Posts Tagged ‘Gps Unit’

Buying Your First GPS

March 19th, 2010



It seems like just about everyone has a GPS these days, everyone but you!  If you are interested in buying your first GPS you may find that the market is a bit intimidating.  There are a lot of really great products out there and you just may not be sure of what you need or even what you want!  Long gone are the days of the paper maps, now you can have your very own machine tell you how to get from point A to point B with relative ease!

Shopping for Your GPS

One of the first things you will notice when you start shopping for your GPS is the wide range in prices.  Today you can find models that start right around $100 and yet there are other models that cost $700 or more!  Which one is the right one for you, and how will you know it when you see it?

Which GPS is right for you really depends on what you will be using it for.  If you are looking for a GPS that will help guide you on short trips or will help get you around town occasionally you probably don’t need anything in the $700 range, in fact you will generally find that the units in the $200 to $300 range are suitable for you.  The point is, if you are not going to be taking long trips or using the system every day, a more expensive system won’t pay for itself.

If you work in sales or if you work with the deliveries of products you may need to get a GPS unit that is a bit more costly.  The reason is that the more costly units are able to help you with intricate directions and will provide a screen that will help you get from your starting point to your destination without any hiccups.

When you start comparing the features of each of the GPS units you will soon find that you are attracted to a certain quality unit.  Be sure to ask yourself if the amount of use that you will get out of the unit justifies its cost, if not you can probably scale back again and still get a really great product.  When shopping, be sure that you do shop around as prices can vary from retailer to retailer and your goal should always be to get the very best product for the most affordable price.

By: Heather Jacobson

Hit The Road With A Garmin GPS

March 14th, 2010



Garmin is one of the top manufacturers of global positioning systems in the United States. They offer a host of products from GPS navigational product for cars, boats and motorcycles to aviation and boats. There goal is to enrich the lives of their customers through the products of navigational equipment.

Beginning with GPS units for vehicles, Garmin began using the power of the 24 satellites circling 12,000 feet above us back in 1989 when the company started making GPS navigational systems for people and their cars. Today they are making the same product, only better. Garmin has kept up with the times and increase their products as the times called for them. Today they offer the vehicle GPS navigational unit, as well as the GPS for boats and airplanes and hikers and bicycle enthusiasts.

Garmin makes a remarkable assortment of GPS navigational units for every kind of moving vehicle and person. Today they put GPS navigation equipment in personal assistant machines which is a small travel aide; a cell phone and your computer. With the personal assistant, you can download your destination and the personal assistant will ‘walk’ you to your destination or as you are driving, give you turn-by-turn directions to get to where you are going. The cell phone is similar in that you download your information and the voice will guide you to your destination using a map of where you are now and an arrow following you as you walk to where you would like to be. And lastly we have the computer or laptop which can be used as a GPS navigational system by itself after you have downloaded the information.

Other Garmin GPS units include those for aviation use complete with longitude and altitude and the same is programmed into the marine GPS units. Some of these units are portable and can help you get around the city or town without your car and help you find restaurants, places of interest (POI) such as parks or ATM machines; they can also help you find an address you’ve never been to before. Besides aviation use, Garmin makes GPS units for marine usage as well. Being able to see the bottom of the lake or river or ocean in clear form is something fishermen have been waiting a long time for. Now they can tell a fish from a rock and discover where all the fish hang out and with the routing feature on the GPS, keep going back to the same spot over and over again.

Garmin GPS units can be found through their website or on other websites throughout the Internet. They can also be purchased at electronic stores and large discount stores for cheaper than the official website address has them. Discounted Garmin’s would be found on the Internet, be buyer beware, sometimes people are selling ‘refurbished’ or ‘reconditioned’ Garmin GPS units and if that is not what you want, you should ask if it is a new unit or ‘re – done’ unit.

By: Charlie Lee

Motorrad Navigator II GPS Navigation System

March 10th, 2010



Owners of BMW motorcycles have a new technology available to them to provide up to the minute directions and navigation throughout all of Europe. BMW’s latest GPS unit for their motorcycles is a huge step up from their previous model. This model features an upgraded memory chip, up to 2 GB from 512 MB. The model also comes with a road map covering all of Eastern Europe installed right out of the box. This is a great feature because prior to this model you would have to take the unit to your pc and download the appropriate maps onto the unit. With this model you simple have to mount the unit to your motorcycle and attach the battery cable and you are ready to take off on the road.

Riders will find the new touch screen a vast improvement over the previous model and it has been retuned for easier use with gloved hands. The unit has been rated for use in snow and in rain, and against extreme heat and cold. The units increased memory and processors allow for virtually instantaneous updates of information and position. As with the previous model it still provides the rider with elapsed time, estimated time to destination, current speed, average speed and top speed. This models positioning is extremely accurate as it pulls information from twelve different satellites when coordinating your position. Most GPS units only use the information of four satellites and this gives the BMW model a greater advantage at calculating your exact position on the globe.

As for drivers or riders of non-BMW bikes, this unit can be used with any vehicle or motorcycle and will require minimal mounting and wiring. For an automobile it comes equipped with a cigarette lighter plug and can be mounted fairly easily to most vehicles. Pedestrians can also use this unit with its battery powered option. This product is available at all BMW dealerships and online at the BMW website.

By: David Stone