Choosing A GPS
Like the internet, a GPS is another technological advancement made by the military, which has been approved for civilian use. In just under two decades, GPS devices have expanded into cell phones, boats, automobiles and hand-held devices. At first, GPS systems were too expensive for the mass market, but now you can buy a good device for less than $200. There are many different brands, features and map types for site navigation these days, so many consumers spend a good deal of time reading reviews and doing some comparison shopping before they buy.
“Garmin is founded on the principles of innovation, convenience, performance, value, and service,” proclaims the company website. In fact, Garmin, which has been around since 1989, is the most well-known North American brand name in Global Positioning Systems today. Based out of Kansas, no part of the manufacturing process gets outsourced, as the company designs, manufactures, markets and sells all of their products themselves. They offer GPS navigation systems for all different lifestyles, such as fitness-based systems, automotive GPS systems, systems for hikers or campers, aviation technology, marine technology and site navigation for geocachers.
The Garmin 200 series (starting as low as $119 at Circuit City) offers a no-frills GPS for automobiles that includes 6 million points of interest, voice-prompted directions, as well as a picture viewer, a calculator, a currency converter and a world clock. The Garmin nuvi 250W also adds Alaska and Canada to the map set. Of course you’ll miss out on functions like an MP3 player, adding live traffic info and the ability to call out upcoming street names. (The nuvi 260 or the nuvi 350 will have the street name call-out function.) By contrast, a really high-end Garmin, like the Garmin nuvi 760, adds multi-destination routing with automatic sorting to ensure the most efficient route, speed limit display for highways, automatic marking of your last position to help you find your car in parking lots, the “Where am I” safety feature for emergencies and MSN Direct browsing. These GPS devices start at $325 at www.bestpriceaudiovideo.com.
When buying an auto GPS device, look at how many “points of interest” are offered. Anything less than 2 million will be frustrating, whereas the ideal number is around 6 million. Next, check for screen size. They range from 2.1 inches all the way up to 7 inch. If you plan to use your GPS while walking, you’ll want something smaller, whereas the 7 inch is best for an RV. For cars, the Garmin nuvi 680 is an ideal 4.3 inch. You’ll want something with good functionality that allows you to switch maps or search points of interest with a button tap or two. Some of the newer, more advanced GPS systems include things like text-to-speech, multi-destination routing, satellite radio/audiobook player/MP3 player capacity and Bluetooth speakerphone capabilities.
