is going to have to be Google - eventually, and I
keep hoping they aren't made an offer they can't refuse by the Robber
Barons that infest this planet.
Somehow I think up to date photos overlaid with up to date survey
information is worth the wait and the data cost.
Because a Google monopoly is far less sinister that a Tel$tra GovCo
monopoly.
So far:-)
Alan K.
wrote:
>> I'm using a TomTom 300. If you really don't know where you are or how to get
>> somewhere (a frequent occurrence for me), it's a godsend, because it will
>> I was not
>> overly impressed with it in Adelaide either. Didn't have a damn clue where
>> Hahndorf and that's not exactly a new town/suburb. Don't know how to
>> update the maps or even give feedback - their website is crap.
>>
>> On the good side, the unit has very good sound and visibility and the
>> attaching device isn't too bad, but I'll still look at something different
>> next time, because the TomTom people really don't give a rats about service
>> and I don't see any hope of the aforementioned routing problems being fixed
>> by them.
>
>Interesting.
>But Id like to hear from 'anyone' wh can find any GPS nav firm that
>manages to give even the impression of giving a rats arse about
>'service'.
>I really would.
I made a similar point about NavMan in an aus.cars thread titled "GPS
Systems" in November.
It MAY be that they can't do much about the maps themselves since they
come from Senseless^w Sensis, a division of Telstra. Unfortunately
cartography ain't a cheap thing to do, and with Senseless having
locked up Universal Publishers (UBD, Gregory's), there aren't a LOT of
sources of Australian map data. (Especially if you want maps of the
whole country, rather than just the principal cities.) For all we
know, Senseless may well adhere to Telstra's apparent customer
"service" policy of "take what we overcharge you for, and be grateful
for it you damn proles". (Or at least that's been my experience with
them. That, and them trying to milk me for personal information every
time I have contact with them so that they can build their marketing
data base.)
In which case, any user feedback via NavMan to Senseless regarding
some of the maps' GLARING (if *relatively* infrequent) inaccuracies
COULD just be ignored anyway. However I would have thought that it
might, just possibly, be a good idea to at least ATTEMPT to solicit
customer feedback about mapping inaccuracies, since for most customers
they'll reflect negatively on NavMan rather than Senseless.
Further, at that time I didn't see Navman having ANY interest in
receiving feedback regarding the inadequacies of their own software
either, such as the mind-bendingly stupid "every roundabout is a
waypoint" one. If anyone from Navman is listening, ignoring customer
correspondence? It's probably not the BEST way to get good "word of
mouth", which you need more than ever now that there is more
competition in general, and (based on these threads over the last few
months) TomTom in particular.
However, I note a change since I last spoke! On the Technical Support
page there's now a "make a suggestion" dialog. Oh, nothing like a
"your map is wrong, here are the co-ordinates" dialog as you'll find
on other sites, no, just an "I would like to make a general
suggestion" page. I'd like to believe that it reflects a change in
attitude of NavMan, but unanswered correspondence suggests otherwise.
Are there any companies that do this right? Well, to begin with I give
you... GARMIN! Yes, not only does Garmin include the release dates of
their maps (memo to EVERY other supplier; that's a USEFUL piece of
information, don't you think? Or were the M7 and Cross-City tunnel
just a dream?), but they actually include a real, live link on the web
site to an "Error Report Form".
That's the good news.
The bad news is that (a) the source of the maps is again Senseless,
(b) I'm not clear about the extent of detail available in areas
between the major urban areas (the main page for the Australian maps
highlight only 21 urban areas, but there DOES seem to be street level
detail for some towns outside those areas) and (c) it's also not clear
whether these maps allow the "3D angled" approach that most users
probably prefer, or whether the maps can only be displayed in a 2D
format. I'm sure the distributor could cover those details but in any
case, the presence of a map error feedback form is a sign that their
customer service "heart" is in the right place.
And another; Destinator Australia. Their feedback form is dedicated to
"how, what, where, when" mapping errors, which presumably reflects a
desire to fix them.
Then there's TomTom, whose FAQ page includes the question "Why do I
sometimes find map errors in TomTom products?" The answer is: "In
order to obtain the correct map data, TomTom and its map suppliers,
rely on local government and other local organisations across the
whole of Europe to supply us with the correct, relevant and most up to
date information for millions of roads, streets and lanes.
There are only a few map suppliers in the world that have good map
data, one of them being TeleAtlas. On average, 5% of all European
roads are changed; our map supplier has hundreds of people driving
through Europe and analyzing satellite images to register these
changes. This process is time consuming and a logistical challenge.
This is also the case for all map feedback our TomTom customers submit
via our website. These map reports are passed on to our digital map
suppliers, who will then in many cases, physically visit the location
to register a different situation."
Of course I have a problem imagining Senseless getting off their
oligarchic butts and doing this, but still...
I noticed Watchcat's comments about the TomTom web site, but I found
it to be fairly well laid out and the feedback section was quite
expansive, even if not quite as direct (for map errors) as either
Destinator's or Garvin's. However I have no way of knowing when
Watchcat last saw the site; as I've indicated, NavMan's has changed a
bit over the last few months as well.
Back when I bought my PiN, there was Navman and that was about it. (At
least in terms of portable, in car units.) Now that there's a lot more
competition (in units, if not in maps unfortunately), the idea that
listening to customer feedback and trying to improve the products may
be A Good Idea would seem to be catching on. We'll see...
Alan K.
iPrimus' news feed apparently decided to take a holiday yesterday.
Nothing came in and, it seems (since the original post is still absent
from this thread on Google) nothing went out either.
Apologies if you've seen it before, but I doubt that'll apply to
anyone who isn't on iPrimus.
Mike Paull
I've had a Navman Pin for the last couple of years and am very impressed
with it. While the SmartST software may not have all the bells and whistles
of the newer devices out there, it does what I ask of it, which is to get
me from point A to point B, and it does that very well and with a minimum
of fuss.
Recently i've played with Destinator, CoPilot and the TomTom software and
while they do offer some nice features over Smart ST, such as day and night
modes for display, I always end up going back to SmartST. The reason being,
I find the way the maps are presented is a little clearer and more detailed
than the others. As I said earlier, my needs are simple and it meets them
easily.
Newer model Pin's ( the Pin 570 ) now have SmartST 2005 which I have not
used a great deal, but it appears to be a worthy upgrade over the previous
software.
The unit itself has performed flawlessly and I appreciate the fact it's a
Pocket PC based device and have used it as such.
Overall i'm extreemly happy with it.
Mike