Aug 09 2008
GPS - Garmin Nuvi as a personal assistant
2008-08-09 21:45:57
Mobile living does not always mean that you are out of your own hometown. On days full of errands and shopping you may make multiple stops. Doesn’t sound too bad. You know that no matter what you do or where you go it will always take longer than you expect. There is only so much time in a day so the only way to get more is to save some of what you already have.
Even before I purchased my iPhone 3G a GPS was on my list of most wanted gadgets. I just could not really come up with a good enough reason to buy one. On top of that I could not make up my mind which one I wanted. As of today – I still have not decided to buy one but I am getting closer to choosing the one.
So far I am partial to the Garmin Nuvi line. There are so many models and they are all somewhat similar so it is difficult to keep them straight.
My friend’s husband bought her a Garmin Nuvi 250W (W stands for Widescreen) and her cousin bought a 260W. Price wise there is typically less than $50 difference. However, the Nuvi 250W only speaks the basic directional instructions and the 260W speaks the actual street names. That is the only difference between the two but it made my friend feel like she had a much lesser model. I explained the difference between the two models and she felt much better about her husband’s gift.
I understand her issue and I admit that I am the same way. Sometimes I get almost paralyzed trying to figure out which gadget is the very best available.
The later Nuvi models such as the 700 and 800 series are getting my attention. “Multiple routes” are great for planning a day with a lot of stops. If you enter the addresses the Nuvi will calculate the best route from start to finish. Just think how great this would be for garage sales! “Garmin Locate” is a great little feature that can keep you from loosing your car in a huge parking lot. Speech recognition is also a cool feature that I want.
It may seem rather silly to buy a GPS when you don’t travel much. In an earlier time it probably would have been. Now the GPS devices are more like electronic personal assistants. What could be better than that?
