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[isthisthingon]

Very nice looking GPS app: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2352567,00.asp?kc=PCRSS02129TX1K0000530.  I've seen many in cars that don't look as nice.  With an app like this, a 1K-2K GPS upgrade option on a new car would be far less interesting.

[perkiset]

I bought it the day it came out. Very cool and about 98% as good as the real thing. I find that it's continually about 30-50' shy of actual positioning, and as it stands it's just a *little* overly sensitive about a bad GPS signal. Also sometimes gets confused when wiggled about. I hear that the new cradle their selling soon (they just bumped the delivery date back about a month) should amplify the GPS signal and allow for a couple other niceties. Also, the database seems to be just a titch older than other units I've used. I'm wondering how often they'll update that, since it's a major F'ing download, but pretty damn important.

Found my first frustration with it just this weekend - wanted to simply mark where I was quickly, so that I could return the next day... couldn't figure it out at all. Going to have to dig a bit ... that or try figuring it out when I'm not driving LOL.

But all that said, given that I have a for-reals GPS nav system that can run while listening for posts from the API and playing my favorite playlist, it's pretty impressive. Oh - when doing all of that simultaneously, it just eats the hell out of the battery. Wait... didn't we talk about this elsewhere already?

[isthisthingon]

>battery

At length   They want $175 for a GPS database upgrade DVD for my car and there's a new one released every year.  It's not worth it to me so I make best guesses when I'm not driving on a "real road."  But if the TomTom download is free that's pretty cool.

On mine you can either go through the Setup/Add Personal Address and select Current Location when asked what Address you want to store, or you can simply touch the screen where the car icon is and it offers the option to store the location.

As for the other 98% items, I've experienced all of them in aftermarket units (all externally mounted units and even a high-end in-dash custom install from Eclipse).  Try leaving from within a parking structure and notice North is behind you   Acura has done a fantastic job in this arena and Lexus has too but these days there's lots of decent options.  Acura's awesome GPS became the standard for Honda too so if I ever decided to go max-green with a Civic Hybrid I'd have my same unit.

[rcjordan]

>each year.

Look for Garmin Nuvi models being retired due to new models. You can get the whole she-bang for the price of the upgrade maps.

[perkiset]

I went TomTom/iPHone because I want to take it anywhere. Proved it's value last weekend while in the Big Easy. Yes, I could rent one with my rental car, but I'd rather know my tool. It has all Canada, Mex and the US in it, so I'm good to go. For another $139 I can have all of Europe as well, which is going to be awesome.

My point is that I carry my phone anyway. So if I have my books, music, a few movies, my GPS, etc etc then I'm very happy. Don'wanna have any more devices. that's why I'm really really interested in the tablet... if the geometry is what I think it will be, then it will fit in my Swiss Army man-bag and I'll have was way more with me all the time. That'd be the God device, IMO.

[isthisthingon]

>Swiss Army man-bag

Would a netbook fit in there?

[perkiset]

Nope ... bag is just a little too small. And I'm uninterested, frankly. Just don't like the form factor. I think that the netbook is truly the transitional device. It's not going last that long IMO.

[rcjordan]

We had a TT before the Nuvi. The maps were pretty badly out of date. Even I-40 wasn't shown and it'd been complete in my area for about 10 years.  Overall, it would get us to the destination, but the map lag bothered me.

Luckily, I don't have to carry a phone. No one wants to talk to me.  But the Nuvi I picked up just a little larger than a pack of cigarettes so I could carry it in a shirt pocket when traveling in EU cities. Western EU maps where usual price, about $150, as I recall.