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.
The Editor
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 [...Read More]
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 [...Read More]
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 British, Americans and Australians 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 [...Read More]
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 [...Read More]
A quick tip on how to check your map software version and your hardware (operating system) version on your Garmin Nuvi GPS unit.
In this first post of the series I explain and simplify the Nuvi 200 firmware update process for you, step-by-step…
So, what is the difference between an electronic map and a GPS map and why is there such a big price difference between the two?
A common question asked by all Garmin owners is “How do I update my GPS unit?” Well, first of all we need to remember that there are two parts to any GPS. The GPS unit itself and the operating system of that unit, also called the GPS Hardware (in the USA this is also called the ‘unit software’), and then there is the detailed GPS map software that is loaded either onto the unit or onto a memory card inserted into the unit. Hardware Updates: Hardware updates are free for all Garmin GPS units and the update files are available [...Read More]
It has now been confirmed by the Garmin SA technical folk, that recent changes to the Garmin WebUpdater program has made the program safe to use for South African Garmin Nuvi owners. [WebUpdater: WebUpdater is a free application that lets you update your GPS unit operating system from home. Download it on to your PC once, and then you can check for and install software updates without using your Internet web browser. Simply connect your Garmin unit to your PC, run the WebUpdater from your computer, and it will do all of the work for you.] The Garmin Hardware Update program (Webupdater) [...Read More]
Nov 052007
Damn, this thing takes a long time to acquire satellites when you start it up from a new destination – and that’s the only complaint I have about this unit! The Garmin Nuvi 200 – Ready to use straight out of the box with a plug-in map chip, there’s not much more you could ask for in an entry-level unit. In fact, I would be quite happy with this unit all the way past intermediate level! Unless you really wanted some fancy extras, this is all you’re ever gonna need. The power button slides across the top of the unit. [...Read More]
Sep 172007
Garmin have released a firmware update for the Nuvi 200 and… Can you believe it? Changes made from version 2.90 to 3.10: Fixed a bug that caused off route recalculations to be delayed in beginning the recalculation. Added support for Afrikaans text translations. Added new time zone for the Middle East. Fixed a bug that could cause the wrong help file to be displayed for the Language setup help. Added support for the following new voices: Luxembourgish, Arabic, Catalan, Afrikaans, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Cantonese, and Taiwanese. Yep, we now have Afrikaans text and voice for the Garmin Nuvi 200. [...Read More]
Sep 112007
Base Maps vs. Detailed Maps: The first thing to understand is what people mean when they mention ‘Base Maps’ and ‘Detailed Maps’ when talking about GPS Map Software. A ‘Base Map’ is the mapset that is loaded to the GPS units’ internal memory at factory level and as such cannot be altered or even deleted. Basemaps come in three regional versions, ‘US’ basemaps covering the continental United States (these GPS units get shipped directly to the US from the Garmin factory in Taiwan), ‘Atlantic’ basemaps covering Europe and Africa (these GPS units get shipped directly to the UK) and the [...Read More]
Sep 112007
The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based navigation system made up of a network of 24 satellites placed into orbit by the U.S. Department of Defense. GPS was originally intended for military applications, but in the 1980s, the government made the system available for civilian use. GPS works in any weather conditions, anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day. There are no subscription fees or setup charges to use the GPS signal or GPS receivers. How it works: GPS satellites circle the earth twice a day in a very precise orbit and transmit signal information to earth. GPS [...Read More]
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