(Charlotte, North Carolina)
We've made it to N so far in our challenge. N for Navigate. "Re-calutating", Make a U-turn. Can you hear the winy voice telling you that? You do if you've ever used a GPS be it a Tom Tom, or Magellan, or the most popular of all Garmin. We have a Garmin, why I sometimes wonder. Hubby will ask me where's so and so, or such n such. I turn it on and he precedes to argue with the machine, almost 100% of the time. I love it personally, because I do not have a good sense of direction, AND...men, I'm willing to admit it. Not something many men are willing to admit to........ask for directions, surely you jest.
A GPS gives us comfort, by us I mean those willing to listen to it. You can navigate using your cell phones, but it's not really the same thing as a true GPS, and if you loose cell coverage you loose your directions. So, I personally much prefer a GPS.
However, they can be frustrating. We have the type of unit that can be updated. However, I wish I'd never done it. Why? It's a bit of a come on, and very misleading. I had the whole US when the unit was purchased, finally decided with construction perhaps I should update. Apparently they've added so many graphics with updates that you don't have room to do the whole update. So, once you've plugged it into your computer and waited 20 minutes you get a message telling you there's not enough room to load the new maps. They ask what section of the country you'd like to add. We were traveling in Arizona, so I choose the SW and added all the addresses of the hotels we would be staying in.
We arrived late at night, turned on the GPS as we exited the airport, and it spoke to us in Spanish....gees that was helpful, NOT. Hubby turned to his smart phone. Took two more attempts the following day to get the proper updated maps in English. When I attempted to add my home area, once we were home; I again got the message insufficient room. Nixed that idea and decided to load maps of Spain for an upcoming trip. They wanted an additional $75.00 for that. My unit is 2 years old, most new ones run around $110.00. My choice add Spain, then attempt to remove and add my area once home again???
Solution..........currently I took the GPS out of the car, it won't be packed for the Spain trip, and I currently can't use it for here. Do I opt to purchase a new one? Isn't that their plan? Planned obsolescence? Jury's out on what to do next, but my advice is NOT to do the updates and just make adjustments to the areas you know have construction or have changed slightly.
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