Navman F20 GPS Navigator

Navman F20 GPS Navigator

Great unit for the price (black friday price)

I bought this entry level unit last black friday. It has served me well over this last year. I leave it in the car and it's been working fine, fast satellite acquisition - sirf star 3. Sure it doesn't have all the addresses, but it can find the general area where i'm looking for and that's all I need. I mainly use it to find my golf courses and it does have them. As for the connectivity kit. Don't you all have a digital camera or other digital device? Use that cable, i used it and downloaded the updates from navman, it connected and i upgraded the basic software. Now i'm not sure what else you can do with a real connectivity kit, but i'm happy with it for the price i paid. For the price the F20 works great, no problem in the Los Angeles/California area. I think this year they came out with S series, s20/s30 etc... As this company is in the UK, don't expect the same service as a company in the good ole USofA.

Won't honor warranty

My Navman F20 broke 40 days after I bought it. The charger connection broke internally. I sent it to Navman for repair in accordance with their warranty, and Navman wants $149 to repair it, claiming, without explanation, that the repair is not covered by its warranty! How something so clearly a manufacturing defect not be covered by the warranty? I have never had such poor performance from such an expensive item. My advice, don't buy anything from Navman. They are dishonest.

Great device for ENTRY LEVEL

I think some of the other reviewers here are getting a bit carried away. They seem to be forgetting it is an ENTRY LEVEL device, that's why you got it cheap. It is not meant to have all the frills of a more expensive model. Who cares about custom POI's, I just want it to get me from A to B and back again. I don't need to take pictures, listen to music from it (I have a car stereo for that), I don't need to customize the POI's or the colours or backgrounds. If you are in such dire need for all of that then you should have researched what you were buying or at least looked at the info on the box. If it doesn't say its in the box then it probably isn't so why are you all harping on about software and connectivity kits? A standard USB mini cable is all that is required (these cables come with most mp3 players and digital camera's) to connect it to your PC and can also be used for charging. If you were to buy a connectivity kit from Navman then you would be an idiot as you would be paying through the nose for a cable that you most probably have already or can get for a dollar at any accessory store. As for the software, why do you need that? You would only need it to update the maps and to update the maps you need to buy them from Navman (updates are not free) who supplies them on a SD card or CD's depending on the maps you require. The software you need to install them is supplied with them. The Navman F20 does everything it needs to do to get you where you want to go and it does it flawlessly. It was never advertised as anything other than a straightforward navigation device, isn't that what they were designed to be? The people complaining about the lack of features are probably the same people who want every single concievable feature on their cell phones but only ever use them to make a call. Why do you want mp3 on a satnav, are you going to carry it around in your shirt pocket all day? Ever heard of mp3 players? OOh I want a digital camera on my satnav so that when I get to a destination I can take a picture of a landmark there so that the next time I want to go I can just touch the thumbnail and it will take me there again. WHY WHY WHY....you already know how to get there right? You are going to look stupid pulling out your satnav/mp3/digital camera/fm radio to take a pic of the castle at Magic Kingdom aren't you? Get a life, don't buy something then complain about features you knew it didn't have. Read the box next time!

Wrong about the connectivity kit

I have owned the F20 for about 9 months now. I live in a fairly rural area of South East Texas, and sometimes have trouble finding the addresses that I need, although I imagine this would be a problem with any brand of GPS considering my area (I can usually plot a route by using a combination of Microsoft Streets and Trips, and my Navman... the "Intersections" feature really helps). However, I have to address the complaints of a lot of the reviewers here about the lack of the PC Connectivity Kit. Yes, it took Navman awhile to make it available here in the US, but it IS AVAILABLE NOW... I HAVE ONE. I have considered replacing my Navman with a Garmin or Tom Tom, but I believe they would have the same problems finding the addresses I look for in my area also. I will stick with my F20 until someone can prove to me otherwise...

Performs well and is inexpensive, not cheap.

As many have said before me, this product is a very good value. If you are looking for a GPS system to provide directions, without many of the additional features such as bluetooth, MP3 playback, and TTS, it will be hard to beat. It may give you a little bit of trouble directionally when in parking lots and such, but it overall performs very well. If you can find it for under $200 as I did, I would highly recommend it.

Keyword : nav

TomTom GO 510 4-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (Factory Refurbished)

TomTom GO 510 4-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (Factory Refurbished)

TomTom510

I have purchased three units and am extremely satisfied. You will not get lost using this unit. If you get off track it recalculates immediately. Getting used to the options and controls takes a while to learn but still easy to use. I recommend getting a remote for any gps unit purchased. No touching the screen jut use the remote.

Tom Tom GPS

The item came quickly. It was well packed. And the setup instructions were cear and easy to understand. The functionality and installation are good. There is a learning curve to use all of the units capabilities. Good product.

Not at all satisfied

It freezes more often than it works. I planned a big trip with this unit but didn't work at all. I paid 12$ for 1 day shipping which is waste.

Cool thing...:)

Bought this for $199, has been working well and going everywhere with us since the day we bought it. Easy to use and the battery last about 4 hours in a single charge. Connectin to the satellite is a little slow at first, but after a software update it's not a problem anymore. I am not to crazy about the bluetooth, I have a blue tooth headset that's better....:) Putting extra software is a little tricky because it's a refurbished item and I had to call the tech support because the unit ID in the box is different than the one on the device help menu. I haven't tried the gas price notification update yet, but I am going too. Overall is a great GPS for the price and very user friendly.

TOM TOM GO 510 - This Product Draws Wind - "Su- - -"

I will not deal with the TOM TOM company again because they do not stand behind their products, but leave all complaints in the hands of telephone service people who apparently are not authorized to direct a customer to return a defective unit for a good one. Since day-one we have been unhappy with our TOM TOM GO 510 and am certain we received a bad unit, or lemon. I have tried to get TOM TOM to ship us another unit and all they do is give us the run around. Other writers indicate this device is hard to program and I certainly agree with them on that, especially after getting it to operate at all, appeared to be good for a period of only a few days. The responses to my numerous phone calls have all resulted in my putting off the return and replacement of my defective unit until it is no longer covered by warranty. Just when we manage to recharge the unit with power, refresh its contact with GPS satellites, and update software it works for a limited period, only to behave as though brain dead if we don't use our new HONDA CRV for two or more days in a row. This is unacceptable under any circumstances. The following people have dealt with the TOM TOM support line and not received a reasonable explanation of the difficulty (except to go back to the web site, reload software, and so on): My wife, my computer savvy son, I have, my cousin who is an electrical engineer who is very computer literate. All these individuals have all tried to get the unit up and running with the assistance of Tom Tom over the phone. Be advised to have no dealings with TOM TOM and stear clear of their second rate unsupported products.

Keyword : tomtom

Nav-Cam 7000 Portable Satellite Navigator

Nav-Cam 7000 Portable Satellite Navigator

Not a good GPS

I've owned this GPS for a little under a year. Yes, it has definitely helped, however, here is what I wrote to the manufacturer. I uploaded the software update a couple of weeks ago and I am dismayed at the results. The previous version could display the distance to the next turn, distance to destination, time to destination, next street, and turn arrow. Why can't this one? It is not possible to display the distance to next turn for instance if you had the others up because you would have to give up something. In addition, the voice is being truncated (this problem has gotten worse). So lets say you are continuing on I-4, it would say, "continue on I....." and cut off the rest, or "if it wanted to say continue for 104 miles" it would say "continue for (BLANK) miles" or just stop at "continue for". I thought the software update was there to fix these problems? If you enter an address, it could give you up to 3 separate choices for a street name - each of them is valid because it is the street, but if you choose incorrectly you could be BLOCKS away from the destination. As an example. Enter 537 Hampshire Lane And as you type Hampshire Lane You get Hampshire Lane Hampshire Lane Which do you chose? If you chose the incorrect one, it will put you in different block (even though you are on the correct street). One time this problem put us 2 miles from the destination even though the unit was telling us we were there. We had to troll up and down the street in two miles in either direction before we finally found it. Why, if the building number is entered would it take you to the wrong block? Why does it not enable you to enter the whole address and then let you chose the block? This is by far the worse problem that we have faced. And lastly, I had a couple of occurrences where I am driving down a street and I KNOW that I am supposed to be on that street for several more miles when the directions tell me to make a right turn. Then about 100 feet past that right turn, it tells you to make a U turn and then another right turn. You can clearly see on the map that you are going to make 3 stupid turns. On a street which is obvious that is easy to catch. But in a city or someplace that you are totally unfamiliar with, that is just unacceptable. Put your money on another brand, their units suck.

Not even worth 1 star

Don't waste your money even 99c. It only causes you headache and frustration. I don't understand why Sams carries this. The first time I tested it I entered the street name and it did take me to that street. That was it. Driving on that street it kept on telling me "Turn left then turn left", and then "Turn right then turn right". To where? Who knows? Entering the street number and address to test it the second time whatever I entered was just there. It didn't tell you it could NOT find it. There is no enter button, and no feed back from the program. What a good program! That's what happened when I entered my parents' address (build more than 20 years ago). The third time we entered my friend's address (build around 5 years ago), it could NOT find it either. Also, it takes a QUITE while for the gps to get its signal. I went to the manufacture web site to down load the new software and it now could give you some feed back like "No match" to let you know it can't find the address. Also now it can find my parents' address but still tells me I am there even if I am still 2 miles away. Yesterday, my girl friend and I tested it again driving from my house to my parents' one (about 5 miles apart). I could get to my parents' house while it haven't yet found the location of the destination. This is the worse electronic device I have ever used.

not so good

Received this as a gift. I'm a computer programmer and generally very adept at figuring out how to use gadgets. However, the printed instructions are minimal and the instructions on the accompanying CD are just as minimal, which is to say they are entirely insufficient. So far I have only attempted to use the navigational features. I tried briefly on three separate occasions to enter a location to drive to and did not succeed. Frustrated, I gave up after about 5 minutes each time. On the fourth occasion I finally realized that it had not accepted the address as I entered it. There was no feedback indicating the device could not find the street name, so I did not know I should try an alternate naming convention (i.e. spell out SOUTH instead of using S for an abbreviation). So now I can enter addresses. Hooray! But wait, I still have some complaints. The device often doesn't keep up with the vehicle position. I'll be driving at 40 mph on city streets or 65 mph on highways, and fairly frequently the map stops updating and appears to be stuck. This happens when I set it to simply follow our location and also when I enter a drive-to address. It's more obvious with the drive-to address because it shows the calculated route in green, but when it loses our position the green abruptly stops and does not indicate how the path should proceed. It's also painfully obvious when I enter my home address as the drive-to address. I'll be driving along and thinking it's doing a good job, and then, for no apparent reason, it may tell me I need to turn onto a street several seconds after I already turned onto the same street. I haven't actually tried to use it to get to a location I don't already know how to get to. I worry that it may be very frustrating to have to backtrack because I've missed a turn on a busy highway.

Keyword : nav

Cobra Electronics Nav One 2500 Mobile Navigator

Cobra Electronics Nav One 2500 Mobile Navigator

Okay but there are better ones out there

Pros: Works most of the time. Will get you there. Cons: No internal battery, must be plugged in to be used. Slow. Unit shuts off for no reason. Some routes are definitely the long way around. Did I mention slow? I've owned the Cobra NavOne 2500 for over a year now. It is the first GPS system that I ever used. The unit is fairly easy to use, the menus are relatively intuitive with some quirks. In order to load a destination you must first pick a state then start entering the street address, number first. As you enter the street name the choices of letters on the entry screen adjust so that your chances of mis-spelling a name decreases, pretty good feature with the following glitch: the unit searches its internal state database as you're entering the name, in New Jersey, where I live it isn't a problem but when I travelled to Florida last summer it made address entry excruciatingly slow as the unit tried to match what I typed to its internal database. In some instances I thought the unit had frozen. After the street name is entered the unit then gives you a list of towns in the state that have that particular street name. Most of the time the town name is shown but sometimes you have to hit the "more" icon to get an additional list. It seems odd that the unit doesn't display all of the possible choices right off the bat. All of the previous destinations that you enter are saved. I haven't ran into a memory problem yet even though I have 10 addresses in the database. As with other users that have GPS units I checked its accuracy by using it around my area. Results varied WIDELY!! Most times it would find the most direct route and sometimes it would take me way out of my way. In looking at the wider map the roads that are the most direct route were in the database but the unit refused to go that way. Since this is the first GPS unit I owned I didn't realise how slow it is. When the unit is first turned on it takes over two minutes to start up then load the maps. When you make a turn that doesn't follow its instructions it takes anywhere from 30 seconds or longer to recalculate a route. In comparison, my daughter's Tom Tom flashes the new route in under 15 seconds. It's not a bad unit but there are better ones out there. I was surprised to see the price! Way too much for a unit that's a generation or two behind the times.

Cobra NAV ONE 2500/2100 GPS

If you travel the roads across the USA, please do not buy this unit. I am a professional truck driver, and I have had nothing but headache after headache using it. The GPS is too slow, so you are actually past an off ramp or exit when it shows up on the screen. It will take you off a major Interstate, drive through small town streets with stop lights, and then put you back on the exact Interstate it just took you off of. When it recalculates, it will freeze the screen, you cannot turn it off or change the touch screen, your only option is to unplug it. You have to watch the screen carefully, the voice command will tell you "bear right", when actually you go to the left, or it will tell you to turn when you make no turn at all. I could go on and on, I have updated it, returned it for a new unit, still the same problems, I paid way too much for it at a truck stop and they will not refund my money, so please do not buy this junk from Cobra. I only gave it 1 star because the software made me, if I could have I would have given it a -5.

Works ok, but has similar problems common to others

I have had the cobra naveone 2500 for about 4 months now. I was looking for a lower end unit with a lot of points of interest and one that covers Canada and the US. Mine came with an ac adapter, 12 volt cord & windshield mount. Others have an internal battery power source that would have been a nice feature. As with many reviewers on other gps units this has similar flaws. In an area you are familiar with it seems to take you on round about routes at times to reach your destination. When you are in an area unfamiliar it will get you there. I mainly bought the Cobra because I heard it locked on to satellite fixes faster then some other brands. It will do this within 30 seconds most times. When driving through a tunnel it re-acquires the sattelite position in about 5 seconds when you have a view of the sky again. A couple of strange anomolies I have found occur everytime at the same locations. When driving on a Vancouver expressway in 2 areas the voice command tells me to exit but you can clearly see on the map its routing you off the exit, across the intersecting road and back onto the same expressway again. One intersection,the voice promt will always tell me, right turn ahead but the map and arrow indicate a left turn. Id say if you follow the map its 99% accurate, the voice command maybe 90% accurate so always refer to the map or turn by turn list. I updated the unit with Cobra the first week I had it. There were 3 updates issued in the time mine was manufactured and sitting on the shilf in the box. A Walmart store and the road into it that were built just over a year ago do not show up yet on the map. Another reason I chose this Cobra over the Magellan was that there customer service was good. Originally intending to get a magellan but once I started reading reviews , quickly heard nothing but horror stories about there customer service with Magellan. All in all the Cobra works well enough for me. It offers more points of interest stored in memory then most others in the price range and does aquire sattelites very quickly as I was told. I have read a lot of reviews from Magellan, Garmin, Tom Tom and other gps units and all have very similar complaints regarding routing and anomolies as metioned on my local expressway. I think gps units have a long way to go yet till they are 100%efficient. GPS units are not as good as I had expected but are still too valuable a tool to be without. I will be travelling across the US a couple times this year and will really be able to put the Cobra to the test.

I like it

It's Simple To use and the voice is clear as a bell. It lets you know if you're turning left or right ahead of time so you're prepared and when you get to the exact spot for the turn it beeps. And... If it's so hard to remember what direction was told to you a minute ago, there's a directional arrow at the bottom left which points in the turn of your direction. If you miss your turn the system reconfigures to where you are and will direct you from there. Again, I like it.

Poor item

I decided to try the 2500 after trying the 4500 and returning it (Why? I have no idea!) The unit is a small, but the interface is really bad. The 3D graphics are POOR! The unit does not tell you to turn when you are supposed to, at the actual turn, instead it beeps. If you are approaching a turn, it will tell you announce the following: "In 0.2 miles, turn left" When you get to the actual turn the unit just beeps, with no turn direction, so if you don't remember if you had to turn right or left when the unit announced it 1/4 mile back, tough luck. Look at the screen. The screen rendering is also bad. The unit I tested, when the route was claculated and displayed, all streets not on the route (side streets) were not displayed. Even though these units tell you to turn left right etc., sometimes two streets are close together and you need to glance at the display to see if you are turning on the first or second street. So if the side streets are not displayed, you have to guess which is your turn. Also, many times the unit will tell you that your destination is left, when it is on the right and vice versa. The maps are horribly outdated with many streets no longer in existance still being directed to. Also, a lot of streets already in existance for years are not on the system. Spend an extra $100.00 and get a Garmin Nuvi with text to speech turn directions and a whole lot of other stuff. Stay away from Cobra products. They make great radar detectors, but make horrible GPS units.

Keyword : nav

Cobra Nav One 4500 Mobile GPS Navigator with Traffic

Cobra Nav One 4500 Mobile GPS Navigator with Traffic

Cobra

It is fun to use, has great versitility, and is easy to program. I can't ask for much more.

A product with a lot of flaws

This is my first GPS system so I did a lot of research online before I went ahead purchase it in March 2007. I wanted a large screen one and traffic system. 4500 seems to be the perfect match. Pro: large screen, real-time traffic system saved me many times, and reasonable routing suggestions. I don't have the rerouting adaptation problem as the other reviewers and if I get into a side road, it'll recalculate immediately. Maybe they fixed it in the most current software batch. Their customer service is superb. Cons: I had this unit for 5 months and have to return it now. As many reviewers said, this unit has slower routing calculation and I didn't realize it would be a problem until I was driving on a highway waiting for the exit. Even though I have the most current database batch, I would see some not-so-new highways disappeared suddenly during the drive. It would come back eventually but it doesn't feel good to see yourself driving on a blank space for several miles, especially if you travel to a unknown place at night. Road side of a destination seems to be wrong 80% of the time. We all know after 1 month of usage to ignore the final destination instruction. After 2 months, the address book, all travel location information, and user settings were wiped out automatically and I have to reset everything. After it happened so many times, I called Cobra and they gave me another software patch. It seemed to fix the problem. When used in big cities with a lot of traffics, its routing instruction can be so wrong. It usually gives me the worst routing suggestion, i.e. chose the busiest road, or a longer route, or use local highways with a lot of construction going on instead of an interstate highways that are much less congested, etc. This unit's routing logic seems to work better with mid-size to small-size towns. The mounting is cumbersome. After taking it off and putting it back on whenever I have to park somewhere, the V12 cord connected to the car broke. I had to call the customer service and they sent me another cord immediately. Did I mention that their customer service is very good? The final flaw which makes me wanted to return it is, one day the beautiful female voice was gone. Never come back again. I feel sorry to have to put a bad review on a product. I hope it would help others to avoid the frustrations I have gone through.

nice if it works

I got the unit for Christmas, attracted to the good display, but leery of the reliability, both due to other's reviews. I have no serious references to other GPS units, aside from one in an ACRUA MDX that was built into the console, and was very impressive. My 4500 is away to be repaired now, they say for about 3 weeks, with very little use when it worked. I was careful with it as was possible and used it only on major highway trips. I don't understand how, say an Acura, can have GPS that can sit out in cold and extreme heat, and survives daily driving, and the 4500 Nav One breaks while being treated like delicate china. I also bought every accessory that SHOULD have come with it for the price. I hate to give bad reviews, but I have to say, if you need a GPS you can count on, this model is high risk. I would want to know this if I was considering buying it. The software can be a little bugged. I got stuck in some loop (it refused to lock in one zoom level) while on the road and eventually had to shut it down and reset to defaults. No idea why. It's sometimes not very precise and a little sluggish in real time rerouting, which can be frequent, as the unit gets lost for no apparent reason while cruising down an Interstate. It does look nice, and has many great features when it works. That said, I had higher hopes for a portable GPS that really isn't portable, unless you have a portable power source. It was missed on my last road trip when it quit working, and will be missed while in the shop. For me the unit is more a toy than a tool fortunately, because as a needed tool, I would not highly recommend it. update: Only took about ten days and got a new replacement for the crashed one. The new Nav ONE seems to perform better than the defective one did, meaning it doesn't get "lost" and recalculate for no clear reason, as before.

Cobra 4500

The unit is very large and bulky. It does have a very large viewable map which is nice. The unit I had worked about 1 week then would not power up. I am completely dissapointed with this brand and unit and am trying another one.

Cobra Nav One

I am very pleased with this GPS unit. I was alittle worried after reading some of the reviews, but am very happy that I still ordered it. The graphics are by far one of the best. It has very detailed graphics, unlike many of the other brands that have a more cartoon look to them. The graphics are compariable to what you would find in a in-dash unit. It is very user friendly, and easy to navigate. The unit does weigh a bit, but have not had any problems with the suction cup as I read about. As long as the window is clean it works great. I have even drove over some really bumpy roads and the unit has not come loose. For the money and what you get this is a terrific unit, and would highly recommend it.

Keyword : nav

Cobra GPSM 4000 Nav One Mobile Navigator

Cobra GPSM 4000 Nav One Mobile Navigator

Cobra GPS

So far I find the Cobra unit is very accurate and has all the features I need. I like the large screen and voice directions. The only problem is I can't get an additional windshield holding mount. So I have to move the holder from vehicle to vehicle. Cobra does not offer additional mounts for the 4000 unit. Overall for the price it is an excellent buy.

GPSM 4000

I just had this over the weekend and only payed 125 so heres my thoughts. For what I paid for it I can't complain about what it is/isnt. But if I would have sunk any real cash into this I'de be sending it back. This is a very good sub $200 gps. Heres what you should really know. It has speech. but limited text to speech. So basically if you want a gps to tell you all the street names.. Not happening here. I added all the updates when I got it so I can tell you the 3d graphics.. like you see now on most gps's (like tomtom) is not as good. also you really have to clean your windshield before you stick this on your dash. I had it come off the glass 2x already in 3 days. It is a pretty hefty item to hang from a suction cup. I ended up placing it so it actually rests on the dash while attached to the window. Good points. The screen auto adjusts to the daylight/or lack of the navigation is spot on. with the update installed I dont have the problems others have/ I had the updates on before I ever test drove it. The voice commands are clear but mechanical sounding female voice. You would think the a gps that actually has a microdrive inside could have added other voices to the package. I got the database update. so I can not comment on how the new maps compare to the old. But the last update is 2006 and its close but not perfect. One quirky thing about this is it has modest actual street address finding.. It will list roads when it can not find the actual address. in a couple cases it says "no data" this is no big problem just annoying. for what i payed for it its great. The 5 inch screen.. 4.4 actual inches and a icon strip on the side is a lot easier to see than the tomtom go. May not mean much to you younger people but when you get older this is a selling point. If you can latch onto one cheap its a 4.5 at +200 a 3.5. I forgot to add with the updates. it doesn't jump page to page like mentioned in other reviews.. it moves along just like a tomtom.

Not worth any amount of $$$ - You will get lost if you use this!!!

Bought this unit for the big screen size and some other reviews that I had read. What a mistake. The unit operated for a few weeks OK with the turn by turn directions a major plus. However, after the initial break in period the unit lost all inputed memory which wouldn't have been a problem for me, but my wife was on business trip and she can't read a map from a Victoria's Secret catalog. Anyway, she lost the home memory function and manually inputed our address. After traveling 3 hours she was directed to the middle of the state, about 2 hours from our house where she called me and I was able to help her get home although she was 4 hours and 300 extra miles late! Went to the Cobra website for FAQ's about the problem or maybe a software patch, which there was one for this unit from 2 years ago, later than what I had installed, downloaded it, installed it and next time we stared the car there was a loss of internal memory and the unit stated in the welcome screen that there is possibly an update to the system memory. Called Cobra tech support, they told me to send it back and they updated the BIOS and installed the same update which I had done previously. This worked for 2 days with the same result after that with all loss of inputed memory. In summary if you want to buy this product you should be pretty sure of the warranty and possibly what the return restrictions are as some stores won't accept returns of used GPS units. If all the inputs you made to the memory drop off and you can't retrieve it don't even hesitate and call Cobra support at 773-889-3087 to ask how to return this model as it seams they can't even fix it. So don't waste your time and hard earned money, buy another brand.

Excellent Product

I purchased this item after spending days reading other reviews on various products. I have a navigation system in my BMW and was hoping for one just as good to use in my motorhome. This one is actually better than the BMW navigation system.

Solid Affordable Aftermarket Navigation, but...

After a disasterous experience with a Sony NavU70 unit and after considering the Garmin system owned by a friend, and after doing extensive research and demoing some products at the local Circuit City, I finally selected the Cobra GPSM4000 sight unseen and bought it through Amazon. Frankly I wasn't expecting too much, and the appearance of the unit struck me as a little retro (too much chrome for my taste, as though this unit had been designed as an add-on for old GM vehicles). But when I put it in my 4x4 I was impressed. Although the manual warns you that it can take up to 20 minutes for a brand-new unit to orient itself based on the signals received from the orbiting satellites, the Cobra 4000 oriented itself within 60 seconds of being turned on. It was so quick that I found myself wondering if the people at the factory had somehow pre-programmed my location. The screen is nice and bright, the touch-screen functionality is just the right degree of sensitivity, and all the key parameters are tunable through the menu options so you can customize the unit to perform according to your own preferences. New locations are simple to store (which makes waypointing easy) and the system provides breadcrumbs which is essential for off-roading. The Sony unit referred to earlier in this review was an ergonomic disaster and didn't support breadcrumbs nor simple location storage. It was pretty, though. As real-time traffic data comes on-stream in the USA the real-time traffic option will become more worthwhile. I didn't purchase this option with my unit because it's not really available yet in my region and besides, there's no alternative when the local freeway is jammed. There is no route work-around possible, so it wouldn't help me much on a day-to-day basis. But one day, when the service is cheap and there are alternative routes to be found, it will be a worthwhile addition to the repertoire of all in-car navigation systems. I really like the larger screen size, though while it is technically 5 inches in diameter the actual map size is about 4.5 inches because the borders are occupied with soft keys. Still, that beats the 3 inch and 3.5 inch screens found on other units like Garmin and Magellan and TomTomGo. Voice prompting is nice & crisp, but the on-screen direction arrow with distance indicator is a little small, for those situations when you want to check whether it's the next turn or the one 50 feet after that. Some GPS units scroll smoothly as you travel, keeping the cursor in the center of the map. The system in my Acura does that and I've become used to it. The Cobra unit works the other way: the cursor representing your vehicle travels across the screen and then, just as it reaches the edge of the screen, the entire map "jumps" to a new page and the process starts all over again. While my preference is for the Honda/Acura approach, the "jumping page" is something I can live with and isn't too distracting in practice. I care more about the accuracy of the unit and the Cobra is very accurate and fast to adjust. The unit comes with a windscreen mount, but there's also a base plate in case you want to mount it to a horizontal surface. I was somewhat concerned about placing the unit in the windscreen area because off-road in the desert in the middle of the day it can get awfully hot right there, even with the A/C blowing hard. So I chose to purchase the optional external GPS receiver, which I mounted in the windshield area, and I placed the Cobra unit in the center binnacle where it is easy to see yet out of the direct sunlight (which also improves general visibility, as the screen never washes out because of being hit by direct light). UPDATE: February 26th 2007. After taking the unit on its first extended trip (3 hours) it exhibited a major defect. After 25 minutes of continuous operation the unit began emitting a hot metal smell and the upper left portion of the screen became hot to touch; simultaneously the upper left portion of the screen turned dark and no longer displayed anything. After another 5 minutes the screen began to blink on and off rapidly, rendering it useless. Turning on the A/C and directing a stream of icy air at the unit did nothing to ameliorate the problem. Beach Audio accepted the return of the unit and shipped me a replacement; I have not yet taken the replacement on a long (3+ hours) trip to see whether the new unit overheats like the old one did. Hopefully it was a one-off manufacturing defect as apart from the malfunction I was pleased with the previous unit. Second Update: as of August 2008 the replacement is still functioning as intended. I'm irritated by the fact that it can take up to 15 minutes to acquire satellites upon start of the journey (afterwards it acquires almost instantly), and I've discovered that the database of street addresses is quirky - a location in Tahoe Vista was listed as being in Sacramento, even though the on-map icon was correctly placed in Tahoe Vista. Now that the unit has come down to around $200 I think it's OK for the money, but as I originally paid about $500 I think it was overpriced back then. Realistically there are much better units on the market now, and I'd definitely advise people to go with an integrated Bluetooth and MP3 functionality in any new standalone unit these days.

Keyword : nav

Cobra GPSM 2100 Portable GPS Navigator

Cobra GPSM 2100 Portable GPS Navigator

cobra

i had gotten this as gift for my husband. he absolutely loves it and uses for long trips and occasionally for our short trips around the local area. his biggest kick is when he is taking a shorter and faster route to the main road and the cobra voice tells him to go another way.

Some nice features..but

I bought this GPS for a trip from Maine to Florida. Although it took me on a good route through CT and gave me detailed info about upcoming turns, this thing took me through the middle of Washingon DC during morning rush hour. When I got to Florida, for some unknown reason this thing wouldn't tell me the next turn until I had passed the intersection. I'm better off with Mapquest.

Don't get this item

I tried to use the COBRA and was disapointed. We tried to look for restaurants and the three places we tried were not in the system. When we tried to enter a restaurant we knew was at a certain location, the COBRA did not recognize the place we were looking for. Also, the unit told us to go to the "highlighted street" after entering a selected restaurant but did not direct us (as a gps should) to the street. One street we were directed to was not an actual street and had rocks across the road so we could not drive down the street and had to redirect ourselves another way.

So disappointed...great technology but terrible interface

This is one of the most disappointing electronic devices I've ever bought. The unit works fine and for getting Grandma from one place to another it is a cute toy. I drive a tractor trailer and if any truckers are considering this unit, just don't. For one thing, the unit will not allow you to select an exit number on a given interstate as a destination. The exits are in the database, it calls off the exits when you have to use one, just doesn't let you find them. Truckstops are listed by interstate# and exit# (not street address) in the guidebooks. Also, very often industrial warehouse sites are not listed by street address and the unit can't find anything without a street number. I now have my old 2002 GarminV with it's outdated maps and impossibly small memory capacity sitting next to the new Cobra so I can use that interface to find exits and plan destination time estimates before moving (the cobra will not display eta times until you get to a spot where your next turn is more than a mile away). Very frustrating. I wonder if there are any parts sharp enough to damage my tire if I drive over it?

It Ain't No Garmin!

My Garmin 340C was stolen from my car and I took a chance on the Cobra. It works (sometimes) but software and graphics are far inferior to what I had gotten used to. On the plus side, some nice features like choice of a category and listing of all in that category in your area. The graphics, if you don't use the 3D version, are fairly good. And it's pretty sensitive in homing in on the satellites, even when you're indoors. But, the shortcomings leave me disappointed. For openers, when I set it for "home" in my driveway, it puts me on a street 1000' away that doesn't come into my area. So, if I set it with "home" as a destination, I wind up in someone else's driveway. The Garmin allows you to plug in a destination and when you let it calculate a route, it gives you mileage and an ETA before you start. Not so with the Cobra. Once you start, it will show an ETA but if there's a way to show the mileage to get there, I haven't found it. The Garmin "speaks" all roads you're directed to use. The Cobra "speaks" only Interstates but has a visual display of the names of all. Another annoyance is that the "zoom" feature keeps resetting itself to a larger area of display. May be a software glitch but not fixable by any of their downloads to date. Garmin offers all sorts of language options: Australian woman speaking with Finnish display; German man speaking with Spanish display, etc. But these are really gimmicks and not necessary. The Cobra is available for somewhat less than the Garmin. And it shows.

Keyword : nav

Dream`eo Solo 20GB Portable GPS and Media Player

Dream`eo Solo 20GB Portable GPS and Media Player

It will get you where your going.

Ever gotten lost with this GPS unit, and with all the storage, I can listen to my favorite music all day long, and watch videos all night long.

It broke

I have had this for less than a year and it has broke. This is my 2nd 20 gig mp3 player in 3 years. My advice is they just don't work. Too complicated and too fragile. It is either the hard drive or the battery and they want $65 for fix it. I think i'll take $20 and buy a cheap mp3 player.

Bad device, worse service.

a bad purchase: I saw the earlier review that it was a hard to use GPS, but I was looking for an MP3 player that would hold a lot of songs and thought of the GPS as a bonus so wasn't that worried about it's perfection as a GPS. What I found was that the GPS wasn't as non-intuitive as the earlier review. It isn't in the catagory of a Garmin (which I own) or a Tom Tom (which I've used), but it is useable. However, as an media player it is almost completely unusable. If you have more than a few songs, you are likely to want to organize them in some way on the disk. I do mine by artist, then album in directories. The biggest problem is that you can only play by selecting a song, or selecting a play list (so far OK..) But you can't add directories to play lists which means a LOT of navigating and adding songs one by one. NOT a good thing if you have 3000+ songs on it. But, if you manage to actually get a playlist with a lot of songs on it, selecting the play list takes minutes to load the playlist before it starts to play (mine with 3534 songs takes 5 + minutes from the time I press play til it starts playing.. On batteries, it actually goes to sleep prior to starting, you have to wake it up several times before it finishes processing the list and starts playing. Once playing it doesn't go to sleep. But once you actually get it to start playing, be sure to lock the buttons. If not, just an accidental touch of the power button shuts it off and you have to start all over again. Of course with the buttons locked, you can't advance songs, change volume, etc. And always carry a pen or paperclip to reset it when it inevitably locks up (mostly in videos). Their Website is of little help, I found no upgrades to address these problems. They have a FAQ page, but it is blank. I posted questions to their help and haven't received confirmation of the question or help. It finally locked up completely. It now starts up and immediately suspends. If you call them on their "Free support line", they tell you to email on the rare occasion they actually answer the phone. If you send them an email, they don't respond. I called, after I sent an email and they acknowledged they had received an email, but wouldn't help me and said to wait for a reply, which.... I had to email yet again before getting a response. After a week and a half of trying to get something, I finally was told to send it in for repair. After 2.5 months, I have yet to hear back from them. I started calling and emailing support requesting a status at least once a week. After another month, I'd sent 6 emails with no replies and made multiple phone calls. The phone calls always went like: "Let me check... Yes we got your emails, what is your phone number, we'll call you back" but I never received a phone call. Finally, on Jun 4th, I got back the device about 100 days. A search of the internet will reveal that neither the problem with the device nor the problem with their support is unique.

Not a GPS unit

The name "Dream 'eo Solo Portable GPS and Media Player" is half correct. I didn't try it, but it appeared to be a great media player. However, I primarily purchased the unit to be used as a GPS, and for that use - it is severely limited. Pros- - The multimedia capabilities are very nice - not to the level of an Ipod but better than what you would expect on a GPS unit. - Seemed to pick up the satelite relatively quickly. Problems- - Not intitutive to load a new address - in fact it took me over 20 minutes to have any kind of idea on how to load a new address. Way more difficult to load addresses than other products on the market. - The screen is very dim, and nearly impossible to see while driving in daylight. - The maps are not very detailed - there is no comparison between the maps in the Dream'eo and a Garmin - Once an address is put into the unit you are not given the distance or an estimated time of arrival. - The "audible voice" for directions is nearly inaudible. The voice is very mechanical and soft - if you are not paying attention you will miss what it says. - The unit includes a stylus (and it is needed) but there is no storage area for the stylus. I imagine it would take me about 2 weeks before I would lose it. - The mounting unit's height could not be adjusted - and could not be used in my truck since it pressed directly up to the windshield. - The suctuon cup would not "Stick" to my dashboard. - I am worried that as a media player you will be limited by the unit's poor speakers. Final verdict - I am returning the Dream'eo - I feel that it mispresents itself as a viable GPS system. I had high expectations that this would be the perfect unit for me while I ravel the country - but I was mistaken. Next step - a TomTom, Garmin, or a Magellen. I am giving it a second star because it is a nice concept - but fails in its execution.

Keyword : nav

Sony NV-U70 NAV-U Portable GPS Navigator

Sony NV-U70 NAV-U Portable GPS Navigator

Should have listened to the salesman and bought a Garmin

The interface is difficult and not very intuitive to use. Why SONY makes things so complicated is unknown to me. I'm taking it back to Radio Shack and exchanging for a Garmin, I will gladly pay the difference and refurbishing charge.

Do Not go For Sony name in GPS- Sony is for TV not for GPS

It is better for Sony to manufacture electronics and stay away from GPS. I am a Sony Customer but highly disappointed with Sony GPS. I could not find any special feature which would make it better than 90 bucks GPS. Interface not friendly need to go some steps to even find simple search. You need to know zip code to get the correct street/address because if you just go with city name, it will give you multiple zipcodes and then come back not finding the street. If you want to find POI, not easy to find and it will keep waiting for ever. I guess very slow processor. Will take you through the crowded streets of city while easy and quick highway route is available.(even after selecting Quickest instead of shortest route). Start in one direction and after some times make you turn in opposite direction going through small streets. Can't figure it out you are on the highway or 10 meter away on service road. Battery life is low so you will have to keep it plugged. Only interstate names are text to speech and rest of all streets just keep left and keep right. If multiple exits on left/right you know the result. Maps are atleast ten years old and last to issue the updates. Signal strength is good but bad in snow and high buildings. I would not recommend someone to buy this Sony GPS.

Not quite as good as a Hagstrom

My husband bought this a few years ago. The first problem we encountered was that you can't load the software onto a Mac computer, I guess he should have read the system specs before buying it. Second problem we encountered was that we couldn't load the software onto my work Windows based laptop either, so haven't been able to update the maps. The third problem we encountered was that it is difficult to change states with the interface. The fourth and most frustrating problem, especially for a New Yorker, is that when you enter a zip code for Brooklyn, then ask for 1st Ave, it wants to take you to 1st Ave in Manhattan, not Brooklyn. There have been times when I've just wanted to throw the thing out the car window. Instead I open the glove compartment and pull out the Hagstrom NYC atlas. I'm trying to decide whether we should just bite the bullet and buy a TomTom. As an update, I stupidly bought the update disk. There are significant problems with Sony's update software. The software only works on Windows operating systems, but not Windows Vista. Also, the software will not load on any computer that has Microsoft Office 2007 loaded. I reiterate, DO NOT BUY this product. I would go so far as to say, DO NOT BUY any SONY GPS navigation system. When you buy a system, make sure its accompanying software will work on your computer.

Great Price - Good Options

I just bought a refurbished NV-U70 for $129. Out of the box it worked well getting me home from the Sony Outlet store. I did get a message the maps are more than 12 months old but I called Sony and they are sending me the 2008 maps for free! This is lowest price I have seen for a GPS and it does the basics, shows the route, speaks the next navigations, calculates the re-route when you miss a turn or decide to go another way. It finds the position fast and the mount is easily moved from one car to another. Great price .. good options ... what more could you ask?

Quick Easy Accurate

This device is very easy, simply type in the destination and it will tell you where to go, make a wrong turn and it recalculates to get you back on track. Very easy to set up and go.

Keyword : nav

SkyCaddie SG1 Golf GPS (Dark Blue)

SkyCaddie SG1 Golf GPS (Dark Blue)

can't play without it

After 3 rounds using the SG1, I was pleased to have this in my bag. It's pretty accurate and it does make club selection easier. But I had some issues with the GPS unit, the mark/lock button stopped working. So I called SkyCaddie the next day and they sent a replacement unit out the same day. I've used SG1 for several rounds and though it's an older model, it still served its purpose. If you don't want to spend too much money for the newer models, try the SG1 before they run out.

Keyword : skycaddie

SkyCaddie SG4 Golf GPS (Gray/Black)

SkyCaddie SG4 Golf GPS (Gray/Black)

Terry Cassidy

This product is complete garbage. I received one for Fathers Day, it rarely locks onto satellite effectively or quickly enough to use, the clip on the back is cheap plastic and I have already been through two (3 rounds of golf). It was a complete mistake to not get the range finder I wanted.

Rarely Locks Onto a Position Before I Am Ready to Hit the Ball

I have had my SG 4 for over a year now and have played numerous rounds of golf with it with almost the same results. It very rarely is able to lock onto my position before I am ready to hit the ball, whether I am walking or riding in a cart. The courses that I play are fairly open with few trees. I have attached the SkyCaddie to my cart and have worn it on my belt. It doesn't seem to make any difference in its ability to give me yardage. I am very disappointed in the ability of the device to do what it is advertised to do.

Poor product terrible quality and customer service

Don't buy SkyCaddie or other SkyGolf Product! I am on a quest to warn people about SkyGolf / SkyCaddie. I bought an SG4 mainly because of the SD RAM expansion slot which I have several adds saved where it is promised that this slot allows you to save more courses; LIE, the slot does nothing, never did.I have called SkyCaddie about this many times and have been promised a solution over and over. At this point it is too late, there are way too many better technologies on the market. On top of it all I had a terrible time finding and maintaining satellite connections. uPro is the unit I like best and, after I purchased it, I sent them an e-mail support question and they got back with me within 24 hours - ON A SUNDAY! I waited for weeks and never received promised call-backs from SkyGolf. Their customer support is a joke; I suspect that their business model will not be sustainable since they will soon not be able to charge people $30.00 a year. I believe that this puts SkyGolf at risk of going out of business as their business model requires that people continue to be willing to pay this outrageous fee. I have never used the GolfBuddy, but plan to buy one soon for traveling as it has 20,000 courses pre-loaed. There are others, such as iGolf, which are far less expensive than the SkyCaddie. I think that SkyGolf thought that their IntelliGreen patents would give them a sustainable advantage; fortunately uPro has blown that technology out of the water. In short, SkyGolf was early, but is not the technology leader , pricing leader or customer service leader (in fact I have rarely, if ever, dealt with a company with worse customer service). BTW, if anyone wants a used SG4 for Cheap, I got one that will be selling used

Very poor gps

I dont think I have ever wasted more money in my life than on this product. Reception is extremely poor even after continually resetting the unit and sending it to skygolf for a repair. Yardages are as much as 15 yards off and fluctuate when I am standing still. Its am embarassment everytime a golfer asks me for a yardage and have to say I have no reception (on a cloudless day). The only reason I even try to play with it at this point is to spread the word about what a bad product this is

charger

The charger hook up on the back is hard to insert. Overall it works well

Keyword : skycaddie

Nextar 3.5-Inch Touch Screen GPS Vehicle Navigator With MP3 Player

Nextar 3.5-Inch Touch Screen GPS Vehicle Navigator With MP3 Player

Worth the money

The Nextar x3-03 is probably the best buy out there because it does include an a/c and d/c adapter and a cover along with free map upgrades when available - so they claim. The ac adapter is a benefit for outside sales people (real estate agents) so that you can program all your stops before hand. I recently purchase the tomtom and navignon and found them to be very useless especially the navignon because of the voice directions. It gave me about 5 steps when entering and leaving a ramp from the highway and I felt it would be really confusing if I did not know where I was. In addition to that, the navignon for some reason was trying to reroute me down streets I already knew they were dead ends. I return the tomtom and navignon back to staples and kept my Nextar. The beauty of the nextar is in its simplicity. The prompts are at the right time without added conversation! It is very easy to select your your next location within seconds while at a traffic light - or rather I should say parked in a safe location. Entering address information was much easier than the others because of the simple predictive text which looks up streets as you are typing them in like Pac for pacific - the navigon would pull up wolfpack once you starting typing and that to me was no useful. If you need a tool, the nextar is it, if you need a toy and graphics and more of what you don't need and less of what you really need, then I would certainly go back and purchase the tomtom and navigon. The sound and graphics are pretty cool. The downside, I do not believe there is any quality control and be prepared to send a unit or two back. I originally purchased mine at Kmart which has a very good return policy, problem was, their inventory is light and they have been out of them for 6 weeks. So now I have purchased from Amazon because their exchage policy is just as easy. Be aware that the battery does not last overnight as I believe the unit is always in standby mode even when you thought it was off. Nextar is very up front about their problems and issues which you can read about in the support section [...] I hope this helps anyone trying to make a decision. Best bet is to buy all 4 brands from a place you know they can be returned and try them all out for a day to see which one fits your needs.

Accurate, responsive, worth the money.

Just picked one up today, had to drive an older downtown area, worked great. I had to drive under numerous overpasses, then down a street with very tall builidngs and never lost the aquisition signal. Kind of a key feature. Mine had a manufacture sticker of 12/07 so it was pretty much up to date. The POI is very cool, and very accurate. Sound level was good, I could here it in the background while the radio was at low volume. Very clearly spoken. I was just amazed by the fast response. I have seen other units that were quite slow, not this one. For the price I paid, couln't beat it. Was on sale at a local retail chain.

Keyword : nav

SkyCaddie SG2.5 Golf GPS (Black)

SkyCaddie SG2.5 Golf GPS (Black)

Bill's Review

Have used the Sky Caddie for several weeks and find it really a helpful gadget. If you stay in the fairway, and distace markers are visble, it still helps by avoiding the pacing and estimating normally done. And if you're off the fairway, as we often are, it's invaluable. A great item!

A Must For Serious Golfers

After getting the SkyCaddie SG2.5, dropped at least two strokes off my score. It makes a world of difference knowing your distances vs. just guessing. I can now make a confident swing know that I've selected the correct club for that distance!

SkyCaddie 2.5

Pros: Size, ease of use, shape of green, re-position cursor for distances, automatically changes holes, accuracy of GPS data Cons: Difficulty picking up satellites, annual fee, rechargeable battery instead of double A's (SG3 would be better pick) Skycaddie 2.5 worked fine first day. Next two days, would not lock on satellites and display data. No change to weather or location; perhaps unit was defective - returned for a refund. Customer service was good and refund was relatively prompt.

Good Product...Horrific Customer Service

I like the SkyCaddy SG2.5 GPS rangefinder. I only play a couple of different courses and they are already mapped in the database. I like knowing the prescise yardage to the pin and this is made possible by having the ability to use the cusrsor keys to move the location of the flag placement on the iGreen display. As much as I like the product, I absolutely abhor, hate, loathe and generally dislike the customer service of SkyGolf. I dropped my unit and broke the LCD display. My fault, ok! So let's get it repaired. Call SkyCaddy and get told by the automated attendant that the wait time is on the order of 65 minutes...whoa!! So jump on line and get their on-line customer service chat thing going, and am told that they can't give me an RMA because I need to call in and talk to a person...uh, excuse me, aren't you a person on the other end of the keyboard?? To date, I still don't have my repaired unit back in my hands. Bottom line is: Good product, lousy customer service. If I was going to spend my money again knowing what I know now, I would go with the laser range-finder.

Great Product, but doesn't work with Vista

I already own a Pinseeker -- that decision being based on the horror stories I've read about SkyGolf's customer service, and about using their website. I ran into one of their guys who was mapping a course,and he assured me that many of those issues had been resolved, and that he was in San Diego to upgrade all the courses to 4 stars -- even the exec par-3s. So I gave it a shot. It didn't work out of the box. The unit wouldn't interface with Windows Vista. I switched to Windows XP and setup/download worked flawlessy. I've only used it for four or five rounds so far, and even dropped it once. It's well built, compact, and operation is reliable -- at least as reliable as one can expect from a GPS-based range finder. The Pinseeker is inherently more accurate, but I do find the gps front/back yardage more useful. It's also much more convenient than the Pinseeker. Whereas with the Pinseeker I'd sometimes avoid usage for speed of play, I just have to glance at the SkyCadie on my bag and always have that extra piece of info. I gave it only 4 stars due to the Windows Vista interface issues, otherwise highly recommend it.

Keyword : skycaddie

SkyCaddie SG2 Golf GPS (Black)

SkyCaddie SG2 Golf GPS (Black)

Good for the price

Purchased through Amazon deal of the day. Works well but sometimes doesn't find satellites. On line service didn't have the best of my county courses.

sky caddie

I was disappointed with the sky caddie. It would turn off after seconds of turning on, all on it's own. My husband was not able to use it, and we had to return it. Upon calling Sky Caddie to try to get the problem resolved, they told us because we didn't purchase it through Sky Caddie directly, there would be a minimum $35 to $100 charge to try to fix it.

SkyCaddie - Good Idea... Bad Execution

I have had my Skycaddie for a few years now. The features are pretty good, but as some reveiers have posted, the quality is NOT that good. Belt clip... I have stopped using it. If you want to test the likelihood of some one actually returning your lost Skycaddie; go ahead and risk using the belt clip. The Web interface is sooooo frustrating. First it is VERY slow. Then you have to take a gamble to see if the web interface will recognize your Skycaddie unit on the first try. To add a course to my unit, I usually count on 45 minutes. I am a savy computer user so don't think "This guy does not know how to use computers". I have many friends that I play golf with and most of them have the Igolf unit. I have yet to borrow one, but they tell me that you can download a hundred courses onto your laptop and load 40 of them onto the unit. Once your subscription ends, you can still use the 100 courses you downloaded. And... I hear that the Igolf automatically detects which golf course you are on and automatically selects it. Not with the SkyCaddie! I just read that another reviewer stated that it takes a long time to acquire the satellites. That is VERY true. I instinctively turn on my unit the moment I enter the parking lot in order to get a single before I tee off.

It's not the Device - It's the Fee That's Agaist My Priniple

SkyCaddie SG2 Golf GPS (Black) If you are already paying $250 to $300 for the device, why should you have to pay a fee just to use it? GPS for cars don't charge a fee. I could understand if this is a one time fee. But after I paid $49 (the cheaper package only gives you courses in ONE state), then I realized that it was only for one year. If you are only playing 30 rounds a year, that comes out to an extra $10+ a round ($259 SG2 + $49 ANNUAL fee). And after that it's still $1.66 a round if you want to renew the membership. It's a rip off when you have to buy the same product over and over again that you already own. I can understand a 50 cent charge for additional courses but this is rediculous. You pay for an MP3 song and it's your forever. Why should this be different. Stop buying this type of RIP-OFFs and perpetuating the greed.

Sky Caddie 3

This GPS unit never worked correctly. It burned up batteries and required constant resets. Sky Golf delayed my demand for a product replacement with software patches and reset recommendations until the limited warranty expired. They then demanded a prior authorization of $30-$100 in repair costs before issuing a return authorization. When the unit was returned a replacement stipulation Sky Golf simply kept the unit and failed to respond.

Keyword : skycaddie

Nextar 4-Inch Touch Screen GPS Vehicle Navigation With MP3 Player

Nextar 4-Inch Touch Screen GPS Vehicle Navigation With MP3 Player

Look Elsewhere

I purchased this GPS from another online retailer Buy..., which was my first mistake. No returning it there. As for the GPS, I just received it yesterday, yet it was manufactured in Aug07. This means the maps are already almost a year out of date. The GPS itself look used. The packing inside the factory sealed box was ripped, meaning Nextar simply repackaged a returned unit and sold it as new. As for functionality, I tried a simple route from my home to my work. I could not even locate the street my work is on. It is the largest street in the capital city of Minnesota!!! When I was driving down the road, the street name showed up fine. Very bad. Also, the speaker does not go loud enough to be heard over even vehicle noise. The display is reasonably good, but not great. Navigation of the menus is ok, but not great. Included accessories were ok as well. The window mount is cheaply made, but works. You do get a dash mount disk, AC adapter, car power adapter, and USB cable. I spent half what Amazon is asking for this. Knowing what I know now, I would spent an extra hundred and get the Garmin Nuvi. I have used those, and they perform excellently in all areas, including the user interface, navigation, reception, routing, etc. ***UPDATE: I spoke to Nextar customer service, and they said most of their GPS's were made in 2007 that are being sold now. What? We get a year old model and no map updates? That's what they told me. They said there was nothing they can do. They even said that on my unit made in Aug07, that it had 2006 map data on it. How nice. What a worthless company. STAY AWAY FROM NEXTAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So many features on such an obsure, inexpensive device

I purchased two of these after receiving a link to a great deal. It sounded like a pretty easy item to use, with a big screen - and that's what I wanted for my grandfather and my parents. I personally have a small Mio C230 (that I hacked easily yesterday), and a Microsoft Streets and Trips GPS. So my experience is with low end GPS systems. Please note: I haven't driven anywhere with these yet! I just wanted to review the features right out of the package, since there is so little info available on these models. Benefits of this model: * Large screen. Very pretty. * Street names are announced. After using my Ms S&T once, I'll NEVER buy another GPS that doesn't announce street names. * Takes SD cards for storage. * Built in stylus holder with stylus. Handy, especially for big fingered people!!! * Easy to save favorite addresses/locations, and you can give them each names (mine were all VERY long names). * Night mode can be automatic. I don't know what that means, but my guess is maybe it goes by time of day??? * Comes with ALL the power/connection cords you want and need (all 3). * Much more intuitive than my Mio and my Ms S&T (both of which are known for being difficult to figure out). Not perfect by any means, but I was pleasantly surprised. * Actually does find my address! Although I did have to strip off the letters in it (our addresses have the weird format S27W98985). That alone made me consider giving my mom my MIO and keeping this one for myself. The Mio doesn't have any non-number-only addresses loaded. It can't find half of the client addresses I search for. * When you type in addresses, it's very intuitive and smart. * You can avoid roads on the fly if there is construction (or flooding this year!). * Map screen shows Time and Speed at the bottom of the screen, and not alot of other cluttered buttons/info that take up space. * When I plugged the unit into your PC, it installed automatically and instantly. It shows up as it's own drive. When the SD card is installed, that shows up as a second drive under the first drive. * Can display photos and play MP3s. There is just enough room on the SD card (I think there was about 25-40 MB space left on the 1 GB card) included to toss some photos on there without buying any extra cards. And to put photos on there, you just copy them right to the root of the SD card. A width of about 400px worked best for me. I didn't try MP3s. Drawbacks of this model: * Couldn't find any hacks, or even online information for that matter. It's listed as a Windows CE Core 5.0 system, so I would think some hacks would be out eventually? * Anyways, I didn't find any way to upload lists of POIs so far. Or games. I like games. And there isn't a feature to upload construction updates that I could find. * No POIs pre-loaded at all for nearby towns except banks. Strange! * Very limited Map zoom out. You can't zoom back far enough to see the entire trip - even for fairly short trips. That's the main reason I'll stick with my Mio. When you do zoom out, most of the street names disappear, so you can't tell where you'd be going anyways. There is also a lag in the zooming. Annoying. * I know there has to be a written itinerary/directions in here somewhere, but I cannot find one. All I can find is the map view. * It appears that you cannot run the GPS and any other program concurrently. So you can play music, OR find you way - but not both. * The U.S. maps come all loaded onto the SD card that is included and inserted. The instructions say to NOT put any photos or MP3s directly on the unit. So basically in order to use the photos or MP3 feature, it seems to be assumed that you'll carry around a separate SD card. Although there is that bit of space left over on the included SD card - at it is writable. * Switching to 3D mode takes a few steps to find. * Turning on and off sometimes holding the button. Sometimes. * Instructions are lacking. Simple, but miss out on telling you where to find features it's referring to and things like that. Especially in relation to the image player. * It can warn you if you are speeding, however it says it doesn't know what the speed limits are, so it just guesses based on the road class. That seems kinda lame. But it does bleep when you are speeding - I set the speed limit at 1 MPH and ran across the living room at 3 MPH to check. BLEEP-BLEEP-BLEEP. * Not sure I trust it's routing ability. I put in my first "trip", and it gave me a route that I've never taken to get there. Nor did MS-trips, Google, MSN maps, Mio, or Mapquest ever suggest that route. So I switched it from "Quickest" route to "Shortest", and it found my usual route and said the usual route was 2 minutes faster. Huh? Wouldn't that make IT the "Quickest" route also?

Nextar X4-T GPS

This is my second NEXTAR GPS. Upgrading from the X3(3" screen) instead of buying new glasses. This brand has several superior features I have not seen in other brands. Additionally it does not have a load of 'commercial' materials as the Garmens do from AAA. +Voice to text. The GPS announces route changes/turns and includes the street name route you'll be turning onto. No need to look away from the road when the GPS says turn to identify what road/route you're turning onto. +You can create an itinerary for your trip if you want to go a specific route you already know. + You can identify a "current location" and then save it to favorites. + An additional feature is available when looking up destinations by address, or on any location added to favorites. After saving the address/location to favorites you can EDIT the address/location title, and add a title you will be more familiar with than just the address. The voice on this model is clear and the volume is easily controlled by a volume knob on the side of the unit, no need to go into the set up. The 4" screen has good resolution and color and routes appear to be up-to-date. The map data is USA only and is on a 1GB SD card. I have not attempted to go on-line and research maps for Canada which I also want. I have had the unit for about 1 month (May 8-08) and I am sure I will learn more about it but travel often by car and it has been great. It easily recalculates route directions if you fail to turn where directed (AS I HAVE) and also recalculates if you know a better road. When taking your own route it will often direct you to make a U-turn when possible, but it will eventually come around. Needless to say I love this brand & model.

Keyword : nav

iGolf GPS Caddie II

iGolf GPS Caddie II

Buyer Beware!

I've owned an iGolf GPS Caddie for over a year and have been using it flawlessly. Recently I turned on the unit and none of the courses that I had downloaded were available. So I connected the unit to my computer and reloaded the courses again. I played two rounds of golf and then the unit lost the courses again. I contacted customer support and they stated that my internal memory or battery was damaged. iGolf provides no service on their units. Because I was outside of the one year warranty, my only option was to buy another unit. BUYER BEWARE. This product is unsupported and unreliable.

Works Just Fine, But...

The iGolf II works as advertised, and it's a good deal less expensive than its competitors. That's both initial price and cost to operate, since once I choose my golf courses I download their data to my PC, and don't need to pay an on-going subscription fee in future years. The only minor negative is the battery indicator. I've been using 2000 maH rechargeable batteries (Duracell), set the indicator to monitor rechargeables, but after two outings the device turns itself off repeatedly, though it indicates 60% or so of the charge left. I'm now trying 2700 maH batteries (Sanyo).

I golf Caddie II

Nice product and very easy to use but don't order if you have a PC running VISTA. You can't set up the required on line connection using VISTA. I Golf tried to help but couldn't. I had to use an older computer to connect and download courses.

iGolf GPS

After researching various golf GPS units, reading golf forums, and looking at units in stores (I enjoy the hunt), I purchased iGolf's Caddie II. It's user friendly, acquires several sats for accuracy, takes regular or rechargeable batteries, self-mapping is fast and easy, and the price is great. The annual fee is $30, which allows you to download 100 courses onto your PC. So, even if you drop the membership after the first year...the courses are yours. I've used it for several rounds now and am perfectly pleased. The only negative is that it does not automatically switch holes when you step to the next tee, but one click and it's done.

Only $200 per YEAR!!!

I really thought I had gotten over when my wife found the iGolf GPS Caddie for only $170 on ebay. Compared to the others this was a steal. I loaded it, took it to the course (several courses in fact), and it worked great. Eleven months after my purchase, I get on the first tee only to find an error stating that there is no course info. The device had dumped all of the courses I had loaded. Later that night I reloaded the courses and took it out that weekend with no problem. The following weekend it had dumped all the data again. I called iGolf Product Service to find that my 1 year warranty was from DATE OF MANUFACTURE, not date of purchase, and was therefore not covered. I was told my only options were to load the info before each round or purchase a refurbished unit for $150. My response to them was that they left out my third option, which is to go with Sky Caddie! I will be sure to tell EVERYONE I ever play with not to buy an iGolf product.

Keyword : skycaddie

Garmin StreetPilot i5 Portable GPS Navigator

Garmin StreetPilot i5 Portable GPS Navigator

Not that great

I have had this product less than 1 month. I will exchanging it on Monday. It has already gone out. It was used less than 5 times.

Truly loved it for the 18 months it lived.

I purchased two of these GPS units for Christmas when we first moved to Georgia from California and they proved invaluable since we couldn't find anything. But, now, after less than 18 months, one of them only is "searching for signals" and never gets us anywhere. My husband went on the Garmin's website and replaced the batteries and reset the unit and it worked one time after that. Today we had to use my cell phone to get us to a birthday party in Atlanta and home again. Over a 1 1/2 drive that should have been much easier on the driver - me. We had to use my cell phone to get us back from Chattanooga a couple of weeks ago. Why does my cell gets a satelite, but not my GPS? I feel like this was a lot of money to have to replace one of the units already. It certainly isn't going to be with another Garmin. I asked my daughter-in-law how her's was working and she said "okay" but does lose the signal frequently but comes back. It's like ours went out for lunch and got lost - and now we are getting lost too! I'd check around before settling on this unit. The extra money is probably worth it. This one won't route you around traffic problems, either - when it even works! I paid $280 each for mine.

CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT IT!!

You will hear it a million times (or as many times as there are people who have GPS's) once you have one - especially if you travel often to unknown places (midwives, salesmen, weddings, vacation spots, etc), we don't want to travel without our GPS's! I have only used one - the Garmin - so I can't compare; but my daughter has a TomTom, and says she likes mine better than her touch screen GPS. I will tell you that this one being small is not a big help, because it's harder to read than the big ones (I mean while you're driving and need to keep your eyes on the road). It would be nice to have the voice state the name of the street, instead of just having to read it on the unit, but that's not been much of a hindrance. Also very important is the customer service you get with Garmin. Again, I don't know about the other brands, but the Garmin people are really there for you. I even got a free update ($60 value), when I called with a problem with wrong turns. And speaking of wrong turns, if you detect a glitch in Garmin's directions, there's a site you can go to and write a correction which (they say) they take into consideration when writing another update. Altogether, I LOVE (like alot) my GARMIN. I laugh at the commercial where the guy tells his that he loves "her"....!

after much research and debate

this gps is absolutely worth the money. I vel-cro'd it to my motorcycle and have had no problems at all. It does everything I need it to and more at an inexpensive price.

small and suffice

fit in the glove compartment, does the work of helping my wife get where she needs

Keyword : nav

Sanyo Easy Street NVM-4070 Bluetooth 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator

Sanyo Easy Street NVM-4070 Bluetooth 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator

Amazon Great, Sanyo?

Sanyo Easy Street 4070 GPS 'will be' a great GPS navigation system WHEN Sanyo gets their quality control working. I tried out the Sanyo 4050 about a year ago and loved it, but went for the Garmin 360 because it had Bluetooth and audible turn directions, speaking the name of the street (better than 'turn right', because your eyes don't have to leave the road). It downloaded my cell phone book seamlessly. My son wound up with the Garmin 360 (Garmin has password protection. If it's stolen, it's useless to the perp). Sanyo has now come out with the amazing 4070 Easy Street (or will be when Sanyo gets some quality control) with the perks that the 4050 did not have, so I ordered one from Amazon, which I received in record time - two days. Sadly the Sanyo 4070 failed out of the box. Audible turn directions did not work, it would not connect to my cell, and when I tried to type my street address, after two letters, it jumped to the street beginning with those two letters. I spent several hours trying to get it to work (Sanyo's customer support seems to be non-existent). The phone # on their site led to dead ends and when I emailed the address on their site, I did not even receive the usual automated response. I sent it back to Amazon who sent me a replacement even before the first one reached them (what great customer service). Alas, I regret to report that the replacement was also defective. Audible turn directions did work in this one but the "Communication" mode failed, as did the first one. I didn't even try the photo or music mode as they also were not 'highlighted.' Again, I repeatedly was unable to raise any response from Sanyo. This is amazing, since they have a great GPS, but hey, this old Marine needs support. Again, Amazon came through like the pros they are. I spoke with Steve and received the kind of customer service that you only dream about with many on line companies (or major brick and steel corporations). Without 'selling' me, Steve answered all of my questions about the new Garmin 760 (It's due to arrive tomorrow. I'll review it later). Steve not only sold me the Garmin 760, but sold me several accessories which I would have regretted not getting later, as they did not come with the Garmin 760, especially the memory card for pictures of my grandchildren. Steve could not have been more helpful. As I said, he didn't 'sell' me, he 'helped' me. I suppose, if he had, I probably would not have purchased the Garmin right now, as it cost a little more than the Sanyo. Semper Fi! Signed, a faithful Amazon customer

Great Navigation...Terrible Hands Free Device.

I bought this GPS unit because I have a Sanyo phone that uses the same navigation format and it is familiar to me. However, I needed the bluetooth capability more than the GPS to comply with CA driving law. The primary phone used with this device was a Samsung M520 and the call clarity was terrible on both ends. I thought routing the call through the car speakers would help and the FM tuner was decent. The problem was that I could not get any MP3 files to play on the unit and could not enjoy any music between calls. The call clarity with my Sanyo phone was much better, but it would often times not sync up and I would have to soft reset the Easy Street before it would finally sync. As a hands free device this unit is 1 star, but the navigation aspect was just what I expected and averages this rating out to 3 stars.

slow and non-intuitive

Briefly, this navigator is slow, is not intuitive to use, and frequently gave directions that were not only what one would normally drive but sometimes just wrong. It has a nice sized screen, and the non-navigator features are good. The traffic was also not accurate when I used it for a couple of weeks.

Great GPS at this price!

I paid $190 thru Amazon. It's a great gps for this price. Pros: 1. Nice bright screen (no glare issues) 2. Bluetooth works well - incoming and outgoing sound is clear with no static; pairs easily with my phones (I have a Motorola Razr and Treo); imported my entire phonebook from the Motorola but not the Treo; unit pairs with phone automatically at start up 3. Navigation works well, but compared to my Magellan Maestro 4040 - not as intuitive, slower signal pickup, and no signal when I am in my garage (not that I need signal in the garage). 4. Nice black piano finish and solid stand (mine was made in Germany). 5. Good Price - $190 for a 4.3" gps unit with bluetooth that works Con: 1. Battery life is not 7 hours, you need to keep the charger plugged into the cigarette lighter. Mine ran out of charge after only 2 hours. 2. This unit has a lot of features and is not as intuitive as my Magellan. You really have to spend the time to play around with all the functions. Once you have it figured out, it works really well. I highly recommend it for anyone who does not work to spend more than $200 on a gps unit, wants a 4" or bigger screen, wants bluetooth that works well, and who does not mind spending the time to figure this thing out. Hope this review helps.

Wonderful GPS Device

I really like the Sanyo 4070. I feel it is a wonderful device. It is the first GPS unit I have owned...not the first I have used, but first to have owned. I really have not had any problems with it. All the features work wonderful...MP3 player, Video Player, FM Transmitter, POI's. The tracking itself has been great. It is quick to adjust your route if you miss a turn. I will admit that when you turn on the unit, it does take a while to triangulate your position. And as with some complaints, everytime you turn it on, it asks for the date and time. This could be a pain, but if you just skip over this and let the unit connect to the sattelites, it will update the date and time automatically. I have has the unit for only a few weeks, so I am sure there will be things that I will find I do not like about it, but in the same regards I will find more things I like about it. Oh and one last thing....for the people that complain that Sanyo does not support the product and does not even have it on their website. Please, simply do a google search and you will find... [...]

Keyword : nav

Sanyo NVM-4050 Easy Street 4-Inch Portable GPS Navigator

Sanyo NVM-4050 Easy Street 4-Inch Portable GPS Navigator

awesome unit

great gps....just purchased it....never owned one before, but have used a few....super easy to use....great display....buy and go.....

BAD GPS

Sanyo NVM-4050 Easy Street 4-Inch Portable GPS Navigator I was an unfortune one. This GPS had a great screen but sadly the keyboard was defective. The numbers and letters were mixed up and could not program the GPS. It goes without saying that any thing man makes there will be bad ones. There was no way of knowing this until after purchasing.

Sanyo NVM-4050

I had major issues with this GPS right away, most serious first. 1. Time must be set manually. This is ridiculous since a time signal is part of the GPS system and I've never encountered another GPS device that failed to utilize it. 2. There is an altitude display on the map only, but it is in YARDS not feet. It appears to have been programmed by a foreigner not aware of the convention in the U.S. and requires unnecessary mental math. 3. I can't charge it and connect it to the AUX port in my car at the same time without generating unacceptable noise. 4. Ridge Dr comes out "Ridge Doctor W" in text to speech. There is no direction after the actual street name. "W" isn't expanded to "West" so no abbreviations specific to street names appear to have been programmed into the system. I returned this GPS a month after I bought it at Fry's Electronics and there was a 15% restocking fee on this item. I replaced it with a Garmin Nüvi 200W since I own two Garmin handhelds and have had no major issues with them. I paid a little more for a better GPS in my opinion, but with a lot fewer features.

Almost a good product.

I was excited about the feature set of this GPS from first sight. I needed a bluetooth handsfree solution for my cellphone while driving as I live in California where the new law was passed. Well it did not work out as planned. The unit looks good, and the GPS is adequate with turn by turn vocal instructions. It does play mp3 files, though getting it to do so while doing other things required a few looks at the instructions and too many menu peckings. But it's downfall for me was TWOFOLD: The battery life while using the gps and bluetooth was horrible. I killed the battery in 45 minutes. So much for 7 hour battery life. And yes I charged it overnight after I recieved it, It was fully charged. The bluetooth speakerphone feature was the final deal breaker for me. I could hear ok from the speaker or the headphone jack to my car stereo BUT nobody could hear me unless I shouted quite loudly. The microphone is really not good. The unit was mounted right by my steering wheel. Good luck if you buy this unit. I wanted to like it, but failed due to it's lack of usability as a speakerphone and poor battery perfomance.

A bit better than just OK

The unit works OK. The feature of the MP3 player is very good but unusual in its operation. A manual explaining this feature might be nice. It has to use "invalid files" for content but there is also a valid file for each song. Once I got to understand how it seems to work, it was good. The maps of the US are very dated. Streets that were renamed years ago are listed by their former name. The easiest way to a destination is often not the way that is chosen. I had to travel down dirt streets to get to a destination when there were paved streets running parallel that would take me there in the same distance but in a much faster time. But I did get there, even though it was a scenic route. There is no adjustment to disable unpaved streets. Sometimes the unit works very well and it always would get one to the destination. It does interrupt the MP3 to give the instruction with a very pleasant voice. The on/off switch on the front is very easy to trigger when not wanted. My cell phone does not work with this unit either, but that is not a large inconvenience right now. So, while this unit is not great, it is adequate for most needs and certainly works well for interstate use. There seems to be sufficient poi's included.

Keyword : nav

Intellinav One Portable GPS Navigation System

Intellinav One Portable GPS Navigation System

Great GPS Unit

I've owned the Intellinav One for a year now and it works great. When I first purchased the unit, I doubted the directions it gave me and ended looking like a fool. If your looking for a nice unit this is the one to have. Tips on using a GPS unit. *The unit is only as smart as the user. If you doing 60mph on a side street, don't be surprised if you passed up your turn. Intellinav will tell you "In 500' turn right onto ???". If you speeding at 60 mph you'll pass it before it's finished speaking. * Remember to check your route settings. If your select Highway only, then it will calculate the quickest highway route instead of the shortest. Remember shorter isn't always faster. I hope this helps all future buyers.

Well featured product with excellent support.

I purchased this unit eight months ago and have used it extensively on short drives and longer (over 600 mile) trips. I've used several GPS units previously, though this is the first I have had that was purpose-built for use in an automobile. During the time that I've used the unit Netropa has issued two software updates that seem to have resolved all of the software operating issues I had previously encountered. The strongest features of this unit are the text-to-speech, multiple map views, straight forward interface, fast route recalculation, and loud, clear speaker volume. Minor annoyances are a touch screen that occasionally doesn't respond to input, maybe 5% of the time I need to press the screen again. The Detour function doesn't allow for much fine tuning - there are three default distances that you can choose from for avoiding a stretch of road. The Quickest routing logic sometimes takes a route that probably isn't actually the quickest. I should point out that this normally occurs when two alternatives are fairly close in time to travel, and either way it gets you where you want to go. What I found most appealing about the Intellinav All-in-One was the list of useful navigation features and absence of extra features that would never be used, all for a reasonable price. The technical support has been excellent. It is an easy to use device with essential features. Lastly, don't consider an automotive GPS without Text-to-Speech, that feature goes a long way toward clearing up where to turn in dense neighborhoods where streets are impossible to judge based on direction to "turn right in 500 feet".

I'm Finally Not Lost!

I am directionally challenged! I love the voice telling me where to turn and go. It doesn't always give the perfect directions, but it sure helps when you are in unfamiliar territory. It works very easily for my husband. I have a bit more trouble with it. The voice is very easily understood and gives street names and let's you know when the turn is coming up. We looked at other, more well known brands, but this seemed to have the features we thought would help me the most, and it gives the same info as Mapquest on the internet.

Seattle to PA with Missy

We bought the Intellivav (our first GPS) for our Seattle to PA (see a lot of national parks-6500 mile, five week cross-country with the kids) move this past summer. I was impressed that the unit took the baking it did-up on the dash in the sun in the desert-it became too hot to touch but kept working. We did need to reboot it every couple of weeks or so when the the screen froze up or the trip calculations stopped calculating, but it always came back up OK with destination and itinerary info. intact. Annoying part:touch screen beeps every time you touch it-should beep only on executed actions, however directions were very good. Even though it did send us to the wrong side of the river in Portland OR & got a bit confused on the park roads on the South Rim of Grand Canyon it always eventually recalculated and got us where we needed to go. Itinerary function needs some work. Bottom line: won't leave home without it.

Original unit failed and replacement unit failed

Purchased the Intellinav ONE back in February. Shortly after using the unit for business travel it continuously locked up and froze. Had to send the unit back to Intellinav for a new unit. The replacement unit failed on my first trip. Now Intellinav nor the company I purchased the unit thru will provide a refund. I spent a lot of time researching and thought I made a good purchase compared to other units on the market. Now I will look to buy a proven and reliable brand.

Keyword : netropa