elimenohpee

I'm sure this has been asked a billion times, but it would be helpful to have something up to date. I need gps that is extremely accurate. Our family just took over a pizza business and I am one of the delivery boys part time now. That said, I need something very reliable and accurate. For the time being I've been using a hand held Garmin, which works well. I haven't had it really mess up at all, other than a few weird routes.

I don't really care about POI, it would be nice, but what I generally need is accuracy. Any suggestions?

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tn6478

google earth =). All you need is a program that has updated maps and you are set. Iguidance v4 has new updated maps. Also Navigon 6 for PPC has updated map. Alot of GPS unit has new maps.

2k1Toaster

As a delivery person, the hard part is not finding the street or general area, it is finding the damn house! You need to see the house numbers and all these people with their wacky fancy numbers that are hidden make spotting them at night hard. A GPS (All of them) use this system that is used-ish when giving out house lot numbers. It takes the starting point of the road, and at intervals marks off which house number goes where. Well that is fine and dandy for giving you an "area" of like 10-20 houses, but not the house. Like my house is #160 which is between houses #150 and #155... Go figure that out! And GPS always says that my house (because it is a culdesac) is about 10 houses up.

So I use the GPS in my car, but only if I go to some weird area. So you arent going to get any more accurate than the Garmin you have now until true maps are complete which is a many many year process and no where near done. (That is where they actually plot a coordinate for a house's actual physical location, driveway, parking lots, and all. So yeah every building in North America must be identified and categorized... See why it takes so long? It has already begun many years ago, but still nowhere near done.)

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elimenohpee

Well as long as it would get to me to the general area, I would be happy. If I can even find the street then I can search myself for the house. Thats what I have to do now, and thats fine. I just don't want something that will give weird routes and bad directions. And I can understand how much work that would be! Jeeez, and just think of all the neighborhoods going up each day. Wowsers.

I was looking at the Iguidance 4, but I never used any of the programs other the garmin that I have, so I don't really know which is better only from here say.

2k1Toaster

I have used Streets and Trips 2006, iGuidance 3, and a Garmin Nuvi Something, and they all pretty much route the same way. They all have the "Fastest, Shortest, Major Roads, Local Roads" as settings. For delivering in a residential area, shortest is the best option, not Fastest. Fastest means it takes you on roads with higher speedlimits and puts that in. Almost always for short distances (like when you deliver), the faster roads are more populated (more police), and the back roads with many turns and stop signs can be navigated through really quickly even though it is a lot of starting and stopping.

So what settings is your GPS on?

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elimenohpee

I have it set on shortest right now. Keep in mind too, all the deliveries I'm doing are only within a 5 mile radius or so. I guess when I get to know the area better, I'll pick up on where exactly everything is. But at the moment, I'm kinda of lost! So if they pretty much route the same, which would you recommend? I definitely like the idea of points of interest and voice turn by turn directions, but I've read its a trade off the different brands. Like if you want really good points of interest with 'brand a' you won't get turn by turn directions, or whatever. Is there a particular program that has it ALL? But more importantly, has it all and does it all very efficiently?

2k1Toaster

Until last month, no. But they just released iGuidance Version 4 which supposedly has it all. iGuidance has had the better interface since its UMPC version came out in version 3. However iGv3 has the absolute worst POI database I have ever used. But that is where S&T 2006 excels. S&T 2006 has the best POI I have used. iGv4 is much better from what I have heard, but I have not bought v4 yet, so I cannot comment personally.

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elimenohpee

iGv4 sounds good, I'm thinking I'll just go with that. I didn't know if there was anything else just as good or better at the moment. But the reviews sound pretty good so far so I think I'll give it a try. Any recommendation on a gps receiver? Thanks for all the help so far btw!

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2k1Toaster

I have used the receiver bundled with Streets and Trips 2006 and it got a lock instantly with S&T, and it worked in iGuidance but for some reason if you went into standby with the GPS running, it wouldnt resume. It would freeze on resume. I think the receiver was the Pharos-360 except branded by Microsoft.

Now I use a BU-353 and it works ok. The locks take longer even though it is SirfIII instead of SirfII, but I have more satellites, and it is magnetic and waterproof. Only problem is the receiver cost as much as I paid for S&T 2006 with the Pharos-360. Overall though, it is a good receiver.

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